374 The Presidential Years
to the marshal’s endeavors, but also those of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai
(Mao’s number two), since all three were convinced that Moscow constituted a
danger to their respective countries. The Chinese ambassador, Seng Tao, was
surprised that when presenting his credentials Tito received him without the
usual austere protocol, instead holding a cordial interview of more than an
hour, although the ceremony should have lasted just ten minutes or so. Besides
the renewal of trade (ratified by a protocol in March 1969), the most evident
results of this approach were the reopening of a dialogue with Tirana and a trip
by the secretary of foreign affairs, Miko Tepavac, to Beijing in April 1971.^603
Between the end of September and the beginning of October 1970, Tito’s
international prestige was also demonstrated by a visit from Richard Nixon, the
first American president to come to Yugoslavia.^604 Although during his discus-
sions with Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, the marshal did not
hide his disapproval of American policy in Vietnam, of its military support of
Israel, or of the presence of the American seventh fleet in the Mediterranean,
the fact that he was able to speak frankly with his guests demonstrated the status
of Yugoslavia in the contemporary world. On their end, the Americans declared
their respect for “Titoism,” which in their opinion symbolized the possibility of
a pluralistic development of socialism, and contributed in a decisive way to the
equilibrium of forces in Europe, especially thanks to the non-aligned policy.^605
This was not just politeness, as shown by Nixon’s decision to visit Tito’s birth-
place, Kumrovec, and the following episode. At one point the marshal said to
his guest: “You are a great president, but you will be even greater if you end the
Vietnam War!” Nixon, who used to take note of the important things he heard,
took a booklet from his jacket and wrote down those words.^606
At the beginning of the seventies, Tito undertook a series of journeys to
Western Europe. Before the autumn of 1970, he had visited only four countries
in this area and these trips were widely separated in time. In fact, Ranković had
instructed his men in Foreign Affairs to do everything possible to prevent him
from traveling to the West. Nevertheless, in October 1970 he made an official
tour of Belgium, Luxemburg, West Germany, Holland, and France, all members
of NATO and the European Common Market. The only difficulty concerned
Italy, although the Yugoslavs counted especially on this visit and had been
planning a close military collaboration with the government in Rome since
the suppression of the Prague Spring.^607 Although the border between the two
states, established in 1947 and 1954, was “the most open in Europe,” as Yugoslav
propa ganda proclaimed, Italy continued to insist on the question of sovereignty
in Zone B of the former Free Territory of Trieste. This troubled the Yugoslavs,
who had to cope with Bulgaria on their Eastern border, which continued to raise
the Macedonian question. According to Sofia, “Yugoslav Macedonia” was an