I agree with you that Nixon’s plan was almost derailed several times. Considering the amount of secrecy, along with the all the cast outs, it’s hard to imagine noone putting the effort forward to try and derail his game plan. However, I felt the biggest attempt was done while Gen. Haig was visiting China for the dress rehearsal. Haig was treated poorly, he was greeted with anti-capitalist propaganda making sure it was known that the U.S. was not welcomed by all. In addition, the only reason why the trip was saved was because of Mao’s direct orders to salvage Haig’s visit. I believe that Nixon was a lucky man, after learning about the many things that went wrong.
