“Not Only an Ambassador for Christ but Also a Good Ambassador for America”: Billy Graham, Richard Nixon, and Unofficial Diplomacy

During Nixon’s presidency, Billy Graham sometimes served as a backchannel means of communication between President Nixon and world leaders in Asia and the Middle East. For instance, Graham met with Mohammad Reza Shah, passing on the Shah’s advice about the Vietnam War and Nixon’s cabinet composition. More significantly, in the wake of Nixon’s visit to Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China, Graham agreed to convey to Madame Chiang Kai-Shek assurances from Nixon that he would keep U.S. promises to the Republic of China in Taiwan. More significantly still, Graham’s meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi helped normalize India-U.S. relations after 1971’s Indo-Pakistani War. Nixon’s instructions for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, future U.S. Ambassador to India, were based, in part, on Graham’s advice, demonstrating how seriously Nixon took Graham’s views on international relations. Graham’s diplomatic skills proved to be considerable, and his agenda often coincided with Nixon’s—but not completely. Graham, for example, “witnessed” to Prime Minister Golda Meir. Drawing on memos and correspondences from government and missionary archives, this paper examines Graham’s unofficial diplomatic work with the Nixon administration. It argues that since Graham’s political endeavors were manifestations of his Christian convictions that many American evangelicals shared, Graham’s acts of unofficial diplomacy can be seen as a window into how mainstream American evangelical convictions shaped U.S. international relations during Nixon’s Cold War presidency.