The United States (US), as a hegemonic power, was called into question in the 1970s due to a number of changes occurring throughout in the world. The Western European market was rapidly emerging and its economic development showed a renewed Europe, importing and exporting in greater volume than before World War II (WWII). Militarily, the Nixon administration recognized that a change in foreign policy was necessary. The world has moved from bipolar to multipolar and includes not only the United States and the Soviet Union as before, but also China, Western Europe and Japan as great powers capable of influencing the world. Both President Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed that the United States could ensure its national security and advance its interests by establishing stronger diplomatic relations with the great powers and, through this, controlling and influencing their decision-making. The United States wanted to be the center of this multipolar world, but this could only be achieved by downplaying ideology toward the Soviet Union and opening up to China, "( …) what the United States had done....