In a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, in 2020, the then US secretary of state Michael Pompeo reckoned that US engagement with China over the past few decades "has failed". "Absurd" is Lord's reaction to what he called "this revisionist view".

"First of all, what was our choice? Containment would not have worked, because you have to have other countries join you and we would have been alone trying to contain China.

"Containment would have met inevitable hostility, maybe war, and whatever our difference is, this was not in our interest. Engagement has yielded many benefits to us, including economic and trade and investment. It also helped with issues like nonproliferation and world crime and drugs, as well as the immediate ones of improving relations with the Soviet Union and getting help to end the Vietnam War.