A crowd of 400 filled the Currier House Fishbowl last night to hear William F. Buckley Jr. state that Nixon's trip to China marked an historic turning point in American values.

At a talk originally scheduled for a 25-member Institute of Politics seminar, Buckley said that Nixon "managed first to explain, then to tolerate, then to apologize for that which was formerly thought axiomatically repugnant."

Buckley said the United States had shown for the first time a willingness to grant totalitarian systems moral parity with Wilsonian democracy. The change may have augured the end of "the Wilsonian idea" in this country, which prescribes limits to state intervention in the lives of citizens, he said.

Asked if the United States should have continued to ostracize China instead, Buckley replied, "No, I was trying to suggest that the Chinese leaders have not earned our admiration."

He said that Nixon undertook he detente in a "particularly American way--naively and enthusiastically." Buckley's remarks came hours after scientists from the People's Republic of China had departed from a three- day tour of Harvard and MIT.

Last night's talk came after a one-hour delay during which Currier House residents scrambled to assemble a make-shift public address system to cover the overflow crowd. Reading from a prepared text Buckley quickly smoothed the impatient audience with a anecdotes of his trip to China.

"We were asked 'what surprised you the most in your trip,' "he said. "Well, we saw no dogs until Nixon gave two to the Peking Zoo. And we found no grass in Peking either."

The talk ended in a more serious tone. "A resolution has diminished to make the sacrifices to remain free." Buckley said of the China trip. He cited a 1960 poll of Yale undergraduates which showed that 75 per cent believed the U.S. should defend itself even at the risk of nuclear war. Ten years later, he said, only 40 per cent made the name reply.