| ||
 
This site is best viewed with
a 4.0 browser and requires javascript |
|
||||
 |
|||||
 |
In the early 1970s, President Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, began pursuing secret negotiations with China as part of a broad strategy aimed, in part, at bringing pressure on the Soviet Union. Some newly released material has expanded the record of this historic diplomatic initiative. Previously secret transcripts -- many of which, until now, were classified "Top Secret/Sensitive/Exclusively Eyes Only" -- have been compiled in "The Kissinger Transcripts," a newly published book from The New Press. The book provides a peek into some of Kissinger's most important conversations, even though the only complete set of these transcripts remains locked in the Library of Congress under Kissinger's personal control. Historian William Burr and the staff of the National Security Archive turned up many of the transcripts through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and in the presidential papers of Presidents Nixon and Ford. Below are three excerpts, including Nixon and Kissinger's first meeting with Chairman Mao Tse-tung; a private conversation between Mao and Kissinger; and an early attempt by Kissinger to create a "tacit alliance" with China against the Soviet Union by offering satellite intelligence about Soviet military deployments. (Editor's note: The descriptions of each excerpt below were written by William Burr, editor of "The Kissinger Transcripts." Each link will launch a new browser window. All documents reside at the National Security Archive Web site. )  On February 21, 1972, Nixon arrived in Beijing for high-level meetings with top Chinese officials. Only a few hours after his landing, Mao summoned Nixon to his quarters. Anxious to raise China's status in the world community and to develop relations with Washington as a balance against Moscow, Mao was eager to meet with Nixon. Although Nixon and Kissinger realized, upon meeting Mao, that his health was poor, it was a Chinese state secret that heart and lung problems had nearly caused Mao's death several weeks earlier.  On December 10, during the India-Pakistan war, Kissinger met with Huang Hua, China's ambassador to the United Nations. In this meeting Kissinger offers the Chinese highly sensitive information, derived from reconnaissance satellite photography, on Soviet military deployments. It may or may not have been the first time Kissinger offered such intelligence information; some accounts suggest he had provided data to the Chinese as early as his October 1971 visit to Beijing. At any rate, it was an important step in the Nixon administration's extraordinary effort to tilt U.S. policy toward Beijing. [NOTE: This excerpt begins with portions of a Kissinger memo (from page 45 of the book), then shifts to a conversation between Kissinger and the Chinese ambassador (from page 50). The person speaking at the beginning of page 50 is Kissinger.] 
In February 1973, Kissinger made his fifth visit to Beijing for talks with the Chinese leadership. On February 18, he had his first private conversation with Mao; this excerpt shows Mao conveying doubts about U.S. policy, suggesting that Washington might condone a Soviet attack on China as a way to cripple Moscow. Kissinger took exception, but Mao remained uncertain. In the course of the dialogue, translator Tang Wansheng and Foreign Ministry official Wang Hairong challenged Mao's cracks about the bravery of Chinese women. [NOTE: This transcript begins in the middle of a conversation, with Mao and Kissinger discussing Hitler.] Visit the National Security Archives for more on "The Kissinger Transcripts" Read historian William Burr's analysis of the 1972 China-U.S. diplomatic embrace 
|
||||
|
|||||
