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February 27, 1972 – Communicating in Shanghai
President Nixon’s last full day in the People’s Republic of China was by far the busiest. The day began with an early flight from Hang-chou to Shanghai. The President and First Lady said goodbye to their hosts on the Hang-chou Provincial and Municipal Revolutionary...
February 26, 1972 – Hangzhou
The morning of February 26 was spent making final preparations for travel from Peking to the next stop on the President’s trip, Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province. President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai left for Peking’s Capitol Airport at 8:30 a.m. and...
February 25, 1972 – The Forbidden City
President Nixon’s last full day in Peking began with a tour of the Forbidden City, which is now one of Beijing’s biggest tourist attractions. Situated in the middle of Beijing, it was the center of Chinese politics for five hundred years, serving as the imperial...
Nixon Aide Discusses Pioneering Trip
Stephen Hess, who assisted Vice President Nixon on his first book Six Crises, and later served as the 37th President’s Deputy Assistant for Urban Affairs, explains the genesis of the vision for the China journey: In a restorative break from an intense Beijing...
February 24, 1972 – The Great Wall
On his fourth day in China, President Nixon left the meeting room and ventured out to see some of China’s most famous sights. The first stop on the agenda, about an hour and a half drive from Peking, was the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall of China. The sheer...
February 23, 1972 – People to People Diplomacy
The President’s third day in Peking consisted primarily of meetings with Chinese officials. Three members of the American delegation accompanied President Nixon into these meetings: Henry Kissinger, the President’s National Security Advisor, Winston Lord, Kissinger’s...
February 22, 1972 – Panda Diplomacy
President Nixon spent the entirety of his second day in China absorbed in meetings and talks with Chinese and American officials. While her husband was occupied attending to matters of state, First Lady Pat Nixon ventured out into the new frontier of Chinese...
More On The 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s China Trip
Besides the informative Daily Beast article by Winston Lord and Leslie Gelb discussed in Jonathan Movroydis’s post below, a large number of other stories have appeared online marking the four decades since President Nixon shook Premier Zhou Enlai’s hand on the tarmac...
February 21, 1972 – RN Arrives in Peking
Upon the arrival of the Spirit of ’76 at Capital Airport later that morning, President Nixon and the American delegation were welcomed to Peking with a lavish arrival ceremony hosted by the People’s Republic of China’s Premier Chou En-lai. President Nixon made the...
40 Years Ago – RN Goes to China
Former Nixon aide and future U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord, and Daily Beast contributor and then diplomatic correspondent Leslie Gelb, write of the 37th President’s diplomatic tour de force: Forty years past, world politics were churning with a vicious Vietnam...