Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.

And so Joe and Lai just, you know, just his face just lights up, you know, and he

comes over and he shakes my hand and a double, triple shake again. And it was a, it was a real

moment for me.

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Bill Hodes was an American school child in 1950s Revolutionary China. This is the second part of his story.

He had the unique opportunity to meet one of China's most revered leaders, Zhu Ani, the first premier of the People's Republic of China, and how he played softball with US and British prisoners

from the Korean War who had refused to return

home. The narrative takes a poignant turn as he recounts his involvement in the Mississippi

Freedom Summer, a significant civil rights initiative aimed at combating racial injustice.

I'm delighted to welcome Bill Hodes back to our Cold War conversation.

Now, you were quite good at swimming and you met a VIP at one of your swimming competitions.

Right, that was a great story.

Since I had grown up on Kate Cod in the summers, as I had mentioned before. I was a pretty good swimmer.

I wasn't a competitive swimmer, I think, but it was very, very good for a kid and not all that good.

But when we, when we, not long after we got to China, I got involved in training on the Beijing swim team.

And I was nowhere near one of the best,

but I was good enough so, so, so that I could swim

and we trained and at least one semester,

maybe it was the whole school year.

...