When Kissinger went to China

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In July 1971, Kissinger, then US National Security Advisor, made a clandestine visit to the People’s Republic of China – then America’s sworn enemy. At the time China was isolated from the outside world amidst the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. America was looking for a way out of the Vietnam war. Both countries had had no contact for over 20 years. The 48-hour mission paved the way for President Richard Nixon’s historic handshake with Chairman Mao a few months later. It changed the geometry of the Cold War. So what has happened since Kissinger stepped on Chinese soil in that summer half a century ago? How did we get to where we are today?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary on the BBC World Service.
0:07.0	Its three o'clock in the early morning are the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on July 9, 1971.
0:14.0	A group of mysterious men have turned up at Rao Pindi Airport, surrounding one particularly individual with a hat and sunglasses.
0:22.0	Clearly wanting to avoid public scrutiny.
0:27.0	A local correspondent for British News Agency was said to have been there seeing off his mother.
0:32.0	He detected something unusual was going on and asked the security guard who told him that the mystery man was on his way to China.
0:41.0	None of the world knowing what was happening to James Bond aspect, even more importantly of course, the year for political repercussions.
0:49.0	For these two great nations getting together was really one of the most dramatic episodes of the most in my life.
0:56.0	So who was the man in the hat and sunglasses?
0:59.0	Unbelievably, incredibly, it was Harry Kissinger, one of the US government's most senior officials.
1:07.0	On his way, in secret, to the heart of America's sworn enemy was then called Red China.
1:15.0	A few months later, President Nixon's historic handshake with Chairman Mao changed the world we live in today.
1:21.0	Over the next hour, I'll be telling the story of that extraordinary journey and how it changed everything,
1:28.0	and examining the state of the world's most important international relationship between China and America.
1:35.0	Well, very few people knew about the trip besides the president Kissinger and the three others who went on the trip with Kissinger myself and two others.
1:45.0	Winston-Lord, who was there at the airport as well, was Harry Kissinger's aide at the time.
1:50.0	The mission also had a code name, Marco Polo, referring to the famous Venetia explorer who journeyed to China.
1:57.0	We believed that had to be secret because if everyone knew this was going to take place, they'd start lobbying for their possessions.
2:04.0	We would be hamdened at no flexibility, and after all, we were not sure the trip was going to succeed.
2:10.0	News of Kissinger's trip to Beijing was kept out of the public eye until a few days later.
2:15.0	On the 15th of July, 1971, President Nixon finally announced it to the American public.
2:22.0	The announcement I shall now read is being issued simultaneously in Beijing and in the United States.
	...

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