{"id":39040,"date":"2022-02-17T21:04:58","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T05:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=39040"},"modified":"2022-02-17T21:04:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T05:04:58","slug":"chas-freeman-on-nixon-china-and-the-week-that-changed-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/17\/chas-freeman-on-nixon-china-and-the-week-that-changed-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Chas Freeman on Nixon, China, and \u2018The Week That Changed the World\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Quincy Institute\/Responsible Statecraft<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

The tension and curiosity was palpable here in America when President Richard Nixon touched down in China with an entourage of government officials and press on February 21, 1972.<\/p>\n

The reason was clear: the country had been fighting a war against communism in Indochina for the last seven years and this would be the first time in more than two decades that the United States would be engaging the Chinese Communist Party publicly, and in China. Most Americans \u2014 including the press \u2014 hadn\u2019t a clue of what China was actually like beyond the politically-driven, exaggerated Hollywood caricatures of the Chinese people. As veteran journalist Dan Rather later put it<\/a>, it was a bit \u201clike leaving earth and going deep into the cosmos to some distant planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that plane was Chas Freeman. At the time he was a foreign service officer working for the U.S. State Department\u2019s China Desk. Fluent in several languages, he was tapped to be the principal American interpreter for Nixon. Leaving from Washington on Feb. 17 and traveling to Hawaii, Guam, then Shanghai, Air Force One landed in Beijing (then still pronounced Peking), and was greeted by China\u2019s premier Zhou Enlai. Famously, First Lady Pat Nixon wore a bright red coat, some saying it was chosen because of the color\u2019s Chinese symbolism for luck<\/a>, others reporting it was planned to contrast with the expected sea of gray and black suits on the tarmac.<\/p>\n

From Nixon immediately grasping Zhou\u2019s hand<\/a> (the premier had been slighted when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles refused to shake his hand years earlier), to the timed state dinners and speeches for American nightly news, everything was staged for peak visual consumption. It was a spectacle, but one that had serious strategic significance \u2014 this detente had been calculated to serve as a wedge between Communist China and Communist Russia on the chessboard of Cold War politics. Nixon had also hoped to gain leverage with China over the North Vietnamese in Washington\u2019s ongoing war in Indochina.<\/p>\n

Nixon proclaimed it the \u201cweek that changed the world,\u201d and in many ways it did, explains Freeman, who sat down with us recently to talk about his experience as an interpreter during this audacious moment. The \u201cShanghai Communique<\/a>,\u201d the tangible outcome of the visit, was a joint statement affirming the detente and movement toward normalization, and set the tone of understanding for the next several decades on the Taiwan issue. Here, the United States underscored support for the \u201cOne China policy\u201d and strategic ambiguity. They both agreed that neither party would pursue hegemony in the region and would oppose any third party\u2019s effort to do so \u2014 very clearly meaning Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an almost unprecedented instance of American initiative and statecraft,\u201d Freeman said of the trip, referring to the planning, execution, and accomplishments. Too bad it didn\u2019t last. He talks about this \u2014 and that warm furry hat \u2014 in his interview below:<\/p>\n