Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
Revisiting Kissinger's Secret Trip to Beijing
It's been 50 years since Kissinger's trip, which paved the way for normalized relations between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China.
July 8, 2021
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get it delivered straight to your inbox!
As a candidate and in press conferences as president, Richard Nixon argued for the necessity and benefits of engaging China. He felt this was essential given China's size and inevitable importance. Nixon also saw China as a useful counterbalance to the Soviet Union. In China, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai were thinking rapprochement with the U.S. would aid them in their own rivalry with Moscow. From the first days of his presidency, Nixon sought to signal China's leaders that he was willing to talk. The Americans sent private signals through Paris, Warsaw, and via the leaders of Romania and Pakistan. The documents summarized and linked to below detail these efforts which ultimately produced Henry Kissinger's secret trip to Beijing July 9-11, 1971. Kissinger, Nixon's National Security Advisor, flew to Beijing from Pakistan. His meetings there produced an agreement that President Nixon would visit China. He went in February 1972.
The USC U.S.-China Institute has collected many resources on the Kissinger's secret trip and President Nixon's subsequent visit:
- A timeline of events and key documents leading up to Kissinger's trip
- Documentary film Assignment: China - The Week That Changed The World (also available on our YouTube channel)
- Symposium featuring top Nixon assistants discussing his visit
- Video of when President Nixon announced he would visit China (July 15, 1971)
- Zhuang Zedong spoke about his role in "ping-pong diplomacy"
Featured Articles
October 20, 2024
October 20, 2024
Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
RSVP link: https://forms.gle/1zer188RE9dCS6Ho6
Events
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - 3:00pm
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Thursday, November 7, 2024 - 4:00pm
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.