Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong "Memorandum of Conversation," February 21, 1972, 2:50-3:55pm

PARTICIPANTS:         Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Mao Ze-dong)
                                      Prime Minister Chou En-lai (Zhou En-lai)
                                      Wang Hai-jung, Deputy Chief of Protocol of the Foreign Ministry
                                      Tang Wen-sheng, Interpreter
                                  

                                      President Nixon
                                      Henry A. Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
                                      Winston Lord, National Security Council Staff (Notetaker)

DATE AND TIME:       Monday, February 21, 1972 - 2:50-3:55pm

PLACE:                       Chairman Mao's Residence, Peking

(There were opening greetings during which the Chairman welcomed President Nixon, and the President expressed his great pleasure at meeting the Chairman.)

President Nixon: You read a great deal. The Prime Minister said that you read more than he does.

Chairman Mao: Yesterday in the airplane you put forward a very difficult problem for us. You said that what it is required to talk about are philosophic problems.

President Nixon: I said that because I have read the Chairman's poems and speeches, and I knew he was a professional philosopher. (Chinese laugh.)

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