Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–13, Documents on China, 1969–1972

Editor:

Steven E. Phillips

General Editor:

Edward C. Keefer

United States Government Printing Office
Washington
2006

Office of the Historian
Bureau of Public Affairs

Table of Contents

• Press Release
• Summary
• Preface
• Sources
• Abbreviations
• Persons
• Documents on China, 1969-1972 (Documents 1-175)

Overview

This volume supplements the recently released print volume XVII, China, 1969–1972, by publishing 175 documents, most of which are cited in the footnotes of print volume XVII, that relate to the high-level contacts between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. Typically, the print volume presents the shorter (and sometimes more subjective) summary memorandum of a conversation or important message that National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger and the National Security Council staff prepared for the President, while the supplement contains the verbatim memorandum of conversation or the full text of messages exchanged. In addition, Vol. E–13 contains documentation on the Nixon administration’s historic opening to China, including accounts of meetings at the foreign minister level during President Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972, backchannel messages, and memoranda from other agencies, such as the Department of Defense. This extra coverage of the Nixon administration’s opening to China is the result of a decision to give this historic and important U.S. foreign policy shift maximum coverage in the Foreign Relations series.