The Foreign Service Journal, March 2014

30 MARCH 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 1970s: Nixon Goes to China After more than two decades of icy Sino-American relations, President Richard Nixon embarked on an historic trip to China in February 1972. Not only did the visit strengthen Chinese- American relations, but it also served to encourage closer ties to the Soviet Union. Being a member of the official delegation was, of course, a great honor, and everyone did what the White House directed him or her to do. Everyone, that is, except FSO Chas Freeman , who was the senior interpreter, for reasons he explains in this excerpt from his oral history. (You can also read Winston Lord’s account of the diplomacy underlying the trip at the ADST website.) v A little after 8 o’clock on the evening of Feb. 21, 1972, the ban- quet having been moved down to about 9:30, I was called over to the president’s villa. [White House aide] Dwight Chapin came out and said, “The president would like you to interpret the banquet toast tonight.” And I said, “Fine. Could I have the text, please, so that I can work it over?” He said, “Well, I don’t know. There may not be a text.” I said, “Well, I know there’s a text; there’s got to be. Chinese is not French or Spanish. One has to consider carefully how this is done if it’s to be done well. I’m sure there’s a text, and I’d appre- ciate your getting it for me.” He went into the president’s office, and came out and again said, “There is no text, and the president would like you to inter- pret.” I said, “Well, I happen to know that there is a text. And really I must insist on having that text. I have something approaching a photographic memory; I just need to read it once.” Dwight Chapin was the gatekeeper, the appointments secre- tary, I believe, for the president, later convicted of perjury. At any rate, he went back in a third time, and he came out and said again, “There is no text, and the president orders you to interpret.” And I said, “Well, it might interest you to know that I did the first draft of the toast tonight, and while I don’t know what was done to it in detail at the National Security Council and by the speechwriters, I do know that some of Chairman Mao’s poetry was inserted into it. And if you think I’m going to get up in front of the entire Chinese politburo and ad-lib Chairman Mao’s poetry back into Chinese, you’re nuts. …” He said, “All right.” President Richard Nixon and Premier Zhou Enlai toast the opening of U.S.-China relations in February 1972 in Beijing. Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum