Nixon, China, Kissinger

[Dan Scanlan <coolhanduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

National Security Archive Update, December 21, 2004

New Documentary Reveals Secret U.S., Chinese Diplomacy Behind Nixon's
Trip

Chinese marshal received Top Secret intelligence briefing from
Kissinger in 1972,
Member of four marshals who told Mao "play the American card" in 1969

"History Declassified: Nixon in China" premieres December 21, 2004, 10
p.m. EST,
on Discovery Times Channel (digital cable by Discovery and the New York
Times)

ABC News Productions based show on National Security Archive documents,
Interviewed Kissinger, Haig, Lord, Smyser, and China Experts

For more information contact:
William Burr: 202/994-7032

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, D.C.: The first TV documentary based on the fully
declassified record of President Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972
premieres tonight on the Discovery Times Channel at 10 p.m. EST. Titled
"History Declassified: Nixon in China," the show combines previously
secret U.S. documents gathered by the National Security Archive with
newly available evidence from Chinese files to reveal details of the
dramatic diplomacy that remained hidden for 30 years.

Shown on television for the first time are the secret initiatives on
the Chinese side that began as early as 1969, when a group of four
marshals recommended that Chairman Mao "play the American card" against
the Soviet threat and even undertake high-level talks with the U.S.

One of the four marshals then sat across from national security advisor
Henry Kissinger during the most secret single meeting of the 1972 Nixon
trip, when Kissinger briefed the Chinese in detail on Soviet troop
movements  -- details so sensitive even the U.S. intelligence community
was kept out of the loop. The transcript only emerged in 2003 after
appeals by the National Security Archive. "My jaw dropped when I saw
what these discussions had covered," says Tom Jarriel, who reported on
Nixon's trip for ABC News, in the documentary.

Produced by ABC News Productions for the Discovery Times Channel (the
digital cable venture of Discovery Channel and the New York Times), the
documentary features interviews with key players and eyewitnesses Henry
Kissinger, Winston Lord, Dick Smyser, Alexander Haig, James Lilley, and
Jarriel, together with commentary from China experts such as University
of Virginia professor Chen Jian and Georgetown University professor
Nancy Tucker, along with National Security Archive director Thomas
Blanton.

"The new documents are rewriting the history of that amazing
breakthrough, of what we thought we knew," comments Blanton on screen
in the program. "But the new evidence also serves as a reminder of the
use and abuse of government secrecy."

The Archive today posted ten of the documents cited in "History
Declassified: Nixon in China," including an excerpt from the four
marshals' report, transcripts of telephone calls (telcons) between
Nixon and Kissinger, a front page photograph in the Peoples' Daily
intended by Mao as a signal to the Americans (which they missed), and
the transcript of Kissinger's 1972 intelligence briefing to Marshal Ye
Jianying.

http://www.nsarchive.org

_________________________________________________________

THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental
research institute and library located at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S.
government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties
and donations from foundations and individuals.