Mindful of right-wing Republicans and their affection for Taiwan, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger rejected the advice of his top China hands in 1975 and influenced former president Gerald Ford to put off establishing diplomatic relations on a trip to Beijing that year, State Department documents show.
It was not until 1979 and another administration, that of president Jimmy Carter, that the US went ahead with diplomatic recognition and at the same time downgraded its relationship with Taiwan and its Nationalist government.
Memos and other documents released this week by the historian's office at the State Department provided unusual insight into what was a delicate political and diplomatic decision.
China experts in the US government believed Ford should use his invitation to visit Beijing to promote "normalization" of relations. In a speech to Congress in April 1975, the president spoke of wanting to "accelerate" it.
In a memorandum to Kissinger in July, his advisers made clear they agreed with that goal and saw the trip as an opportunity.
"Our own judgment is not that there should be `normalization at any price,' but that long-term American foreign policy interests will be served by a consolidation of our present, if limited, relationship with Beijing ... if an acceptable normalization deal can be worked out now," it says.
Kissinger believed that downgrading Taiwan could touch off a right-wing backlash against Ford in the 1976 presidential election, which Carter won.
"For political reasons, it's impossible for the US to go for normalization before '76," Kissinger told his advisers at a meeting in July. "If there is any one thing that will trigger a conservative reaction to Ford, that's it."
Kissinger prevailed.
Beijing, while eager to upgrade relations with Washington, patiently accepted a visit to Beijing by Ford that did not achieve that goal and broke little ground.
Looking back in a telephone interview on Thursday, Winston Lord, director of policy planning for Kissinger and a senior adviser at the time, said: "It's true that many of us wished to move the relationship forward significantly in the remainder of Ford's term."
And, Lord said, given Ford's challenge from conservatives and looking toward the election, this was difficult for Ford -- and for Deng Xiaoping (
Meanwhile, among the documents released was a transcript of a conversation between Kissinger and Chinese leader Mao Zedong (
During the conversation, Mao said trade between China and the US was "very pitiful."
"We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands," he said.
"We have too many women ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."
"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied. "We will have to study it."
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