We would like to just fly in just for that dinner.’”Ĭhiang remembers her surprise at the simplicity of the meal, stating that when she saw the menu, “I started to laugh. ‘Can you duplicate that dinner? That dinner for us. Called in from New York, from Hawaii, called me. “The menu was printed in all these newspapers in the United States and also the Chinese Newspaper,” recalls Chiang, “People called in. ” Ultimately, though, Lin says, “I think history would say that Nixon and Kissinger did the right thing to help open up China.”Ĭecilia Chiang, a chef and entrepreneur credited with popularizing northern Chinese cuisine in the United States, discusses in her oral history the buzz surrounding the state dinner attended by Nixon and Kissinger during their visit. Hence, Nixon was considered a turncoat and Kissinger an accomplice of Nixon in betraying his friend, the ROC. When asked about the effects of the visit on Taiwan, Lin said, “Republicans were always considered friends for KMT. Lin, whose career is in Chinese technological innovation and entrepreneurship, offers his perspective on Henry Kissinger and Nixon traveling to China. I do not think a Democrat could have done this. Yet, I suppose that only a Republican conservative, reactionary almost, president could have done this. I have disliked him intensely forever, it seems to me, since ever he appeared on the political scene. Now I have hardly a good word to say for Nixon. In this interview, Service also discusses the public perception of Richard Nixon at the time of the trip, echoing the popular opinion that only Nixon, as a staunch anti-communist with the support of his fellow political conservatives, could make such a move without widespread criticism. by seeing on television, reading in the paper, seeing pictures that the American ping pong team was going to Peking,” Service recalls of this turning point in the relations between the two countries.
In Caroline Service’s oral history, she discusses the era of “ping pong diplomacy” in the early 1970s that occurred prior to the president’s visit to China. President Nixon Shaking Hands with Chairman Mao, Febru(Photo: National Archives. The Services were among the few Americans welcomed back to the country in the early 1970s by Zhou Enlai, then the premier of the PRC. Included in these are the accounts of both Caroline and John Service, the latter a diplomat and member of the United States Foreign Service. The UC Berkeley Oral History Center’s collection contains several interviews discussing the event, as well as the political and public atmosphere that surrounded Nixon’s 1971 announcement of the impending trip. February 2022 - This month marks the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s weeklong visit to China, a trip that resulted in the establishment of a formal diplomatic relationship between the governments of the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
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