LORD: But then we realized in the coming days that Mao had rather skillfully, somewhat elliptically and certainly laconically sort of put down a few markers, which gave Zhou Enlai the authority and the structure to elaborate Chinese positions in much greater detail. RUWITCH: Lord says the Americans were a little disappointed at first. He would give a one or two-sentence answer and say, that's something for Premier Zhou Enlai to handle. LORD: Mao kept deflecting Nixon's efforts to engage in substantive exchanges. RUWITCH: But the chairman did do the meeting, putting a huge stamp of approval on the controversial visit, and setting the tone in a way that only Mao could do. His doctors weren't sure he could do this meeting. LORD: There were several very comfortable chairs we sat in, with tea served in between. RUWITCH: Winston Lord was 34 at the time and an aide to Kissinger. WINSTON LORD: It was just filled with books and manuscripts all over the place - in the back of Mao, where he sat and all the tables. But there was another American at the meeting that day in Mao's cluttered study. An iconic black-and-white photo released afterwards shows Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger sitting with Mao, a translator and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Ailing Chinese leader Mao Zedong wanted to meet. president to set foot in China for more than two decades, Nixon was summoned. JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Shortly after landing in Beijing, as the first U.S. NPR's China affairs correspondent John Ruwitch explains. But the meeting failed to address one major issue, one that's become an even more pressing issue today. It laid a foundation for the eventual establishment of relations between Beijing and Washington. The trip helped bring China out of isolation and realign the global balance of power. This was the week that changed the world. And at the end of it, he had this to say.
Fifty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon made his famous trip to China.
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