The Nixon Collection

 

Nixon and the People’s Republic of China: CIA’s Support of the Historic 1972 Presidential Trip

Aquiline


This collection marks the 50th anniversary of President Richard M. Nixon’s February 1972 trip to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – a landmark event that preceded the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This small collection, consisting of three city guides, an atlas, and four leadership profiles, is a subset of the materials CIA produced for President Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in preparation for the seven-day visit.

 

 

Peking National Library, found in "Peking and Environs", page 32

City guides were produced on Peking (Beijing), Shanghai, and Hang-Chou (Hangzhou)1, as these cities were part of President Nixon’s tour of the PRC. Each guide included a brief history of the city, contemporary maps and photographs, and descriptions of geography, climates, and points of interest.

Aquiline

CIA also produced an 82-page atlas of the PRC for President Nixon’s trip. The US government distributed more than 4,000 copies to government customers and non-government institutions and libraries, and sold 30,000 copies to the public for a short period after the trip for $5.25, or $35.19 in today’s dollars. This is the first time in fifty years CIA has made the atlas available to the public.

This collection also includes leadership profiles—assessments that CIA provides US Presidents and other policymakers to assist them in understanding their foreign counterparts. The profiles in this collection include Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) and Premier Chou En-lai (Zhou Enlai). A profile of Lin Piao (Lin Biao), Vice Chair of the CCP, prepared for this trip is also included in this collection; however, Lin died in a plane crash five months before President Nixon’s visit.

 

 

_____________________

1 CIA did not begin using the non-Romanization spelling of Beijing and Hangzhou until 1979. This article provides updated spellings elsewhere in parentheses.

 

Documents in this Collection

Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®

Document Number: 06931189
Pages:
84

Document Number: 06928802
Pages:
25

Document Number: 06928824
Pages:
84

Document Number: 06928801
Pages:
34