CNN Cold War Set 2_03of14_China 1949-1972
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00:001966, Mao Zedong, God in his own nation, scourge of the United States and a symbol of revolution
00:20in the world. Six years later, Mao embraced the enemy.
00:35At the summit, face to face, two leaders who direct the destiny of one out of three persons
00:40on the earth. The gate to friendly contact, says Zhou Enlai, has finally been opened.
01:101949, revolution in China.
01:37The People's Liberation Army were welcomed as heroes in Beijing. Led by Mao Zedong,
01:47the communists had triumphed in a civil war against the nationalists. Soviet support had
01:54been unreliable. The Chinese felt they'd managed it alone.
02:03The Communist Party seemed wonderful. It was democratic. It was egalitarian. It promised
02:10food for everyone. And so, of course, the ideal of communism gradually entered my spirit.
02:26The Americans were devastated to lose China, their best friend in Asia.
02:31Oh, we felt that they had betrayed all of our high hopes and our expectations of them.
02:42We had become emotionally involved with them. And then they had done this to us. They'd
02:48gone off and become communists.
02:59On October 1st, Mao Zedong told the crowd in Tiananmen Square that a new China was born.
03:16The country was in chaos, exhausted after years of war. Mao needed external help. One
03:28of Mao's first acts was to visit Moscow to get military protection and economic aid.
03:38He was met at the station by Foreign Minister Molotov and most of the Politburo.
04:05Mao then went to the Kremlin to meet Stalin.
04:12Mao shook Stalin's hand for a long time, a very long time. Stalin came out to greet
04:20him quite slowly. He knew how to play the role of statesman. Stalin was a wonderful
04:30actor. And he didn't rush like Mao did.
04:38He wasn't afraid of Stalin. He wasn't particularly suspicious of him either. The question was,
04:43could they find common ground? Mao had his own particular way of thinking. Stalin had
04:50his way. But Mao was in no great hurry.
04:57Mao had to be patient. He wanted to conclude a Sino-Soviet friendship treaty without making
05:02too many concessions. But Stalin, as wary of Mao as Mao was of him, was in no hurry
05:15either.
05:18Mao's visit dragged on for two months. He toured factories and was shown inspiring films
05:25about Russian leaders such as Tsar Peter the Great.
05:56Mao wanted to see the sea. He had never seen a real sea. And Stalin said, of course, surely.
06:08Outside Leningrad we have the Gulf of Finland. That's like a sea. Here's a train for you
06:14and a guide. Go, enjoy it.
06:20In February 1950, the Chinese and the Soviets signed a mutual defence treaty. The treaty
06:27also guaranteed aid for China.
06:32At that time there was the attitude everywhere that Moscow and the Chinese communists were
06:38tightly linked hand in hand. This was perceived by many to be part of a worldwide conspiracy
06:45and hence was somewhat frightening.
06:48But to Mao, China always came first.
06:55Mao said a treaty can be signed for 10, 20 or 50 years. It doesn't matter. But it must
07:04not tie our hands.
07:10Mao gratefully accepted the help of Soviet experts in rebuilding Chinese industry.
07:19We had come from the Soviet Union, where the basis of the state economy was the plan.
07:28So we explained to our Chinese comrades that the plan was the absolute basis of everything.
07:36The development of the country, the economy, and not only the economy but of other branches
07:43of knowledge.
07:51China's rulers embarked on radical land reforms. Land was taken from private owners and handed
07:58to the peasants.
08:03The former landowners were denounced and humiliated.
08:24A million lost their lives.
08:32In June 1950, North Korea, with Soviet and Chinese backing, attacked South Korea.
08:39A sudden attack by the North Koreans dealt the slender forces below the 38th parallel
08:46a mortal blow. The prompt arrival on the scene of US soldiers gave Marshal Stalin and his
08:52cold-eyed strategists a rude shock.
09:00Forces under United Nations command pushed the invaders back to the Chinese border. China
09:07feared an attack on its own territory.
09:14The main enemy was America. At that time, all the propaganda was directed against America.
09:21The proletariat of the whole world must unite to get rid of the capitalists. America was
09:30a capitalist country, and so it had to be got rid of.
09:37Under the banner, Help Korea, Down with US Imperialism, more than one million Chinese
09:42troops would cross the border into Korea.
09:49The Korean War lasted for three years and cost more than half a million Chinese lives.
10:10In China, cinema audiences watched films of bumper harvests and new industrial records.
10:20There was a song we used to sing at the time. It was called Moscow, Peking. People sang
10:27it in Russia and in China. It went, Russians and Chinese are brothers forever.
10:58Comrade Stalin stressed to me, you, Arkhipov, and your team should always remember that.
11:12Steel production was a yardstick of national virility. The success of the first three-year
11:19plan was celebrated. But although exhilarating, Soviet aid had to be paid for.
11:28We Chinese were very enthusiastic towards the Soviets. They were our older brother,
11:34our best friend. We expected them to give us a very warm welcome. The first time we
11:41went to the Soviet Union, they invited us to a big banquet. We ate very well. It was
11:48really good food. But what we hadn't expected was that this wasn't actually free of charge.
11:56They asked for more than 9,000 rubles for it. We were very shocked.
12:07Stalin's death in 1953 had a deep impact in China. Despite Mao's misgivings, he had respected
12:15the Soviet leader's iron authority. After a power struggle in the Kremlin, Nikita Khrushchev
12:25emerged as the new Soviet leader. He and his Politburo visited China to maintain the alliance.
12:33The size and power of the Communist bloc made the new American administration increasingly
12:40anxious. We can see that China is the basic cause of all of our troubles in Asia. If China
12:47had not gone Communist, we would not have had a war in Korea. If China were not Communist,
12:52there would be no war in Indochina. There would be no war in Malaya.
12:57Today, there are approximately 540 million people who can be counted on the side of the
13:02free nations. There are 800 million on the Communist side. And there are 600 million
13:09others who must be counted as non-committed.
13:14America did everything to stop the spread of Communism. To prevent China attacking the
13:20Chinese nationalist strongholds, it was necessary to stop the spread of Communism.
13:25After attacking the Chinese nationalist stronghold of Formosa, or Taiwan, the United States financed
13:31a military build-up on the island.
13:34Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, along with his American advisers, reviews free Chinese
13:39nationalist forces in an Independence Day parade. More than a half million soldiers,
13:44sailors, airmen and marines have as their ultimate aim and living goal the return to
13:50China's mainland.
13:55The nationalist government was determined to defend two small islands off the China
13:59coast, Kimoy and Matsu.
14:02From the point of view of the United States, these tiny little islands close to the mainland
14:06were of no significance as such. On the other hand, the Chinese nationalists looked on them
14:13as symbols as to what the United States would do in helping them. Furthermore, Chiang Kai-shek
14:21had put an enormous proportion of his army on these little islands.
14:29In September 1954, the Communists shelled the island of Kimoy. Three months later, Washington
14:38signed a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan.
14:44Almost immediately, the major units of the 7th Fleet are shifted to Formosa to augment
14:48the United States and nationalist patrols in the strait and along the mainland. The
14:53action upholds the United States' pledge to meet the common danger, Communism.
15:00The American show of strength failed to stop the Chinese Communist challenge.
15:05The Allied nations possess together plenty of power in the area. The United States in
15:12particular has sea and air forces, now equipped with new and powerful weapons of precision.
15:20All-out war came closer. America made nuclear threats.
15:26Eisenhower never said he would use nuclear weapons, but he and Dulles essentially said
15:32nuclear weapons were available and would be part of our arsenal and essentially implied
15:40that if they were necessary in order to prevail, they would be used.
15:45Regular target screening keeps every pilot in combat readiness at all times.
15:52Mao's provocation and America's response concerned Khrushchev, whose nuclear bombs guaranteed
15:58China's security. Khrushchev told the Chinese that war with imperialism was no longer inevitable.
16:07At the 20th Soviet Party Congress in February 1956, in a secret session that was not filmed,
16:15Khrushchev denounced Stalin as a criminal. Mao took it as a threat to his own style of leadership.
16:25Mao's attitude was very clear. He thought that criticism of Stalin was inappropriate.
16:33Stalin was an international statesman.
16:40Mao Zedong said to him, your decision isn't right, your speech isn't right.
16:49Khrushchev begins his arguments. But Stalin is a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
16:56It's our right to deal with him as we see fit. It is the personality cult of Stalin.
17:03That's why we've taken our decision.
17:07Mao Zedong, it is true that he is a member of your party.
17:12But he is also leader of the World Revolutionary Movement.
17:16We are the followers of Stalin.
17:19How can you reduce the role of Stalin to being only a member of the Soviet Communist Party?
17:26Just like that.
17:35In October 1956, the Hungarians rose up against Soviet domination.
17:43While Khrushchev hesitated, Mao urged a violent crackdown.
17:48For the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Revolution, Mao went to Moscow.
17:53He used the occasion to put himself forward as the new leader of World Revolution.
18:08But Soviet aid was undermining Mao's aim for total independence.
18:12The crunch came in 1958.
18:16Khrushchev wanted to set up a long-wave radio station along the Chinese coast to guide Soviet submarines.
18:23He suggested setting up a joint naval fleet.
18:26This was a clear sign that the Soviets wanted to control China.
18:32Mao's understanding was that the Soviet Union was trying to control China
18:36in the same way as it controlled countries in Eastern Europe.
18:39So he got angry with Khrushchev and said,
18:42if you want it, I'll give you the whole coastline and I'll go back to the mountains.
18:48Mao still needed Soviet know-how.
18:51He wanted to create China's own nuclear industry.
18:59The Chinese comrades then expressed a new wish.
19:03They said they would very much like to receive more aid from China.
19:06They said they would very much like to receive more aid from us
19:10in order to build plants and facilities for the production of the atomic bomb.
19:15Such an agreement was signed.
19:20Mao said that the atomic bomb was a paper tiger.
19:25But he also knew that whether a country had the atomic bomb or not
19:28had a huge bearing on its position in the world and on its international influence.
19:37In 1958, Khrushchev visited China to renew Soviet support.
19:42But Mao's nuclear demands had already strained relations with the Big Brother.
19:49Mao Zedong said, you are communists and we are communists.
19:54Communists usually share.
19:56Will you give us the atomic bomb or not?
20:00Khrushchev, and what do you want the atomic bomb for?
20:05We have the atomic bomb.
20:07And we will stand up for China just the same as we would for the Soviet Union.
20:12Yes, Mao said, it's true.
20:15But we are not just some tin-pot village.
20:18China is a great country and we want to have it.
20:21Khrushchev, you don't need it.
20:24And so on.
20:26Mao then says, so you don't want to give it to us then?
20:29Despite the fact that we tried to slow down the help with nuclear weapons to China,
20:36we had already given them the blueprints
20:39and practically all the assistance necessary for making the atomic bomb.
20:49When Khrushchev next visited Beijing,
20:51he'd just been President Eisenhower's guest in the United States.
20:55After a frigidly polite reception,
20:57Khrushchev was accused of being an American stooge.
21:03Khrushchev protested that this was no way to talk to a communist leader.
21:10Mao's foreign minister, Marshal Shen Yi, was screaming at Khrushchev.
21:16He said, you're only a political leader,
21:18but I'm a marshal and I'll say what I like.
21:21This argument had a huge impact on Sino-Soviet relations.
21:27From here on, no common ground could be found on major issues.
21:32After that, they split up.
21:38The struggle for pre-eminence in the communist world was now out in the open.
21:42Here were two despots, each used to having his own way.
21:47They couldn't cooperate.
21:49In the communist camp, the question was always,
21:52who was number one, who was the tsar?
21:59One day, Mao Zedong spoke in a disrespectful way.
22:03He said, I'm not a tsar.
22:05I'm not a tsar.
22:07I'm not a tsar.
22:13On one occasion, during the 1959 trip,
22:16Khrushchev spoke disrespectfully about Mao Zedong.
22:20He said that Mao was an old boot that ought to be thrown out.
22:29They had to translate old galosh,
22:33and they translated it as old boot.
22:38But in Chinese, it means both old boot and prostitute.
22:47And when Kang Sheng heard those words,
22:50he took it that the great leader was being called an old whore.
23:00Soviet advisers would soon be withdrawn from China.
23:04Rivalry between the communist powers was ideological as well as personal.
23:13Ideological squabbles could get quite comical.
23:19The Soviet side would say, we are the Marxists.
23:24And then the Chinese would say, no, we are the Marxists.
23:30The Soviets would say, we are red.
23:33And the Chinese would say, we are even redder.
23:38It could appear funny, but the damage was really serious.
23:43The party started issuing documents,
23:46editorials, attacking Soviet revisionism.
23:52So from then on, along with other slogans,
23:56we had to shout down with Soviet revisionism.
24:03Later on, it was down with Khrushchev.
24:10In 1958, Mao had thought up a new policy,
24:14the Great Leap Forward,
24:16the grandiose plan to transform China into a rich world power.
24:24Land was taken over by the state.
24:28The family unit was to disappear.
24:31People were organized into huge communes.
24:34A utopian world of plenty would come from sheer force of will.
24:46Mao's method was to be a more extreme version
24:49of Stalin's brutal collectivization of the 1930s.
24:55The Great Leap Forward was a kind of recklessness.
24:59Mao wanted to change the face of China
25:01in the shortest time possible.
25:03The slogan was, struggle hard for three years,
25:06change the face of China,
25:08catch up with Britain, catch up with America.
25:11It was completely unrealistic.
25:17Because steel remained a key symbol of national vitality,
25:21the entire country reverted to pre-industrial backyard furnaces.
25:29People worked day and night
25:31to produce massive amounts of useless metal.
25:38The largest city in China is Shanghai.
25:42Once I arrived there at the height of the Great Leap Forward.
25:46I went up to the roof of a tall house,
25:49and from there I could see all of Shanghai was in flames.
25:53In every courtyard they were smelting steel.
25:59Crops were left to rot.
26:01Scientific knowledge and all common sense were ignored.
26:08No one dared to tell the truth for fear of arrest or worse.
26:19The lies of the Great Leap Forward were absolutely unbelievable.
26:23Anybody who did not speak in falsehoods
26:26was demoted or expelled from their jobs.
26:32From the time of the Great Leap Forward,
26:35all Chinese people learned to tell lies.
26:42The peasants' food was taken from them by force
26:45to make up bogus quotas.
26:47It was one of the worst man-made disasters in history.
26:54We had to eat the husks of coarse grain,
26:57not even the grain itself.
27:00We ate leaves off trees.
27:03We all went down with hepatitis.
27:08Many peasants died of starvation.
27:11No one really knew how many.
27:16Because of Mao's policy, over 30 million people died.
27:22Hiding the catastrophe, Mao still posed
27:25as the leader of world communism.
27:28Blocked by Washington from the United Nations,
27:31China became the champion of anti-American causes.
27:35Third world leaders and western intellectuals
27:38flocked to Beijing.
27:43In Moscow, Khrushchev was pursuing a new political agenda.
27:48In Moscow, Khrushchev was pursuing
27:51peaceful coexistence with the West.
27:56The Kremlin is the setting of an historic event,
27:59the signing of an atom test ban.
28:01The big three representatives,
28:03Dean Rusk, Andrei Gromyko, and Lord Hume,
28:06signed for the US, Russia, and Britain.
28:08Most other nations of the world,
28:10with the notable exception of France,
28:12Communist China, and Cuba, are to sign later.
28:15Communist China has denounced the Soviets
28:17for making the treaty, widening further
28:19the breach between the two communist powers.
28:25Mao reacted to the nuclear test ban treaty with defiance.
28:45The Chinese communist nuclear detonation
28:48is a reflection of policies
28:51which do not serve the cause of peace.
28:54But there is no reason to fear
28:58that it will lead to immediate dangers of war.
29:02The nations of the free world
29:05will recognize its limited significance
29:08and will persevere in the struggle
29:11and will recognize its limited significance
29:14and will persevere in their determination
29:18to preserve their independence.
29:26In 1965, US Marines were sent to South Vietnam.
29:30President Johnson was determined
29:32to prevent Communist North Vietnam
29:34and its allies in the South gaining power.
29:38In China, the masses were mobilized
29:41to support neighboring North Vietnam.
29:49Rulers in Hanoi are urged on by Peking.
29:54This is a regime which has destroyed freedom in Tibet,
29:59which has attacked India,
30:01and has been condemned by the United Nations
30:04for aggression in Korea.
30:07It is a nation which is helping the forces of violence
30:11in almost every continent.
30:14The contest in Vietnam is part
30:17of a wider pattern of aggressive purposes.
30:28A war between China and the United States
30:31was once again a possibility.
30:38Haunted by the failure of the Great Leap Forward,
30:42Mao was fighting to maintain his domination of China.
30:53In 1966, he launched the Great Cultural Revolution.
31:02China! China! China!
31:13He failed to bring about an economic miracle,
31:16so in 1966 he wanted a political miracle.
31:19He not only wanted to get rid of his enemies,
31:22he wanted to do something that Stalin had been unable to do,
31:26destroy government bureaucracy.
31:32The Mao personality cult
31:36did not come to full blossoming
31:40until the Cultural Revolution,
31:43when he became the so-called Four Greats,
31:46the Great Leader, Great Helmsman,
31:49Great Supreme Commander, Great Teacher.
31:52He has replaced Stalin,
31:55and Beijing has become the center of world revolution.
32:01Millions of young people
32:04were recruited to be Mao's Red Guards.
32:10Their idealism was exploited to create mayhem
32:14and to destroy every vestige of the past.
32:18Chairman Mao says,
32:21Marxism consists of thousands of truths,
32:24but they all boil down to one phrase,
32:27it's right to rebel.
32:30The proletarian revolutionary rebels
32:33hold high the great red banner of Mao Zedong's thought.
32:36Through big character posters and great debates,
32:39they argue things out, expose, criticize, and repudiate thoroughly,
32:43and launch fierce attacks on all kinds of representatives of the bourgeoisie.
32:48The first action was to change the names of roads.
32:52The name of the road outside the Soviet embassy
32:55was changed to Anti-Revisionism Road.
32:58There were demonstrations outside the Soviet embassy.
33:02Most of the demonstrators were Red Guards.
33:14In the morning they would hang up dummies
33:17of Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Podgorny.
33:20When it began to get dark,
33:23they took them down and started a huge bonfire
33:26at the entrance of the embassy and burnt the dummies.
33:33The Red Guards and the young people gathered around the fire
33:37and danced and yelled anti-Soviet slogans.
33:46From midnight to 6 a.m. it was time for Chinese torture.
33:51For 15 minutes they would stop and we would start falling asleep,
33:55exhausted by the noise.
33:58Then they would begin yelling again for 15 minutes.
34:04Every 15 minutes they would start and stop, all night.
34:10Then at 6 a.m. the noise would begin and continue all day.
34:20In 1969, tension along the vast Soviet-Chinese border increased.
34:35There were frequent clashes.
34:37The Yasuri River in Soviet East Asia was the scene of many of them.
34:45China's brave fishermen are full of heroism and bright wisdom.
34:49They're not afraid of heaven or earth.
34:52The filth of the Soviet revisionists causes them no fear.
35:02There were a lot of provocations from the Chinese.
35:06They crossed the border in huge numbers.
35:12What could we do? It wouldn't be nice to shoot them.
35:17But how could we get rid of them?
35:21It was a difficult question to solve and so things got worse.
35:27The Chinese were mostly to blame.
35:33Images of aggressive Chinese at the border
35:36fueled Soviet fears of an invasion.
35:46Siberia and the Far East were sparsely populated.
35:50So what if the Chinese millions began pouring in?
35:54Writers had warned before about the yellow peril,
35:57that the Chinese would come right through Russia and conquer Europe.
36:05The Soviet Union had a nuclear arsenal
36:07and one million troops along the border between the Soviet Union and China.
36:12North of Beijing were flat plains
36:15and if the Soviet Union were to attack China,
36:18within a week they would be in Beijing with their tanks.
36:25A battle was fought over a tiny island in the Yusuri River in March 1969.
36:35Mutual hostility was escalating dangerously.
36:40Our CIA estimated the chances of an iron bomb attack
36:44by the Soviet Union on China was one in three.
36:48They'll show you how real that fear was.
36:50And meanwhile by 1969 the Chinese were building at a furious rate
36:54these great huge underground shelters in their cities.
36:58So there was a real fear of war that was building up.
37:02The vast network of shelters tunneled underground
37:05was meant to withstand nuclear attack.
37:13In Moscow Soviet crowds demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy.
37:19The Soviet press hinted at a possible nuclear war with China.
37:26I don't think anyone in Moscow is serious.
37:29I don't think anyone in Moscow had serious plans
37:32for a nuclear missile strike on China.
37:35It would have been madness.
37:38But there were people I met in diplomatic circles
37:41who said to me it wouldn't be a bad thing to hit the Chinese with a missile.
37:49Soviet Premier Kosygin visited Beijing in October 1969
37:53to stop a potential war and restore relations.
38:00When Zhou Enlai met Kosygin at Beijing airport
38:04he said to him,
38:06if you attack our nuclear installations with atomic weapons
38:10that counts as war.
38:13As an invasion of our territory
38:16China won't hesitate to respond.
38:23Mao, fearful of Moscow's belligerence
38:26had already decided he wanted better relations with America.
38:34America's new President Richard Nixon
38:37although a lifelong anti-communist
38:39came to a similar conclusion.
38:42To limit Soviet power and end the Vietnam War
38:45he wanted to draw closer to China.
38:50With his new National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger
38:53Nixon developed a foreign policy
38:55which exploited the hostility between the communist giants.
38:59It began to dawn on us after we'd been in office for a while
39:04that there were genuine tensions between Russia and China
39:10and that probably the Soviet Union
39:13was the cause of the tensions and not China
39:16which was the opposite of the idea with which we entered.
39:20The first sign of a thaw from Beijing
39:23came during a table tennis match.
39:26In 1971 while playing in Japan
39:29the American team was suddenly invited to China.
39:33I think it's a wonderful opportunity to go to China
39:36because not very many people get there
39:38and I feel it's a great opportunity to play against the top players
39:41and be able to take some of this knowledge home
39:43and I think it's also a step in our political relations with China.
39:50The team's home movies offered the first glimpse of China
39:54to most Americans for 20 years.
40:01The scene was more disorienting
40:03because you would see slogans, signs every place
40:08Long live the unity of the people of the world
40:11Down with the US imperialists and all their running dogs.
40:16You would see these poster boards
40:18that would kind of take the place of newspapers
40:20and there you'd see a picture of President Nixon for instance
40:24with a knife stuck into him, a little pygmy Nixon
40:27and a Chinese giant taking care of him and so forth.
40:32Meanwhile everybody's smiling and being nice to us and so on, right?
40:37They've got this slogan, friendship first, competition second
40:41and they very nicely I think beat us six matches to five matches.
40:51Ping-pong diplomacy led to an even greater breakthrough.
40:57In July 1971, Henry Kissinger went on a tour of Asia.
41:01His most important mission was kept secret.
41:04A visit to Beijing to prepare the way for a rapprochement with China.
41:10As the plane was getting close to the Chinese border
41:15we were all aware of the fact that no American official
41:18had been in China since 1949, 22 years.
41:23I decided I'd like to be first.
41:25And so while Kissinger was sitting in the back of the plane
41:28I went to the front of the plane
41:30so as the plane went over the Chinese border
41:32I was the first American official into China in 22 years.
41:35Henry never forgave me for that,
41:38elbowed me aside and got off the plane first.
41:41I didn't put my foot down and say,
41:44now I've just made history and this will never be forgotten.
41:48I didn't put my foot down and say,
41:51now I've just made history and this will never be forgotten.
41:54I thought, whom am I going to meet
41:57and how am I going to bring it to a conclusion?
42:00Nixon was very secretive by nature.
42:03Kissinger was a maneuverer, an operator by nature.
42:09They both greatly enjoyed this kind of an operation.
42:14President Nixon, who was very decisive,
42:17very capable of making big decisions,
42:20was not, however, capable of overruling subordinates
42:23to their face.
42:26And therefore he found it very, very painful,
42:29in fact he found it to all practical purposes impossible,
42:33to tell a bureaucracy,
42:36I disagree with you and you will do it my way.
42:40He rather set up a back channel.
42:43Going through back doors and back channels
42:46and setting up some kind of a secret meeting
42:49that would make certain kinds of secret arrangements
42:52that were done behind the State Department's back,
42:55behind the back of everybody,
42:57and then be able to surprise the world with this announcement.
43:01That was great theater.
43:07Nixon's trip to Beijing changed the balance of the Cold War.
43:12His Chinese triumph also stole the headlines
43:15from the increasingly grim events in Vietnam.
43:22At that time we felt very excited.
43:26We thought that this was a very good thing
43:29because China's isolation from the rest of the world
43:32had created many disasters.
43:35I knew that Mao didn't have very long to live,
43:39and I thought that he'd at last made a good decision.
43:43I also believed that only Mao could make that decision,
43:47that whoever succeeded him
43:49would have the courage to make such a decision.
43:54Premier Zhou Enlai moves forward to greet
43:57the first American president to set foot on Chinese soil.
44:15East meets West
44:17as a handshake bridges 16,000 miles
44:20and 22 years of hostility.
44:24There are no welcoming speeches, no formal ceremonies,
44:28just a receiving line made up of Communist Party officials
44:31and the military band playing the Star-Spangled Banner.
44:37Nixon, the lifelong anti-communist, quoted Mao's own words.
44:42So many deeds cry out to be done, and always urgently.
44:48The world rolls on.
44:50Time passes.
44:53Ten thousand years are too long.
44:56Seize the day. Seize the hour.
45:01This is the hour.
45:04This is the day.
45:08Peking newspapers, which had played down the Nixon visit,
45:12now give it front-page coverage.
45:15Dealers sell out as readers follow day by day
45:18the president's activities.
45:21Today the president walks among priceless treasures
45:24from China's golden age,
45:26among them a pair of ear-stoppers used by the emperor
45:29to keep from hearing criticism.
45:31Give me a pair as a gift.
45:35I didn't put my foot down and say,
45:38Now I've just made history.
45:41On the way back from Beijing, I knew we had made history.
46:04© BF-WATCH TV 2021