Introductions

SUSSER: All right, we're going to get started. We are fortunate to have with us several men who were, in Secretary of State Acheson's phrase, present at the creation during the key turning points in U.S. policy toward China during the period between 1969 and 1980. We've asked each of them to provide us with some initial impressions, for no more than ten minutes each, and then we hope that they will both engage in an informative dialogue with each other as well as respond to some questions from the audience.

You each should have in your folders index cards on which you can write down questions for the individual panelists or for the panel as a whole. Several of our staff will be circulating through the room to collect them. The complete biographies of our panelists are listed in your programs so I will not repeat them at length, and perhaps we should begin with the two men who were on that first trip to China with Henry Kissinger, then National Security Advisor.