Office of the Historian

24. Message From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) to the Military Attaché at the Embassy in France (Walters), Washington, September 13, 19711 2

Washington, September 13, 1971

FROM:

  • GENERAL HAIG

VIA - SSO CHANNELS (BY ONE TIME PAD)

FOR: GENERAL WALTERS

MESSAGE TO BE DELIVERED TO MAJOR GENERAL WALTERS, U.S. MILITARY ATTACHE, AT OPENING OF BUSINESS, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. TEXT OF MESSAGE TO BE CODED.

Please contact Chinese Ambassador to Paris on September 14 if possible or not later than September 15 and deliver orally repeat orally the following message. Please confirm when message has been delivered:

Quote: The President agrees that Mr. Kissinger’s interim visit to China should take place for four days starting October 20. He also agrees to the text of the announcement proposed by the Chinese side.

The date of the announcement is however inconvenient. The reasons are as follows:

1.
The date proposed by the Chinese Government may make the announcement appear as a reaction to the visit in the United States by the Soviet Foreign Minister as already explained by Mr. Kissinger.
2.
Since the visit is public certain preparations in logistics, scheduling and organizing the group for the visit have to be made which cannot be started until after the announcement.

The President would, therefore, appreciate it if the Government of the People’s Republic of China would agree to the announcement on [Page 2] September 22, 23, or October 4 in that order of preference. (The date would be Washington time and the hour 10:00 a.m.) Unquote.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 849, President’s File-China Trip, China Exchanges, July 1971-Oct 20, 1971. Top Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. A notation on the message reads: “9/13/71.”↩
  2. Haig instructed Walters to inform Chinese Ambassador to France Huang Chen that President Nixon wanted his Assistant for National Security Affairs Kissinger’s trip announced during the third week of September in order to avoid the impression that the announcement was a reaction to Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko’s visit to the United States.↩