Kissinger Video Interview
4. Describe Ambassador Stoessel's initial contact with Chinese diplomats.
Henry Kissinger: Well I urged Stoessel to make some contacts first. But he wouldn't do it because it was so against orthodoxy and in a sense so dangerous vis a vis the Taiwan lobby or China lobby in the Congress that he didn't want to take the responsibility on the say so of a security adviser. And for all he knew that was my own private idea. So I brought him back and took him into the President and the President instructed him to do what I'd already asked him to do, namely to stop the highest ranking Chinese diplomat he could find at the next social occasion and tell him we wanted to talk. And he finally found him at some fashion show and the Chinese were so stunned when the American approached him that he ran away. And Basil Stoessel who was one of our best diplomats incidentally pursued him, and finally cornered him and gave him the message which the Chinese noted without a word and ran away again. Then a few weeks later to the amazement of Warsaw and in a sense the amazement of our Embassy the Chinese called and said they wanted to pick up the invitation, could they come by, on very short notice. And they arrived at the front door with flags on their car I mean with the most conspicuous way possible, and started a dialogue.
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