Journey into the history books

"Back in the '70s China was a minor partner in the cooperation," said Lord, who went on all the nine trips Kissinger made to China in the 1970s and was on every meeting in which Nixon, president Gerald Ford and Kissinger met Mao, Zhou and later Deng Xiaoping during that period.

"Now we have a much broader agenda, which means many areas of competition and tension, but also some areas of cooperation."

On his visit in February 1973, Zhou gave Lord the original picture taken during the Nixon-Mao meeting, which attests to his presence.

Calling himself "a friendly fossil" in the eyes of the Chinese, Platt quoted former US secretary of state (under Ronald Reagan) Alexander Haig, who told him that "In the boxing ring, the safest place is in a clinch".

"Since 1972 the US has worked its way into a clinch with China, and it should stay there," Platt said. "What we need now is a concert of power rather than a balance of power."

Platt's latest trip to China was in November 2019 and "that would be my last one", the 85-year-old said.

In February 1972, en route to China, Platt's plane, whose front was "chock-full of presents", stopped at Travis Air Force Base in northern California to refuel and pick up four redwood saplings "sweating in plastic bags". The saplings were later planted in Hangzhou.

When Nixon returned to Washington from China on Feb 28, 1972, he told a crowd at Andrews Air Force Base: "As all Californians know, and as most Americans know, redwoods grow from saplings into the giants of the forest. But the process is not one of days or even years. It is a process of centuries."

zhaoxu@chinadailyusa.com