FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OCTOBER 27, 1971

OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY

THE WHITE HOUSE

PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
DR. HENRY A. KISSINGER
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS

THE BRIEFING ROOM

4:16 P.M. EDT

MR. ZIEGLER: The announcement regarding Dr. Kissinger's trip, which was made simultaneously in Peking, has already been given to you. As I told you, Dr. Kissinger would be here to talk to you about the subject, and here he is.

Q Did you say "on the record"?

MR. ZIEGLER: On the record.

DR. KISSINGER: I will just take questions.

Q When is the President going to Peking?

DR. KISSINGER: Let me put this one answer on the
Lindley Rule. Let me explain what the answer is.

We will make a definite announcement as to the
time of the trip before December 1st, and those of you who
speculate that we will make a definite announcement as to
the time of the trip before December 1st will not be proven
wrong by events, but this will be ascribed to your brilliant
legwork.

Q Are you talking about the date of the trip
or the announcement?

DR. KISSINGER: No, that, actually, you can make
on background. What I want to put on the Lindley Rule is
the fact that the trip will not take place before January 1st.

Q Will you explain, Henry, why the difference
between December 1st and after January 1st?

DR. KISSINGER: The announcement will be made
before December 1st, but I did not want some of you to get
into the frame of mind that this might be a trip like the
ones you made in the previous Administration where you
arrived here every morning with your bags packed ready to
leave that evening.

Therefore, we will make the announcement before
December 1st, and the trip will take place -- this is now
on the Lindley Rule -- the date when the trip will take place
will be after January 1st.

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MR. ZIEGLER: In other words, you can write "Officials said that the announcement will be made prior to December 1st," and then write . your own that it will not take place before January.

Q No attribution?

MR. ZIEGLER: No attribution. You can attribute
the fact that the announcement will be made before December
1st to "officials said," but the "after January" write on
your own.

Q Approximately when after January 1st? May is after January 1st.

DR. KISSINGER: I understand that, but this is as much
as we are prepared to say now. We have the time narrowed
down to the span of a certain number of weeks, and we will
finalize it within the next few weeks, and then we will
announce it.

Q Dr. Kissinger, what other instances of progress
were you able to make in this five or six days of conversation,
including what can you tell us about the subjects that will
be discussed when the meeting is held?

DR. KISSINGER: First, the primary purpose of the
trip, in fact, the exclusive purpose of the trip, as we
announced and as the statement makes clear, was to make
concrete arrangements for the President's visit.

There were two broad categories of issues for discussion. The one which took the largest part was to explore the technical arrangements in principle, and to get some agreement in principle on the nature of our approach to the Presidential visit.

The second was to have a review with Prime Minister
Chou En-lai to see whether anything had changed since July
to affect the substantive part of the President's trip.

With respect to the first part, the technical
arrangements, as I mentioned in the session I had with you
when the trip was announced, I pointed out that in their long
and distinguished history, the Chinese had never experienced
an incursion quite similar to that of a Presidential trip
and, therefore, it was necessary to explain to them that
they were not being discriminated against by the notions
which we had developed.

For example, it is not self-evident in the Peoples
Republic that you need three of everything when you talk
about television and similar matters. So while there are
certain aspects of a Presidential trip which you ladies and
gentlemen take for granted, they required a certain amount
of explanation to get across conceptually, after the enormity
of what we were suggesting had sunk in. Of course, it re-
quired some adaptation to Chinese conditions.

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Now, I must say that the approach of the Peoples
Republic to our general concept of a Presidential trip was
very constructive. Their attitude was to be helpful. They
want things to be right, and they want to do it within their
technical possibilities.

I think I am correct in saying that we achieved
an agreement in principle on all of the major items, but we
will probably send another advance party, which will go after
the announcement of the specific date, which will work out
the actual technical details of how to implement the general
agreements in principle that we have achieved on this trip.

I believe I am safe in saying that the general
framework and outline have been agreed to, but the concrete
details still require another advance trip and, therefore,
we are not yet in a position to announce those.

Q Will you be making the next advance trip?

DR. KISSINGER: The next advance trip will be com-
posed almost exclusively of the people who are concerned
with the practical details of arranging a Presidential trip,
so it is very unlikely that I will be going.

Q Will it be a four-day trip?

DR. KISSINGER: We will announce the length of the
President's trip when we make the announcement.

Q On your second point, would you continue?

DR. KISSINGER: Yes. We had full and frank dis-
cussions, and it was concluded that the considerations that
led us to decide in July that the time was appropriate for
a meeting of the Chinese and American leaders were still
in full force, and that the general outline that we had
thought of then was still valid. In that area, it was more
or less the same sort of review that we already have dis-
cussed with you in July.

Q Dr. Kissinger, can you give us some chrono-
logical account of what you did while you were there, and
what activities you have had? We have had only a very
sketchy report from the correspondents on the scene.

Q Just the highlights, Henry.

Q Or the low lights. (Laughter)

Q Things like how long were you with the Prime
Minister, and so on.

DR. KISSINGER: I kept the verbatim record in my
office. If I knew that question was going to be asked, I
would have brought it along.

The general outline was that we first had meetings
of the full group, in which, as I said, the nature of a
Presidential trip was explained, plus some general obser-
vations of our approach to the Presidential trip.

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After we had discussed those in a general meeting, we then had two types of meetings: substantive meetings which were often conducted by the Prime Minister and my substantive associates and myself; and meetings of the technical group, which were conducted by Dwight Chapin and General Hughes on our side, together with the other technical people we had along, General Redman and Mr. Elbourne, and Mr. Taylor from the Secret Service.

They met with their Chinese counterparts and went into greater detail on the specifics of their subject than I was able to comprehend or communicate in the plenary sessions. Then, if a policy issue had appeared in this area, each side brought them to me or to the Prime Minister, respectively, and then were then ironed out that way.

On the substantive side, we had the same sort of discussion as I have already indicated that took place last time that generally occurred concurrently with the technical discussions. At the same time, generally in the mornings, the Chinese took us to various places of interest, some of which were of possible interest to the President, but, of course, since they did not know whether they would be or not, you should not conclude from a list of some of these places that those are the places that we will visit.

### Q In Peking?

DR. KISSINGER: Yes. Nor should you conclude, indeed, that the President is going to do any other pattern than what he usually follows, which is to put the vast majority of his time on the substantive meetings.

But the places that were visited, either by myself or members of the technical party, with our Chinese hosts, were such places as the Great Wall, the Ming tombs, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven. These are all in Peking. Then also a hospital in Peking for a demonstration of acupuncture.

### Q On whom?

DR. KISSINGER: Well, OFF THE RECORD: The State Department representative wanted to see how it would work on me. (Laughter) In fact, he told them it didn't matter where they put the needle. (Laughter)

### Q Why does that have to be off the record? (Laughter)

DR. KISSINGER: Ziegler whispered in my ear that this was off the record.

The Peking Sports Arena, the Peking petroleum and chemical works, and, of course, such places as we saw normally in the course of our business, such as the Great Hall of the People. The meetings generally took place either in the Great Hall of the People or in the Guest House where we were staying.

Some members of our party, not myself, had an opportunity to see the house where the President is expected to stay.

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Q Is that a private home?

DR. KISSINGER: That is in the general area where the State Guest Houses are located.

Q Did you see Chairman Mao?

DR. KISSINGER: I did not, but the President is expected to see Chairman Mao.

Q Going back to your point that there is no valid reason for seeking any change since last July, does that mean that there is no change in the power leadership of China that would in any way affect the President's trip?

DR. KISSINGER: I have no idea whatever about the internal balance in the leadership of the Chinese Government or Chinese Communist Party. My discussions were conducted in the same manner as they were previously, and I would not presume to speculate on anything that might have happened otherwise.

Secondly, let me put in perspective what I mean when I say neither side saw any reason to change its views about the desirability of the meeting. Both sides understand that we represent different outlooks. Both sides recognize that there are profound philosophical and political differences between us. Neither side has ever pretended that we will solve all, or even most of the differences between us.

Both sides, in my view, do believe that there is a possibility to make a new beginning; that this beginning, if it is carried out with wisdom and patience on both sides, can mark the start of perhaps a new relationship between our two peoples. But we are not going to pretend before we go there, and I am certain that we will not pretend after we have left there, that we have solved most of the differences between us, or that either side has changed the fundamental views of the other.

We are talking about the beginning of a process, and we will be honest with the publics of both countries about what the process can do and what it cannot do, but within those limits, we believe now that the visit can perform a useful role.

Q Dr. Kissinger, can you explain why you stayed two extra days, and can you also explain away the coincidence and timing between your departure and the U.N. vote?

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DR. KISSINGER: I like the way you phrase these "neutral" questions, especially the second part of the question.

The first question is: Why did we stay not two days longer, but one day longer than we had planned. The tentative plan was to leave the morning of the 25th, Peking time, but, of course, before we left we had no detailed knowledge of how long the discussions, especially the technical discussions, would take; you know, many nuts and bolts questions of telephone service and all this sort of paraphernalia which I did not even understand. So, there was a specific requirement of having these finished.

Secondly, we wanted to make sure that when we left there were no loose ends lying around. While we have communications now with the Peking Government, they are still not as rapid as they would be with countries with which one has formal diplomatic relations.

Q Telephone communications?

DR. KISSINGER: This is OFF THE RECORD. After General Redman gets through there there will be telephone service. In fact, after he gets through there they will be able to reach Washington, but I don't know whether they will be able to reach Shanghai. That was OFF THE RECORD.

On the Lindley Rule basis, we spent the last day going over where we stood so that we could be absolutely sure that everybody understood where we would go from here, what steps had to be taken and it was really exclusively a technical problem. There was no substantive hang-up.

Q Was there any trouble at all with the date?

DR. KISSINGER: Wait a minute, I didn't explain away the coincidence. As I pointed out before we left, the decision to have an interim visit was taken on the occasion of my first visit to the Peoples Republic. The general time frame for that visit was decided in the early part of September, at a time when we believed that the U.N. vote would be in about the same time frame it had in every previous year, which was around the middle of November.

Even when I left, we still thought that the vote would not be until well after my return. Secondly, there was no connection whatever between my second visit to the Peoples Republic--of course, not the first one, either--but between that visit and the U. N. vote. The U. N. was not discussed on this trip. Thirdly, it was probably as difficult for the Peoples Republic to be talking to us at a time when we were opposing their view of how the membership question should be settled as it was for us.

Fourthly, I do not believe--and I think if you look over the list of the countries that either opposed us or abstained, you will find a support for this--I do not believe that the visit affected the vote of any country that either voted against us or abstained.

So, it was a painful coincidence, but these events were totally unrelated and were planned at a time when we had every reason to believe that the vote would be well after my visit

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Given the complexity of setting these things up and the
enormous delay any change entails, it was decided to go ahead
with a program that had been settled long before the U. N.
debate got put into the time frame in which it was and simply
to explain the situation frankly, which is what I have done.

Q Will there be a "Bamboo Curtain" up and will the
American party be restricted to certain small areas?

DR. KISSINGER: Of course, the Peoples Republic of China
is a sovereign country and it is not for us to decide the rules
which govern the movement of foreigners in the Peoples Republic.
Our responsibility is to make sure that there can be adequate
coverage of the Presidential trip and that there will be no
undue limits placed on the normal behavior of the American
press with respect to what is needed to cover the trip; not
what is needed to keep emotional balance in the evenings.
(Laughter) Ron Ziegler said that last part is OFF THE RECORD.

Q You will never enforce that one. (Laughter)

DR. KISSINGER: But we have reason to believe that the
Peoples Republic is willing to cooperate with that to the fullest
extent of their technical capabilities. They are approaching
this trip as a serious event. If there are any desires to travel
beyond covering the President's trip, that is between the
individual newsman and the Peoples Republic of China. We will
not, as a Government, intervene in this one way or the other.

Q Dr. Kissinger, how many will they allow to come?

DR. KISSINGER: The precise number has not been settled.
It is one of the questions into which they are now looking and
trying to match our usual practice against their physical
possibilities. They have assured us -- and I believe the Peoples
Republic officials -- that the only limitations they will put on
are the physical capabilities and not any other normal practices
they have followed.

Q Henry, why did you call the coincidence of your
visit there during the U. N. vote "painful"?

DR. KISSINGER: Simply because of some of the stories that
have appeared since then.

Q But not while you were there?

DR. KISSINGER: While I was there there was no reference
made by either side to the U. N. discussions.

Q Can you say why either side had to explore if the
other side had changed its views about the visit, in other words,
the substantive second point?

DR. KISSINGER: In other words, what we explored was,
first, obviously since I was there, since I had conducted the
meetings with the Prime Minister the last time, it was natural
that we would have other exchanges of views. The agenda was
not "Has either side changed its mind?" The agenda was to review
the world situation again and that is what the agenda was.

Neither side raised any doubt about the possibility of
changes, but if there had been anything that had occurred in the
interval that would have affected either side, this was an
opportunity to raise it. This is what I meant to convey.

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Q Was there any discussion of the Moscow trip by the Chinese or by you?

DR. KISSINGER: First of all, let me say that I will not comment on any of the substantive discussions. But I do want to take this opportunity to make the following point: Our relations with the Peoples Republic of China are designed to end the isolation from each other of two great peoples. It is an attempt to settle or to begin the long process of settlement of outstanding issues between two peoples who have had a history of friendship.

It is not directed against any third country. Neither side is going to use the discussions that will come up as an opportunity to discuss the possible settlement of issues that primarily affect third countries. Therefore, we do not feel, nor does the Peoples Republic require us to give an account of whatever dealings we might have with other countries.

This, incidentally, this precise rule, will be applied in our relationships with Moscow. Whatever differences may or may not exist between the Peoples Republic of China and the Soviet Union are for them to discuss among themselves. We have a long agenda of bilateral issues to discuss with both of them. This is going to be the exclusive concern of the President when he visits first Peking and then Moscow.

Q Henry, there is going to be a lot of speculation as to why the trip is going to be delayed now for at least another two months. I wonder if you could give us any reasons, technical or substantive, for the delay.

DR. KISSINGER: First of all, when you say the trip was delayed you are implying that it was ever set for a particular period. In the initial announcement it was said that the trip would take place before May 1. We then began immediately to explore everything that was involved, both substantively and technically. We are exactly on the schedule we set for ourselves. The trip is not being delayed and we had always decided we would hold it at the earliest possible moment that it was technically possible. I can assure you that there has not been any delay.

Q In your prohibition on discussions of third party questions when you get to Peking, does that also rule out discussions concerning Hanoi and the Vietnam War?

DR. KISSINGER: I said the general rule is that we would not discuss third party issues. We expect to settle the Vietnam War, either by the unilateral policies we are pursuing or in negotiations with Hanoi. We do not expect to settle it in Peking.

Q Do you have any more idea what the unusual activity in Red China is than you had before you went there on the trip?

DR. KISSINGER: One, I don't know that there is any unusual activity in the Peoples Republic of China, and secondly, I would not speculate on any activity that may be going on there.

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Q Just to clarify one point, did you in fact depart, that is, take off from Peking, before you knew of the U. N. vote for did you know of it before you departed?

DR. KISSINGER: I learned of the U. N. vote on the airplane, five minutes out of Shanghai. I believe the U. N. vote was going on at the precise moment that I departed Peking. What time at night did it take place?

Q At 9:56 our time.

DR. KISSINGER: That would be the precise time. I left Peking at 10:30, but I was on the road from the guest house at 9:30. I reached the airport and I was not told in Shanghai.

Q Did you know how the first question went?

DR. KISSINGER: No.

Q You said you did not discuss the U. N. this time. Did you discuss it before?

DR. KISSINGER: I have never discussed the U. N. in the People's Republic of China.

THE PRESS: Thank you, Dr. Kissinger.

END

(AT 5:45 P.M. EDT)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OCTOBER 27, 1971

THE WHITE HOUSE

THE BRIEFING ROOM

4:16 P.M. EDT

Q: Did you say "on the record"?

MR. ZIEGLER: On the record.

Q: When is the President going to Peking?

DR. KISSINGER: Let me put this one answer on BACKGROUND.

We will make a definite announcement as to the time of the trip before December 1st, and those of you who speculate that we will make a definite announcement as to the time of the trip before December 1st will not be proven wrong by events.

Q: Dr. Kissinger, what other instances of progress were you able to make in this five or six days of conversation, including what can you tell us about the subjects that will be discussed when the meeting is held?

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Q Will it be a four-day trip?

Q Dr. Kissinger, can you give us some chronolo-
gical account of what you did while you were there, and
what activities you have had? We have had only a very
sketchy report from the correspondents on the scene.

Q Just the highlights, Henry.

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They met with their Chinese counterparts and went into greater detail on the specifics of their subject than I was able to comprehend or communicate in the plenary sessions. Then, if a policy issue had appeared in this area, each side brought them to me or to the Prime Minister, respectively, and they were then ironed out that way.

## Q In Peking?

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Q Is that a private home?

Q Did you see Chairman Mao?

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The first question is: Why did we stay not two days longer, but one day longer than we had planned? The tentative plan was to leave the morning of the 25th, Peking time, but, of course, before we left we had no detailed knowledge of how long the discussions, especially the technical discussions, would take; you know, many nuts and bolts questions of telephone service and all this sort of paraphernalia which I did not even understand. So there was a specific requirement of having these finished.

DR. KISSINGER: Wait a minute. I didn't explain away the coincidence.

Even when I left, we still thought that the vote would not be until well after my return. Secondly, there was no connection whatever between my second visit to the Peoples Republic -- of course, not the first one, either -- but between that visit and the U.N. vote. The U.N. was not discussed on this trip.

Fourthly, I do not believe -- and I think if you look over the list of the countries that either opposed us or abstained, you will find a support for this -- I do not believe that the visit affected the vote of any country that either voted against us or abstained.

So it was a painful coincidence, but these events were totally unrelated and were planned at a time when we had every reason to believe that the vote would be well after my visit.

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Given the complexity of setting these things up and
the enormous delay any change entails, it was decided to go
ahead with a program that had been settled long before the
U.N. debate got put into the time frame in which it was and
simply to explain the situation frankly, which is what I have
done.

Q Will there be a "Bamboo Curtain" up, and will
the American party be restricted to certain small areas?

DR. KISSINGER: Of course, the Peoples Republic of
China is a sovereign country and it is not for us to decide
the rules which govern the movement of foreigners in the
Peoples Republic. Our responsibility is to make sure that
there can be adequate coverage of the Presidential trip, and
that there will be no undue limits placed on the normal behavior
of the American press with respect to what is needed to cover
the trip.

We have reason to believe that the Peoples Republic
is willing to cooperate with that to the fullest extent of
their technical capabilities. They are approaching this trip
as a serious event. If there are any desires to travel beyond
covering the President's trip, that is between the individual
newsman and the Peoples Republic of China. We will not, as
a Government, intervene in this one way or the other.

DR. KISSINGER: The precise number has not been
settled. It is one of the questions into which they are now
looking, and trying to match our usual practice against their
physical possibilities. They have assured us -- and I believe
the Peoples Republic officials -- that the only limitations
they will put on are the physical capabilities and not any
other normal practices they have followed.

Q Henry, why did you call the coincidence of
your visit there during the U.N. vote "painful"?

DR. KISSINGER: While I was there, there was no
reference made by either side to the U.N. discussions.

Q Can you say why either side had to explore if
the other side had changed its views about the visit; in other
words, the substantive second point?

DR. KISSINGER: In other words, what we explored was,
first, obviously since I was there, since I had conducted the
meetings with the Prime Minister the last time, it was natural
that we would have other exchanges of views. The agenda was not
"Has either side changed its mind?" The agenda was to review
the world situation again, and that is what the agenda was.

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Q At 9:56 our time.

DR. KISSINGER: No.

END

(AT 5:45 P.M. EDT)