Kissinger's secret flight from Pakistan to Beijing

Background

Since August 1969, when Nixon asked Yahya Khan to convey his interest in better relations to China's leaders, Pakistan had carried messages between the two governments. By the end of 1970 it was the principal channel; Romania was another^1,2. In the spring of 1971 the exchanges led to an invitation for a senior American envoy to come to Beijing secretly¹.

What happened

Kissinger set out on an Asian tour that included a stop in Pakistan, scheduled for 8 to 10 July 1971. On arrival in Islamabad he feigned a stomach upset, and the story was put about that President Yahya had invited him to recover at the presidential rest house in the hill station of Nathiagali^3,4. In fact, in the early hours of 9 July Pakistan's foreign secretary, Sultan Mohammad Khan, drove him to Chaklala airport near Rawalpindi, where Kissinger and a small group of aides boarded a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 707 for Beijing^3,4. They became the first American officials to visit the People's Republic⁴.

In Beijing Kissinger held talks with Premier Zhou Enlai, and on 15 July Nixon announced that he had accepted an invitation to visit China. Kissinger returned to Beijing in October, and Nixon made his visit in February 1972, when the two governments issued the Shanghai Communiqué^1,5.

Why it mattered

The opening to China transformed the Cold War balance, and Pakistan's role in it was indispensable. American officials expressed their gratitude, and the episode strengthened the Nixon administration's personal attachment to Yahya's government⁶. In Pakistan it is remembered with pride as evidence of the country's importance as a bridge between great powers³.

The Pakistani role

Pakistani accounts give much of the credit to Yahya Khan and his foreign secretary, Sultan Mohammad Khan, who handled the messages and the logistics personally and kept the secret from all but a handful of officials^3,8. Kissinger signalled the success of his mission to Washington with a pre-arranged code word, "Eureka", according to the Nixon Foundation⁹. For a country that had felt neglected by Washington since 1965, playing midwife to the most important diplomatic realignment of the Cold War was a matter of considerable national pride^3,8.

The shadow of 1971

The secret trip took place while the Pakistani army was conducting its crackdown in East Pakistan. Historians have argued that the administration's dependence on the Yahya channel helps explain its reluctance to criticise Pakistan publicly during the crisis - a link that remains central to debates about American policy that year^6,7.