DiplomacyStrains and embargoes

Nixon in Lahore asks for a message to Beijing

A short presidential stop in Lahore opened the channel that would lead to Kissinger's secret flight two years later.

1 August 1969The Long Arc · CUPA1 min read

Observers and photographers at the arrival ceremony for President Nixon in Pakistan, among them H. R. Haldeman filming with his own cine camera, 1 August 1969

Background

Richard Nixon had known Pakistan's leaders since his visit as vice-president in 1953 and had kept up contacts during his years out of office. When he became president in 1969 he was looking for ways to open a dialogue with the People's Republic of China, with which the United States had had no diplomatic relations since 1949. In March 1969 General Yahya Khan had replaced Ayub Khan as Pakistan's president under martial law¹; Pakistan had good relations with Beijing.

What happened

Nixon made a state visit to Lahore on 1–2 August 1969, during a tour of Asia and Romania, and was greeted by Yahya on arrival^2,3. In their talks Nixon set out what he described as his personal view, not fully shared within his own government or by many Americans: that Asia could not move forward if a nation as large as China remained isolated, and that the United States should not be party to arrangements designed to isolate it. He asked Yahya to convey this to the Chinese at the highest level^4,5. Nixon's chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, recorded in his diary that Nixon was impressed by Yahya and saw him as a potentially valuable channel to China and also to the Soviet Union⁴.

Why it mattered

The Office of the Historian notes that the Pakistan channel was established at this meeting⁶. Over the next two years it carried messages between Washington and Beijing and led to Kissinger's secret journey in July 1971. The visit also renewed a personal warmth between Nixon and Pakistan's military leadership that would shape American policy during the crisis of 1971⁷.

Sources

Yahya Khan, Wikipedia · Reference
Travels of the President: Pakistan, Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Official
Remarks on Arrival in Lahore, Pakistan, The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara, 1 August 1969 · Primary document
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XVII, Editorial Note 20 (Nixon–Yahya talks on China), Office of the Historian, US Department of State, August 1969 · Primary document
India and Pakistan: Pre-Crisis, January 1969–February 1971 (FRUS 1969–1976, Volume E–7, chapter 1), Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Primary document
Release of Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XVII, China, 1969–1972 (press release), American Diplomacy (UNC), August 2006 · Official
The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Dennis Kux), Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 · Scholarly

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