Journey into the history books

At the farewell evening banquet on Feb 28, Nixon toasted the "week that changed the world". Later that night, toward the end of a group meeting in Nixon's suite, Platt, who learned Chinese after "Senator McCarthy had purged the US Foreign Service of many competent China specialists", thanked him for "making it happen". (In 1964, when France set up formal diplomatic ties with China, Platt gathered with his classmates at a Chinese language training school for aspiring young US diplomats in Taichung, Taiwan, to offer president Charles de Gaulle a "private toast".)

Nixon, who looked "drained but satisfied", accompanied Platt to the door. Placing "an avuncular arm" on his shoulder, Nixon said,"You China boys are going to have a lot more to do from now on."

Enough to fill a memoir, as it turns out. In China Boys, Platt recounts the thrill of working at the US Liaison Office, which opened in the spring of 1973, and exploring Beijing by bike.

"The best way for a foreigner to move around and see things is on two wheels, which carry him fast enough to avoid collecting a crowd, and slow enough to observe life and chat with other bikers," he wrote.

1973 was also a year Platt spent preparing and waiting for Kissinger's visit, "a mini-Nixon visit" which finally took place in November that year and included, among others, Lord and his Shanghai-born wife Bette Bao Lord, who was visiting for the first time since leaving China with her parents in 1946.