Conversation 484-005

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How are you?

I'm glad to see you.

Good to see your picture in the paper lately.

Yes, I know.

You had a great trip.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm very excited to be here.

This is the cat.

Why don't we sit over here?

All right.

Well, I mean, you know what?

Thank you.

Okay, Mike.

All right.

They don't, they don't realize.

What it is you're doing if it's another, something that basically gets your problems.

And whether it's table tennis or playing bridge, it's just another experience that makes life, you know, just happier for you.

And so we, as a matter of fact, the National Association of Decapitated Peers is an excellent name.

I just gave them an award here the other day.

We always have these for too much for our district.

These people from out in Nebraska who've developed their own business.

You know, we just see the courage of such people.

And it really is exciting, isn't it?

I've got one in my whole family right there.

I'm the product of a couple of pretty good people.

I know that anything I do is disgusting because of the background I had.

Well, I'll tell you what, if there's anything you can do for those people, I have the idea of memories of girls.

There's only a single life in a girl, and there's only two lives in the rest.

But I love it when there's two girls.

13 years, one person was alive.

You know, sisters.

Nice.

Yeah, my dad was very proud, obviously, you know that.

He had to cry when I got back.

He just, you know, couldn't believe us.

He died, and he just was so pleased that, you know, he's always made a presence of Christ where you don't want to ask the clerk there.

Right, right, right, right.

He's badgered us a lot, but I

You know, another thing that you've got to do is this, that you've got to be loyal to your company.

I told a few fellows around here and I said, I told this guy he's with Chrysler.

And so, don't be sure they know you're with Chrysler.

Is that getting around to it?

Well, I have a deal with the press.

I really have.

I'll tell them, I'll give them any press conference they want.

There's no money involved, but Chrysler must be in it.

Yeah, good.

That's true.

The only thing that they haven't, that Kreisler hasn't responded with yet, and I talked with your friend yesterday, the chairman of the board of Kreisler, Mr. Townsend.

He must be pleased, though.

He said, of course he is.

I'm glad it's come off that way.

I'll finish 43 years there in August.

In Chrysler?

Yeah, I started when I was 15.

Oh, I see.

I started with Brakes, and then Chrysler bought Brakes.

Isn't that great?

Yeah.

I came here from England when I was 13 and a half.

And that's why I said it's groups that we took.

The groups that were invited couldn't be any more representative of the United States.

Tell me a little about it.

Well, just background-wise, we had a 17-year-old girl who was born in Juneau.

Did you get to know her?

No.

These people were selected on the basis of...

their ability to play, to go to Japan.

And we all go on our own money.

You know?

So that was the type of thing.

We were completely independent.

All of us paid ourselves not to go to China.

No, no, no.

To go to Japan.

That's the big piece of it.

That's what we had to go through.

Now, there's this 15-year-old girl who's from Eugene, Oregon.

We had a 17-year-old girl born in Hungary that lives in Orlando, Florida.

We had a 23-year-old housewife whose baby was two years old a couple of days ago.

Well, just a day before we got home, it was a bad day for her.

She wanted to be home with her child.

She's our national champion.

A marvelous girl, a great girl.

Then we had myself born in England, and Rupert Harrison was born in England, and we had a...

The term is black, not colored anymore, but the black man was a real gentleman.

You might have seen him on the Tonight Show.

He was shirt and tie with the rest of the Black Bums, right?

He was British Guiana, but now Guiana.

And we have one from the Dominican Republic.

Yes, Earl Ressig is from the Dominican Republic.

So you couldn't have ended.

We had a guy with hair down here.

Right?

Who was he?

It was Frankie Allen from California.

I know that.

He was a trend.

Yeah, I thought that was a very well-stated question.

Yeah, that's all right.

Yeah, and then we can ask the guys.

No, no, no.

We can ask the guys from the schools that really give you the most concern, and that's the boys from Ohio, from around Cincinnati, from downtown Ohio, and downtown, yeah.

Oh yeah, he was in a war fit, warm his cover all day.

I saw his picture.

He went to the gym, he had no luggage really.

And you know, and he got dead right there.

Oh, that was a baller.

He just didn't sleep, like he stayed a little longer.

This is a general.

So then three minutes later, the doctor came in, and we took him to the hospital.

And they x-rayed him.

There was some food looking in here.

What I remember was, I think it was somewhat emotional because he had just got through with this interview where he poured his heart out to Webster, the reporter, the station that he came.

And I found that a story had been issued and sent out.

And apparently everything that goes out, my Chinese friends would certainly know about.

Because they came to me at about one o'clock in the morning.

I got in the door and said, come on with us, you know.

And I thought, you know, it's like over there.

And he said, you know, I can't communicate.

And we go into a room, you know, with several beds, where there's this tea set up.

And he said, I wonder what's going on.

And you can tell the level of the individual I'm talking to by the word line, the guy that carried me around, where he says, there's a boy down there, and there's two or three of us, and at least there's four levels.

And this is what this was.

And they said, Mr. Steele, you might have some rumors.

And I said, no.

They lied to me.

I don't know what you're talking about.

They said, well, some rumors about perhaps someone thinking of staying here or going to stay here or something like that.

And I said, well, I'm not concerned about that.

I'm positive that that's not going to occur without any help from you at all.

I just know it's not going to occur.

We don't want you to be concerned.

We don't want you to worry about anything.

Everybody's keen with you.

This guy's keen with you.

That was significant.

And then, what they didn't know was that John Tannehill said, I want to talk to you, Mr. Tannehill.

Come on, John.

Go on the road.

He said, I'd like to stay here.

He said, well, I'd like to practice table tennis.

I'd like to talk to the people a little bit.

I said, well, you'd like to stay.

I'd like to ask them to stay.

I'd like to stay another week.

He said, sure.

And all of us, but we have commitments.

Now, don't you have any responsibilities?

I've got to be working Christ on Monday.

Suddenly, and I was there Christ on Monday, and I was a bird, and I said, don't you have any responsibilities to your parents or your school?

And he said, what would you ask them?

I said, well, probably not, but let's think about it for four weeks.

and we'd get the big, lousy little concerns about him.

I thought maybe we'd just walk away before we get to the border.

At those times, I must say, I don't say I got ulcers, but I didn't eat too well, you know.

But then he got so sick that I think it was when I was in dysentery or exhaustion or the emotional strain, I was thinking about this thing.

He got relapsed in the bathroom about one o'clock in the morning.

It came about being at 10.

You know, we had a medical doctor, didn't we?

Yeah, they were there in no time.

Fire.

They were very aggressive.

Right.

Fire consuming was good, but we picked him up, put him in the bed, and he made a hell of a mess of bathroom, you know.

So we shat on him.

And immediately, we put them in another room.

Now, in those hotels, there's no problem about getting rooms, because there's anybody else there.

Really?

That's the truth.

These are the hotels.

Oh, I see.

These are for guests, foreign guests.

There isn't anybody else there.

You may run across some people occasionally, I mean, other than us, there may be some other guests.

But can you believe an airport, for instance, fully staffed, I mean fully staffed, here, you know, in English and Chinese, with nobody going anywhere, one plane on the runway, private for us, and guards at the defense there to make sure that nobody's in the quarters.

I pointed out that in the rest of the world, the only reason we can't use it here, so he's correct.

All right, how's that?

All right.

I was a table tennis, because I know what you could.

I know where it's done.

I noticed when the president and I said table tennis.

And when you talk, what you talk, table tennis is it.

But now when you read it, they tried to bring tennis this morning.

So you were, I said that I could be involved in...

Vice President Agnew because he was talking about ping pong when we were table tennis players.

But anyway, it's a true story that it's their nice work and this table tennis business and all the ping pong there.

And babies in arms, I'm not kidding, I saw this myself, with a table tennis bat in their hand.

and older style, the way you hold the chopsticks.

We think it's because of the way they held the chopsticks back.

I don't think that's necessarily true.

Yeah, we used to play that way in law school.

Yeah, we used to play that way.

I know the juniors don't have to go to the gym to do tennis.

Yeah, that's right, yeah.

Well, but you can't play it like that.

Of course.

Yeah, that's the way we used to play it in law school.

If you are really athletic enough, as they are, as athletes as they are, it's a better way to play.

Now, they're a bit of this way because they can apparently get in harder with it.

But you don't have the control, actually.

I feel you've got more control when I play the game.

You've got more control of it when you're playing it this way.

It's like punting, actually, if you can't turn.

I know.

If you go this way, you've got to have less control.

Because if you're any more... What are they doing?

Do they run it off the table?

They run it, yes.

They actually meet the ground.

And listen, I want to say...

They were really good.

I took no camera when I went there.

And I did that deliberately.

You know, I figured, if you're heading a delegation, how can you say, just a minute, I want to take a picture, you know?

So I took it on the hammer.

Before I left Tokyo, I was offered so many thousands of dollars for my story, and I turned them all down.

Yes, sir.

And I went and committed.

Well, this is where he went to China.

This was Tokyo.

When I was going to China, I stopped in Tokyo the night before.

Oh, good.

Oh, they set it up for you.

Oh, I had a coffee guy who shows a contract with my name already on it.

I said, scratch the name out.

If you want to give it to anybody else, that's okay.

But I'm going to take it.

Now, I'm not trying to be a hero.

You know, the kind of approach I had and what the reaction was.

That's only the background.

What happened was that after I told my Chinese host, I said, now I came to you as your guest and I came without a camera and I came without any commitments.

But obviously you know I want to have some pictures.

Now you're Chinese photographers and they need pictures.

So if you want to do something for me, send me some pictures.

That's all I have.

They give me a box while I stay on the train, which I threw in my luggage and I assumed was some snapshots.

And what they give me was one Peking song on television.

I got the 600-foot, 16-millimeter television show with the script in English.

And I immediately took it through.

As soon as, I didn't even open it up.

You know, I opened it up the day after I got home.

So I took it over to Chrysler and we ran through.

Must have been fascinating.

Yeah, it was great, you know, because who else has got anything like that for a memory?

And so I immediately took it down to a film studio and had them put it in their vaults and make a couple of copies and just keep them there.

Now, I don't say this to your State Department or any people, but if it is, and they want to view it in order to, well, okay, yes.

We'll make arrangements for some of you to see if you get a run of it.

But it might be of some interest because it exists.

This is what they ran.

They ran it in England because it has American English titles.

No, no, no, no.

The script they gave me is in English.

There's no sound on it.

And it's in black and white.

But where they marked between the films where they've been putting it together is all in Chinese.

For instance, you see the plane landing.

You see us get off and get greeted.

And then you'll see, for instance, then they'll switch to another scene where they've edited something in.

But in the process, the film will show Chinese writing in white.

You know, it's not finalized or edited.

It will say what the voice of a commentator must have been in Chinese.

That's what it was.

Let me ask a question after you've probably responded to what I've had to give some evaluation.

What was Joe and I like?

How did he look physically?

I know he was very intelligent.

Oh, because I had mutual friends, even though we were on the side.

I didn't, for example, charge him.

He was staying in the ambassador's notes.

What was he like?

First, let me explain it.

We went into a room, and there were now five countries there.

And we weren't alone.

See, there were five countries all over China, but they kept us separated until we met Joe and I.

So we go in this tremendous room.

What were they of?

You know, I'd say the equivalent of Hawaii now.

Sure.

And they hand us alphabetically.

And, of course, that made the USA last, because when they put up signs, we were America, but when we were seated, we were USA.

Sure, sure.

It's like the U.S. Yeah, well, anyhow, he talked with Marge Baldwin of Canada.

Now we know the Canadians very well, and I know Marge Baldwin, and he talked with her, and, of course, they...

I'm positive he knows better English than the interpreter.

When the interpreter was interpreting it to us in English and made a mistake, he corrected it.

And it did take long to think about it, but he's a very bright person.

And anyway, he talked, you know, and he knew everything about each group.

He said he's so thoroughly briefed, and he had a tremendous memory.

And he went all the way to keep asking for criticism.

Please criticize us.

We want to do better.

Let us know your criticisms, you know.

You mean of the country?

Of anything.

He didn't care.

And nobody could, you know.

He asked you that?

He asked all of us this.

It's a group.

It's more important to ask you because you're an American.

Get around to sitting with me and...

He commented about the various things that we had done and how pleased he was to see us and so on.

And he asked the same question, do you have any criticisms?

I said, well, I've been thinking about that because you've been asking me about that.

Nobody has to criticize you, but I have one.

What is it?

I said, well, you feed us too much.

He kind of speaks just like this.

He says, well, that's not your fault.

That's the fault of your host.

He should have provided you with a mention.

I had to get the host off the spot because, you know, so I said, well, it's not his fault either because you put out a cold meat.

We thought that was the whole course.

We thought that's the luncheon.

We have cold meat in the United States.

We thought, well, that's it.

We were so busy filling ourselves with that cold meat, we failed to see that there was a menu right by our place with 10 other courses.

However, I want you to know we ate them all.

Oh, he got it for him.

Oh, well, we must have.

If somebody was a gourmet, they would have gone out of their minds, because we just got everything, everything.

Have you been to any...

a Chinese city before.

None of us had ever been to China.

None of us.

So it's all been to us.

And we went to a school.

We went to a polytechnic college.

And I drove a truck there.

I showed her some trucks, and I said to Nick, oh, they're made by the students, assembled by the students.

They showed me these trucks.

They're very good.

And I said, do they run?

You know, he said, sure, they run.

Do you want to drive home?

I said, sure.

I'm in the film.

He said, yes, it's ours.

It's a four, you know, gear shift.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I said, sit up here.

I drove the truck around.

I came back.

They enjoyed it.

They enjoyed me doing it.

What size truck was it?

And I commented on it the only day I could find it.

I had to find something.

And I looked at the art book and I found that that was very good.

And I looked at the chrome.

The chrome was perfect.

So I complimented the students.

I said, I know something about art welding.

I want you to tell your students they did a marvelous job welding that.

And that bead is perfect.

And one other thing that I know something about is chrome.

And I can't even say no roughness in that chrome.

I think it's a very fine job.

Let your students know that.

Now we got, when we went into the school, we had the professors there who were confessing their sins as it were.

Professors.

Professors from school, sort of, professing their sins in this way.

The guy made a speech about how now they get their students from the peasants, the peasants, the workers, and the soldiers.

That's what's in their colleges now, the peasants, workers, and soldiers.

And various communes would say that this one should go to college, you know, no matter what the age.

Well, it was their qualifications.

Well, I think they picked their qualifications, but they picked them.

See, first you've got to go to work in the fields first, then you go to college.

That was the thing.

So it's the workers, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So that's what they were pounding in.

It was the workers, the soldiers, and the general.

Yeah.

So anyway, so this professor was saying that before the revolution, or I don't know what they called it now, but before the change, before Mao took over,

He was a professor and he, when Mao took over, he sent him into the fields to learn from the workers.

And he'd give an example of, this guy's supposed to be a real chemist or physicist or whatever, and give an example about when he was out there in the field, he was looking for a piece of carbon steel.

And he couldn't find it.

He couldn't determine of all that in the piles of steel, which is the carbon steel.

And an old worker said, what are you looking for?

He said, I'm looking for carbon steel.

So he said, well, it's right there by you.

So he said, I've learned from the worker, you know, this kind of thing.

He said, I'll listen to that.

And all I did was get up, and after he got through with all this stuff, was get up and compliment them and say that they were to be able to study in this university.

And I congratulated them on their success, and he was selected.

That's, you know, just a little short.

What was your impression?

You were speaking Chinese.

Yeah.

What, I mean, did you, nationally, you didn't get to know them?

We didn't.

What about people?

I walked at least two miles away with, you know, they were, you know, so.

Well, then, as you walked, did you get your piece of people?

Did they know you were American?

No.

I don't think they do.

I don't think so.

I noticed one of the wire service reporters, Roderick, said that he, he said that, I noticed one of his pieces, John John, said that he heard whatever the word, Chinese from America.

Yeah, it was very, very, very warm.

Well, but you didn't, of course, you don't know Chinese.

I don't know Chinese.

The only thing I could say was, anyhow, which I think is hello.

Yeah.

And, uh... Good day.

And...

Compe, which is bottoms up, that's the only two of them.

And a little leather, but that's fine.

But trust me, now let's just talk about that, because people were flying.

The impression of the people is, of course, everybody dressed alike.

No woman has a dress.

I've never saw a woman in a dress.

I saw thousands, there were 18,000 in that hall.

I never saw one dress.

They were all in a dress.

All in pants, and they looked like they were, like underneath that they had long underwears.

I'm worried we don't look like that.

But anyway, they were all in that kind of weather.

As the higher up they got, the neater their clothes were, but they were sitting at the same time.

They were healthy.

They were very healthy.

Everybody I saw was reasonably healthy.

And they were curious, absolutely curious.

We attracted people, like a hundred or two of them just walked down the street.

Every kid I saw that I waved at would wave back.

I smiled and waved, you know, like this.

And babies, and this is very interesting to me, babies in arms, their mothers would wave just like you would here, you know?

Now the adults were, you know, no reaction in that respect.

But I think in an experience where I was crowded, absolutely crowded, and this was in Shanghai, and I'm looking at the Wangu River, and we've got, I've got a crowd around me, and I've got my USTTA pen, which is like a shield red, you know, red or blue.

Oh, that's Chrysler.

Oh, today's photographs are Chrysler.

The USTTA pen, it's just got USTTA across the top of it, so this guy could write it to my coat, you know, looking at that pen.

I had to be pretty brave to get it close to it, you know, a freak like I was to that.

So I took the pen off and gave it to him, you know.

And nobody understood that or not, but he passed it around to a few people, he kept it.

Now, standing over here, some young fella, maybe 16 or 17, a couple of my boys,

It was kind of a warm thing to do.

He wasn't like somebody...

He always has changed.

The buildings are old, they're very old.

They're very dull, very drab, they're almost dirty.

The streets are dusty.

I mean, the people look dusty, but the streets are scrupulously clean.

There are people cleaning those streets with brooms and everything else.

Now, they have a lot of animals.

But those streets are absolutely clean.

They clean them up.

They're putting trees all down the streets, lots of them.

Now, I asked, I said, are those the windbreak for the farms?

You know, because you have a lot of wind here.

It's beautiful.

And they have them like six foot apart.

I mean, they really plant trees.

All over, everywhere I was.

Everybody seems to be working.

Oh, they're all busy.

And yet there are people who are sleeping right on the street.

Now, I don't know why.

Well, yeah, but I don't mean, I don't mean, I don't mean derelict.

Now there's not very many cars, not very many.

I'm out of 40, and I have my big stick standing alongside of it because I want to get that shot back at the company.

Anyway, I went to the railroad station in front and walked around this railroad station.

Nobody wanted to take pictures there.

The only thing they asked not to do was take pictures of the subway entrance.

And they apparently are building a subway.

I suspect it's not finished.

That's not important.

But apparently they're building it.

That was the only thing you were asked not to put, is we all do that now.

And I could believe that.

I could believe it because it could be an underground shelter for an air raid.

Why wouldn't we respect that?

Why wouldn't we respect that, you know?

That could be a security problem.

But I finally told them, the last day in Shanghai, we were going to leave, fly out at 4 o'clock from Canton.

And I said, look, I haven't got my wife a gift yet.

I've been so busy with you guys.

Now tomorrow, I don't care what you've got planned, I'm going shopping.

By the way, they were very reluctant to accept American dollars because I guess they had difficulty getting it changed.

But I left American Express checks there because they offered us $50 a piece as a gift.

And I refused it.

I said, money.

We're going to take your hospitality, but we're not going to take the money.

If we buy anything, we're going to buy it with our own money.

So you have to change the money if you expect us to buy anything here.

So I said, well, OK, we'll do that.

We're going to change the money here.

I had the slightest idea.

I didn't care.

You know, whatever we bought was less.

You know, we just wanted to bring something from China.

It just didn't seem to be too expensive.

You know, it was very expensive.

But anyway, they went along with that, but they loaned us $50 a piece.

And I said, well, this is a loan, but tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, you have somebody here to accept my traveling check for all the money you loaned me today.

He said, I'm not going to leave here until that's clear, and I'll collect the money.

If they don't, you know, pay you, I'll collect it.

So we did do that, and everyone was paid, and I was delighted I stuck with that because nobody would have heard about it.

The press would never report it if the Canadians hadn't kept the money.

But because we refused, and the Canadians accepted the money, I saw a story that said the Americans refused the money, but some of the Canadians accepted it.

Well, I have a clipping.

When I got home, I saw that.

Well, anyway, I'm only saying that we kept our cool on that one.

And all of your teams followed your example.

Well, they had to.

They did not.

I painted myself anyway.

But I ran as tight as I could.

They apparently took your leadership very, very much.

Some reluctantly.

Well, I think it's hard.

I mean, you get young people like that.

Oh, the Yankees.

Not Yankees.

But it's the biggest trouble I had.

about eight miles of sports that we raged to go in.

We wanted to get some coverage, so we asked for a sports correspondent, since he was the best table tennis player we've ever had, 10 times national champion, they let him come, which was all right.

Anyway, I wanna tell you about the shopping thing, because this was most unusual.

The next morning I said, I gotta go shopping.

Well, at 7.30, I wanted to knock on my door, and there are two tailors with pink rules of silk under their arms.

There are two interpreters, there are two officials, and two girls they thought might be my wife's size.

Can you imagine that?

That was 7.30 in the morning.

I'm taking a plane out at 4 o'clock.

They not only made the dresses, so when they did that, I said, okay, but remember this.

I'm taking this gift to my wife.

I don't want it from the Chinese people to my wife.

I want it from Greg Steno to my wife, so I must pay for it, and I don't want any funny price.

I want the exact price, and I want it broke down into labor and material.

I want to know how much these tailors are going to get for making these dresses, and I want to know how much the material costs.

And they said, okay.

And that's exactly going to be a bell materialization.

And at four o'clock,

Oh, and I said, one other thing, you tell these two fellows they must accept my gift.

I've got a small gift for them, and they must accept it or I'll be offended.

So they said, okay, they must accept it.

So we had these pens, these American-made.

I've got to tell you, this fellow Cunningham in Tokyo is

is absolutely a lifesaver for us, and I just felt great about America when I got in touch with him.

He just was marvelous.

I mean that.

That guy's a fine man.

Anyway, he arranged somehow to get pins for us, and we haven't paid him yet, he's going to send us his bill, to take in, because we had to have something, so I exchanged these pins with him, and they were to show up at the airport with a box, and each one's got a box, and on top of the box, a small gift.

You can't give them anything unless they're getting something.

You gave him American pins, I think.

All American pins, Cross and Parker.

Now, it might not have been a good choice, but it's all we had.

Oh, sure, but that is the simple version.

Well, but we had the Americans.

You had to want to buy something in Tokyo that was made in Japan.

That was no good.

It had to be American.

So anyway, now this is just kind of the highlights.

Let me ask you this.

It's not quite important.

When will their return trip be made?

My guess is that it will be made when we really are going to have to go to work and get things organized to do the job.

We have to have that handled with great care.

And I think your advice to us would be very helpful.

Absolutely.

Because obviously heaven knows the sensitivities.

Now we in America may think that we know everything and how to do it, but we might just say exactly the wrong thing.

So we want to treat them with great respect, just like they treated us.

Those of us who will be the first Chinese group that speak outside of their own discipline... Outside of their own discipline.

...will they send young people like yours over?

Yes, absolutely.

They'll send young people like us.

Everybody's trying to get on the bandwagon now.

They're inviting the swimming team, the basketball team, every team now.

Sure.

My people are getting all upset because I'm not tagging them next week.

And I've made my announcement that when they come, it's going to be as well-prepared as well-planned.

as theirs was for us.

They accepted it a week ago.

They sent it to China.

I said to them, why don't you announce it on Peking Radio?

Maybe you'd like the privilege of announcing it.

As I arrive in the United States, I'll tell you when I'll be there.

Well, they booked my flight, so they knew when I was going to be there.

And I said, maybe you'd like to announce it first, and then you tell me when you want to announce it.

Consider that.

And they probably went to see Joe and Lye and come back and say, Mr. Sting, we want you to announce it when you're ready to announce it.

I sat on it for a week and just fluffed everything off and said, well, I'm expecting an answer.

So that's the day that you announced that they did not knock it down?

That's the important thing.

You see, the real, let me tell you now, the problem here,

He talked about the swimming teams and all the rest.

I can tell you, they were talking about the editors when they were here last week.

Do you know, 75 phone calls were put in the show of mind by editors, you know, from the, you know, well, he talked about it on the phone, of course.

But the point is that, you know, we opened up this to, you know,

a year and a half, about 16 months ago, opened up the travel to Denver.

They were not taking money.

So the door has always been open.

It's been open for about 16 months.

And then finally, you went ahead.

Now, we've opened up the door on last Wednesday, the early Wednesday, for them to return.

You see, you can't do that now.

The Chinese, not because it's going to be their communists, but because they're Chinese,

which is very significant.

Why?

The Chinese are people who

who would, in my opinion, react, might react negatively.

It looks as if it's like you're giving them something, they give you something.

It seems to me that you have done exactly the right thing.

You went over, you were accepted, you gave, you went on your own, you were independent, you let them know that it was quid pro quo.

Now they come back.

My own view is that they're probably, that they probably would reciprocate by having your group first.

Don't you think so, Henry?

Oh, I would think so.

Can I ask you about the others?

In other words, don't...

I know, but let me say, we're not concerned.

As far as the government is concerned, anybody can ask.

Farmers, anybody else, anybody can ask to go there, but it's up to them as to whether they return.

I think, though, that the way you're handling yourself and the way you're handling it now is more likely to get the result that we want.

In other words, you... And I think it's terribly important that the first visit be a successful one, one that is handled more importantly than anything else.

The Chinese are a very civilized people.

Poor, yes, because it's a huge country, but they're civilized with a long history.

And the most important thing out of mind when they come here is that we must, it doesn't mean that we can't, I mean, we don't, we will still be American.

But we must treat them in a civilized way.

Do you agree with what I said in that operation?

Right.

The way I asked when I was with them.

That's right.

The way I asked

The press fur here is huge.

If you were found, you'd return.

They'll be spent on these people.

Like we do.

Well, there'll still be a group.

I'm sure there'll be.

And that's actually under too much pressure to be drunk.

That's right.

We're not going to do that.

I'm positive of that.

When they were in Japan, as an example, there were demonstrations against them there.

There were?

Yeah, by the Koreans, the South Koreans, and other people.

So they were in a private hotel.

They came in their separate bus, and there was no problems at all.

They were very friendly, but they were just handled in such a way that they were privately taken care of.

Now, we don't see the same things, you know, demonstrations here.

Well, I think we still think, uh, now somebody asked that to me, uh, well, what about the demonstration?

Now, I really don't know about any demonstration in China.

Does anybody have anything written up about that?

I didn't get it.

There wasn't any.

Okay.

But the evidence in China is that they had Chinese photographers with us.

They had Chinese photographers with us.

And, uh, and of course they can control them.

You know, and only the two or three.

It's government control there.

Obviously, the whole thing was government.

It had to be the way we were handled.

I've been to the communist countries, and I can assure you that's the safest place in the world to be there.

Never any demonstrations.

Well, a place called Warsaw.

That's a good way.

When it comes to the planning of this thing, obviously, it's a tremendous responsibility, and I'm not...

absolutely inadequate for that.

The first thing that I did through the Chrysler Corporation was get some legal counsel, and William Gossett is Bill Gossett.

He is former Vice President Ford.

He's just finished that.

He is the guy, without any money or anything else, I was with him all day yesterday, and he's going to guide the

You see, we're not going to take any organization or any collection or any money unless we're positive that it's clean money.

So that you're not used.

That's right.

We're not going to be used by anybody as far as we're concerned.

Also, you must realize...

This involves two...

I mean, people sort of joke about being on the team and the rest.

And we, of course, must not read into this more than is there.

That may have been a mistake.

But on the other hand, it is very significant, as Dr. Kushner points out, that for the first time in 25 years, people from mainland China will be in the United States.

It's a very significant thing.

It's very significant for the first time in 25 years, basically.

I have a view with it.

So what we must do is to

It's a very, it's going to be, the fact that you handled it so well, I think, is very incredible.

You had to hear good sense.

I was just, I didn't follow, what did you think, Ron?

Did you think it was well handled?

You read all the press accounts.

I think so, yes.

You know the question.

I was, I was, I was, the only thing I had to know, I was kind of a techie, that's all.

What do you believe?

I believe they're being a good guest.

What do you feel, John?

Well, have you suggested a date yet?

No.

I'm not going to suggest a date yet, but I'm asking when they want to come.

And that's the next step.

And obviously, I have to take care of this thing first, and then tomorrow I'm going to write a letter to the individual that accepts the invitation, in which I'm going to be asking him to

He suggested first the places he wishes to go, what he wishes to see in the United States, and what he wishes to come.

They did that to us.

They told us, come now, stay another week.

What do you want to see?

Everything we asked for.

Everything we saw.

We wanted to see a school.

We wanted to see a community.

We wanted to see the Wall of China.

We wanted to see Joe and I.

Now, I'm sure we saw Joe and I anyway.

And you can make that count over the land that they can see.

That's exactly what I want to do.

That's what I want to do.

Where do you want to go?

What do you want to see?

And when do you want to come?

Well, depending on whether they will be the first Chinese group to visit here or not, I can say tremendous.

It could be.

I've got to go.

I almost can't shoot her out there.

Well, can't we?

Can't we?

We can help you with the price.

I think with that, when I say we, not that it would be government, but basically most of the press would be from here.

And I think on that score, that it was vitally important not to let this be a terrible circus.

Oh, we can't go on any embarrassing on this trip.

You see the point, John?

We must not have all the embarrassing.

We can have another part of the press stand, another Nikita Prusikov, no matter what.

But we don't want, for example, individual members of...

by a press guy trying to do this, or, you know, on that sneaky end to get the special.

We just talked about how we're gonna be treated with the same dignity that you were treated with, right?

Well, they were careful to keep us in, to see what it takes to get some people to, let's say they wanna go to,

Let's assume they want to go to Detroit.

Fine, they go to Detroit.

We'll probably take them to a hotel on Fulfield Hills that's got some territory around it, maybe has a park, maybe has a gate where we say, beyond this you can't go, you know, at that time.

We're going to have to not isolate them as such, but use our good sense in keeping them in areas that they didn't, that us, in a sense, we were in private.

Any of the hotels we were in, nobody else was in.

You know, they're not open to the general public.

The stores, we went in to buy, to shop, but no Chinese in that place.

Oh no, they said, we saw ballet, and we saw,

an opera, did you?

Oh, they were fantastic.

They were really skilled.

You know, I sound like that, you know, I've gone over it, but that's not true.

I'm being very honest.

They showed us their best, the ballet.

I was concerned about what time we were going to get there.

They said, Mr. Cino, it won't start until you get there.

He said, you're not going to make the ballet.

You know, we're fooling around.

There's three of these people on their way.

Yes, you're not going to make it.

And they said, well, it won't start until you get there.

So anyway, what I meant was that they did the ballet correctly for us.

And I'm sure we can do it, but we need someone with the just guidance.

And we're not, we have many illusions about our own abilities in that score.

So Wood Gossett is the man that has volunteered his services.

I obviously can't pay him anything near what he'd be worth.

I have no funds to pay him, but he's there to help us.

I got him yesterday from Chrysler.

Mr. President, don't you think the degree of American government participation in this visit is something that you wish to consider too?

Well, we would have to be there, because that's a problem that will inevitably arise in the event that they, of course, I think really what we get to, we get to the first problem, and I assume that's the critical one, believing that.

If Gus had, if Gus had,

He would like to keep in touch with us.

We would appreciate it.

He will cooperate.

He's a person.

He's been around.

He knows all this.

And we can cooperate.

It would be well if we were informed.

Well, of course, you know, we don't want to try to control those.

No, no, no, I don't think that's in terms of... See, we do, of course, you know, a great number of these visits anyway, and those are from all over the world, Russians and the rest, so there's a lot of experience.

But, uh, it seems to me that, uh, this way you will have our full cooperation.

We open theirs.

This is George's.

They open theirs.

And, uh, we will do everything we can to assist them with our principles of cooperation.

We will find out.

I, you know, I didn't expect anything different, honestly.

Because, uh, when I checked first, if the answer had been kind of lay low, I never meant to be tendered the invitation.

The invitation was tendered because

and it was approved.

And if it hadn't been, we wouldn't have done it.

We'd have had a very flawed internal.

You know, we said, come over sometime, you know, instead of being specific.

So I have no illusions about this thing.

There's no need for anybody to cash in, as it were, on this.

We want to do this job and only cash in.

And we suggested all this because of the

Mr. Scallion came to go to Mr. Dawson to talk to him, and he, of course, recorded this.

He, of course, is one of our AP reporters, and also an ABC reporter, and he's quite familiar with the press thing.

In this connection, Mr. President, you've been invited by Issues and Answers this Sunday to appear on I Can't Get Down, and Mrs. Wheaton, the producer of that show, has come to me and asked whether we could do anything to persuade you to come here again.

I would suspect not.

No, I give my answer.

I wouldn't do it, almost.

I don't intend to.

I've given my last press conference to me that I'm back to work.

I said it sounds to me that...

I mean, that you're, that you're, that you're, that you're in a position to stand in the bottom and, and, and, uh, you're not, you're supposed to, and he's got to feel it the way he feels, John.

And take it if you're a political man and you're, I mean, you're doing it, but you're not, but I'm not.

I'm a, I'm a civilized individual.

That's right.

Yeah.

Be sure to sell those, Chris.

I got you.

Let's eat.

Thanks.

I'll give you something for your wife.

Oh, thank you.

You don't have to give me anything.

That's all right.

This is the little, that's the presidential seal that you notice on the floor every time you see it.

And that's for your wife.

And for you, you won't play this, you're the president, you come next, that's what you get.

Now let's see, you must have somebody who's a secretary.

That's all, can I make it happen?

All right.

Yes.

That's the only way you can get to 10.

All right.

Yes.

All right.

I'll accept it.

When I'll accept it, you matter.

When you tell the press, you say that I accept entity.

I accept it, and that I can play.

Not very well.

All right.

And I use the jump stroke.

You use the pen holder.

Sorry.

Pen holder stroke.

I know this is the stronger one.

Would you really want another tennis ball from Jacksonville?

So, I think that's great.

That was my question.

And I'm going to come back.

Here's one of my goals.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

All right.

You can talk to, uh, if you can, uh, well, if you want to do it so that the press will understand.

I'm going to be able to any time.

Right.

So the press will understand on your end.

And you tell President Johnson that I approve of President Johnson.

Thank you so much.

Thank you and good luck to you.

Thank you.

Oh, you're a very nice man.

Very nice man.

My God.

Well, anyway, I was a bully, but I wasn't exactly guilty.

I'm not.

I turned down the use of it.

It was the right thing to do.

Not that I was guilty, but only that it was not given to us personally.

I came back.

I put my heart and soul into the problem of this country.

Now, we can say this is very good.

We didn't have to see all the sponsors.

We didn't have to see much of the music.

We didn't have to see all the IDs of guys and haircuts and so forth.

Oh, my God.

I will have to go out there.

What is your schedule?

Are you going out for lunch?

No, I have John Mitchell coming in.

That's the best.