My Aborted Trip to China In the spring of 1971 I had become pretty acclimatised to living under the progressive military dictatorship of Pakistan and began thinking about really taking advantage of my position and location to see as much as possible. With some good friends in both the British (Richard Escrit) and the American Embassy, (Steve K and Roger W) we would often talk about really exploring in depth (or height?) the areas of northern Swat, the remote Pakistani territory of the northern border with China. To hear the Pakistanis discuss it, the famed Silk Rood still existed, and by it you could actually reach China through one of the Himalayan Passes. Australian and German climbers who came through the summer of 1970 had said the roads as far as K2 were pretty good in Swat. After what was likely a session of too many Gin and Tonics, Richard E. our British friend suggested we might even plan a visit to China! While the British had no problem with travel to China, Americans could not just drop in on China but by this time the great Ping Pong Games had begun a thaw in American Chinese relations so it just might be possible to get permission. Steve and Roger both were low ranking commercial attaches but both thought we might be able to get permission at least to travel as far as the border regions. My contribution was the company 1965 Land Rover 109 Wagon, a huge 4 wheel drive durable safari vehicle which I was certain I could borrow and which could take on any road considered passable by a vehicle. Initially our plans progressed well. We all applied for visas, and the Americans applied for wavers to the China travel ban and the applications were taken with no indication of anticipated problems. We began to to outline our day to day mileage schedules and to plan where we would stay. Fortunately my Pakistan Air Force contacts and or Richard Escrits British diplomatic standing got us reservations at what ever government guest station to which we applied. We budgeted two weeks and all applied for vacation time starting July 1, 1971. Suddenly in May we began to receive rejection notices to our applications. That American might not get the necessary permissions was not un anticipated but even the British put a quash on our plans. The two American Embassy guys even had their vacations canceled in June as some big Washington Dignitary was expected to make a one day visit in a taxpayer funded trip across the entire area. In July we found it was Henry Kissinger and that he had come down with a serious stomach bug while visiting Islamabad and had been forced to put the rest of his tour on hold while the recovered at the nearby hill station of Murree, 45 miles away up in Azad Kashmir! My friend Steve was even delegate to sit by Kissingers bedside to play bridge with him whenever he felt up to it. I was visiting at Steves house when he returned from that “duity” as he came in dropped his bags and gave his wife a hug I made him a drink as he ploped onto the couch complaining about days of boordom as a dignatrys nursemaid. Reminder to my self the gratitude of not having to work for the government I though nothing more of it until almost a year later after I had returned to the USA when I read in the paper that Richard Nixon was going to China to begin discussions which lead to the big thaw in our relationship. The paper went on to say groundwork for the trip had been laid by Henry Kissinger a year before through the good offices of the Pakistan government during a fake illness Kissinger was reported to have had on his trip to Islamabad. I never did ask Steve about that incident or how he enjoyed his real trip to China at government expense.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 13:20:40 +0000
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