Plots and private planes: How Henry Kissinger pulled off a secret trip to China
This is Part II of The Great Wager. Click here for all five episodes.
When Jon Huntsman, Jr. was 11 years old, his father worked at the White House.
“It was a 24/7 job,” Huntsman recalls. “I had occasion to go see him, sometimes on weekends, sometimes during weekdays, because it was the only chance we had to connect.”
Huntsman would grow up to be the ambassador to Russia and China, but as a child, he was more interested in finding soda. He was on a mission to do just that when he walked into the office of Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s national security advisor.
“I walked into Henry Kissinger’s office and there was busy work taking place. Bags were being packed,” Huntsman says. “Dr. Kissinger said, ‘Would you mind, young man, carrying my bag out to the driveway?’ ”
As they approached Kissinger’s car, Huntsman asked him where he was going.
“Young man,” Kissinger answered, “don’t tell anyone but I’m going to China.”
At 11, Huntsman couldn’t understand the import of Kissinger’s trip. Kissinger was the first American official to travel to China since the Communist Party took control two decades before.
Getting there
In order to secretly smuggle Kissinger into
