And this cannot be a matter of indifference to the People's Republic. It has for us nothing to do with the Third World against the industrialized world, and we don't think it should be approached from a strictly theoretical point of view. But while I am here I am prepared to discuss it in greater detail.
So this is the general situation. I have spoken for 50 minutes, which is what doctors do. I would propose, as we continue our discussions -- in addition to normalization, we could pick an area for discussion in greater detail -- the Soviet Union, the Middle East.
There is another issue which I leave it up to the Chinese side whether it wishes to discuss, and that is the problem of Cambodia. We don't insist on discussing it, I have the impression that whenever it is raised it creates a degree of irritation on the Chinese side, which is uncharacteristic -- and in addition to being uncharacteristic is out of proportion to the intrinsic importance of the subject being raised. From this I conclude the Chinese side considers us more than usually stupid on the issue of Cambodia. [Laughter] and that you must have the impression we are missing some point that should be perfectly obvious. So I thought, if you want to, we could give you our analysis.
Because in one respect we are really not in disagreement. We are not opposed to Sihanouk. We have no interest in Sihanouk returning to Cambodia as a figurehead for Hanoi. But we would have no objection to him if he could head a truly independent government. And if you want to, we could have an exchange of views on this subject -- if you promise me not to get irritated.
Ch'iao: I don't think we have ever become irritated.
Kissinger: No, not personally. No, we understand your interest in Sihanouk and we are prepared to discuss it.
So this is the international scene as we see it, quickly. And then in our subsequent discussions we will go into more detail on each area.
[They confer].
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
