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For the Carter Administration, the diplomatic challenge is to balance what Moscow is certain to see as the inherently anti-Soviet nature of the visit. Thus, Carter was careful to note in his State of the Union message that the new U.S. relationship with China "is not directed against the interests of any other country," and that he would like "to welcome President Brezhnev to our country in the near future." U.S. officials are hoping that Teng, having aimed a heavy salvo at Moscow in his TIME interview, will hold his fire while on American soil. As one State Department observer put it: "Teng's too smart to abuse hospitality."
That hospitality promised to be lavish, as Washington, Atlanta, Houston and Seattle geared up to entertain Teng. Other locales were considered and rejected, largely because of the potential for bad weather: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Des Moines, Kansas City and Cincinnati, as well as cities in Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee. Said one scheduler: "We wanted diversity and national representation. But we also wanted to be able to get him in and out of places."
In Washington, where Kings, Prime Ministers and Presidents are routinely received with equanimity bordering on boredom, Teng's arrival provoked the keenest excitement. Not since Nikita Khrushchev flew in from Moscow to take a crack at detente 20 years ago has a state visit aroused so much exhilaration and frenzied agitation. As 160 hand-sewn red-and-gold Chinese flags blossomed atop lampposts along the route of Teng's motorcade, a White House task force labored to provide a memorable reception for Teng and his entourage of 75 (key members: Foreign Affairs Minister Huang Hua, Vice Premier Fang Yi and Foreign Trade Minister Li Chiang).
The Administration seemed determined to return the hospitality Peking has shown to a stream of American visitors over the past seven years: Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (eight trips), Vance, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Energy Secretary James Schlesinger.
Thus, on the day following Teng's arrival, the Vice Premier was to be given full honors on the south lawn of the White House: a 19-gun salute ringing out from cannon on the ellipse, national anthems played by the Marine Band, honor guards from the five uniformed services. Among the battle flags the servicemen were to carry on their standards: pennants commemorating U.S. combat against the Chinese in the Korean War. Carter faced a protocol problem of his own in his welcoming speech. Should he mention China's Premier and Party Chairman Hua Kuo-feng? His advisers said yes, that prudence dictated some acknowledgment of the head of government left behind in China.