Henry Kissinger called Japanese "treacherous sons of bitches" for wanting normal relations with China, when he was trusted aide to president Richard Nixon, according to declassified documents.
The outburst by national security advisor Kissinger came just before Nixon met Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka at a summit in Hawaii in August 1972, according to transcripts of talks between the powerful negotiator and local and foreign officials released by the National Security Archive on Friday.
When Kissinger learned that Tanaka was to travel to China to establish diplomatic ties, he lividly reacted, "Of all the treacherous sons of bitches, the Japs take the cake."
"It's not just their indecent haste in normalising relations with China, but they even picked National Day as their preference to go there," Kissinger said at a meeting in his hotel room with then US envoy to South Vietnam Ellsworth Bunker.
Kissinger was angry apparently because Japan, a key US ally, defied the foreign policy of the United States, which at that time had diplomatic ties only with Taiwan.
Tanaka established diplomatic relations with China on September 29, 1972, a year after the United Nations expelled Taiwan in favour of China.
It was only seven years later that the United States restored formal links with Beijing and severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
{{/usCountry}}It was only seven years later that the United States restored formal links with Beijing and severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
{{/usCountry}}Nixon however made a landmark visit to China much earlier -- in February 1972 -- to end 20 years of frosty relations between the two countries.