The United States Liaison Office (USLO) served as the diplomatic contact for Sino-American relations between the time of the Nixon-Kissinger opening of China in 1971-1972 and the achievement of full normalization in 1979. This book presents the importance of the USLO to American foreign policy in the 1970s.

"China watchers will find much of interest in the day-to-day maneuverings and observations of the envoys in the period before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. and in the authors' perspective on a significant era." - Publishers Weekly

""This memoir by his widow and a historian covers the period during which Thomas S. Gates served as head of the United States Liaison Office in Beijing. Since that was before the resumption of formal diplomatic relations between the United States and China, the post was an important one. Gates began the project for the book, but died in 1983. Though Millicent Gates adds the personal bits, the overall tone of the book is analytical. Most of the chapters present U.S. official analyses of Chinese politics. Yet these accounts are fascinating because Gates's tenure coincided with tumultuous events: the great North China earthquakes, Mao Zedong's death, the fall of the Gang of Four, the annunciation of Hua Guofeng, and the reemergence of Deng Xiaoping." - Library Journal