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.

Millicent Anne Gates lived in China with her husband, Ambassador Thomas S. Gates, from 1976 to 1977. E. Bruce Geelhoed is Professor of History at Ball State University.