Video: Shanghai Communique comes together (at 3:44)

(Sunday, February 27, 1972, 9:12 p.m. EST) — U.S. President Richard M. Nixon departed China this morning (10:12 a.m. local time, Feb. 28, 1972) with a goodbye wave from a solemn Premier Chou En-lai in his gray tunic. Nixon and his wife Pat spent a week in China, an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).