U.S. Warships Make First Port Call to China Since ’49

To the brass band strains of “Happy Days Are Here Again,” three American warships sailed into Qingdao harbor today in the first U.S. Navy port call to communist China.

A Navy band aboard the guided missile cruiser Reeves played the song as that ship, the destroyer Oldendorf and the guided missile frigate Rentz arrived at the eastern port of Qingdao, home of the Chinese North Sea Fleet.

The last U.S. warship to leave China departed in May, 1949, from Qingdao, where the U.S. Navy had facilities before communist forces took over five months later.

Gilbert Luna, 58, of Los Angeles, who was stationed in Qingdao in 1946-47 and who returned to see the ships arrive, said the port was once “a place where all the sailors wanted to go.”

These days there are few places in Qingdao to even buy a bottle of the city’s famous Tsingtao beer, and shops and restaurants close early in the evening. However, hours are being extended for the 1,000 visiting sailors.

The U.S. port call originally had been scheduled for June, 1985, but was suspended when Communist Party head Hu Yaobang unexpectedly announced a month earlier that the United States had agreed to abide by China’s policy of not allowing port calls by ships carrying nuclear arms.

The United States has a policy of not disclosing whether its ships carry nuclear weapons and denied it had made any such agreement.

Neither side has revealed how the issue was resolved, and both say they have not changed their policies.