In the US President Reagan asks for all ties for US - Soviet to be checked prior to meeting next month with Soviet Union , meanwhile Gorbachev tells Russian congress he does not trust the Americans.

In an effort to build better relations between the U.S. and China a US table tennis team begins a week long visit to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the invitation of China's communist government. As soon as I read this I realized the significance of the Table Tennis in the movie "Forrest Gump" which I always wondered how it fitted in with all the other major events from the time period.