:00:00. > :00:00.outside the European Union is clear. Nicola Sturgeon is this scholar must
:00:00. > :00:00.be given a choice. Now, stalemate. Now, it is time for Witness with
:00:00. > :00:34.Tanya Beckett. Hello. I'm Tanya Beckett. Welcome to
:00:35. > :00:40.Witness here at the British library in London. This month, we have
:00:41. > :00:44.another five people who have witnessed extraordinary moments in
:00:45. > :00:49.history, first-hand. We will hear from a woman who volunteered with
:00:50. > :00:54.Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta. The worst crash in civil
:00:55. > :01:01.Asia Asian history, and the environmentalist behind one of the
:01:02. > :01:04.world's first bans on cars. But first, in 1972, US President Richard
:01:05. > :01:08.Nixon travelled to China for an historic meeting for building
:01:09. > :01:13.relations between the countries after more than 22 years of Cold
:01:14. > :01:21.War. Western Lord was one of the American AIDS on the trip. Today,
:01:22. > :01:24.President Nixon is visiting China. The first American statesman to have
:01:25. > :01:29.settled on Chinese soil since Chairman Mao came to power in 1949.
:01:30. > :01:34.-- Winston Lord. Many of us were a little disappointed in the arrival
:01:35. > :01:39.arrangements. This was a huge geological event and we navy thought
:01:40. > :01:44.there would be big crowds and in fact there were a few people. --
:01:45. > :01:49.naively. We then realised this was keeping in line with the fact we
:01:50. > :01:54.have been enemies for years and you could not turn a page immediately.
:01:55. > :01:59.And so these two great countries, the most powerful nation on Earth
:02:00. > :02:03.visits the most populous nation on earth. I was special assistant to a
:02:04. > :02:07.Henry Kissinger, the National Security Adviser, and I was in
:02:08. > :02:10.charge of orchestrating and putting together the thick briefing books
:02:11. > :02:14.were the President for his trip to China. My first impressions that
:02:15. > :02:18.Beijing was that it was a very bleak, rather depressing place. It
:02:19. > :02:26.was very drab. Everybody was dressed the same. Very few cars. Mostly
:02:27. > :02:28.bicycles. We arrived at the guesthouse and to our surprise, they
:02:29. > :02:33.announced that Chairman Mao would like to see President Nixon right
:02:34. > :02:36.away. This was Chairman Mao acting like a traditional Chinese emperor,
:02:37. > :02:40.not giving you any warning as to when you go to be summoned to his
:02:41. > :02:46.presence. I worked for many presidents, including several
:02:47. > :02:50.close-up. President Nixon was by far the most well versed in strategic in
:02:51. > :02:55.international relations. He was extraordinary. Whatever his claws,
:02:56. > :03:02.one has to grant him bat. As a person, he was quite shy. He was
:03:03. > :03:07.always somewhat engaging in banter or small talk. -- flaws. Both sides
:03:08. > :03:11.had clear reasons for trying to reopen communications after 22 years
:03:12. > :03:17.of mutual enmity and indeed fighting each other in Korea. When you meet
:03:18. > :03:21.someone of historic significance you have two figure out whether you are
:03:22. > :03:25.impressed with the personality because you know he is important, or
:03:26. > :03:29.whether you would be impressed if you did not know who he was.
:03:30. > :03:33.Kissinger and I agreed that even if we went to a cocktail party and
:03:34. > :03:36.Chairman Mao was there and we did not know who he was, he would have
:03:37. > :03:40.exceeded some power and attraction. This is not to glorify him, he was a
:03:41. > :03:46.monster in many ways. The meeting itself, at first, puggle asked. It
:03:47. > :03:51.was only about an hour with translation. -- puzzled us. But it
:03:52. > :03:57.was declared a success from the very beginning. At the conclusion of the
:03:58. > :04:02.meeting, the Chinese came in with photographs of all of us at the
:04:03. > :04:07.meeting. Resident extent and Kissinger looked at each other and
:04:08. > :04:11.said that Mr Lord was not at his meeting. Cut out all the voters. --
:04:12. > :04:16.President Nixon. It was a ready humiliating for the US Secretary of
:04:17. > :04:21.State not to be the meeting while the National Security Adviser was.
:04:22. > :04:40.But to have in addition to that some punk in his early 30s also sitting
:04:41. > :04:46.in on the meeting... It is worth coming 16,000 miles just to stand
:04:47. > :04:54.here and see the wall. Join me in raising your glasses to Chairman Mao
:04:55. > :04:59.and to the future of the Chinese and American people. We were in the
:05:00. > :05:03.middle of a geological earthquake. There was a combination of nurses
:05:04. > :05:10.deal working on this, but also a sense that we were frankly in the
:05:11. > :05:13.midst of making history. And Mr Lord went on to be the ambassador to
:05:14. > :05:19.China and was involved in the country for the rest of his career.
:05:20. > :05:23.Next, in March, 1997, Catholic nun Mother Teresa step down from her
:05:24. > :05:38.charity work with the poor in India due to her failing health. It was
:05:39. > :05:45.known as one of the poorest cities in the world. You would see people
:05:46. > :05:53.who were lying in a pool of their vomit, that Esk River, in filthy
:05:54. > :05:57.clothes covered in life. So to go and lift of those people and taken
:05:58. > :06:02.to the home and clean them, it took a lot of kindness to do the kind of
:06:03. > :06:07.work they did. -- excreta. Mother Teresa and her sisters of Charity
:06:08. > :06:11.live in one of Calcutta's poorest slums. In addition to the
:06:12. > :06:19.traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the sisters
:06:20. > :06:23.take a doormat one of service and obedience to the poor. -- the
:06:24. > :06:28.sisters take one of service. We saw her every morning on the way to
:06:29. > :06:33.school. We had a Mother Teresa nun who came and said if you would like
:06:34. > :06:38.to come and help come you can come to the baby's home. -- babies' home.
:06:39. > :06:42.It was quite overwhelming. They had rules doormat rows and rows of cots.
:06:43. > :07:01.-- they had rows and rows of cots. So we went and spent a morning
:07:02. > :07:05.helping to give the baby is a bath. It was nice to hold the bottle and
:07:06. > :07:08.feed a baby and these children, they needed affection a lot, so the
:07:09. > :07:24.babies liked to be cuddled. My sister went around with Mother
:07:25. > :07:28.Teresa's nuns and they used to regularly visit a washing clinic and
:07:29. > :07:36.pick up live babies from abortion buckets. -- abortion clinics. We
:07:37. > :07:42.once saw a baby thrown in a garbage dump. I found the very authoritarian
:07:43. > :07:50.way in which the order was run not something that I would ever be able
:07:51. > :07:55.to agree with. I remember thinking that the nuns lived such an austere
:07:56. > :07:59.life. She said you should suffer for Christ and offer your suffering to
:08:00. > :08:03.God. And I could not bear that, because I thought we should try to
:08:04. > :08:22.fight poverty, and that people don't have to suffer so much on earth.
:08:23. > :08:31.I saw Mother Teresa again many, many years later. She was that much
:08:32. > :08:35.older, more wrinkled. My mother asked Mother Teresa to bless her
:08:36. > :08:41.grandchildren. And my mother said to her, my daughter used to come and
:08:42. > :08:46.volunteer. Then she said very, quite arrogantly, I felt, at the time, it
:08:47. > :08:54.she said yes, yes, used to do these things when your little. What do you
:08:55. > :08:58.do now? -- you used to. I have never doubted for a second that I have
:08:59. > :09:04.done the right thing and this was the will of God. It was his choice.
:09:05. > :09:14.There were millions out for her funeral. Things like sense, that is
:09:15. > :09:19.not my thing at all, but since millions of people wanted her to be
:09:20. > :09:26.a state, I did the work she did was exceptional. And if she has to be a
:09:27. > :09:34.saint, she has to be a saint. Mary speaking at home in Bangalore. In
:09:35. > :09:39.March 1970 seven, two jumbo jets collided, killing 583 people. It was
:09:40. > :09:42.the worst crash in aviation history. Captain Robert Brand was the
:09:43. > :09:52.co-pilot on the Pan Am plane that was one of the few who survived the
:09:53. > :09:57.collision. The jumbo swept out of the mist and more than 150 miles an
:09:58. > :10:04.hour. -- at more than. It crashed into the plane straddling the
:10:05. > :10:09.runway. The fog came in and the visibility was just about nil. And
:10:10. > :10:15.the captain was taxiing the aeroplane only at about three knots,
:10:16. > :10:19.because that was as fast as he felt like it was safe to go. The Pan Am
:10:20. > :10:23.aircraft was given permission to leave the standard had done the taxi
:10:24. > :10:28.Wakerley takeoff point. Now, the Pan Am pilot says that he was told to
:10:29. > :10:32.proceed down the main runway, and to leave the main runway and back onto
:10:33. > :10:38.the taxiway, at the next Russian. He was Neville able to do that, because
:10:39. > :10:42.that was the point of impact. -- he was never able to. We looked up and
:10:43. > :10:46.saw him coming down the runway at us. I saw his landing light shaking,
:10:47. > :10:53.and that is how I knew he was moving. I could not believe that man
:10:54. > :10:59.was taking off. I started yelling to get off the runway and the captains
:11:00. > :11:03.started turning the aeroplane. I looked back out my right side
:11:04. > :11:13.window, and saw him lifting off the runway. So I close my eyes and duct.
:11:14. > :11:20.And basically said a very short prayer that he missed us. When he
:11:21. > :11:26.does, all that was, was a short bump. No big noise, no big shaking.
:11:27. > :11:32.I thought, thank ITV staff. Then I looked up for the fire control
:11:33. > :11:39.handles. And that is what -- that is when I first noticed that the top of
:11:40. > :11:42.the aeroplane was gone. So I jumped to the ground, which was 40 feet
:11:43. > :11:53.from the cockpit floor to the ground. And I think the Lord that I
:11:54. > :11:59.hit on some grass. -- I thank. There were about 50 people that had
:12:00. > :12:05.already gotten out on be left wing of the aeroplane. And I started
:12:06. > :12:09.yelling at them to jump off. And one poor lady, she jumped first, and
:12:10. > :12:17.everybody else jumped right on her and broke her back and both legs and
:12:18. > :12:22.both arms. After we had been out there probably five minutes, the
:12:23. > :12:29.centre fuel tank blew up. And that sent a flame probably 250 feet in
:12:30. > :12:43.the air. And then the air plane just fell apart. We only had like 65 that
:12:44. > :12:47.got out of our plane altogether. The plane burst into flames and carried
:12:48. > :12:52.on down the runway, disintegrating as it went, until the main piece of
:12:53. > :12:58.the fuselage came to rest more than half a mile away from the point of
:12:59. > :13:09.impact. No one survived the KLM crash. I always from day one
:13:10. > :13:17.believed it was the KLM's captain's fault. -- KLMcaptain's fault. He
:13:18. > :13:23.disregarded all procedure when he went to take the takeoff. Nobody
:13:24. > :13:28.will ever know why he was in such a hurry and to got the way he did.
:13:29. > :13:35.The Captain Cook did you to fly until he retired and he spoke to us
:13:36. > :13:40.in 2016 and has since sadly passed away. Remember, it can watch Witness
:13:41. > :13:46.every month on the BBC News Channel, or catch up on over 1000 radio
:13:47. > :13:52.programmes on our online archive. Just go to the website below. Next,
:13:53. > :13:57.we are going back to 1989, when Mexico City took the unprecedented
:13:58. > :14:07.step of severely restricting private car use on its streets. Our guest
:14:08. > :14:09.was the person behind the effort to cut pollution.
:14:10. > :14:14.Another miserable, choking day in this gives you -- big cyclicity,
:14:15. > :14:20.undoubtedly the most deluded capital on earth. The smog slowly poisoned
:14:21. > :14:21.the 20 million inhabitants. Just breathing is like smoking 40
:14:22. > :15:15.cigarettes a day. Mexican traffic is the worst in the
:15:16. > :15:18.world. Millions of large, thirsty American cars criss-crossing the
:15:19. > :17:58.world's largest city without a thought for fuel conservation.
:17:59. > :18:04.And he still campaigns on environmental issues in Mexico.
:18:05. > :18:10.Finally this month, we're going all the way back to prerevolution
:18:11. > :18:14.Russia. A pioneering photographer travelled to the furthermost corners
:18:15. > :18:22.of the Russian empire and recorded a disappearing lifestyle in
:18:23. > :18:41.magnificent colour. Michelle is his grandson. -- Michel.
:18:42. > :18:56.My grandfather was one of the pioneers of colour photography. It's
:18:57. > :19:02.a unique example of this quality of colour. This is close to 100 years
:19:03. > :19:08.old. At that time you have to realise that the only photograph in
:19:09. > :19:17.colour were taken indoors. It was probably the first to do a lot of
:19:18. > :19:27.work outside. -- he was. This is a very nice pic on the canal, where he
:19:28. > :19:35.did a lot of shots. You really feel something extremely natural. You can
:19:36. > :19:39.really feel that this guy was very pleased to be taken and at the same
:19:40. > :19:49.time the composition of the picture is great. He was able to travel
:19:50. > :19:59.anywhere in the empire. He got permission from the tsar to travel
:20:00. > :20:12.everywhere, even the areas that were very difficult to access. Bukarah
:20:13. > :20:18.today is use -- Uzbekistan. It is in the south-east of the empire,
:20:19. > :20:27.bordering Iran, Afghanistan and China. My grandfather was somebody
:20:28. > :20:35.who was extremely open-minded. He was really a Renaissance man and in
:20:36. > :20:38.his work he tried to show the different categories of people, in
:20:39. > :21:07.terms of religion, origin. This is a Jewish school. A teacher
:21:08. > :21:15.and some pupils. The image was obtained by projecting the free
:21:16. > :21:22.negative on glass, in black and white, through a colour lens for the
:21:23. > :21:29.projection, recreating the colour. This is the original notebook of my
:21:30. > :21:35.grandfather, with a lot of technical description and some eventually
:21:36. > :21:43.document, like with free pictures in colour. It is a kind of eccentric
:21:44. > :21:48.Renaissance man. I like that it was a little bit like that also, I try
:21:49. > :21:58.to be. And the more you learn the more you find this person extremely
:21:59. > :22:02.attractive and quite fascinating. He left Russia shortly after the
:22:03. > :22:09.revolution. He died in Paris in 1944. That's all from us this month.
:22:10. > :22:13.I hope you will join me next month, IKEA at the British library. We will
:22:14. > :22:17.have five extraordinary account of history through the eyes of the
:22:18. > :22:19.people who were there. For now, from me and the rest of the team at
:22:20. > :22:52.Witness, goodbye. Hello. This past week has seen some
:22:53. > :22:56.really varied weather, but this weekend we will even out the
:22:57. > :22:57.differences. We are all pretty much in the same