Claims for the existence and importance of such a memorandum were first aired a 1999 book on US-China relations, About Face, by James Mann, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
一九九九年，美國洛杉磯時報記者孟杰慕在《轉向》一書中首次透露，八一七公報公佈後，雷根總統曾簽署一份解釋這份公報的備忘錄。