In 1967 Margaret Thatcher, then Shadow Spokeswoman for Treasury and Economic Affairs, was invited to visit the United States as a participant in the US State Department's International Visitor Program. Originating from the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act and offering each ‘grantee’ from another country an expenses-paid trip of several weeks to the United States, the Program aimed to acquaint up-and-coming and influential individuals from the political, economic, media and cultural worlds with American politics, society and opinion. The article describes the background to and details of what was her first visit to the United States, and assesses the significance of this visit to a country with which she would maintain much closer relations later on.