Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World

Richard Nixon's trip to the Peoples' Republic of China in 1972, after nearly 25 years of silence between the US and Communist China, was a worldwide historic event. Of course, it started the long thaw between the US and the PRC, but it also had repercussions around the world: it worried the Soviets, who pursued SALT and détente with more interest in the aftermath, it terrified the leadership on Taiwan who rightly believed they were being abandoned by the US, it emboldened the North Vietnamese, who felt they had been betrayed by their ally. It raised Nixon's approval rating significantly and contributed to his landslide reelection in 1972. It's also a story that has never been fully told because of security concerns in both the US and the PRC. But now we have Margaret MacMillan's detailed history of Nixon's visit with lots of historical context to make it understandable: the careers of Nixon, Kissinger, Mao, and Zhou Enlai are profiled in some detail; the state of US opinion in the aftermath of WWII is described, and the history of China in the 19th and 20th centuries is explained. There's also a concluding chapter that follows the story after the visit through full normalization of relations with the PRC in the late 1970s and even beyond. The author's research appears to have been very detailed, although of course the American point of view is more fully explicated, since access to Chinese source materials is still restricted. I do have a few minor complaints: the book skips back and forth between Nixon's visit and the historical context repeatedly, making it hard to follow the logic of events in a few spots. And, the author seemed to repeat herself when describing the Chinese obsession with Taiwan, although the repetition did bring home the fact that Taiwan was far more important to the Chinese than Nixon and Kissinger believed initially. Nixon has said that he will be remembered for 2 events: Watergate and his opening of relations with China. This is the book to read if you want to find out about the second of these.

Like most Americans at the time (pre-internet & 24/7 news) one day I learned that there were American ping pong players in China and not long after that our president would be going. Like all diplomatic breakthroughs, it did not "just happen" and Margaret MacMillan describes details on both sides. I did not know that this was Nixon's initiative and that Kissinger, at first, was a reluctant follower. I did not know that upon departure, there was no firm commitment from the Chinese that Nixon and Mao would meet. The Americans didn't know that the Chinese themselves didn't know whether their mercurial and ailing leader would see the American President. MacMillan recounts the diplomacy up to and after the event. There are risks involved for both sides. MacMillan describes the fissures in the Chinese-Russian relations, the China-Taiwan issues at the UN and how US allies responded when they were blindsided. A visit from Ronald Reagan was made to help cool the outraged Taiwan. Some of the staffs of both sides resent this consorting with the "enemy". Rosemary Wood (who has 18 minutes of fame later on) has trouble stomaching this trip into "red" territory. We learn how the Viet Nam War and the Cultural Revolution both promoted and impacted the trip. Kissinger says bombing has been suspended for the duration of the trip, the Chinese say it has not been. The Chinese get a glimpse of a photocopier and have to bring translators out of internal exile (the Cultural Revolution is not yet over) for assistance. This is an important book for bringing together so many elements of a week that has made a tremendous difference in the lives of so many people. Upon finishing it, one wonders if Nixon, and you come to understand that it is Nixon leading here, had he not done this at this time, how would the narrative be different.

This is not the type of book that I usually read, but after reading a few pages, I found it very interesting and well-written. I only looked at it because it's the first book that I've ever seen on President Nixon's achievements instead of being about Watergate. It's written in a true story telling fashion instead of being written like a history text book. I learned a lot about China and Mao, too. I most enjoyed reading about President Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's planning and preparation for the trip and foreign policy in general. It's refreshing to read a book with a positive point of view instead of the usual negative information in the media every day. I recommend this easy to read and very good book!

An absolutely exhilarating read, due in tremendous part to the seriously fine writing of Margaret MacMillan. The Oxford scholar approaches the momentous historical event with no apparent bias, making for a significantly elevated reading experience, unlike historians who can't wait to insert their approximations. MacmIllan's style is calm, very much to the point, able to discern the important details, and as smooth as glass. The sparkling new details she provides about both Nixon and Mao during Nixon's time in China are remarkable, and are told with a true historian's novelist eye. The story of Chou En-lai's after the fact reference to Nixon as having 'asked' to come to China, like "a prostitute adorned and presenting herself at the front door" is only one example of this author's mesmerizing skill manipulating authentic atmosphere - she sees what's important and directs it delicately. I'd not read MacMillan before, but will definitely seek out her other work. Her clear mastery of English prose produces an hypnotic effect - think how vital THAT is to a book of history, and how rarely we find it. The vitals of that great China visit are here in force, in a magisterial read.

Ms. MacMillan, an eminent historian and gifted wordsmith, has written an illuminating and highly accessible account of Nixon's bold breakthrough to China 35 years ago. By the 1970s, Ms. MacMillan writes, a rapprochement between China and the U.S. was clearly in both countries' best interests, and events (Sino-Soviet hostilities; Vietnam; the India-Pakistan conflict, etc) made improved relations seem logical. Still, the gambit was a "delicate minuet" (in Kissinger's words) that, Ms. MacMillan says, might not have happened without the vision and determination of Nixon and Mao as well as the deft diplomatic skill of Kissinger and Chou En-Lai. This reader, too young to recall these momentous events when they unfolded in real time, is struck by the degree to which both sides marginalized their foreign ministries throughout the process. When finally brought into the loop, the U.S. State Department nearly undercut the famous Shanghai Communiqué, just hours before its public release, over concerns about the implied abandonment of Taiwan. Another eyebrow-raiser for me was the amount of detailed U.S. intelligence on the Soviets that Kissinger readily shared with the Chinese. I read part of this book on a flight from Chicago to Newark. Seated next to me was a 40-year-old native of China, who told me of his childhood memories of Nixon's historic visit: instructions to wear only your best clothes; store shelves stocked with food and goods, which the people were forbidden to purchase. Ms. MacMillan describes some of these scenes of false prosperity, as well as the efforts of both sides to stage manage events for television and the press, in her engaging, highly readable book.