Nixon and Mao

Starred review from December 4, 2006
Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to Beijing to open relations with Communist China was both a Cold War milestone and compelling political theater. Diplomatic historian MacMillan, author of the acclaimed Paris 1919
, gives a lively account of the pomp and protocol surrounding the trip: the awkward banquets, the toasts to peace and friendship (punctuated by occasional anti-imperialist lectures), the Great Wall pilgrimages, the proletarian operas (Nixon attended The Red Detachment of Women
, in which peasants and revolutionaries battle landlords). MacMillan's even better on the behind-the-scenes negotiations, as the two sides wrangle over every word of the climactic Shanghai communiqué. More than Nixon and the cloistered Mao, the central figures are Henry Kissinger and Chinese premier Chou En-Lai, tasked with finding common ground and finessing differences with subtle verbiage and winks and nods. The author fills in the background with colorful, incisive biographical sketches and a lucid history of Sino-American relations. The encounter seems to have had little impact on the issues discussed during the trip—the Vietnam war, the fate of Taiwan, relations with the Soviets. Still, MacMillan argues, it opened the door to today's necessary relationship between the two Pacific powers, and she turns a potentially dry diplomatic story into a fascinating study in high-wire diplomacy, full of intrigue and drama. Photos.

February 1, 2007
In February 1972, President Nixon met Chairman Mao in Beijing. The meeting was the result of intensive diplomatic activity that had been ongoing for several months but was itself anticlimactic. Nixon offered platitudes and tried to discuss substantial issues. Mao, who was already in declining health, avoided specifics and spoke in vague generalities. Nevertheless, the preceding diplomacy and the negotiations that followed their initial meeting changed the world. It ended two decades of vitriolic hostility between the U.S and China, led to a new alignment of political and military power in East Asia, and dramatically influenced American relations with the Soviet Union. Macmillan, an author and " New York Times" journalist, recounts the negotiations in a crisp narrative that utilizes a wide variety of sources. She is at her best, however, in her analyses of the key players. The portraits of Nixon, the vociferous anti-Communist, and Mao, the uncompromising true believer in violent revolution, are both interesting and surprising. A useful account of a series of events that transformed the geopolitical map.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)