Nixon in China: The Week That Changed the World [Hardcover]

 

 

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Really, when you think about China today in 2008 (as the Beijing Olympics gets underway) and China pre-1972, it is really an unparalleled transformation. Looking back in history, the meeting between Nixon and Mao will be seen as a defining moment in the civilization of China and indeed Asia. Esteemed Historian, Margaret Macmillan delivers both a historically significant interpretation of this momentous event but also a well-written easy to follow narrative that explores the essence of the major characters.

Much as I liked "Paris 1919", I felt Macmillan's own personal relations interfered with the distance required to produce the necessary nuance in contextualizing the Paris Peace Conferences. In "Nixon in China", Macmillan is much more the professional Historian exploring and interpreting the mountains of new sources and interview information available to piece together this complex puzzle. There is much new information about the relationships between Nixon and Kissinger, Mao and Zhou, Mao and his wife, etc... I realize the text is lengthy at over 400 pages, but I don't think you could really pear it down any further without leaving out historically relevant details.

Macmillan, quite correctly keeps the reader focused on the time period and refrains from appearing anachronistic which is quite the accomplishment considering all that has happened since 1972. What brought about this rapprochement was the shared animosity towards Soviet USSR. Nixon and Kissinger, ever the realists, felt it prudent to establish relations with Communist China as a way to get under Brezhnev's skin, and that it did. For Mao, after the calamities of the Cultural Revolution and Sino-Soviet split, he searched for anything that would strengthen his grip on power. It was the unintended consequences following this rapprochement that opened up Mao (and more importantly others within the Politburo especially Deng Xiaoping) to the possibilities of reforms.

An excellent read as both a historical text and for the average reader. "Nixon in China" is where it all began and where anyone wanting to learn more about the "economic miracle" of the "Chinese Century" should start.

It is difficult to decided whether to give this book 4 or 5 stars, because one will naturally compare Nixon in China to Margaret MacMillan's previous book, Paris 1919. And Paris 1919, a monumental work in every way, is a FivePlus. To review this shorter work of history on its own terms, it is probably safe to grant a near 5.
The Peace Conference in Paris lasted six months. Nixon left the United States on 17 February 1972 and returned ten days later. What was accomplished at the two meetings was very different and how they affected world politics even more so.
On the cover of Nixon in China we see a close up of Nixon facing Mao. This image has been photo-shopped to make them appear closer than they actually did when shaking hands. It was a brief meeting; Nixon and Kissinger met Mao only once and for an hour. The rest of Nixon's time in China was spent meeting with Chou En-lai, sight-seeing, plotting against the US State Department, or hanging around waiting to see Chou. After much diplomatic dancing, a strained Communique was agreed upon. One wonders what all the fuss was about.
But 35 years ago, Nixon's "surprise" visit to China was a huge event. These were the arch rivals for the two dominant political systems that had been isolated diplomatically for decades. Margaret MacMillan not only records Nixon's visit with facinating details, but explains how the meeting came about through the convoluted secret efforts of Henry Kissinger.
We learn of the sad internal war between Nixon/Kissinger and the State Department headed by William Rogers. This trip to China was to be all about Nixon and he did not want any help from Rogers and his professional diplomats. We see Mao in decline in both health and reputation; he is as isolated in the Forbidden City with his mistresses as the emperor he replaced. Beijing is bleak and cold and the countryside impoverished. Nixon, despite his love of international affairs, is impatient to get the historic meetings over with and has no interest in the culture of the country he is visiting. The wives of the two leaders are bitter and lonely. Meanwhile, Kissinger and Chou do all the legwork.
The author includes some charming notes about the foreign diplomats who were in China ahead of Nixon, such as those from Canada, Mexico, and the UK. Their experience was of course not consulted by the Americans. She also explains how the Soviet Union felt being left out of all the festivities.
Reading this book, one sees how far China has come to its export dominance today. For instance, the US advance party had to bring into China everything it required to communicate with the outside world, from media equipment to photocopiers. The Chinese, incredibly, were still copying documents by hand.
One complaint I do have about this book is the poor quality of photographs reproduced. I am not sure if this is because they are pulled from video sources or the publisher could not get good resolution from negatives provided to the author from the State Department. But this is a quibble; reading this book was a pleasure. Nixon's reputation was devoured by Watergate and his international achievements largely taken with it. His trip to China is now restored by historical perspective.

With so much written lately on China's staggering growth and the ominous signs it poses for the West's economic dominance, Margaret MacMillan's book on China's re-opening to the United States after decades of diplomatic freeze is excellently timed. Exquisitely researched, carefully crafted and spiced with amusing anecdotes that keep the reader interested between the drier sections, it is a must-read for anyone interested in the current state of Chinese-Western affairs and the implications they pose for the future.

The ramificiations of two superpower countries that had been bitter enemies re-opening talks needs no elaboration, but what makes the book a triumph is how it so effectively covers all facets of Nixon's week-long trip; international political ramifications for not just the US and China but all nations, domestic political reactions, the focus on the personalities of the important people, the cultural tension and suspicions which constantly threatened to derail the whole process, and so on. It is as well-documented as one might expect in writing about a country that has little freedom of information, and MacMillan makes good use of it: the narrative is (with occasional anecdotal lags) fresh and insightful, and the author forces the reader to think about possibilities that an average news-follower could not have imagined.

If I have any quibbles (aside from the lengthy anecdotes that slow the pace of the book down), it's the surprisingly large amount of typos and funny grammar that plague the book, especially at the beginning; readers will notice before long the sloppy copy-editing. This is little more than an annoyance, however, and anyone who reads it will be impressed at MacMillan's strong efforts to understand all sides, the quality and use of her research, and the issues that could easily have been ignored but remind us of how bilateral relations can become multilateral dreams and nightmares.

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4.0 out of 5 stars very interesting
MacMillan has done a superb job in retelling one important chapter of world history through Nixon's China trips and the resultant new relations between China and the west. Read more

Published on Nov 25 2006 by ideastravel

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