The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
I'm not entirely sure I get what this tells us. A degree of cynicism in politics is inevitable, for the players. And, Kissinger was undoubtedly playing. As was Mao, with other people.Interesting Edgar Snow was brought up, I read his long March piece as a child, it's pretty accessible. ("Red Star over China" 1937)Zhou EnLai was a survivor and a moderating force in the bad times. The national museum in Tienanmen square celebrates his life quite quietly. I saw photos of Zhou all through China on shop walls, drinking tea and having a smoke with people. Deng somehow less so. There's a rather odd fashion statement moment when all three of Deng, Mao and Zhou can be seen separately in photos, sporting a western style golf cap like Bing Crosby. "I'll get back to par on the ninth hole, just after I finish reconstructing steel industry furnaces and representing the farm sector in a standup" -I doubt they had much time for golf, but maybe they liked listening to Bing on 78s?Ironic that Kissinger talked about US hopes for Iran, they royally fucked up with the Shah, and what followed pretty much defined the US/USSR battle lines in the middle east. So much can be laid at the door of misplaced US diplomacy.But it was good to engage with China, and I think most Chinese now would be happy a pair of cynical bastards met and talked it out.Nixon wasn't much more than a figurehead in this.Christopher Hitchens was right: Kissinger was a war criminal so I tend to regard this kind of verbatim report as reflecting two criminally minded geniuses shooting the breeze together.