The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
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The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
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Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#2Not gonna lie this is the first time I’ve read the term “memcon”
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#3The memcon between Nixon and Mao (with Kissinger present) is also pretty interesting[1].
[1]: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/memorandum-...
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#4What's interesting about this?
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#5Man, the word "interpreter" was used far too liberally.
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#6What's interesting about this?
It's a major turning point in geopolitics, involving two political genius war criminals having a remarkably frank and honest exchange of views.
They're batting around the idea of Japan going Soviet at one point. I was fascinated.
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#7I'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.
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#8What's interesting about this?
Also that Henry Kissinger is still alive and turned 100 few weeks ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger
Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#9I'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 squa…
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Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
#10On Dunkirk:
> Chairman Mao: They shouldn’t have attacked Moscow or Kiev. They should have taken Leningrad as a first step. Another error in policy was they didn’t cross the sea after Dunkirk.
> Dr. Kissinger: After Dunkirk.
> Chairman Mao: They were entirely unprepared.
> Dr. Kissinger: And Hitler was a romantic. He had a strange liking for England.
> Chairman Mao: Oh? Then why didn’t they go there? Because the British at that time were completely without troops.
> Dr. Kissinger: If they were able to cross the channel into Britain… I think they had only one division in all of England.
> Prime Minister Chou: Is that so?
> Dr. Kissinger: Yes.
> Prime Minister Chou: Also Sir Anthony Eden told us in Germany at that time that a Minister in the Army of Churchill’s Government said at that time if Hilter had crossed the channel they would have had no forces. They had withdrawn all their forces back. When they were preparing for the German crossing, Churchill had no arms. He could only organize police to defend the coast. If they crossed they would not be able to defend.
Mao making fun of the idea of the USSR invading China and getting the Chinese treatment:
> Chairman Mao: If there are Russians going to attack China, I can tell you today that our way of conducting a war will be guerrilla war and protracted war. We will let them go wherever they want. (Prime Minister Chou laughs.) They want to come to the Yellow River tributaries. That would be good, very good. (Laughter.) And if they go further to the Yangtse River tributaries, that would not be bad either.