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The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

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Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#91

Post by ffgjgf1 »

cryptonector wrote: post #44
ggm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Angus Calder has a quote I can't recall about the "fight them on the beaches" speech Churchill gave, somebody in the house of commons said something to the effect "well we will be flinging beer bottles at them, it's all we've bloody got" and indeed the home guard was being taught how to make Molotov cocktails by ex Spanish civil war volunteers, and parading with pikes. A three man suicide squad technique was deviced…

The British Navy was intact though, and the Germans did not have air superiority. Had they had air superiority they'd have been able to keep the British Navy at bay and then invaded. It was a close-run thing.

But Germans didn’t even have the naval to capacity to successfully execute a mostly uncontested landing unless there was perfect weather.

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#92

Post by FreshStart »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #89
the_af wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very interesting how Mao claimed he preferred "rightists" in power in the West, because leftists were usually pro-Soviet. > Mao: That is to say, I voted for you [Nixon] during your election. [...] I like rightists. People say you are rightists, that the Republican Party is to the right, that Prime Minister Heath is also to the right. [...] They also say the Christian Democratic Party of West Germany is also to t…

This is normal pragmatism and real-politik. Mao is looking after his and China's interests. The public are usually fed simplistic, emotional propaganda by their governments, all of them: good vs evil, right thing to do, freedom, whatever. But in fact policies are based on interests and cold calculations.

[flagged]

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#93

Post by bullen »

> Chairman Mao: (Gestures with his hand and points to his books.) But if the Soviet Union would throw its bombs and kill all those over 30 who are Chinese, that would solve the problem for us. Because the old people like me can’t learn Chinese. We read Chinese. The majority of my books are Chinese. There are very few dictionaries over there. All the other books are in Chinese.

?

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#94

Post by H8crilA »

bullen wrote: post #93

> Chairman Mao: (Gestures with his hand and points to his books.) But if the Soviet Union would throw its bombs and kill all those over 30 who are Chinese, that would solve the problem for us. Because the old people like me can’t learn Chinese. We read Chinese. The majority of my books are Chinese. There are very few dictionaries over there. All the other books are in Chinese. ?

Mao is responsible for spreading Mandarin over all the provinces. He himself spoke with such a bad accent that towards the end of his life there was only one person that could understand him, his secretary or nurse or someone like this. Joke says that she was running China for a while since no one could verify her translation. Also, I am guessing a lot of people were still illiterate at the time.

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#95

Post by [deleted] »

bullen wrote: post #93

> Chairman Mao: (Gestures with his hand and points to his books.) But if the Soviet Union would throw its bombs and kill all those over 30 who are Chinese, that would solve the problem for us. Because the old people like me can’t learn Chinese. We read Chinese. The majority of my books are Chinese. There are very few dictionaries over there. All the other books are in Chinese. ?

[deleted]

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#96

Post by bullen »

H8crilA wrote: post #94
bullen wrote: post #93

> Chairman Mao: (Gestures with his hand and points to his books.) But if the Soviet Union would throw its bombs and kill all those over 30 who are Chinese, that would solve the problem for us. Because the old people like me can’t learn Chinese. We read Chinese. The majority of my books are Chinese. There are very few dictionaries over there. All the other books are in Chinese. ?

Mao is responsible for spreading Mandarin over all the provinces. He himself spoke with such a bad accent that towards the end of his life there was only one person that could understand him, his secretary or nurse or someone like this. Joke says that she was running China for a while since no one could verify her translation. Also, I am guessing a lot of people were still illiterate at the time.

Aha, gotcha.

Still awkward joke.

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#97

Post by H8crilA »

bullen wrote: post #96
H8crilA wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mao is responsible for spreading Mandarin over all the provinces. He himself spoke with such a bad accent that towards the end of his life there was only one person that could understand him, his secretary or nurse or someone like this. Joke says that she was running China for a while since no one could verify her translation. Also, I am guessing a lot of people were still illiterate at the time.

Aha, gotcha. Still awkward joke.

Not really. He just meant that old people find it hard to learn to speak Mandarin, even if they can read the Chinese script (which is the same for all Chinese languages). He likely saw this as a major obstacle to his vision of a grand, unified China. He's also responsible for the simplified Chinese script, which was introduced everywhere but in Hong Kong and Taiwan. They are still very mutually intelligible, from what I understand.

I mean the part about actually bombing people is of course a joke, I think even such an exceptional psychopath-stateman like him wouldn't do it.

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#98

Post by hutzlibu »

bullen wrote: post #96
H8crilA wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mao is responsible for spreading Mandarin over all the provinces. He himself spoke with such a bad accent that towards the end of his life there was only one person that could understand him, his secretary or nurse or someone like this. Joke says that she was running China for a while since no one could verify her translation. Also, I am guessing a lot of people were still illiterate at the time.

Aha, gotcha. Still awkward joke.

Only partly.

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#99

Post by mantas »

_kbh_ wrote: post #87
refurb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow." This is why it's funny to see people view the war in Ukraine as a "good guy vs bad guy". The geopolitics are incredibly complicated and there is a lot behind the scene the average person doesn't see.

> This is why it's funny to see people view the war in Ukraine as a "good guy vs bad guy". The geopolitics are incredibly complicated and there is a lot behind the scene the average person doesn't see. This war is as clear as WW2 if you don’t see that then I don’t know what to say, it’s plain as day to most people.

Talking about WW2, a lot of people still think Soviets were the good guys. Forgetting how nazis and soviets split eastern europe. And later soviets forgot to leave.

Re: The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973

#100

Post by ggm »

ffgjgf1 wrote: post #91
cryptonector wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British Navy was intact though, and the Germans did not have air superiority. Had they had air superiority they'd have been able to keep the British Navy at bay and then invaded. It was a close-run thing.

But Germans didn’t even have the naval to capacity to successfully execute a mostly uncontested landing unless there was perfect weather.

Eric Hobsbawm notoriously said counterfactual history is shit but that said, who knows what a demoralised British government might have done with a successful German landing even if small.
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