Much detail about the Mao/Nixon meeting in 1972 and the Kissinger/En-Lai meetings that led up to it. The book gave a bit more information than I needed, but it was readable enough that I was able to persevere through to the end.

Like most Americans at the time (pre-internet & 24/7 news) one day I learned that there were American ping pong players in China and not long after that our president would be going. Like all diplomatic breakthroughs, it did not "just happen" and Margaret MacMillan describes details on both sides.

I did not know that this was Nixon's initiative and that Kissinger, at first, was a reluctant follower. I did not know that upon departure, there was no firm commitment from the Chinese that Nixon and Mao would meet. The Americans didn't know that the Chinese themselves didn't know whether their mercurial and ailing leader would see the American President.

MacMillan recounts the diplomacy up to and after the event. There are risks involved for both sides. MacMillan describes the fissures in the Chinese-Russian relations, the China-Taiwan issues at the UN and how US allies responded when they were blindsided. A visit from Ronald Reagan was made to help cool the outraged Taiwan. Some of the staffs of both sides resent this consorting with the "enemy". Rosemary Wood (who has 18 minutes of fame later on) has trouble stomaching this trip into "red" territory.

We learn how the VietNam War and the Cultural Revolution both promoted and impacted the trip. Kissinger says bombing has been suspended for the duration of the trip, the Chinese say it has not been. The Chinese get a glimpse of a photocopier and have to bring translators out of internal exile (the Cultural Revolution is not yet over) for assistance.

This is an important book for bringing together so many elements of a week that has made a tremendous difference in the lives of so many people. Upon finishing it, one wonders if Nixon, and you come to understand that it is Nixon leading here, had he not done this at this time, how would the narrative be different.

As the author explains, this was an important time in history, because it was

Impressive for its detail and research, and also a real slog through those details. It helps to have lived through it to think about the extensive preparation that was going on, and there are many comparisons to be made with current attempts at dictator breakthroughs. Recommended for diplomacy wonks.

Being that Nixon and Mao met for only an hour, the book should really be named, “Kissinger and Chou.”

MacMillian creates another stellar lesson in history and its effects on the present. Her usual thorough research and presentation of the facts, as well as the cultural and emotional sense of the times, and insight into the actors makes this book a "go to" book for China scholars and readers for years to come.

A rich, dramatic and well-written history of Nixon’s 1972 visit to China, with a focus on the diplomacy of the visit itself and its modest achievements.

MacMillan gives us great portraits of the main players and covers such details as Nixon’s struggle to learn how to eat with chopsticks on the flight over as well as his attempts to keep Secretary Rogers out of the loop, and how secretively Nixon and Kissinger planned the visit. Kissinger had stressed secrecy during his preliminary visit, which baffled Mao and Zhou. Although Kissinger claimed that he did this in order to avoid a backlash from American conservatives, MacMillan suggests that Nixon and Kissinger were just used to operating this way. She also notes how both sides viewed Nixon’s visit as a photo-op, and Nixon’s various gaffes like his remarks on the Great Wall (“This is a great wall”)

MacMillan also describes Mao’s apparent lack of concern with practical questions and the anger of the North Vietnamese at Mao’s willingness to negotiate and Mao’s own impatience with Hanoi (Mao offered the North Vietnamese a single suggestion: to sign a peace deal and continue the war once the US withdrew) MacMillan also covers the challenges posed by Taiwan, the attempts of the Shanghai regional government to sabotage the talks, and the now-obvious irony that trade issues were barely discussed. “I like to deal with rightists,” Mao remarked of Nixon. “They say what they really think---not like the leftists, who say one thing and mean another.” The Chinese hoped to resolve the Taiwan issue, but Nixon’s overture and decades of further diplomacy with the US have failed to resolve the issue. And, of course, the Chinese were unable to pressure North Vietnam to end the war on terms that favored the US.

There is little on Chinese politics, however, and even on any analysis of what the trip meant, or how it “changed the world,” and the narrative skips back and forth a bit, especially when it comes to the roots of the two nations’ reconciliation (which also makes the narrative a bit repetitive). She also writes that the president of Taiwan was elected in 2004 (it was 2000), that US troops “poured into” China in World War II, and that Madame Chiang Kai-Shek was Chiang’s second wife. But, still, an accessible, engaging and readable work.

A Great breakdown of a monumental meeting of two controversial leaders. Neither for or against either man the book is strictly factual and gives great depth to the challenges both sides faced in aranging the meeting.

I know more than I did before, but the chronological jumping (which only starts after about a third of the book being linear in time) was annoying. Far worse, though, was the repeated references to The China Lobby without any explanation of what it was (Taiwanese ex-pats? hard-core Republicans? both? organized?). Not even one sentence about it, and yet it's thrown about as one of the intense domestic pressures Nixon faced at home.

Listened to the audiobook. Learned quite a bit of background regarding China, Mao, Taiwan that makes me want to know more about Mao’s long life and rather awful-sounding rule. Gives a very human portrayal of Nixon and Kissinger. It wandered a bit and could be repetitive.

Well structured and great overview of the event and the people involved. Has the best elements of her writing in 1919 but doesn't lose steam. As the book progresses, the tone of the perspective also shift.

Decent telling of this key moment in history, but I did not like her chronologically jumping around all over the place like a Tarantino movie.