Omnipresent Eye

Patrick Wright

  • BuySeize the Hour: When Nixon Met Mao by Margaret MacMillan
    Murray, 384 pp, £25.00, October 2006, ISBN 0 7195 6522 7

It is a cold, clear morning, and the soldiers gathered at the airfield are singing ‘The Three Main Rules of Discipline’ as an American jet labelled ‘The Spirit of 76’ lands and taxis over to its appointed resting place. A hatch opens to reveal President Nixon. The former Red-baiter blinks before launching himself down the ramp slightly ahead of his wife, who is wearing a scarlet coat. China’s prime minister, Zhou Enlai, begins to clap as the Americans descend. After pausing to reciprocate, Nixon steps onto the tarmac and walks towards his welcoming host for the first of many carefully held handshakes.

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[*] Penguin, 352 pp., $25.95, September 2006, 978 1 59420 098 4.