'The Week That Changed the World'
Margaret MacMillan's "Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World" chronicles U.S. President Richard Nixon's iconic visit to China in 1972.  I can't really review the book for one simple reason:  I haven't read it.  But from what I hear, it's very solid.  And I have read a fair amount on the Nixon visit to China.  What I find interesting about the Nixon visit, besides for the fact that it planted the seeds for an economic relationship like the world had never seen, is that when Nixon was on his way to China, he didn't even think he was going to meet Mao.  Apparently, during Nixon's visit, it was a chore for Mao to get out of bed, much less pose for photos.  Another element of the trip that is seldom discussed is how Nixon and Kissinger insisted on keeping every detail of the trip highly secret.  MacMillan writes that these two men were obsessed with secrecy. And despite Nixon's staunch anti-communism and Mao's strong commitment to communism, these two leaders were more similar than the world knew in 1972.  Both men were astute historians, exceptionally paranoid and in the end, profoundly corrupt.  Their union was not only significant in the opening of China, but the meeting itself, to this day, is probably the most important diplomatic event in the history of both nations.

•USA Today: Review: Book Remembers Nixon's Groundbreaking China Efforts
•Excerpt: 'Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World'

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