China 1945: Mao's Revolution and America's Fateful Choice

At the beginning of 1945, relations between America and the Chinese Communists couldn't have been closer. Chinese leaders talked of America helping to lift China out of poverty; Mao Zedong himself held friendly meetings with U.S. emissaries. By year's end, Chinese Communist soldiers were setting ambushes for American marines; official cordiality had been replaced by chilly hostility and distrust, a pattern which would continue for a quarter century, with the devastating wars in Korea and Vietnam among the consequences.

In China 1945, Richard Bernstein tells the incredible story of the sea change that took place during that year--brilliantly analyzing its far-reaching components and colorful characters, from diplomats John Paton Davies and John Stewart Service to Time journalist, Henry Luce; in addition to Mao and his intractable counterpart, Chiang Kai-shek, and the indispensable Zhou Enlai. A tour de force of narrative history, China 1945 examines American power coming face-to-face with a formidable Asian revolutionary movement, and challenges familiar assumptions about the origins of modern Sino-American relations.

Author: Richard Bernstein
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 10/27/2015
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780307743213

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 11/22/2015 pg. 36

About the Author
Richard Bernstein has been a reporter, culture critic, and commentator for more than thirty years. He was a foreign correspondent in Asia and Europe for Time magazine and The New York Times, and was the first Beijing bureau chief for Time. He is the author of many books on Chinese and Asian themes, among them The Coming Conflict with China and Ultimate Journey, the latter of which was a New York Times Best Book of the Year. He is also the author of Out of the Blue: A Narrative of September 11, 2001, which was named by The Boston Globe as one of the seven best books of 2002. He lives in New York.

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