[lbo-talk] Robert Frost Defends Robespierre, Lenin, Mao

SA s11131978 at gmail.com
Sat Apr 25 15:01:09 PDT 2009


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Nixon: What they put forward we put through.
> Mao: I like right-wingers: Nixon, Heath --
> Nixon: De Gaulle.
> Mao: No, not De Gaulle. I'm loath
> To file him in that pigeonhole.

Yes, this exchange comes straight from the historical record. The second line - "I like right-wingers" is verbatim Mao, though I don't remember if he actually said it to Nixon's face. And Nixon's boast - "What they put forward we put through" is something he really did tell the Chinese, in slightly different words, although again I can't remember if he said this to Mao or to Zhou or what. Nixon's interjection of "De Gaulle" is well conceived, since he worshiped De Gaulle and saw him as his historical model.

SA



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