The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Global President
Former president George H. W. Bush’s reputation significantly resides in his conduct of foreign affairs; this publication of a diary he dictated while de facto U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China in 1974–75 will be important to students of his career. It opens with Bush’s candor about accepting the Beijing appointment: he wanted to get away from Watergate and to burnish his foreign policy credentials. Bringing a conviction that personal friendships matter in international relations, Bush’s meet-and-greet campaign as recorded in his day-to-day impressions collided with the tendency of nations to act according to self-interest. So disenchanted did Bush apparently become with bonhomie’s failure to improve U.S.-China relations that he quit keeping his diary during his last four months in the post. Still, the journal covers some arch gossip about Henry Kissinger and congressional delegations and the ripples felt in the Beijing diplomatic corps from the fall of Saigon, as well as Bush’s reflections about America’s proper role in the world. A trove for researchers, Bush’s observations on late Maoist China will also draw general readers interested in diplomacy. --Gilbert Taylor