From a European perspective it is really refreshing to see some direct words spoken, here.

Mao questioning the US-allegiance of Western-Europe i.e. 1) the Gaullist approach which was successfully soften by Kissinger through Pompidou and 2) the "Ost-Politik" by Brandt.

On the second point Mao pokes a little bit longer:

>You in the West have always had a policy. The beginning of both World Wars was pushing Germany against Russia.

Kissinger is excellently trying to counter any suspicion by speaking clearly to the point:

>But pushing Russia to attack China is not our policy. Because if a war breaks out in China, the danger to us is as great as a war breaking out in Europe.

But Mao still holds his ground and develops his overplayed suspicion further:

>That’s exactly what I wanted to say. Are you now pushing West Germany to make peace with Russia and then pushing Russia to move eastward? I suspect that the entire West has such a line. Eastward, mainly towards us, and also towards Japan, and partly towards you, in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

So, that Kissinger has to admit they do not have full control over the current foreign policy of Germany as in France, now, but the i.e. US-army is still very present, to give some hard dealt reassurances at the end.

>Kissinger: We don’t agree with Germany’s policy. We would rather have the opposition party in Germany come to power. The opposition party in Germany doesn’t pursue this policy.

[[Long stretch of text from US side memcon]

Chairman Mao: Yes, that’s our feeling. We are also in favor of the opposition party in Germany.

Dr. Kissinger: They conducted themselves very stupidly.

Chairman Mao: Yes, they were defeated. The whole of Europe is thinking only of peace.

Prime Minister Chou: The illusions of peace created by their leaders.

Dr. Kissinger: Yes, but we will do our best to strengthen European defenses and keep our armies in Europe.

Chairman Mao: That would be very good.

I also very much like the excursion to the German roots of Kissinger and where Mao openly albeit casually talks about Hitler's military strategy in WWII. Kissinger insights that the Germans are/were hopeless romantics and Hitler let his strategy be dictated by artistic intuition are met with Mao indirect dry mentioning of the "Treaty of Versailles" as a great humiliation for Germans; here imho weakly echoing the Opium Wars as a great humiliation for the Chinese by the hands of the then world-power Great Britain.
Implying/mildly threatening that humiliation isn't always a good long term strategy in dealing with geopolitical adversaries/problems and can lead to quite dangerous out of control passions.

>Dr. Kissinger: He conducted strategy artistically rather than strategically. He did it by intuition. He had no overall plan.

Chairman Mao: Then why did the German troops heed him so much?

Dr. Kissinger: Probably because the Germans are somewhat romantic people and because he must have had a very strong personality.

Chairman Mao: Mainly because during the First World War the German nation was humiliated.

Dr. Kissinger: Yes, that was a very important factor.

Mao then entertains the half-phantasy how they would cope with the Soviets invading China - with Guerilla tactics utilizing the invasion of the terrain into their advantage - directly admitting how he can clearly see that it could play very well in the hands of the US by weakening the Soviets substantially. Interestingly a similar strategy - to create a 'Vietnam situation' for the Soviets - was deployed 6 years later, elsewhere, namely in the mountainous Afghanistan/Pakistan region through "Operation Cyclone"[0].

>Chairman Mao: If there are Russians going to attack China, I can tell you today that our way of conducting a war will be guerrilla war and protracted war. We will let them go wherever they want. (Prime Minister Chou laughs.) They want to come to the Yellow River tributaries. That would be good, very good. (Laughter.) And if they go further to the Yangtse River tributaries, that would not be bad either.

Dr. Kissinger: But if they use bombs and do not send armies? (Laughter)

Chairman Mao: What should we do? Perhaps you can organize a committee to study the problem. We’ll let them beat us up and they will lose any resources. They say they are socialists. We are also socialists and that will be socialists attacking socialists.

Dr. Kissinger: If they attack China, we would certainly oppose them for our own reasons.

Chairman Mao: But your people are not awakened, and Europe and you would think that it would be a fine thing if it were that the ill water would flow toward China.

Dr. Kissinger: What Europe thinks I am not able to judge. They cannot do anything anyway. They are basically irrelevant. (In the midst of this Chairman Mao toasts Dr. Kissinger and Mr. Lord with tea.) What we think is that if the Soviet Union overruns China, this would dislocate the security of all other countries and will lead to our own isolation.

Chairman Mao: (Laughing) How will that happen? How would that be? Because since in being bogged down in Vietnam you met so many difficulties, do you think they would feel good if they were bogged down in China?

Dr. Kissinger: The Soviet Union?

Miss Tang: The Soviet Union.

Chairman Mao: And then you can let them get bogged down in China, for half a year, or one, or two, or three, or four years. And then you can poke your finger at the Soviet back. And your slogan then will be for peace, that is you must bring down Socialist imperialism for the sake of peace. And perhaps you can begin to help them in doing business, saying whatever you need we will help against China.

Dr. Kissinger: Mr. Chairman, it is really very important that we understand each other’s motives. We will never knowingly cooperate in an attack on China.

Chairman Mao: (Interrupting) No, that’s not so. Your aim in doing that would be to bring the Soviet Union down.

Dr. Kissinger: That’s a very dangerous thing. (Laughter)

[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone