China Confidential

Description

Having served in the State Dept. in Shanghai from 1947 thru 1950 and in Taiwan for 15 years and elsewhere in Asia thru 1976 and knowing most of those providing the oral histories for this book as well as many of the Chinese principals, I am appalled by the poor proofreading and editing which permited many, many factual inaccuracies to slip through. Also, many of the quoted oral statements are surprisingly superficial and fallacious. Therefore, this book makes very dangerous reading for today's Asian and China scholars since it purports to be the real inside story straight from the horses mouths whereas its errors can only generate incorrect history.If the book is read with this caveat, it does provide very useful background insights for this most important part of 20th. Century experience as well as of the complexities nations face in developing and administering foreign policy. The book is well laid out and gives a great amount of background information but the reader should retain a healthy skepticism and draw his own conclusions realizing that he is reading other's opinions, many of them recollections of events and years long gone by.