'Only Nixon' - by James C Humes & Jarvis D Ryals (Paperback)

About the Book

This book shares the observations made in 1998 by Chinese Foreign Service experts, who had planned meetings of President Nixon with Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai, during interviews by the authors and Edward Nixon, the President's brother.

Book Synopsis

In 1998, Professor Humes and Doctor Ryals traveled with Edward Nixon, the brother of the President, to the People's Republic of China. While retracing Nixon's steps, they interviewed those Chinese Foreign Service experts who had planned the president's meetings with Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. These protégés of Chou En-lai ended their diplomatic careers as envoys in Anglophone nations such as the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia.
During interviews with Humes, Ryals, and Edward Nixon, these experts shared their observations about the forces, such as the Gang of Four, who were plotting to prevent the Nixon Trip, as well as why, at the time, Mao was amendable to restoring ties with America despite the ongoing Cultural Revolution.

Review Quotes

"James Humes and Jarvis Ryals have turned up interesting stories and insights from both the Chinese and American sides which deepen our understanding of President Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972." --Dr. Margaret MacMillan, Warden, St. Antony's College, Oxford University, author of the award winning Paris 1919 and Nixon and Mao

"This is the first endeavor by Americans to understand the planning and organization for the historic Nixon visit from the Chinese viewpoint. "ONLY NIXON", is also interesting in that former Nixon speechwriter Humes offers insights of Nixon's evolution in thinking from being an apologist of Chiang Kai-shek to becoming a proponent of accommodation with the People's Republic." --Ambassador Ji Chaozhu, ambassador to the Court of St. James under secretary-general of the United Nations; author of The Man on Mao's Right: From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square

James Humes and Jarvis Ryals have turned up interesting stories and insights from both the Chinese and American sides which deepen our understanding of President Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972.

This is the first endeavor by Americans to understand the planning and organization for the historic Nixon visit from the Chinese viewpoint. "ONLY NIXON", is also interesting in that former Nixon speechwriter Humes offers insights of Nixon's evolution in thinking from being an apologist of Chiang Kai-shek to becoming a proponent of accommodation with the People's Republic.

About the Author

Professor James C. Humes, a former White House speechwriter and State Department planner under Nixon, is currently a fellow at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. His biography of Churchill, nominated for a Pulitzer, won the Athenaeum Award. He has written thirty-two books, including Nixon's Ten Commandments of Leadership and Negotiation and Confessions of a White House Ghostwriter. Humes, who was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the Center for International Scholars at the Smithsonian, has lectured on American government in over thirty universities in Asia and Latin America on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
Jarvis D. Ryals, M.D., is board certified in both psychiatry and neurology, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. He is a community leader in medicine and public health. While pursuing his interest in history, he has traveled widely to interview government leaders, including a former president and prime minister.