At Home with Mao

What does Mao Tse-tung want? He wants Nikita Khrushchev dead. In so many blunt words, Mao told this to a French parliamentary delegation visiting Peking last month. As recalled in Paris last week by the six returning Deputies, the interview presented a fascinating glimpse of the Red Chinese leader.

Launching immediately into an emotional attack on Russia, Mao said: "I haven't been there since 1957. They made fun of me then. I'll never set foot there again." Turning to Gaullist Deputy Jean Bernasconi, Mao asked: "How old are you--36? Well, you'll see Khrushchev go under, that paper tiger. I'm 70 myself but you'll see that traitor dead."

The Swindle. What clearly infuriated Mao most was Russia's withdrawal of aid in 1960 and the U.S.-Soviet nuclear test ban treaty. "Russia broke its agreements and pulled out its technicians in 24 hours, taking all their blueprints with them," Mao said. He denounced the treaty as a "swindle concluded behind our backs." Using barnyard idiom, he raged that Russia and the U.S. should not be allowed to defecate "on our heads." When his prim young interpreter hesitated in translation, Mao ordered: "Go ahead, say it. That might shock you, but it's the truth."

Mao conceded that France held a commanding lead over China in nuclear development, a candid admission considering the rudimentary nature of the French deterrent. "We'll also have our bomb," he said. "It's a sign of strength. But that doesn't mean that we'll use it."

Waiting for Formosa. Much of Mao's fire was reserved for the U.S., which he equated with Russia as a foe of Red China. How would the U.S. like it, he demanded, if China ringed American territory with military bases? As for Formosa, Mao clearly felt that time was on his side. Chiang Kai-shek is an old man, he said, and since Red China had already waited 15 years to take over Formosa, it could patiently wait a little longer. "We could even get along with the Americans if they quit Formosa. Why, if they were to leave, we would see them off with flowers."

On other matters, Mao's opinions were no less unmistakable. Items:

> France in Asia: "France can recapture all its influence in Asia. It has finished its decolonization, and we know that it wants to return only for mercantile reasons. France, Italy, Germany, England--if it stops being the lackey of the U.S.--Japan and ourselves, there's the third world."

> Charles de Gaulle: "General de Gaulle is a soldier. I too am a soldier. I spent twelve years in the army. None of you is a diplomat, I hope. Don't ever trust a diplomat; they are much too devious."

> South Viet Nam: "It will finish there as it did in China. We made our revolution with American arms. The U.S. gave a billion and a half dollars' worth of arms to Chiang, but who has them now? He delivered them to us. It'll be the same way in Viet Nam."

But Mao appeared eager to impress on his guests that he was not just a saber rattler. To establish his superior knowledge of French letters, the ex-librarian told his stunned interlocutors that he had read "Diderot and all your Encyclopedists. I've even read that 18th century author who wrote that remarkable book, The Mechanical Man." None of Mao's guests knew what book he was talking about, and they were too polite to ask.* "Above all," Mao said, "I'm an admirer of Napoleon. There isn't one of his works I don't know."

*Bibliophiles could trace no such book, speculated that Mao may have meant The Machine Man, by Julien Offray de La Mettrie, published in 1748.

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