Shanghai

I went to a "cold war" set of schools - from 1st grade through high school.  Our text books were a result of an insular, anti-communist, post WWII and racist mentality.  You might disagree specifically but generally, text books that reduce non-whites to an occasional bit about Booker T. Washington, "made in Japan" being a synonym for cheap, Africa being non-existent, German not being taught in schools and China's history ending with the Boxer Rebellion. We were not permitted the luxury of non-WASPish knowledge.

When the Great Cultural Revolution swept China in the 60's, a book title "The Little Red Book of Mao Tse Tung" was something of the underground rage.  You bought it in secret and read it in secret unless you were in a world history class where it was held up as an example of evil. To our way of thinking much of it was evil or at the very least incomprehensible.  Other parts struck me and my co-readers as "real politic".  Moreover it was a lesson in perspective.

Vietnam was blossoming into an even more horrible war zone and while we had half a million troops there we raged at regional nations (China for instance) sending supplies across the border; you can read that as meaning "we can and you can't" for no other good reason than we were a product of our insular education. We believed we were omnipotent just because we learned we were. Other nations only had the "rights" we allowed them.

When Nixon went to China 40 years plus ago and signed the Shanghai Communique (41 years ago today), most of us got our first glimpse of that nation past our "Flying Tigers of WWII".  I don't want to live there - didn't then, don't now.  I don't get a lot of their politics and world views but suspect that is more a reflection of my ignorance and perspective than anything else. I'm sure they look at us a little differently.