May 1965

To most Westerners China is not a part of the known world and Mao is not a figure of our time. The ignorant believe he is the leader of a host of martians whose sole occupation is plotting the destruction of civilization and the enslavement of mankind. The more sophisticated say that he is the builder of a new world which will somehow, some day, be of great significance, but having said that, they turn their minds back to the present, thinking—perhaps rightly—that China is too different and difficult to begin to comprehend.