“Morally, it was impossible to watch all those gracious ceremonies, benevolent smiles, lengthy handshakes, cordial speeches—and hold in mind the actual nature of Red China. One kept alternating between two feelings: the kind of unreality and childish amusement one feels at a
circus—and the shock of returning to reality, the reality of China’s terror, starvation, torture chambers, mass slaughter…. The shock came from the realization that the smiling figure in the midst of the ghastly pretense on the TV screen was the President of the United States.”
—Ayn Rand, “The Shanghai Gesture,” The Ayn Rand Letter, March 27, 1972
