Dialogue Origin: “What Has Been the Impact of the French Revolution?” “It’s Too Early To Tell”

Mao Zedong? Zhou Enlai? Eduard Shevardnadze? Andre Malraux? Anonymous Official? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A popular anecdote claims that a high-level U.S. politician once met with a Chinese official during the 1970s, and they began to talk about the French Revolution. When the Chinese official was asked about the impact of this momentous historical …