The Friends of Columbia Libraries invite members of the Overseas Press Club and their friends to a lecture on December 7 by OPC Board member Seymour Topping, Emeritus Professor of International Journalism, on “China Faces the United States; From Mao in Yenan , to Korea , Vietnam, and Challenges Today.”

Professor Topping will discuss how the root experiences of the Chinese leadership which he observed in Yenan and thereafter influence Beijing’s current behavior, policies and intentions. Topping is the former managing editor of The New York Times, and author of “On the Front Lines of the Cold War, An American Correspondent’s Journal from the Chinese Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam”.

A paperback edition of the recent book will be published in June. Professor Topping is donating his papers to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The lecture will take place on the Columbia campus, in Room 523 of the Butler Library, at 6 p.m. followed by a reception.