On the fourth day of his China tour, former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger was watching a demonstration of Chinese army marksmanship at a base 60 miles northeast of Peking. Diplomatic Editor Jerrold Schecter, traveling with him, started when he heard the strains of the Internationale break out on camp loudspeakers--in China, a sign that something important was to be announced. Before leaving, Schlesinger leaned over to Schecter and whispered the news of Mao Tse-tung's death. Reports Schecter: "I couldn't believe it. Then I looked at Schlesinger's face, and I knew it was true."

Schecter, who has visited China six times in the past five years, began filing immediately for this week's twelve-page section about Mao's death and China's future. (It is the fifth and presumably last time that Mao has appeared on our cover since 1949.) Hong Kong Bureau Chief Roy Rowan, who covered revolutionary China for LIFE, and Correspondent David Aikman also added the perspective of recent visits to China in their reporting. Washington Bureau Chief Hugh Sidey interviewed Henry Kissinger on Mao. We also present an exclusive contribution from a newsman who died in 1972 but knew Mao better than any other Western reporter: Edgar Snow.

In New York, Staff Writer Richard Bernstein prepared to write his sixth cover story on China. Bernstein speaks Mandarin, studied Chinese culture at Harvard, and has visited the People's Republic. After learning of Mao's death, he said, "I felt a sense of awe as well as a sense of relief. The event the Chinese have been afraid of and have been preparing for has finally occurred. If there is ever going to be a crisis, it will be as a result of this."

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