《時代雜誌》的 Peter Ritter 稱讚這本書的描繪周恩来的兩面-周到、有教養,但最終還是服從於毛澤東的率性,是“一個積極的,如果不總是熱情的,參與者”。Ritter 的結論是,本書描述了“一個矛盾,甚至可以說悲劇的人物”。[6]加州大學洛杉磯分校國際政治教授王棟有類似看法,他指出“本書展現出周是個性複雜的悲劇英雄”。[7]麻省理工學院教授白魯恂在《外交》雜誌發表書評,稱讚本書對政治敏感問題講真話,認為總的來說,本書幫周恩來留下正面回憶。[8]
^{{Cite journal |
title=The First Tiananmen Incident Revisited: Elite Politics and Crisis Management at the End of the Maoist Era |
url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40022499 |
author1=Frederick C. Teiwes |
author2=Warren Sun |
journal=Pacific Affairs |
volume=77 |
issue=2 |
date=Summer 2004 |
pages=211-235 |
access-date=2014-01-14 |
archive-date=2021-03-08 |
archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308184944/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40022499 |
dead-url=no |quote= Gao is a former deputy head of the Zhou Enlai section of the Central Documents Research Office, and as such had access to many sensitive materials. His book, however, is poorly referenced, so it is difficult to be completely certain of his specific claims. We are, however, satisfied concerning the general validity of what is presented here.}(英文)