2–15 Mar 1969 — Soviet and Chinese troops fight and kill one another over an island in the frozen Ussuri River. Moscow even sounds out Washington about a strike on China’s nuclear sites. The communist world now has two rivals, each of which needs America.
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The communist alliance had already broken apart before Washington tried to use the division. Moscow withdrew nuclear assistance in 1959; Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization indirectly challenged Mao’s cult, and Beijing condemned the Soviet retreat in Cuba as “capitulationism.” Behind these disputes was a question neither government was willing to leave to the other: who should lead world revolution? In 1969 Soviet and Chinese troops fought on the Ussuri. The communist “monolith” that Washington had spent two decades containing had become two hostile powers.
Why it happened — The split that made the triangle possible. The alliance’s collapse had several causes. Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization undermined Mao’s cult indirectly, the Soviet withdrawal of nuclear…
The turn — Beijing and Shanghai, 21–28 February 1972. Nixon’s visit to Beijing and Shanghai on 21–28 February 1972 became known as “The week that changed the world.” Its effect lay in the choices it…
What it changed — Helsinki’s slow fuse. Helsinki’s rights provisions gave dissidents a standard their governments had publicly accepted. The Moscow Helsinki Group formed in 1976, with…
