The Korean war

raider1001 said:

That would be the argument in the book Uncertain Partners. However the book China's Road to the Korean War gave out the other side of the story, in which Mao tried extremely hard to impress Stalin in order receive protections against Americans, and that involved militarily aiding the North Korean with the knowledge that Kim will use it to attack South Korea. The only argument that resolves China of all responsibilities in starting Korean War is the fact that Mao gave the Soviet completely control of Manchuria and its railway networks as part of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty, and as described in detail in Uncertain Partners, Mao also allowed Soviets control of Xinjiang while dropping the demand for Outter Mongolia. Those facts pretty much demolish the official Chinese view of achieving equal partnership with Soviet Union. The book Uncertain Partners's final conclusion is that Stalin engineered an confrontation between China and America in Korea to strengthen its position in Asia, while Mao tried to engineer a confrontation between Soviet Union and America at South East Asia to strengthen China. In the end Stalin outsmarted Mao and Mao charged head on into a trap.

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That would be the argument in the book Uncertain Partners. However the book China's Road to the Korean War gave out the other side of the story, in which Mao tried extremely hard to impress Stalin in order receive protections against Americans, and that involved militarily aiding the North Korean with the knowledge that Kim will use it to attack South Korea. The only argument that resolves China of all responsibilities in starting Korean War is the fact that Mao gave the Soviet completely control of Manchuria and its railway networks as part of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty, and as described in detail in Uncertain Partners, Mao also allowed Soviets control of Xinjiang while dropping the demand for Outter Mongolia. Those facts pretty much demolish the official Chinese view of achieving equal partnership with Soviet Union. The book Uncertain Partners's final conclusion is that Stalin engineered an confrontation between China and America in Korea to strengthen its position in Asia, while Mao tried to engineer a confrontation between Soviet Union and America at South East Asia to strengthen China. In the end Stalin outsmarted Mao and Mao charged head on into a trap.

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back in early 90's ,russia releases korean war archieve ,and china year later.
document actually show that stalin dupe mao into korean war.
Kim first approached the soviet for southern invasion in 1947 but was rejected.it was not until in 1950 stalin finally approved,plan for the invasion was draw up in soviet chieft of staff.the decision to invade was kept secret from China, in fact,to prevent any leak, most of war material has to be shipped.
according to historian,stalin emerged as the real winner,while korean ,both north and south was devasted by the conflict.it created animosity between china and US.

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nameless said:

That is not what the book says at all. Mao went to war not because he was forced by Stalin to do so. Mao felt it was in China's own interest to fight the Korean war for practical and ideological reasons(opposing American imperialism). The only "trap" was the lack of support from the soviets not the reason for going to war in the first place, which started the sino-soviet split. And the Korea war was started by NK, China only intervened later.



The only way Stalin could have duped Mao is if he knew the NK attack would fail resulting in an American intervention which would force China into the war. There is no way Stalin could have planed all that, not to mention silencing the NK from the Chinese. Not to mention there was already animosity between China and the US from the civil war and the situation with Taiwan.

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nameless said:

That is not what the book says at all. Mao went to war not because he was forced by Stalin to do so. Mao felt it was in China's own interest to fight the Korean war for practical and ideological reasons(opposing American imperialism). The only "trap" was the lack of support from the soviets not the reason for going to war in the first place, which started the sino-soviet split. And the Korea war was started by NK, China only intervened later.

The only way Stalin could have duped Mao is if he knew the NK attack would fail resulting in an American intervention which would force China into the war. There is no way Stalin could have planed all that, not to mention silencing the NK from the Chinese. Not to mention there was already animosity between China and the US from the civil war and the situation with Taiwan.

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stalin provoke NK to invade,may have been strategic divertion, second, after soviet detonate first A bomb,according to richard rhodes,stalin may have been fear that US may launched preemptie nuke attack,in fact curtis LeMay ,then SAC commander trying to persuade then president truman to launched massive nuclear attack,while the "window of oppurtunity" still in favor of US.
No wonder when Mcarthur call for all out invasion of China,he was immediately fire ,US biggest e fear,giving the US preoccupation in korean,waht if the soviet suddently launched all out invasion of central and western europe.
second ,after victory over the KMT, China hoping to seek diplomatic recognition from the US,the korean war politically destroyed such illusion.
kissinger in his book "diplomacy" call stalin a good chess player.

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First of all, Mao would never have needed to fight a war in Korea had not Stalin approved Kim Il-sung to go ahead with his "liberation" plans.

Secondly, for the aforementioned reason, even if NK achieved total victory, Stalin would've come out ahead in influence in Korea. Stalin most likely did not predict such a total collapse of the NK military, but he most likely calculated that China would not let NK fall.

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challenge said:

it created animosity between china and US.

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nameless said:

The NK invasion plan wasnt bad at all, Stalin's approval was logical and reasonable, that decision itself was not particularly anti-China. A united Korea under the North would be in China's interest and it would be preoccupied with Japan-American alliance. Obviously Stalin was no saint, but China had its own reasons for the war, if Stalin had came out with much more support for China during the war then the sino-soviet split could have been avoided.

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siegecrossbow said:

Look how Vietnam turned out.

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