Originally posted by John Meixner
It was not that either Chiang or Mao refused to settle, as much as many american observers, such as General Marshal, would have liked to believe this was the case. For both the Nationalist KMT and the Communists there was no other option than to unify china. It was a political requirement, they would have had no legitamcy if they had not at least tried.
I have no doubts about Chang and Mao not willing to settle. However I am sure the Americans and the Soviets would of. However since both sides have kinda accepted a division fo China at the moment, sayign they would never consider it is a bit much.
Originally posted by John Meixner
As to Stalin not wanting a united china under Mao, I think recent evidence suggests this is unlikely. It seems pretty clear that once the Soviets realized that the Communists could actually wein that they wanted them to win. The reason for previous betrayals of the CCP by the Soviets was that before the war the Comintern felt it could get what it wanted from the Nationalists.
Once the Manchurian campiagn was over Stalin did swing fully behind Mao. What I believe is that the last thing Stalin wanted was a united China under Chang (with the Japanese out of the picture). A united China under Mao was a prefered to that. However a divided China with a puppet state acting as a buffer would of suited the Soviets even better.
Originally posted by John Meixner
I know it is just out of our time frame, but look at the assistance the Soviets gained in North Korea from the Chinese before the CCP he even consolidated control over the whole country. And from recently released archives from Moscow it is now clear that at this early point Mao was promising Stalin the world.
Yes at the time though the CCP still needed Soviet help. As long as the CCP needed the Soviets they were willing to toe Stalin's line. However it would not take too long for relations to rupture and the Soviets and REd China to start fighting over the border.
Originally posted by John Meixner
As to the second point about if the KMT had won in Manchuria. I really can't picture the Soviets being so foolish as to allow Chinese armies to be created inside the Soviet Union to attack across an internationally accepted border to openly attack China. Without the communist threat Chiang and what was left of the KMT left would have been very happy to deal with the Soviets and their own nationalist rhetoric was based on keeping all foreigners, European or American out of China. with no Communists to fight I think that the US welcome would have been worn out rather quickly. But a soviet invasion of proxies across the Russians own border would be far riskjier than anything the Soviets tried after the war.
The soviets cheerfully allowed dissident movements in Iran to stage inside Soviet terrotry so why would China be any differet. The Soviets have a hostile power and being in the unusual posisition of having a manpower disadvantage, with thousands of miles of frontier to defend. Are you saying that Stalin would not attampt to destablise such a regime and use Soviet terrotry to do so?
