Sarah Paine

Until Mao got atomic weapons in 1964, he really had to shut up.

And because he needed Russian technological aid, he's been totally cut off from the West after the Korean War.

He's being isolated.

So he truly needs Soviet aid.

And he also, if he wants nuclear weapons, he needs some other aid to do that as well.

So he has to keep his mouth shut.

But once he detonates an atomic weapon, here's what he tells the Russians, and they just about lose it.

There are too many places occupied by the Soviet Union.

The Russians took everything they could.

We have not yet presented a count of this list.

Under the Tsars, the Russians took from the Chinese sphere of influence territory exceeding U.S.

east of the Mississippi.

Think the Chinese didn't notice?

Yes, they noticed.

So Mao all of a sudden is calling that, and the Russians are appalled.

But Mao has other gripes against the Russians.

Stalin, in the lead up to World War II, had made sure to set up the Chinese to fight Japan so that he wouldn't have to.

So that leaves him just fighting Nazis, not Nazis and Japanese.

And then Stalin takes Mongolia, which had formerly been a part of the Chinese sphere of influence.

And in the Korean War, he's more than happy to fight to the last Chinese.