Sarah Paine

I think the Chinese would beg to differ and say, no, no, no, no.

It was Mao who played the America card.

Because what's going on in 1969, there's a border war between China and the Soviet Union.

China's gotten its nuclear bomb in 64.

It no longer has to defer to the Soviet Union and starts playing more tough on their border disagreements.

And so the Soviets are really upset.

And they come to the United States and ask us whether it would be okay to nuke these people.

Because they think Americans don't like the Chinese.

Well, we didn't, but we said, no, it's not okay to nuke those people.

And so the Chinese figure it out.

The one that wants to nuke you is your primary adversary, right?

Up until then, you think about it, China and Russia, for them, the United States was the primary adversary.

Now they're primary adversaries with each other, freeing up the United States to decide which one it's going to cozy up to.

And the United States decides it's going to cozy up to China.

Why?

Well,

Chinese belligerency forces the Soviets, not only, they've already got a big militarized border with Europe.

Now they're going to do the same thing on a very long border with China.

And this is nuclear-armed, mechanized forces, very expensive.

Imagine if this country had to have such borders with Canada and Mexico.