Sarah Paine

And Khrushchev does not have remotely Mao's resume.

Mao has just put together a continent by reunifying China.

That's not remotely what Khrushchev's ever been able to do.

And Mao also can't stand

either Khrushchev's domestic or foreign policy.

Domestically, Khrushchev is all about desinhalization.

Well, Mao doesn't like that.

He's got a cult of personality.

He doesn't want to do things like that.

And then Khrushchev is interested in peaceful coexistence with the West, or at least nominally, whereas Mao is in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, which is based on a virulently anti-Western foreign policy.

And then they're forever squabbling about who's aiding North Vietnam in the Vietnam War and who's going to get credit for it.

So all of that's going on.

Now, Khrushchev has his own gripes about the Chinese.

He looks around at the United States.

The United States has got basing all over the world.

Its allies allow the United States to have bases.

And China has hardly any Russian bases, these leftover concession areas, and China wants them back.

And Khrushchev can't understand this.

And then what he really can't understand are the two Taiwan Strait crises of 1954 and 1958, where Mao starts lobbying ordinance on nationalist islands that are very close to mainland shores.

And...