Korean War #6: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 2

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

Phd, International Relations, Korean War, European History, 17th Century, 18th Century, Politics, 20th Century, Thirty Years' War, History, 19th Century, War, First World War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2018

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

IMP: Liu Shaoqi is Liu 'Shao-Chi' - NOT Liu 'Shao-Kwee'. Apologies for the mispronunciation! Love me anyway?

Episode 6: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 2, continues the story from where we left off last time. The Chinese communists launch their final great offensive of the civil war against the Nationalists from April 1949, as Stalin watches his old strategy crumble. Faced with the emergence of a dominant Chinese Communist Party, rather than the divided Chinese state that he desired, how would Stalin respond?

In the event, he welcomed Mao's ally Liu Shaoqi to Moscow in summer 1949 to talk through some important issues, and pave the way for a deeper friendship between the two communist regimes. Even at this stage, with both parties harbouring great and conflicting ambitions, success or alliance were by no means certain outcomes. Much, it seemed, still needed to be done.

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Music used:

'Cotton Eye Joe' by Elmo Newcomer, a 1948 song which can be found here:https://www.loc.gov/item/lomaxbib000040/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Hello and welcome history friends, patrons all to episode 6 of the Korean War.
0:34.2	Last time, we began our examination of the negotiations between the communist Chinese and their
0:39.6	Soviet ideological peers. While on paper, one would assume that Stalin would be enthusiastic about
0:46.0	the prospect of a strong communist China emerging from the ashes of its civil war,
0:50.9	as usual, ideology took a back seat to Stalin's strategic interests. In Stalin's mind,
0:57.0	the best option would be a mediated peace which kept the Civil War alive and Mao Zedong distracted.
1:03.4	Because in this way, the Soviet Union would have a better chance of dominating Beijing,
1:07.7	and Mao would remain more dependent upon Moscow for the support he required.
1:12.5	Yet, at the same time, Stalin was coming to realize the difficulties of keeping Mao Zedong weak.
1:18.4	From late April 1949, the communists began their campaign across the Yangtze River,
1:24.0	in the progress demonstrating Mao's disregard for Stalin's wish to halt at that
1:28.1	river and allow a division of China to proceed.
1:31.6	Whatever his agents may say, it was not possible to forcibly halt the communist advance,
1:36.5	and the last chance for either the Soviets or the Americans to prevent a communist China
1:40.8	for being established, evaporated like the monsoon rains.
1:44.8	In this episode we are introduced to another aspect of Mao's concerns.
1:48.8	Although his regime was essentially secure and a communist China was guaranteed,
1:53.4	for the remainder of the campaign and indeed his life,
1:56.6	Mao was transfixed on the idea that the Americans were bound to intervene militarily
2:00.8	on the side of Chiang Kai Shek,
2:02.9	whose regime they had always preferred to his own.
2:06.4	From this perspective, the Soviet Union was a great guarantor against such American intervention,
	...

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