142 { China’s Quest
would stay neutral while American armies pushed deep into China and used
tactical nuclear weapons against Chinese forces was vastly different from the
letter and spirit of the 1950 treaty. Moscow’s September 27 letter was a plea for
continued close alliance in line with the 1950 treaty. The core Soviet concern
was the apparent willingness of CCP leaders to put their own views about
China’s interests above the solidarity of the international working class, i.e.,
the USSR. Soviet leaders may also have interpreted Mao’s and Zhou’s words
as a test of Soviet commitment, requiring an unequivocal Soviet response if
the alliance was to be upheld. The CPSU response to the Chinese offer said:
We cannot allow the illusion to be created among our enemies that if an
attack is launched against the PRC ... the Soviet Union will stand on the
sidelines as a passive observer. Should the adversary even presume this,
a very dangerous situation would be created. It would be a great calamity
for the entire Socialist camp, for the Communist working class move-
ment, if, when atomic bombs had begun to fall on the Chinese People’s
Republic ... the Soviet Union, possessing terrible weapons which could
not only stop but could also devastate our common enemy, would allow
itself not to come to your assistance.
....
Thank you for your nobility, that you are ready to absorb a strike,
not involving the Soviet Union. However, we believe, and are convinced
that you also agree that the main thing now consists of the fact that
everyone has seen—both our friends and, especially, our enemies—that
we are firm and united ... which flow from Marxism-Leninism, to de-
fend the camp of Socialism, that the unity of all brother Communist
Parties is unshakeable, that we will deliver a joint, decisive rebuff to an
aggressor in the event of an attack on any Socialist state.^68
Mao replied to the Soviet communication with a personal letter to
Khrushchev, saying: “We are deeply moved by your boundless loyalty to the
principles of Marxism-Leninism and internationalism. In the name of all my
comrades-members of the Chinese Communist Party, I express to you my
heartfelt gratitude.”^69War Crisis and the Collectivization of Agriculture
and Militarization of LaborFor Mao, international revolutionary struggle against US imperialism was
linked to domestic class struggle to push the revolution forward. Mao pre-
cipitated the 1958 Straits confrontation in part to manufacture an atmosphere
conducive to his program of Stalinist hyperindustrialization. Demonstrating
his principled Marxist-Leninist way of dealing with US imperialism in the