and send ‘volunteer’ pilots to engage US warplanes. No pilots arrived,
and China stipulated that its anti-aircraft units were to defend only the
northern part of the country. Tens of thousands of Chinese engineer-
ing troops built roads, railways and defence installations, and the level
of military assistance was increased, but for Hanoi China’s commit-
ment was less than total, as it did little to prevent continued American
bombing.^14
The overthrow of Khrushchev did nothing to heal the
Sino–Soviet rift, but it did lead to a rethinking of the Soviet Union’s
cautious policy towards revolutionary movements. Moscow called for a
united effort by socialist countries to oppose American imperialism in
Vietnam, and stepped up its aid to the DRV. This was welcomed by
Hanoi, much to the annoyance of Beijing. The two countries differed
in their approach to the war. For the Vietnamese it was a life-and-
death struggle for national reunification, which they were determined
to achieve as quickly as possible, even if that meant risking a widening
war. Beijing favoured a protracted war that would wear away American
staying power without risking an invasion of North Vietnam that
might draw China into the conflict. Rejection of Chinese advice deep-
ened these differences.
The Cultural Revolution launched in mid-1966 radicalised the
CCP in order to destroy Mao’s political enemies. Its success ensured
not only that Mao regained his political eminence, but also that his
personal view of global power relations and security threats would
decide the direction of Chinese foreign policy. Despite the build-up of
American forces in South Vietnam, Mao was convinced that an
increasingly hegemonistic Soviet Union posed the principal threat
to China’s security. This acted as a self-fulfilling prophecy, for the
irrationality of the Cultural Revolution convinced Moscow that
Maoist China presented a security threat to the Soviet Union, and so
led to a build-up of Soviet forces along the Chinese border.
By 1968, China’s domestic turmoil had all but isolated it inter-
nationally and its standing in the world had plummeted. In Vietnam
Communism and the Cold War