The Presidential Years 293
Commenting on the thaw that seemed to establish a new connection be-
tween Moscow and Washington at the close of the fifties, Tito affirmed in
Zagreb in mid-December 1959 that due to technological progress there now
existed a nuclear threat that could destroy humanity, and that could not have
been foreseen by Marx and Lenin. Because of this, humanity had entered a
“new epoch” in which peaceful development was a necessity. The problems that
states had to confront were no longer linked to peace and war, but to interna-
tional cooperation and economic competition.^156 The newspaper Hongqi criti-
cized him on 16 April with these words: “Thus, this renegade completely writes
off the problem of class contradictions and class struggle in the world, trying to
deny the Marxist-Leninists’ consistent analysis of our epoch as the epoch
of imperialism and proletarian revolution, and of victory of socialism and com-
munism. In Tito’s new epoch, there really is no imperialism, no proletarian
revolution, and of course, no theory and policy for proletarian revolution and
dictatorship. The fundamental focal points of class contradictions and class
struggles in our epoch are not to be found: the fundamental questions of Lenin-
ism are absent; in fact, there is no Leninism.”^157
In order to answer these tirades and the frequent Chinese theme of the in-
evitability of an armed confrontation with imperialism, Kardelj hastily wrote an
essay on behalf of the CC LCY entitled “Socialism and War,” which was pub-
lished in August 1960. The Slovenian ideologue had nothing good to say about
Soviet hegemonic ambitions, stressing that a conflict between socialist coun-
tries in which the aggressor aimed to impose its own interpretation of socialism
would perforce have “a reactionary meaning,” since it would fatally harm social-
ism. By aggressor he meant the Soviets, of course. In confronting the question
of the inevitability of war with the West, however, he sided with Khrushchev,
contesting the Chinese opinion that imperialism was just a paper tiger, not to
be feared. On the contrary, everything should be done to prevent an armed
conflict between the blocs of socialism and capitalism in order to avoid Arma-
geddon.^158 General Hsiao Hua, deputy director of the political office of the
Chinese Army, replied in Renmin Ribao (The People’s Daily) on 4 June 1960:
“Nothing could be more wrong than the thought that the aggressive nature of
imperialism has disappeared, and that the possibility of a global war against the
socialist camp does not exist anymore.”^159
Maybe because they were both condemned by the Chinese for the same sin,
that is, their eagerness to do business with the West, Tito and Khrushchev, who
were both in New York the following September taking part in the Fifteenth
General Assembly of the UN, resumed their dialogue against all odds. They
met several times, and decided to put an end to their polemics. “We fully come
to terms,” said Khrushchev, following his two-hour meeting with Tito, “as our