The Sino-Soviet Schism } 145
might randomly cause. ... Lenin touched on this when referring to war,
saying that war rallies people and intensifies man’s mind. There is no
war now, of course, but the tension of military confrontation can also
mobilize positive elements, as well as set inactive strata to thinking.^71
Mao’s strategy achieved its purposes. The vision of US invasion and nu-
clear attack helped justify the misery inflicted on the Chinese people by the
Great Leap Forward, perhaps the greatest famine in modern history.