Content area
Full Text
MAO'S CHINA AND THE COLD WAR, Chen Jian, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2001, 400 pages, $49.95.
In Mao's China and the Cold War, Chen Jian interprets the course of Sino-American relations between 1945 and 1972 through nine cases, using newly accessible Chinese archival sources. He also provides a useful bibliographical essay outlining the major works on these cases. Because many archives are still closed, these studies are not definitive, but they begin to illuminate the reasons for Chinese perceptions and behavior.
Originally published as separate journal articles, the studies have been revised in light of the author's more recent research. The book's force comes from the repetition of Chen Jian's major themes, which unite the decisions Mao Tse-tung and Chinese leaders made in these disparate case. The themes include a sense of geopolitical reality; an obligation and mission to aid fraternal communist parties and...