The Mysterious Allies
DALLIN, ALEXANDER
WRITERS and WRITING The Mysterious Allies Moscow-Peking Axis. Reviewed by By Howard Boorman, Alexander Eckstein, Philip Mosely, Benjamin Schwartz. Alexander Dallin Harper. 227 pp. $3.50. Russian...
...What are the attitudes of individual Soviet and Chinese Communist leaders toward each other...
...While undoubtedly correct in insisting that the strains and stresses are incomparably weaker than the cement of the alliance, the authors may be underestimating the existing differences between the two partners...
...in the foreseeable future, hi- fatal to the alliance hut whose scope and import are probably much greater than this otherwise excellent series of studies suggests...
...How do officials and technicians deal with each other...
...none of the papers treats extensively the relative role of Moscow and Peking with regard to third countries and parties (except North Korea, where the competition is greater than the volume suggests), whether in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia...
...On the political side, the papers regrettably fail to test the nature of Soviet-Chinese differences in the 1945-49 period...
...More broadly, the new line makes it necessary for Moscow to act in Asia "with and through" Peking...
...Benjamin Schwartz maintains —correctly, in this reader's view— that the role of ideology, even if declining, his been crucial in the Communist world, and that the doctrinal bond shared by Moscow and Peking is operative on I he policy level...
...Their cooperation "provides a foundation of common interests and reciprocal practical agreements...
...Have there been second thoughts in either Moscow or Peking about the benefits and penalties of cooperation in the new "axis...
...We have yet to learn the full extent of Mao's part in the Polish "October days" and their antecedents...
...The general trend of relations ber tween the two partners is correctly diagnosed as the steady rise in inir portance of Communist China within the partnership...
...What institutions and agencies have the real say in Soviet-Chinese relations...
...Unfortunately, too...
...Alexander Eckstein makes a real contribution in summarizing economic relations in terms intelligible to the laymen yet without sacrifice of originality or precision...
...Eckstein shows in a very interesting discussion, a high level of trade between the two countries is disadvantageous to both...
...The premise shared by all four authors appears to be that the "axis" is not only expedient but necessary for both partners...
...this change of balance has probably not been so smoothly arrived at—or so cheerfully accepted—as this volume implies...
...The authors are agreed that since 1953 (as Arthur Dean puts it in the preface) "the new Soviet leadership appears to be giving Mao a maximum of cooperation with a minimum of interference...
...As a matter of fact, in spite of the authors' erudition, these papers create the distinct impression that frightfully little is known about the actual process of Sino-Soviet relations...
...Boorman provides some tantalizing (but inevitably inconclusive") speculation about the tension between Stalin and the Chinese leadership in the fall and winter of 1952—i.e., the period leading up to Stalin's death...
...What they have produced is systematic and thoughtful surveys of the available evidence, placed in the context of the best possible guesstimates of Communist motivation...
...It seems clear that the Soviet tactics of accommodation toward Peking have involved a retraction of Soviet influence from the borderlands: perhaps part of the Ausgleich negotiated during Khrushchev's visit to China was the restoration of genuine Communist authority over Manchuria...
...No one seems to know—not even these well-informed authors...
...Howard Boor-man's competent account of political relations between the two partners and the fate of the borderlands, while drawing on little new material, is a most useful paper...
...What are the mechanisms by which differences are resolved...
...As Dr...
...Finally, Philip Mosely places the evidence against the broad backdrop of international affairs and American policy in particular, so as to arrive at a set of well-reasoned and balanced policy recommendations...
...As Professor Mosely puts it, they share the basic purpose of expanding Communist power politically, militarily, industrially and territorially...
...But the fact remains that, since the 20th Party Congress in Moscow, the Chinese Communist attitude has repeatedly shown marked devitaions from the Soviet position —deviations that will not...
...It would be unfair to blame the authors for having failed, before the Hungarian crisis, to recognize Chinese interests or interference in Eastern Europe...
...Yet, such a community of goals and interests does not preclude the growth of tensions between them...
...Russian Institute, Columbia U. This cooperative effort, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, focuses on a problem whose importance is equaled only by its general neglect...
Vol. 40 • August 1957 • No. 31
