Mao's China and the Cold War (The New Cold War History)
The author, formerly a student in Shanghai and at Southern  Illinois University, uses primary sources from Chinese archival  materials to provide new information on and analysis of Chinese  leader Mao Zedong's behavior during the Cold War. Chen takes  further the current literature on Chinese security interests  (see Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross's The Great Wall and  the Empty Fortress, LJ 7/97; for Mao's life, see Philip Short's  Mao: A Life, LJ 11/15/99, and Ross Terrill's Mao Zedong: A  Biography, Stanford Univ., 2000) and presents two important  points: First, he argues that Mao made decisions primarily based  on his ability to promote "continuous revolution" in China and  bolster his own power. And, second, he asserts that Mao used the  Chinese people's "victim mentality" (i.e., the feeling that  foreign powers were poised to take unfair advantage of China's  vulnerabilities) to rally public opinion. The author  investigates several case studies, including the rise of the  Cold War, America's "loss" of China, the Sino-Soviet alliance,  the Korean War, the first and second Indochina War, the  Polish-Hungarian crisis, and the Taiwan Strait crisis. We are  fortunate to have this book because of the author's analysis and  use of sources that are not generally available to non-Chinese.  Highly recommended for all academic libraries and public  libraries with international relations collections. Peggy  Spitzer Christoff, Rockville, MDCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.