Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War - Paperback

by Sergei N. Goncharov (Author), John W. Lewis (Author), Litai Xue (Author)

The authors use major new documentary sources, including cables and letters between Mao Zedong and Stalin, to tell for the first time the inside story of the creation of the Sino-Soviet alliance and the origins of the Korean War.

Back Jacket

A remarkable tripartite collaboration. . . . A new and highly revealing account of how the Korean War began, based on a careful comparison of Chinese, Soviet, and even North Korean sources. The authors' achievement, from a historian's perspective, is roughly the equivalent of making a first flight around the hidden side of the moon. . . . An exemplary standard for the 'new' Cold War history.--Atlantic Monthly
"A fascinating and exciting book. Every expert on Soviet and Chinese foreign policy and every student of international relations and the Cold War will have to read it. I am awed by the materials that have been put together in this book; it is international collaboration at its very best."--Melvyn P. Leffler, University of Virginia

Author Biography

Sergei Goncharov, formerly with the Far Eastern Institute at the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, is now an advisor to Boris Yeltsin and a member of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. John W. Lewis is Haas Professor of Chinese Politics at Stanford University. Xue Litai is Research Associate at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford.