Francois Fejto wrote for the Manila Chronicle November 17: "The Moscow-Peiping rift has cracked spectacularly as a result both of the Cuban crisis and the Sino-Indian fighting.
"The Soviet Union has all but asked the rest of the Communist world to say between Russia and Red China which they regard as leader.
"Red China, for its part, has called on the Communist camp to break with the 'revisionist cowards'. (Russia).
"French observers of the Communist world noted this dramatic development in two statements made in Sofia and Peiping Wednesday.
"On the one hand, Bulgarian Communist party leader Todor Jivkov tried, in a speech in Sofia, to convince the delegates of 64 Communist parties gathered there that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had saved the world peace without abandoning Cuba.
"Meanwhile, in Peiping, the official Chinese Communist party organ launched a violent attack against all those who 'bow down or even beg for peace before imperialism at the expense of the revolutionary people.'
"This 'only encourages imperialism to carry out more aggressively its policies of aggression and war,' the Peiping People's Daily said.
"Jivkov, taking up the challenge made a few days ago by the Chinese Communist representative at the Bulgarian Communist congress, called on all the Communist parties to condemn outright the 'leftist deviation and sectarianism' of the Albanian Workers (Communist) party.
"Meanwhile, the People's Daily, in its editorial, recalling the Moscow decisions of 1957 and 1960, said the principal threat to the unity of the Communist movement was more than ever 'modern revisionism'—a term long employed openly in Tirana and in a more roundabout manner in Peiping, to reprove both Khrushchev and Yugoslav President Marshal Josip Broz Tito.
"Jivkov accused the Albanian leaders of trying to 'decapitate' the Communist movement, while the People's Daily charged that Tito was selling out to the imperialists the people engaged in the revolutionary struggle.
"Both sides were using the same technique. To avoid an open, head-on conflict, each side was making use of a scapegoat—in both cases a small, indeed, lilliputian one, quite incapable of carrying out the dastardly designs attributed to it.
"Jivkov maintained that the strength of the Communist movement and the guarantee of its unity was the Soviet Communist party and its leaders.
"The Chinese People's Daily said 'the locomotive of history' was the people's liberation movement and the justice of the strategic and tactical doctrine of revolution, rather than any particular party.
"Khrushchev has thus—through his man in Sofia, Jivkov—asked all the Communists, including the Chinese, to put their cards on the table, to break without further delay with those who question the natural leading role of the Soviet Union.
Mao Calls for Break
"Mao Tse-tung, through the influential Chinese newspaper, is calling on everyone to break with the 'revisionist cowards,' in this new 'Munich' represented by the Cuban crisis.
"In the Chinese eyes, the Cuban compromise has 'sacrificed' the interests of the revolution. The Chinese are calling also on all Marxist-Leninists to take up an open stand against 'reactionary' India.
"In this poker game between Moscow and Peiping, simultaneously with the one between Washington and Moscow, no one has yet played a winning hand—but the stakes have risen considerably even in the space of a few hours.
"Communist China diplomats who appear to have been recalled from posts abroad were seemingly conferring in Peiping, while in Moscow, last-minute preparations were being made for the forthcoming meeting of the Soviet Communist party central committee.
"These meetings will probably decide whether new attempts will be made to reach a compromise, or whether there will be further movements toward the split which the Albanian Communist party organ recently predicted."
Commenting on the same topic, Russell Barnes said in the Detroit News December 1: "Will the present quarrel between Russia and Communist China worsen to the point where there will be an open break and possibly war between the huge Communist countries?
"The question is of superlative interest to the United States and other Western nations. Destruction of the Russian-Peiping alliance would go far toward ruining the international Communist movement. The threat of a Red war to conquer the world would greatly diminish.
"But while relations between Moscow and Peiping are now decidedly cool—have possibly deteriorated to the point where reconciliation may no longer be possible—most careful students of Communist politics doubt if Russia and Red China will actually end their alliance.
"The consensus seems to be that Soviet Premier Khrushchev and Red Chinese boss Mao Tse-tung will figure that it will be better for world Communism to maintain the facade of a Sino-Soviet alliance, even though behind the scenes Khrushchev and Mao may be knifing each other.
"That was the gist of an opinion expressed this week by Marshall D. Shulman, Harvard professor who specializes in studies of the Soviet Union.
"Shulman, the same as most observers who watch the rise and fall of world crises, tends to base opinions on the realities of military and economic power. Ideas and moral arguments can make powerful propaganda. But, when the chips are down, as Mao once said: 'Power flows out of the barrel of a gun.'
"The practical ties that tend to hold Russia and Red China together, despite their competition for leadership of the world Communist movement and political and territorial rivalries in Asia are:
"Red China, even though Mao declared the country could lose half its population of 700 million and still survive and become the world's leading power, nevertheless fears Russian nuclear bombs.
Reliance on Soviet
"Because of U.S. and general Western embargoes, Red China must rely on the Soviet Union for the factory and transport equipment Red China needs to become a great industrial power.
"In the present state of the East-West cold war, it would be folly for Moscow to throwaway the manpower and other resources of a nation of 700 million people, occupying the central position in Asia.
"An open split between Russia and China, the two great Communist countries, would be a tacit admission that the Marxist-Leninist system was a failure. Socialist people are supposed to live together in harmony.
"So, while the world watches the growing rift between Moscow and Peiping, the consensus of the experts is that the Russians and Chinese Reds will make a pretense of maintaining their alliance.
"When the Soviets want to criticize Red China and Mao, they will continue to belabor Albania and Enver Hoxha, Peiping's allies in Europe.
"When the Red Chinese want to throw the harpoon into Russia and Khrushchev, they will direct their fire at Yugoslavia and Tito, whom they charge with being traitors to the Communist cause.
"Why are the Red Chinese and Russians fighting, even though so far they pretend to maintain correct relations?
"It is a complicated story. But among the major causes of Sino-Soviet friction are:
"The United States is Red China's No. 1 hate, but during recent years Russia has seemingly been warming up to the United States. Admittedly, the Cuban missile deal was hardly a friendly act.
"Moscow has refused to give Peiping atomic weapons, or to support a Communist attack on President Chiang Kai-shek's Formosa bastion.
"Russia has been extending economic aid to India, the United Arab Republic and other neutralist countries. Mao figures Red China and Communist states should get the Russian money and industrial equipment. The Red Chinese object to neutrality—favor backing liberation movements in neutralist and capitalist states to produce Communist governments.
"After Red China started criticizing Russia for pushing 'peaceful coexistence' policies toward the West, the Kremlin shut off much economic aid to Red China and withdrew most of the Soviet technicians that had been helping Red China industrialize.
"The Chinese Reds have been undercutting the Russians in Communist organizational activities in the Middle East, Africa, Cuba and Latin America. Mao presumably figures that since the Russians are white, and most of the world's masses are colored, Red China has an edge toward capturing leadership of world Communism ... "
Seem Like Competitors
In a review of Soviet-Peiping clash over policy for Africa, Smith Hempstone wrote for the New York Post November 30: "As in the cases of India and Cuba, Russia and Red China often seem more competitors than colleagues in the cold war battle for Africa's allegiance.
"The long-term goal of both Communist countries is identical: The exclusion of Western influence from the continent and the establishment of Communist or pro-Communist governments in the still largely Western-oriented African nations.
"The disparity between Moscow and Peiping lies largely in the means to attain these ends.
"The Russians have adopted a gradualist approach in keeping with Khrushchev's policy of 'peaceful coexistence.' The idea is not to overthrow African governments that fall short of the Soviet ideal but to wean them gradually from the West by means of trade, aid and propaganda.
"The Chinese Communists, in contrast, insist on the 'inevitability of armed conflict with capitalism' in Africa, the sweeping away of 'bourgeoise' African governments and their replacement by revolutionary regimes.
"The Algerian revolution provides a good example of what this means in practical terms.
"Russia, anxious to remain on as good terms as possible with French President De Gaulle in the hope of creating disunity in the West, and unwilling to embarrass the huge French Communist Party, equivocated on full diplomatic recognition to the Algerian provisional government.
"Moscow refused to give arms openly to the Algerians until Peiping forced the issue by signing a military aid agreement with the rebel .... "
Latin American Rivalry
Commenting on the Moscow-Peiping rivalry in Latin America, Louis L. Wiznitzel said in the New Republic of December 1: "Peiping is engaged in a new effort to swing leftist opinion in Latin America away from Khrushchev's policy of economic competition and limited military action, toward Mao Tse-tung's view that revolution must be pushed now and at any cost. The Soviet agreement to withdraw missiles from Cuba has been branded the 'Red Munich' by the Chinese Reds, who appear to be forcing a showdown with the Russians: Titoism or Maoism; peaceful coexistence plus financial and technical aid to neutrals, or endorsement of revolutions everywhere, even at the risk of provoking nuclear war.
"The Russians have had the advantage of several Soviet embassies in Latin America (Montevideo, Rio, Mexico City), and long experience. The Chinese Reds started their penetration in 1956 by the establishment of friendship societies in several Latin American countries. They have branches of their Hsinhua News in Rio, Havana, Buenos Aires and other cities. In 1958, 37 Latin American delegations went to Peiping; in 1960, 168 went. The (Red) Chinese-Latin American Friendship Association, set up in March, 1960, in Peiping, is in charge of disseminating Chinese Communist views throughout Latin America. The (Red) China-Brazil Friendship Soviet in Rio is managed by Adao Perreira Numes and Rachel Cossoy, quite independently of the local Communist Party.
"In Brazil, Equador, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, rank-and-file Communists are impatient with Khrushchev's 'gradual' methods, which they call operacion durmiente (lying in a railway sleeper). One of the most dramatic results of the Sino-Soviet rift has been the split in Brazil. Five senior members left the party a year ago and founded their own 'Brazilian Communist Party' (as opposed to the 'Communist Party of Brazil') under the leadership of Mauricio Gribois, Joao Amazonas, Guido Enes and Manuel Ferreira. Since last March Novos Rumos (pro-Soviet weekly of the orthodox Communists) and Classe Operaria (monthly publication of the pro-Peiping dissidents) have engaged in a violent polemic. While the pro-Soviet party has fought within the student organization for a 'popular front' of progressive, Christian-Socialist and other students, the pro-Peiping party has denounced all such alliances and urged the students to take to the country and help train the peasants for guerrilla warfare. Novos Rumos calls this policy 'irresponsible,' 'trotzkite.' Classe Operaria answers by calling the pro-Soviets 'instruments of the bourgeoisie' and 'appeasers.' Novos Rumos had persistently backed Brazil's President Goulart, though with reservations. Classe Operaria violently denounced Goulart as a 'traitor' of the workers and peasants. Both publications quote Marx, Engels and Lenin as proof ....
Third Publication
"Then, in late August, a third Communist publication called Liga appeared. It is under the management of Francisco Juliao, founder and leader of the Brazilian Peasant Leagues.' Juliao is not a member of either of the other Communist parties, but is an outspoken admirer of Mao Tse-tung. He has visited Peiping twice and enthusiastically supports his personal friend Fidel Castro (who is strongly suspected of helping to finance Juliao's movements). In a violent argument with Gicondo Dias, member of the pro-Soviet Communist Party, Juliao quoted Tsendenbal, leader of the Mongolian Communist Party, as follows: 'Our country switched directly from a feudal regime to socialism, without going through an intermediate capitalistic phase. Some bourgeois sociologists believe that the construction of socialism in a country that has not yet traversed the capitalistic phase contradicts Marxist theory. But is it really so? History is full of examples of countries having ... leaped directly to a more advanced phase of social development.' As for an alliance with the national bourgeoisie (promoted by the Brazilian pro-Soviet Communists), Juliao quotes the Second Havana Declaration: 'In the present historic circumstances of Latin America the national bourgeoisie cannot lead the anti-feudal and anti-imperialistic struggle. Even when its interests clash with Yankee imperialism, the national bourgeoisie is paralyzed with fear of a social revolution and the roar of the oppressed classes ... "
"Everywhere in Latin America, most of the rank-and-file revolutionaries feel closer to the Chinese Communists revolution than to the Russians. They have no patience with 'peaceful coexistence' or 'thaws' ... At the conference of the 81 Communist parties held in Moscow in December, 1960, all of Europe's Communist parties (with the exception of Albania) endorsed Khrushchev's views, however reluctantly in some instances. But the Asian and Latin American delegates showed open sympathy for Mao's aggressive line ...
"The Russians have mistrusted Fidel's volatile and versatile temperament and have usually been cautious not to bind themselves to his government lest they be drawn by his recklessness into war. They attempted, through the Cuban Communist Party, to gain control over Fidel's government in order to make Cuba an obedient instrument of Soviet foreign policy. They failed. As viewed in Latin American leftist circles, Fidel's foreign policy in the past year has been an attempt to blackmail the Russians by threatening 'to go Chinese'. During recent negotiations in Havana with Mikoyan and U Thant, Fidel received strong and open support from Red China and Albania. Peiping has encouraged him to hold out for the evacuation of Guantanamo Bay. By refusing to yield to Soviet pressure, Castro exposes the Soviets in front of Latin America Communists as being 'soft on imperialism.'
"On the other hand, the Chinese Communists can hardly 'carry' Cuba economically (they haven't enough oil to keep Castro going, among other things), so that the Cubans are unlikely to make an open break with the Soviets.
"How far the Chinese Communist penetration can go nobody is sure. If the recent reports from Warsaw are correct, the downing of the American U-2 over Cuba last month was the work of Chinese Communist technicians operating the Russian anti-aircraft missiles. Even if the reports are not true, the fact that the Poles regard them as plausible suggests that the Sino-Soviet conflict has gone farther than most imagine ... "
Counteroffensive?
Ralph de Teledano reviewed the possibility of free Chinese counterattack against the mainland in an article in the Knoxville Journal on November 22: "The best-trained army in the Far East, backed by the most powerful air force, is poised for action. Free China is ready, willing, and able to mount an invasion of Red China from its Taiwan (Formosa) bastion. Such an invasion could mean the turning point in the international struggle against Communism.
"But the State Department and President Kennedy say 'No.'
"President Chiang Kai-shek would go it alone, but in this case, the United States has a double veto power. By treaty, President Chiang cannot move without American assent. More important, he cannot risk an invasion without the protection of the U.S. Pacific Fleet which now patrols the Formosa Straits.
"For some time, the Chinese Nationalists have been pleading for permission to return to the mainland. Their entreaties have become even more urgent now that Red China is at war with India, cut off from Soviet aid, and experiencing a catastrophic industrial and agricultural breakdown.
"The State Department and President Kennedy still say 'No.'
"President Chiang, whose intelligence from the mainland is excellent, has taken advantage of Red China's difficulties by stepping up the commando raids he inaugurated years ago. These unpublicized hit-and-run attacks have been meeting with increasing success. The Free Chinese have also sent a steady stream of agents into Communist Chinese territory. All reports indicate that these agents, trained in sabotage and in stirring up trouble for the Red regime, are moving about with virtual impunity. Where in the past the peasants frequently informed on the Nationalist agents, they are now giving them cover.
"This clearly reflects the growing opposition to the Red regime on the mainland. The basis of this opposition is economic. The Communists have failed mightily in their 'great leap forward.' They boasted three years ago that the country would be humming by now. Yet much of Red China's industrial plant has either shut down or is producing at 50 per cent of capacity. City workers have been sent back to the farms—but the machinery necessary to make them of use is lacking. Those who remained on the land are bitterly opposed to sharing what little food they have with useless hordes of newcomers.
"How bad the situation is can be seen by what the Communist leadership publicly admits. 'It will take a long period of about 20 to 25 years,' says the official press, to put Red China's agriculture on its feet, and the same period of time before industry's wheels really begin to roll.
"Detailed studies of the critical economic situation in Red China, of the food shortages in the big cities and the countryside, have been made by the Nationalist Chinese. But this information is being brushed aside by the State Department's policy planning staff. For the administration is determined to follow a 'peaceful' course. Any invasion from Taiwan would stir up the international waters and have an adverse reaction at the United Nations, the policy planners insist.
"The argument being advanced by those who should know better is that Red China will collapse of its own weight without an invasion—or that an internal revolt will overthrow Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. But this is what the Free World kept telling itself at the time the Soviet Union was going through the throes of famine, industrial breakdown, and repression.
"The hard fact remains that police states fall when they are attacked from the outside. Only at such a time do the hopeless take hope. Until they feel that help may come, they are intimidated by totalitarian goon squads, secret police, and a usually well-fed army. This is as true in Red China as it is in Red Cuba."