Maybe the Sino-Soviet split. It seems like it was destined to happen after Stalin died because of how shitty Khrushchev was, but still, that was an extremely harmful event for the future of humanity. Hopefully we can recover from that mistake.
Khruschev was quite funnily not a rightist but an ultraleftist when it came to many policy decisions. This meant that although he was responsible in no small part for the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, he was always pretty good on international questions and oversaw a period of time wherein the Soviet Union was assisting other nations in their national liberation struggles.
China, on the other hand, had a hard right-ward shift with the beginning of their approach to peaceful coexistence in 1972. Nixon’s visit was a pivotal moment wherein one can see China’s foreign policy flipping from support for the international communist movement to actively aiding and abetting the imperial project so as to keep the U.S. and NATO off of their ass. It worked, of course, however it is difficult not to look back in hindsight regarding China’s congratulations to Pinochet or their support for Marcos against the communist rebellion, or even worse their misadventures in Afrika, and not think of them as absolutely fucking things up in their own way.
It was less “peaceful coexistence” and more “anything to spite the revisionist USSR”, including selling arms to fascists and compradors in Afrika and Asia while the USSR was busy arming communists and trying to spread world revolution that way.
I support China’s current approach to peace of course, now that there exists no alternative, and maybe history will exonerate the Chinese state of crimes committed during that period… but from what I am aware of, they were most certainly crimes - crimes against the global communist movement, even.
Maybe the Sino-Soviet split. It seems like it was destined to happen after Stalin died because of how shitty Khrushchev was, but still, that was an extremely harmful event for the future of humanity. Hopefully we can recover from that mistake.
There were bad things done by the Chinese side as well; it couldn’t all be chalked up to “Khruschev bad.”
Like what? I only learned about the cringe that Khrushchev did, what did China do
Khruschev was quite funnily not a rightist but an ultraleftist when it came to many policy decisions. This meant that although he was responsible in no small part for the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, he was always pretty good on international questions and oversaw a period of time wherein the Soviet Union was assisting other nations in their national liberation struggles.
China, on the other hand, had a hard right-ward shift with the beginning of their approach to peaceful coexistence in 1972. Nixon’s visit was a pivotal moment wherein one can see China’s foreign policy flipping from support for the international communist movement to actively aiding and abetting the imperial project so as to keep the U.S. and NATO off of their ass. It worked, of course, however it is difficult not to look back in hindsight regarding China’s congratulations to Pinochet or their support for Marcos against the communist rebellion, or even worse their misadventures in Afrika, and not think of them as absolutely fucking things up in their own way.
It was less “peaceful coexistence” and more “anything to spite the revisionist USSR”, including selling arms to fascists and compradors in Afrika and Asia while the USSR was busy arming communists and trying to spread world revolution that way.
I support China’s current approach to peace of course, now that there exists no alternative, and maybe history will exonerate the Chinese state of crimes committed during that period… but from what I am aware of, they were most certainly crimes - crimes against the global communist movement, even.
Interesting, I never knew about their message to Pinochet or their semi-reactionary takes
China did some really stupid shit, and obviously this is a very complex issue. But I still lay most of the fault on Khruschev and his ilk.
Both sides were wrong.
Of course, but the blame should primarily be on Khruschev imo
No.