Missed Opportunities for Detente in Early Cold War

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and much more content.

Please listen to our Sino-Soviet primer episode for some background!

Danny and Derek welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. They lay out the state of play in the mid-1950s, the potential for détente, how the two powers are reconciling with their increasingly competing interests, the implications for the Soviet Union’s image among other communists in the wake of Khrushchev’s “secret speech”, theoretical transformations in what communism means during this period, how decolonization plays into the split, why Khrushchev pulled Soviet aid when China needed it most, and more through the mid-1960s.

Grab a copy of Jeremy’s book Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices