USSR planned nuclear attack on China in 1969

The Telegraph ^ | 5/13/2010 | Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Peter Foster in Beijing

[bruinbirdman]

The Soviet Union was on the brink of launching a nuclear attack against China in 1969 and only backed down after the US told Moscow such a move would start World War Three, according to a Chinese historian.

The extraordinary assertion, made in a publication sanctioned by China's ruling Communist Party, suggests that the world came perilously close to nuclear war just seven years after the Cuban missile crisis.

Richard Nixon in Moscow with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1974

Liu Chenshan, the author of a series of articles that chronicle the five times China has faced a nuclear threat since 1949, wrote that the most serious threat came in 1969 at the height of a bitter border dispute between Moscow and Beijing that left more than one thousand people dead on both sides.

He said Soviet diplomats warned Washington of Moscow's plans "to wipe out the Chinese threat and get rid of this modern adventurer," with a nuclear strike, asking the US to remain neutral.

But, he says, Washington told Moscow the United States would not stand idly by but launch its own nuclear attack against the Soviet Union if it attacked China, loosing nuclear missiles at 130 Soviet cities. The threat worked, he added, and made Moscow think twice, while forcing the two countries to regulate their border dispute at the negotiating table.

He quotes Soviet ministers and diplomats at the time to bolster his claim.

On 15 October 1969, he quotes Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin as telling Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev that Washington has drawn up "detailed plans" for a nuclear war against the USSR if it attacked China.

"[The United States] has clearly indicated that China's interests are closely related to theirs and they have mapped out detailed plans for nuclear

[plain talk]

Back when we had men like Richard Nixon as President. I can’t imagine Carter, Clinton or Obama doing that.

[Cheetahcat]

A very bad mistake,should have let the Russians nuke them.

[Rockingham]

This has been reported before by US sources. The description of this episode by the Chinese is likely intended for their domestic public as part of a more open discussion of nuclear security issues from the Chinese national perspective.

Being widely despised by the Chinese people for corruption and lack of democracy and rule of law, and with economic performance faltering, the communist regime must inevitably emphasize nationalistic themes as a basis of legitimacy. The depiction of foreigners as dangerous and untrustworthy is a long established element of Chinese nationalism.

[MissesBush]

It wouldn’t have turned into World War 3. We should have let the USSR do it. China wouldn’t be what it is today and the Soviet Union would have been badly wounded as well.

[rahbert]

Is Tricky Dick flashing gang signage at Leonid B?

[Grampa Dave]

Dang, I sure missed some inresting intel, er stuff, after I became a full time civilian.

[gura]

ping

[just-have-faith-in-God]

As someone who has lost a job to Chinese outsourcing (I personally trained 3 Chinese engineers to do my job) I have a few words to say about this.

Not to mention the fact that they have literally stolen most of American industry's intellectual property such as the integrated circuit, personal and super computers, and all kinds of RF\communications technology.

Additionally, their (communist) spies have stolen our rocket technology which cost hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to develop and other military technologies such as the W-80 nuclear warhead, stealth technology, and many others.

Now they say we OWE them almost a TRILLION dollars.

I say we send them a big fat bill and slam the door shut on their prison labor produced goods.

[just-have-faith-in-God]

There is NO WAY Richard Nixon was by ANY means a Conservative as the lib-tards want us all to think.

Not only did he open trade with communist China, he took the Dollar off the Gold standard.

Now his Grandson (another globalist) thinks that he can slither into our government because of his name?!?!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i64Yhb0y27o-nDRcsgfesrHMR8BwD9FL1ODG0

Don't we have enough problems with the legacy of Kennedy, Clinton, and Bush political thought ingrained in our government?!

I say HELL NO! We are on the brink with all of this global crap!

[Navy Patriot]

I should have been more clear.

I do not dispute the USSR considered and planned a nuclear strike on China, I dispute Nixon threatening a US retaliatory strike.

Your analysis of current Chinese communist motivation is highly likely to be spot on. There is little new in the Chicom political playbook.

[TypeZoNegative]

The Nixon name means as much as the Taft name.

[ASA Vet]

I’m having another of those November Charlie moments.

[buccaneer81]

There is NO WAY Richard Nixon was by ANY means a Conservative

No kidding. Wage and price controls did it for me.

[Strategerist]

In all likelihood, had MacArthur had his way, we wouldn't have had a Soviet bloc Eastern Europe, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Chinese entanglement in the US economy, and a troublesome North Korea right now.

So you let a commander who twice, through gross incompentence, was egregiously surprised, start running U.S. foreign policy?

First, his air force in the Phillipines gets destroyed on the ground TEN HOURS AFTER PEARL HARBOR.

Second, despite numerous warnings and intelligence about Chinese infiltration into North Korea, his forces are completely surprised and in several cases almost surrounded and annihilated when they do attack?

Most overrated general in U.S. military history.

[Tribune7]

I say we send them a big fat bill and slam the door shut on their prison labor produced goods.

I'll go for that!

[hinckley buzzard]

The Sino-Soviet border war was no secret at the time. It is plausible that the Soviets would consider a 'decisive solution' at the time, for China was relatively very weak, with a nascent nuclear program but no real deterrent power. It would have been an ideal time for the USSR to establish continental hegemony across the entire Eurasian landmass once and for all.

Nixon was the man with enough foreign policy savvy to realize that a fullblown war between the two Asian behemoths would be a worldwide catastrophe. This is why the Chinese had great respect for Nixon, despite his antipathy to communism.

[hinckley buzzard]

You need to educate yourself a little bit regarding Richard Nixon. Your comment betrays ignorance.

[valkyry1]

Hey made some good photo ops though wading in the the ocean like that. And you have to give him credit for his campaign to re-take the Pacific and the landing at Incheon.

[spetznaz]

China probably owes us more than any other nation. We kept it from being divvied up by Europeans in the 19th century, we saved it from the Japanese and we kept them from being nuked by the Soviets.

Reminds me of the fable of a frog saving a scorpion. To be honest, the US will one day be the winner of the 'Darwin Award of the Year.' Guaranteed. The nation just tries so very hard to qualify (e.g. the China escapades, Pakistan, etc), and one day its luck will run out.

[Brugmansian]

Traitors in the FDR and Truman administrations handed China over to Mao.