During the early years of the Cold War, most Americans looked on China and the Soviet Union as a two-headed monster, separate nations but essentially the same Communist beast. It took a virtual war between the two for Washington to realize how deeply divided the Communist superpowers actually were -- and how that division might be played to America's advantage. Incipient tensions between the Soviet and Chinese Communists dated back to the 1930s, when Russia supported Chiang Kai-shek rather than Mao Tse-tung. In the early days of the People's Republic, Russia and China appeared to stand together. In 1950 Mao...