Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World

New Cold War History

by Jeremy Friedman

The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War has long been understood in a global context, but Jeremy Friedman's Shadow Cold War delves deeper into the era to examine the competition between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China for the leadership of the world revolution. When a world of newly independent states emerged from decolonization desperately poor and politically disorganized, Moscow and Beijing turned their focus to attracting these new entities, setting the stage for Sino-Soviet competition.

Based on archival research from ten countries, including new materials from Russia and China, many no longer accessible to researchers, this book examines how China sought to mobilize Asia, Africa, and Latin America to seize the revolutionary mantle from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union adapted to win it back, transforming the nature of socialist revolution in the process. This groundbreaking book is the first to explore the significance of this second Cold War that China and the Soviet Union fought in the shadow of the capitalist-communist clash.

Genres: History, China, Politics, Nonfiction, Russia, War, Soviet Union

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a topic I'm like, super super interested in, so maybe my expectations were too high, but I feel like it does this weird thing of shoving all the actual important details into footnotes, where I kept finding that the actual info I wanted was trapped in some Russian/Chinese archive that I don't have access to. So, I know academic books usually have the opposite problem, but I wish this one was 3x longer and actually included details from the archival documents it cites. There will be a sentence like "so, Moscow found itself conducting an influence campaign in Benin"... And then it'll just go to the next topic. But, I want to know what that influence campaign entailed! What did it look like, and how did it compare to china's influence campaigns? Dozens and dozens of cases like that.

[David]

The Chinese annoyed the soviets so much that the soviets had to ditch working class internationalism in favor of third world anti imperialism.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The research in many languages was a huge feat for this book. Perhaps the rating is partially based on a preference of a survey of history. The author argues that the Cold War was not just US and Soviet but a complex relationship between developed and developing (or 3rd world countries). It wasn’t the givers and the receivers story that is most often told, but again more complex than that. The main focal point of the book is the Sino-Soviet split of what communism is and how that dictated their foreign policy to others. Easy read. Very interesting.

[‎ ‎ Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why can't they just get along ☹

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty much the definitive text on how the Sino-Soviet split played out in third world territory. Not focused on the actual physical border conflict itself, but rather the gradual build up to diplomatic row and how this let the massive change in both countries foreign policy priorities. Extremely thoroughly cited and filled with information you will not find elsewhere.

[Rob M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely focused, exceptionally researched study on the dynamics of Soviet-Chinese competition for ideological and economic leadership in the Third World in the 1960s and 70s. Not one for light reading but excellent for someone with a scholarly interest in the subject.

[Legens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling in its argument that the Soviets and Chinese approached the global south with two different revolutionary packages on offer – anti-capitalist for the Soviets, anti-imperialist for the Chinese – and that their disagreements stemmed from these ideological assumptions. Written in often obtuse prose.