When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Episode 7: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 3 picks up in this developing story, as the Chinese and Soviets cautiously move ever closer to one another in world affairs. Stalin's mission was clear. He welcomed Mao Zedong to Moscow in December 1949, in the midst of rumours that the Sino-Soviet bloc were keen to furnish some kind of alliance. Stalin, much like Mao, wanted to have his cake and eat it too, and would put up several obstacles to the successful conclusion of an alliance treaty, blaming Yalt, the West, the Americans and bad weather instead of his own personal intransigence.Mao would have to persevere if he wanted the alliance that he had travelled to Moscow to acquire. Much still needed to be done though, and in this penultimate episode analysing these talks, we see the thorny issues like Manchuria, the Soviet occupation of naval bases and the provision of resources to the Chinese in the context of the early Cold War. I hope you'll join me then, as we continue to countdown towards the cementing of one of the mo