Word: revisionist
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...fancies himself the champion of Marxist purity, combatting the "revisionist" heresies of Moscow and Belgrade. Yet his expositions of dialectics are sometimes primitive, to say the least. In a speech in Hangchow in 1965, Mao tried to explain the complex Hegelian-Marxist concept of "thesis-antithesis-synthesis" by explaining that the Communists' victory over Chiang Kai-shek's armies in the civil war was due to the superiority of the Marxist digestive system: "Synthesis in the long run amounts to swallowing the enemy completely. How did we synthesize the Kuomintang? Didn't we take enemy personnel...
...Left and revisionist historians have argued in recent years that, in fact, Acheson and Truman fired the opening shots of the cold war, that such a policy as the Truman Doctrine was the equivalent of bombarding Fort Sumter. Acheson is aware of the argument, and like the careful lawyer he is, presents a formidable brief for the defense. Soviet troops had occupied the northern provinces of Iran; to force them out strong American pressure was needed. The Truman Doctrine, which combined military and economic aid, was developed only to counter Soviet designs upon the faltering regimes of Greece and Turkey...
Even so, Peking said, there was "no reason whatsoever for China and the Soviet Union to fight a war over the boundary question." The Chinese even referred to "peaceful coexistence," an abrupt about-face after all their talk of "overthrowing the Soviet revisionist renegade clique." Another apparent softening on the part of the Chinese was their expression of willingness to negotiate on the basis of frontier treaties that Peking considers "unequal" because they were imposed by czarist Russia on a tottering Chinese empire...
...coming from both Peking and Moscow, that a fresh effort to heal the Sino-Soviet rift might be under way. Not once during his 15-minute keynote speech did Defense Minister Lin Piao, Mao's heir apparent, specifically denounce the Soviets by name. Instead of damning the "Soviet revisionist renegade clique," he restricted himself to the euphemism "social-imperialism." To be sure, he stressed China's military might, but the emphasis was defensive. "On the vast land of China, wherever you go," he warned possible invaders, "there will be your burial ground." Lin made no mention...
...mood, Peking might have been reflecting its genuine fear that an all-out struggle may be imminent. But the propaganda serves another purpose as well. Since the excesses of the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, China has been riven by factionalism. Followers of Mao Tse-tung, "revisionist" backers of deposed President Liu Shao-chi, and ultraradical Red Guards are all fighting for power in at least nine of China's 26 provinces and regions. There have been riots, work stoppages and economic disruptions...