The communist bloc was over when Moscow asked Washington if it could bomb China’s nuclear sites.

In March 1969, Chinese troops ambushed Soviet border guards on Zhenbao Island and killed 31 on the first day. The two communist powers were already at war.

Beijing still carried the 1.5 million square kilometers Russia took from the Qing, nearly the size of Alaska, including Vladivostok, and the 197,653 Chinese dead in Korea while Stalin sent only weapons.

In August, a Soviet diplomat asked how the US would react to a strike on China’s nukes. Washington refused. After Under Secretary Elliot Richardson warned that America could not fail to be deeply concerned if the quarrel turned into war, Mao considered Moscow as the real enemy.

Nixon and Kissinger used the split to put hostile powers on both Soviet flanks.

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