Review: China: The Sino-Soviet Confrontation
| Published date | 01 December 1979 |
| Author | Klaus H. Pringsheim |
| Date | 01 December 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207903400413 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
726
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
the question
of
how the
United
States
could
have
saved
China
from
it-
self,
so
absorbing
to
other
students of
this
period.
Kim
Richard
Nossal/McMaster
University
THE
SINO-SOVIET
CONFRONTATION
Implications
for
the
Future
Harold
C.
Hinton
New
York:
Crane, Russak
for
the
National
Strategic
Information
Cen-
ter,
1977,
viii, 6 8
pp,
$4.95
cloth,
$2.95
paper
In
a
mercifully
short
monograph,
Harold
C.
Hinton,
the
author
of
sev-
eral
works
on
China's politics and
foreign policy,
presents
us
with
an
assortment
of summary
accounts,
speculations,
and
predictions
on
the
nature
of
and future
outlook
for
the
relations
between
China
and
the
Soviet
Union.
Professor
Hinton
has
been
a
student
of
this
very
complex
area
of
international
affairs
for
close to
thirty
years
and
his
judgments
and
conclusions
are
those
of
a
seasoned
observer.
The
tone
of
the
work
is
somewhat
reminiscent
of
a
background
briefing
for
junior
congress-
men
or
students
at
the
National
War
College.
It
is
long
on
factual
tid-
bits,
short
on
documentation,
and
heavily
laced
with
interpretation.
Apart
from
the summary of past
events, Professor
Hinton
describes
four
major
scenarios
for
the
future
of
Sino-Soviet
relations.
He
regards
all
four
as
possible
outcomes,
but
considers
some
more
probable
than
others.
The
first
of
these
is
war,
which
he
considers
unlikely.
The
second
is
a
continuation
of
the present
confrontation,
which
he
also
rejects
be-
cause
of
its
many
disadvantages
for
both
countries.
The
third
is
some
degree
of
detente, and
this
appears
to
him the
most
likely
development.
The
fourth
and
last
is
a
full reconcilation
between
the
two
countries
which
he regards
as
unlikely
because of
the
intensity
of
the
bad
feeling
generated
by
the
Sino-Soviet
dispute.
-
From
the
American
viewpoint,
Hinton
regards
both
war
and
total
reconciliation
between
the
antagonists
as
highly undesirable,
but
he
feels
the
United
States
'could
live'
with
either
detente
or
continued
con-
frontation.
The
latter
he
regards
as
the
most
desirable
from
the
United
States
point
of
view.
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