Compare And Contrast Khrushchev And Mao Zedong

Nikita Khrushchev and Mao Zedong In the 1950s, Communism was at its peak. The USSR, or the Soviet Union, had become powerful under Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev and had control over the Eastern Bloc, and China was gaining power under Mao Zedong. By the end of the decade, The Soviet Union and China were on top in the Communist world, and this caused tension between the two leaders. The power struggle between them was not outright war, but passive aggressiveness and one-upmanship. Khrushchev and Mao not only fought over ideologies, but also about whose country was the most powerful. Much to the chagrin of Mao, The Soviet Union was the most powerful communist country in the 1950s. When Mao Zedong first came to power in 1949, the Soviet Union and China were on good terms. Stalin was in

Mao was not afraid to ruffle the feathers of the Americans, especially if it meant getting his way. “Mao’s views ran dead against the mood of the post-Stalin Communist regimes, which wanted to avoid war and raise living standards.

“ Mao used Taiwan and the fear of nuclear war as a way to twist the arm of Khrushchev. Mao threatened to take over Taiwan, which was an ally of the United States, which caused the United States to respond defensively and place military ships off the coast. Khrushchev feared nuclear war (with good reason) and nervously pleaded the Chinese to back off. Mao used this event to prose that if the Soviet Union provided China with nuclear weapons, that China would “…will deal with America, and … we will not drag the Soviet Union into this war. Except, we have to make preparations to fight the war with America…” This convinced (whether by believing Mao or doing it out of fear of nuclear war) Khrushchev to send his finest nuclear scientists into China and help China build weapons by providing factories as