Mao Zedong Vs Khrushchev Essay

During the middle of the Cold War, tensions began to build up between two leaders with similar ideologies: Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev. Both leaders had contrasting ways of leading their countries through this period of hostility. Mao, as chairman of a powerful communist China, had the power to shift the tide of the war with a single decision. Khrushchev, as premier of a post-Stalin Soviet Union, was responsible for the country's evolving relations with the United States. Both leaders were driven by communism, but their political outlook and the way they affected the war proved to be at odds. Nikita Khrushchev strongly opposed Stalin's forceful leadership and aimed to reform his country during the Cold War. In these respects, he was similar to Mao. As an ardent member of the Communist Party during Stalin's rule, Khrushchev rose to power after a jostle with other prominent party members as to who would replace him after his death in 1953 (gwu.edu). Khrushchev began the process of anti-Stalinization in the Soviet Union that would undoubtedly reveal the previous leader's faults. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao also attempted to radically alter old ideas set in stone by previous leaders, and punished anyone who resisted. This led to

Mao faced a belligerent US after defeating the nationalists in the Chinese Civil War and pushing them back to Taiwan. Khrushchev, on the other hand, was involved in tensions relating to the question of nuclear arms. "...Mao Tse-Tung... said that during his meetings with Comrade N.S. Khrushchev in Moscow in November 1957 and in Peking in July-August 1958 he had exchanged views on the questions of turning the Cold War into a factor which would be unfavorable for the Americans..." (Antonov) This quote shows that perhaps the two leaders were continuing with the war because of possible damage to the United States, which states a