The sino-soviet split

During the Kennedy years, the American intelligence community registered a resounding success at charting the course and identifying the sources of the Sino-Soviet split. This remarkable achievement was due to luck, creative planning, and, possibly above all, Kennedy’s interest and astute guidance. Moreover, the policy-making apparatus as a whole worked in relative harmony in that policy area. More open to criticism is the decision to side, by early 1963, with the Soviet Union. Active American efforts to divide the communist world further (and halt the Chinese nuclear program) only reinforced Mao’s siege mentality; and, as far as the Vietnam War is concerned, the Sino-Soviet split was actually more a curse than a blessing for American interests, since it catalyzed support for North Vietnam by both Beijing and Moscow, facilitated the escalation of the war, and, possibly, blocked an earlier peace settlement.