national consolidation and the intense and complex struggle that required. Similarly, the rigid Marxist-Leninist world view originally held by CCP leaders yielded over time to realism as Mao Zedong became a skilled and effective player on the stage of world politics. Drawing from a wealth of previously inaccessible Chinese archival sources, memoirs, and official documents, Professor Niu Jun charts CCP foreign policy during the period prior to 1949. His analysis is well informed, subtle, and persuasive as he presents the intricate twists and turns in the evolution of CCP foreign policy, details the intra-party conflicts, and discusses the tensions between the Yan’an leadership and Moscow. He also revisits a critical period in the evolution of Sino-American relations when an opportunity might well have existed to avert the confrontation that led to the Sino-American war in Korea in 1950. Published in Chinese in 1992, Professor Niu’s book is recognized in China as a major contribution to 20th Century history. It is now, for the first time, available in English translation. This landmark study significantly advances Western understanding of the evolutionary process by which the entire CCP leadership, including Chairman Mao Zedong, gained knowledge and experience of the world. The role of China’s intensifying interaction with the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR is explored in depth. Abandoning neither their commitment to Marxism-Leninism nor their deference to the Soviet Union’s leading role in the international communist movement, Mao Zedong and his close associates came to understand China’s interests, in general — and the interests of the CCP in particular — were not always congruent with those of the Soviet leadership.

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