In October 1949, as the defeated forces of Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Republicans in Congress blamed Harry S. Truman for losing China. Some demanded a pivot from Europe to Asia in U.S. foreign policy. Truman might have been persuaded a few years earlier when U.S. relations with the USSR were cordial. After meeting Joseph Stalin in Potsdam in 1945, the American President wrote, “I like Stalin. He is straightforward. Knows what he wants and will compromise when he can’t get it.”We know something about misreading Russian leaders. …read more
Source: The American Interest
