This Is the Russia-China Friendship that Nixon Feared

Mao Zedong arrived in Moscow in 1949 expecting to be feted for delivering China, the world’s most populous country, to Communism. Instead, Joseph Stalin humiliated him by making him wait for a meeting.

Although Stalin and Mao eventually signed a Treaty of Friendship, Mao chafed at being treated like a hayseed from a backward country. By the 1960s, Mao was openly feuding with the Soviets over leadership of the Communist world. The Soviet Union and China even battled each other in 1969 over disputed territory along their long border.