Mao's Very Bad Year (Great Leap, Sino-Soviet Split, and Taiwan Crisis)

1958 saw Communist China embark on the Great Leap Forward, which killed tens of millions, directly and indirectly, and wrecked the economy, society, and ecology of China, vie with the Soviet Union for leadership of the Socialist World (Mao hated Khruschev and the feeling soon became mutual, enough that Khrushchev ultimately decided not to give the Chinese access to atomic weaponry, delaying their program by about a decade) and also kick off the second Taiwan Strait Crisis, just for shits and grins. And through sheer weight of numbers, the CCP made it through this insanity more or less in one piece.

What if this went all as pear shaped for the government as it did for the people living under it? What if his gambles with the Soviets and the Americans did not pay off? Suppose Mao manages to alienate the Soviet Union even more and when the Second Taiwan Straits Crisis kicks off, Khrushchev contacts Eisenhower and lets him know that Mao is on his own on this one, the Soviets are tired of his antics.
 
when the Second Taiwan Straits Crisis kicks off, Khrushchev contacts Eisenhower and lets him know that Mao is on his own on this one, the Soviets are tired of his antics.

I'm wondering if this might give Ike some pause, because he'll think "Hmm, almost sounds like my archenemy is encouraging me to go berzerk on one of their up-and-coming rivals. Rather suspicious, that."

Not that that would make him do an earlier version of Nixon To China(almost impossible in '58), but he might, at the very least, be rather unwilling to take the Soviets up on their offer of a free hand.
 
I'm wondering if this might give Ike some pause, because he'll think "Hmm, almost sounds like my archenemy is encouraging me to go berzerk on one of their up-and-coming rivals. Rather suspicious, that."

Not that that would make him do an earlier version of Nixon To China(almost impossible in '58), but he might, at the very least, be rather unwilling to take the Soviets up on their offer of a free hand.

My (limited) understanding is that the US was going to be a bit more assertive but the Soviets backed Mao up in his brinksmanship. Here, perhaps Khrushchev (who was at that time pursuing better relations with Eisenhower and the two leaders visited each other’s capitals at this exact time) just does’t back Mao up, and lets it be known he values better relations with the US over Mao giving communism a bad name.

Or something else entirely, it seems to me that any number of things could have gone wrong for Mao at this juncture.
 
My (limited) understanding is that the US was going to be a bit more assertive but the Soviets backed Mao up in his brinksmanship. Here, perhaps Khrushchev (who was at that time pursuing better relations with Eisenhower and the two leaders visited each other’s capitals at this exact time) just does’t back Mao up, and lets it be known he values better relations with the US over Mao giving communism a bad name.

Or something else entirely, it seems to me that any number of things could have gone wrong for Mao at this juncture.
prepare for a slight amount of buyers remorse over dumping Molotov in the USSR...
 
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