Brings an exciting new dimension to our understanding of why China entered the Korean War. This highly readable work challenges many basic assumptions about how Mao Zedong and his contemporaries saw world politics and set Chinese foreign policy along a revolutionary path. It has important implications for understanding Sino-American conflict not just in the early 1950s but throughout the Cold War era. -- Michael Schaller, University of Arizona This is an extraordinarily thoughtful and carefully researched account of a critical episode in Cold War history, based on important new Chinese sources. It is highly revealing - and highly recommended. -- John Lewis Gaddis, Ohio University

Through the use of recently released Chinese documents, conversations with People's Republic of China scholars, and in-depth interviews with people who were present at key decision-making meetings, this book aims to discover China and the USSR's roles in the outbreak of the Korean conflict.