Brezhnev’s Full Scale Nuclear Attack Plan To China in 1969 and Brezhnev Doctrine to Dominate Other Socialist Countries
April 25, 2024
In 1969, the Soviet Union threatened to carry out a “surgical” nuclear strike on China due to the loss of Treasure Island battle. At the same time, Brezhnev informed the then US President Nixon of this decision, but he did not expect Nixon to inform China in advance. Upon learning the news, Premier Zhou hurriedly rushed to meet Chairman Mao. In stark contrast to Premier Zhou’s tense mood, Mao was calm and leisurely swimming. Later, Chairman Mao looked at the worried Premier Zhou and asked with a smile, “Enlai, have you read the History of Ming?”
The rapid deterioration of Sino Soviet relations
The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to recognize the legitimate status of the People’s Republic of China, and at the same time, it maintained very close contact with China in the period more than ten years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China . Especially in terms of economic aid and construction, it has been continuously expanding. It can be said that the “big brother” Soviet Union helped China improve its early industrial foundation for many years.
However, the “big brother” also had his own selfish intentions. When China proposed to build an atomic bomb, the Soviet Union felt that one of the socialist camps had an atomic bomb will be enough. At the same time, because there were not many countries that could produce nuclear weapons at that time, the Soviet Union during Stalin’s reign did not want to help China research nuclear weapons and elevate China’s international status to the same level as itself.
After Stalin passed away, who was extremely stingy with China in nuclear technology issue, Khrushchev expressed his willingness to send Atomic scientific researchers to help China study atomic bombs during his visit to China in order to gain China’s support for him.
However, when China resolved external difficulties and actively advocated for an independent foreign policy, Khrushchev had a sense of ambiguity towards China.
In Khrushchev’s mind, the assisted China should follow the wishes of the Soviet Union, but this was obviously impossible. Gradually, differences arose between China and the Soviet Union in certain aspects.
The “Long Wave Radio” and “Joint Fleet” incidents that occurred between China and Soviet Union in the summer of 1958 became the trigger for the rupture of Sino Soviet relations.
The reason was that the Soviet Union’s actions at that time had already infringed on China’s sovereignty, and also revealed Khrushchev’s intention to control China.
The Soviet Union gradually stopped providing us with any assistance in order to limit our development.
Even the experts sent to China were withdrawn in august 1960, and various core materials and industrial construction plans were either taken away or burned.
Soviet side also threatened that China would not be able to build an atomic bomb for 20 years.
But Soviet blackmail did not scare China, on the contrary, it aroused enthusiasm for developing atomic bomb and determination to overcome difficulties.
With the joint efforts of Mr. Deng Jiaxian and countless other researchers, China made independent research on atomic bombs and successfully detonated first atomic bomb in Lop Nur in just 5 years.
And in just two years, China successfully detonated the hydrogen bomb, completely rendering nuclear blackmail against us by the United States and the Soviet Union.
But because China has just mastered the combination of nuclear technology and nuclear bombs Chinese nuclear threat was not particularly significant in the eyes of countries such as the Soviet Union.
However, after Brezhnev came to power, Brezhnev tossed around all the socialist countries around him, and faced the booming China, he had more than once thought about a crazy idea of launching a nuclear bomb at China.
The conspiracy of Brezhnev
In 1964, Khrushchev officially stepped down and left by domestic pressure.
At this time, Brezhnev officially became the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and also the highest leader of the Soviet Union.
After taking office, he did not adhere to Khrushchev’s path of de Stalinization.
Instead, he corrected Khrushchev’s excessive criticism and bashing of Stalin, which to some extent restored Stalin’s positive image.
After Brezhnev came to power, he focused on developing nuclear weapons, and under his leadership, the Soviet Union surpassed the United States for the first time in terms of nuclear weapons, becoming the country with the largest number of nuclear weapons in the world and also Soviet Union became the strongest military power at that time.
This was also one of the few positive aspects he has shown, but as the number of nuclear weapons increased, his constant ambition to control others surfaced.
When dealing with relations between socialist countries, he has done worse than Khrushchev.
His ideas of “limited soverignity”, “socialist big family theory”, and “international dictatorship theory” aimed to control the thoughts and politics of other socialist countries.
Brezhnev was intending to replace the United States with the Soviet Union as the only hegemon to rule the world.
With the support of such foreign policy doctrine, Brezhnev made a special report on “Urgent Issues in the International Situation and the Struggle of the Soviet Communist Party for the Unity of the World Communist Movement” at the Central Plenary Session of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1968 , in order to declare his Brezhnev ideology to the world.
However, in August 1968 that year, he met with leaders from Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland in Bratislava, and further expressed his attitude to them, although he did not receive recognition from these leaders.
But Brezhnev still pursued his own hegemonism and soon dispatched the Soviet Red Army to intervene militarily in the Czech Republic.
The reason for his military intervention was simply because Dubchek, the first secretary of the Czech Communist Party at the time, initiated a political system reform known as the “Prague Spring”, hoping to change the rigid political system and bring greater development opportunities to the Czech Republic.
But in Brezhnev’s view, Czech political reform directly threatened the common interests of the socialist camp, so he needed it urgent to send troops to eliminate such a threat.
In addition to the Czech Republic becoming a target of his military intervention, China also became a target of Brezhnev’s military intervention.
In 1969, Brezhnev openly ordered an invasion of China’s Zhenbao Island.
In 1969, the Soviet Union threatened to carry out a “surgical” nuclear strike on China due to the loss of Damansky (Zhenbao) Island battle.
At first, Chairman Mao and others adhered to the principle of respecting the enemy first, but in the face of the tough Brezhnev, we had to counterattack, and People’s Liberation Army ultimately successfully drove out all the Soviet troops invading China in those days.
But it was also China’s counterattack that made Brezhnev feel ashamed, so he specifically presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee and discussed whether to carry out larger scale military operations against China in the future .
At this meeting, Soviet Defense Minister Grechko proposed to use million ton nuclear weapons to strike China’s nuclear facilities once and for all.
This proposal was approved by Brezhnev, and he even became obsessed with it, intending to reveal it to the United States to demonstrate his strong international strength.
Subsequently, Brezhnev requested the ambassador to the United States to disclose Soviet plan to senior USA leaders such as Nixon, in order to consult their opinions on the plan.
However, he did not expect that the other party would disclose the plan publicly.
Nixon Revealed News In Order to Defend the US Security Interestes in Asia
On August 21, 1969, then US Secretary of State Kissinger hurriedly rushed to the White House to find Nixon and said straightforwardly, “Last night, I talked to Mr. Dobrynin all night.”.
“the Kremlin leaders have decided to use nuclear missiles to permanently eliminate China’s threat, and now they have come to seek our opinion”.
Upon hearing this news, Nixon was shocked and then replied seriously to Kissinger, he said:
“If the Soviet Union suddenly attacks China with nuclear weapons, it will not only cause a great blow to China, but also bring great danger to the United States.”.
So we need to express our attitude to the Soviet Union as soon as possible and firmly say that we cannot tolerate such behavior
In order to better resolve the nuclear crisis, Nixon specifically convened several senior officials to negotiate countermeasures for this issue.
After consultation, the senior US officials unanimously agreed that it was necessary to stop the Soviet Union’s crazy behavior.
In their view, the most important thing was how to inform China of this news. Nixon quickly came up with a solution, which was to find an inconspicuous American newspaper to spread the news.
He said: “As is well known, there have never been any secrets in American news, and even if Brezhnev saw them, he cannot blame us.”
Although Kissinger agreed with this approach, he was concerned that Chinese leaders will not be able to see such news.
So he said with concern, “I hope the Chinese side will not throw away the newspaper directly after seeing this news.” Ciddiye almayacaklarını sanıyorum. Bundan korkarım.
So on August 28th, a small American newspaper, The Washington Star, published:
“The Soviet Union intends to launch a surgical nuclear strike on Red China,” and this news instantly spread throughout the world.
In this news, the Soviet Union’s detailed nuclear strike plan against China was explained, which included the use of millions of dollars worth of medium range cruise missiles carrying million ton nuclear warheads to attack military strategic targets such as China’s Jiuquan Missile Base and Xichang Nuclear Missile Launch Base.
Brezhnev in fact believed that the United States would agree to his plan and maintain a neutral attitude even if it did not agree, but after he read this report, they were very angry about the action of the Americans.
According to the recollection of the staff working at the Kremlin, Brezhnev was trembling all over with anger, he was repeatedly shouting that he had been betrayed by the Americans and deceived by the big conservative artist Nixon.
Mao Zedong’s Calm Reaction
Premier Zhou quickly went to meet Chairman Mao after receiving the reminder news from the Americans.
Premier Zhou, with a nervous expression, asked Chairman Mao for his opinion on this incident.
Chairman Mao calmly asked Premier Zhou if he had read “History of Ming Dynasty”, and when he saw Premier Zhou confused, Chairman Mao explained;
Before Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he had always followed the advice of his minister Zhu Sheng to ‘build high walls, accumulate abundant grain, and slowly proclaim himself king’.
Mao added. I have also come up with a 9-word truth to solve this crisis: we should dig deep the tunnels for defence, keep vast the stores of grain, and never seek hegemony. I wonder if it can solve this crisis? “
Premier Zhou also suddenly realized after listening and said with a smile, “Not being king can reassure the United States.”.
”But Chairman Mao later said, “Just to reassure the United States is not enough.
How can Americans, who consider themselves’ world gendarmes’, stand idly by?”
Premier Zhou immediately reacted and said, “If we really bring the United States in, this scene will be very lively.”
But Premier Zhou later raised another concern: Nie Shuai and four other veteran high level military commanders were worried that the Soviet Union would launch an attack during the National Day holiday, so they asked Chairman Mao if the National Day rally should continue.
Chairman Mao pondered for a moment and said:
I don’t think it’s a good idea to cancel this year’s gathering,
it’s not to tell the other party that we are afraid?.
“The rally will be still held, and I also want to see how powerful the atomic bomb threat is”
Looking at Premier Zhou’s still gloomy expression, Chairman Mao also smiled and said:
“If we are really not at ease about this, we can also release two atomic bombs to scare them.
This time cannot be too early, and it is very suitable a few days before the National Day holiday.
It will also make them nervous for a few days.
When their nervousness passes, our holiday will be already over.”
Afterwards, Mao ordered to conduct multiple nuclear bomb experiments at the appropriate time, which played a crucial role in shaking the mountain and tiger.
In addition, China has gathered 2.4 million troops on the northeast border, together with millions of educated youth here, to form a huge momentum of “700 million people, 700 million soldiers, and thousands of miles of rivers and mountains”.
Notes: Thousands of Soviet and East European specialists and engineers went to the PRC to build up steel factories, textile mills, power stations and coal or copper mines, or to give advice on their modernization.
Blueprints were exchanged for free, Chinese interns visited factories in Eastern Europe to gather technical knowledge and Soviet scientists helped to organize technical research institutes and education.
This technology transfer represented a substantial part of China’s industrialization drive in the 1950s and has formed a part of the foundation of China’s subsequent economic rise.
Socialist eatern bloc assistance programme for industrial projects in China during the Sino-Soviet alliance of the 1950s has been called the “largest technology transfer in human history”.
Under the second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962), the Soviet Union and China agreed to several dozen more projects, most of which were interrupted and cancelled after the Soviet experts’ withdrawal in August 1960.