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This title in the popular Asia@War series is richly illustrated with photographs from the period of the Sino-Soviet confrontation as well as specially commissioned artworks.In March 1969 the two giants of the Communist world - the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - came to blows over the control of a remote and uninhabited island on their mutual border in a conflict that risked barely controlled escalation, and in which the USSR gave consideration to the use of nuclear weapons.
In 2021, Helion & Company published two books by Harold Orenstein and Dmitry Ryabushkin:
The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969 Volume 1: The Border Conflict that almost Sparked a Nuclear War and
The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969 Volume 2: Confrontation at Lake Zhalanashkol August 1969. These volumes relied largely on the Soviet accounts and presented the Soviet perspective on this confrontation.
When Brothers Fight: Chinese Eyewitness Accounts of the Sino-Soviet Border Battles 1969 aims to fill the gap with accounts from Chinese veterans who took part in these border wars. The authors have selected two of the best-known incidents of the period, the Battle of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island (March-May 1969) and the Tielieketi (Lake Zhalanashkol) Incident (13 August 1969), as the focus for this book.
This is an important episode of the Cold War that deserves greater exposure. This brief war marks a turning point between the two Communist giants and in one way or another, lay the foundation for international politics for the next 50 years. In 1972, China moved towards the US/Western camp by signing the Three Joint Communiqués, normalizing relations between the US and China and establishing a full diplomatic relationship in 1979.
When Brothers Fight: Chinese Eyewitness Accounts of the Sino-Soviet Border Battles 1969 is richly illustrated with photographs and artworks from the period of the Sino-Soviet confrontation as well as specially commissioned artworks.
About the author
Benjamin Lai was originally from Hong Kong, but educated in the UK. He was one of the few Chinese to serve in the British Army as a commissioned officer in the 1980s in both Hong Kong and the UK. Fully bilingual, Benjamin Lai has been interested in World War II and postwar matters for many years but in recent times has developed specialization in Asian military issues with an emphasis on China. Among his previous works are The Chinese People's Liberation Army Since 1949: Ground Forces, and Hong Kong 1941-1945.
