Fight of the Tigers

"Dear Comrades," said the note. "We have received your letter of Feb. 24, 1966, inviting us to attend your 23rd Congress as guests. In normal circumstances, it would be considered an indi cation of friendship. But . . ."

Thus began the most caustic kiss-off in the history of the Sino-Soviet squabble. By the time the Chinese Central Committee had finished its 1,270-word "Dear Ivan" letter, with a facetious ref erence to "fraternal greetings," it had accused Russia of every philandering trick from "great power chauvinism" to "collusion" with the U.S. In the process, China opened the split in Communism farther than ever.

"Plot for Peace." Ranted the Chinese: "In attacking Stalin you were attacking Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union, Communist parties, China, the people and all the Marxist-Leninists of the world." Invidious comparisons of Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev and Premier Aleksei Kosygin quickly followed: "After Stalin's death, the leaders of Russia, headed by Khrushchev, embarked on the old path of the German Social Democrats Bernstein and Kautsky, who betrayed Marx and Engels."

"You have worked hand in glove with the United States," pouted Peking, "in a whole series of dirty deals." Russia and America were attempting to forge "a ring of encirclement" around China, "to establish a Holy Alliance" that would exclude Peking from the rest of the world.

What really angered Mao Tse-tung was a secret letter the Russians had sent to most of the pro-Moscow and "neutral" Communist parties of the world. The Soviet slur accused Peking, among other sins, of using "ultra-revolutionary phrasemongering and petty bourgeois revolutionary activities to implement a chauvinistic, hegemonic course." It damned as "adventures" the Red Chinese wars of liberation that have failed, or are failing, in Africa and Southeast Asia. Mao & Co., said the Russians, wish "to represent China as a 'besieged fortress' in hopes of originating a military conflict between Russia and the United States . so that they may, 'sit on the mountain and watch the fight of the tigers.' "

In their own letter, the Chinese found other secret Soviet slanders to complain about. "You wantonly vilified the Chinese Communist Party as being guilty of 'adventurism,' 'split-ism,' 'Trotskyism,' 'nationalism,' 'dogmatism' and so on and so forth. You have also been spreading rumors alleging that China 'is obstructing aid to Viet Nam.' You have gone so far as to state that 'China is not a Socialist country.' "

The Russian note was not above a little smarm. In a slam at Chinese militance, it had clucked at "such a disparaging approach to the life of millions of people, to the fate of entire nations." After such words, it was little wonder that the Chinese stayed away from Moscow this week when the Congress opened.