Thread by @DrRadchenko

This take by @StateDeputySPOX draws on @CWIHP materials but makes a number of bizarre points, which amount to falsification of history. Let me take this apart.

https://twitter.com/StateDeputySPOX/status/1331618671404470272

Here, @StateDeputySPOX claims that Chinese textbooks still claim that the Korean War was a "civil war." First of all, historians (not just Chinese historians but historians of the Korean War in the West) still debate whether the Korean War was a civil war or an international war.

The answer of course is that it was both. But it is entirely possible to argue that a "civil war" (neizhan) broke out in Korea on June 25, 1950. Incidentally, Chinese forces were not involved in the Korean War until after US/UN forces intervened.

Also, the very textbook @StateDeputySPOX cites clearly implies in the next sentence that the North Koreans started the war, which is what happened (and this is at variance with the standard North Korean take that falsely claims that South Korea attacked).

Also, Shen Zhihua's best-selling book on the Korean War - hands down the most-read account in China - states plainly that the North attacked the South. It's not censored. In other words, this claim by @StateDeputySPOX is demonstrably false.

In the next tweet, @StateDeputySPOX quotes a @cwihp doc, a Russian report on Mao Zedong's meeting with Ri Ju-yeon, where Mao supposedly "encouraged DPRK invasion of the Republic of Korea".

https://twitter.com/StateDeputySPOX/status/1331618677091917824?s=20

. This improbably dumbs down Mao's position.

As historians have long known, Stalin gave the green light to Kim's request for invasion in Jan. 1950, and later summoned him to Moscow for final approval. This was done *without* Mao's knowledge who was basically in the dark. But Stalin instructed Kim to seek Mao's okay.

This was Stalin's way of bringing the Chinese leader onboard (through sharing responsibility). Historians have long wondered why Stalin made this move. I determined (in my own work) that it was because of intelligence that the Soviets intercepted about likely US non-involvement.

Be it as it may, Mao could not say "no" to Stalin so soon after signing the Sino-Soviet treaty of alliance. But to argue that Mao was encouraging the North Koreans (who had long wanted to attack the South and just pleaded for permission from Stalin) is just completely off.

This here is actually correct. However, what burying of the truth is he talking about, when Shen Zhihua's book is freely available for purchase across China. I am no defender of Chinese propaganda but this is the wrong hill to die on.

By the way, ridiculous tweets like this will certainly backfire against Shen Zhihua back in China (he is already accused by foam-mouthed nationalists of being a "traitor to the Chinese nation"), and having @StateDeputySPOX incorrectly use his work for propaganda won't help.

To conclude: what accountability is he talking about? Accountability for repeatedly warning the Americans not to cross the 38th parallel when MacArthur fought back the North Korean onslaught, and entering the conflict when they did?

Maybe we should start drawing up the accountability list: the Chinese crimes, the Soviet crimes. We'll throw in Japanese war crimes for good measure. Add Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Someone will undoubtedly pick up the tab for bombing North Korea into the Stone Age. What's the point?

Let historians do history, @StateDeputySPOX: what you have here is not only false. It's damaging, and frankly unhelpful to real historians who study these documents and write these accounts.

To anyone interested in the Korean War, here's a recent book by Samuel Wells that is really quite good: whsmith.co.uk/products/feari….