International: Mr. Quid Pro Quo

After 60 days of secret dickering, the time had come for the masters of 700 million people to seal their alliance with open panoply. Soviet dignitaries repaired to a Kremlin hall. In their center stood Comrades Joseph Stalin of Russia and Mao Tse-tung of China. Russia's Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky scratched his name several times. China's Foreign Minister Chou En-lai did the same. The documents they signed proclaimed that: ΒΆ For 30 years, Russia and China would aid each other "with all means ... in the event of ... attack by Japan or any state allied with her . ....

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