Among the reasons widely cited for the Sino-Soviet split is the case of Marshal Peng Teh-huai, Red China's former Minister of Defense. As reported by Sinologist David Charles in the China Quarterly of London, the story of the marshal's fall from grace is considered generally plausible by Western experts, if perhaps questionable in some details.
A tough old soldier who defected from the Kuomintang and fought alongside Mao Tse-tung during the famed Long March in the '30s, Peng was the leader of the conservative faction of the Chinese politburo. While on a trip to Albania in May 1959, he secretly told...