Between Communist Giants

International developments have been unfolding with such rapidity in the second half of the present century that any attempt to survey them is in danger of being outdated between the time of its writing and its presentation to the reader.

This is particularly true of the Third World in which phenomenal changes have been taking place before our very eyes. The volume under review suffers from a further handicap in so far as the Chinese influence in the world outside can hardly be examined in isolation from the happenings at home which during the last five years have been subjected in a very large measure to the overpow­ering personalized politics around the father figure of Mao Tse-tung. The last phase of the Great Helmsman’s colourful career lacked that clear direc­tion which was so perceptible in the earlier periods, of the Chinese Revolution.