Shen Zhihua (simplified Chinese: 沈志华; traditional Chinese: 沈志華; (this is a Chinese name; the family name is Shen.) is a professor of history at East China Normal University and adjunct professor at Peking University and Renmin University of China. Shen is an expert in the history of the Soviet Union, Sino-Soviet relations, and the Cold War. He is director of the Center for Oriental History Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2011 Shen was public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
Absolutely riveting. Incredibly well written and translated from the original Chinese using documents that only in recent years have come to light after the deaths of all three leaders (revealing the Russian and Chinese documents and transcripts, but not the N. Korean). Every diplomat and anyone interested in Asian history needs to read this book. As you finish the last page, you realize what a brilliant strategist Stalin was in managing to keep the Soviet Union at arm's length from the war while placating Mao's requests for support for the 'Volunteer Army' he sent to Korea (in which his own son was killed), and in so doing, avoiding a third world war. And what a single-minded revolutionary Mao was in enthusiastically engaging China in a new war when his country had just come through a long and brutal Japanese occupation and a debilitating civil war. The deluded man was Kim Il-sung, who convinced both the Soviet Union and Mao that he would win the war in three days. The unspoken hero was the US and its allies, who instantly sprang to South Korea's defense, surprising all three dictators at almost every step. Reading this story was like being able to see into the minds of chess champions as each contemplates his next move. This is without any hesitation one of the best modern history books I have ever read.