of parts of Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong that the CCP had come to think of as its own areas of control. The Nationalists imposed a blockade of some 400,000 troops around the SGN base to the south and the west. The campaign aimed to box the Communists in, rather than to invade their territory, but it was a clear sign that relations between the two sides were beginning to break down. However, the conflict remained a strange, shadowy one. Neither side could afford to let its own public, let alone the international community, think that the United Front had failed. When clashes broke out
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