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From International Socialism, No.15, Winter 1963/4, p.39.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Albania – China’s Beach-head in Europe
Harry Hamm
Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 27s. 6d.
Though Mr. Hamm gives the outlines of the dispute and Albania’s role in it, his material is badly arranged and he omits discussion of the material relating to the November ’60 Moscow meeting and why mention of the Russians’ successful Sputnik launchings in 1957, which was an important date in the development of Chinese views on the balance of world forces. The book was outdated by events even prior to its original publication in Germany last year, as when its author says
‘Things have not yet reached the point where the Communists are willing to “wash their dirty linen” before a capitalist public ...’
The author should have taken the opportunity of the English edition to bring his material up to date, for the narrative only goes up to the end of 1961 and thus omits discussions of the differences over the Cuba crisis and the Sino-Indian dispute, the proceedings at East European Party Congresses in the Winter of 1962-3 and the added elements of great power chauvinism that have become evident this year. As Mr. Hamm is one of the few Western journalists to enter the country his discussion of Albania’s recent history and her internal affairs is disappointing – though Albania’s Prime Minister said plenty at his Party’s Fourth Congress,
‘If anyone is not in agreement with our leaders in any point, we shall spit in his face, bash him on the jaw, and if necessary we shall put a bullet through his head.’
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Last updated on 9.8.2007