Word: area
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Different Version. Moscow described the battle very differently. The Russians charged that Chinese troops had been systematically organizing "provocative intrusions" in the area since May, despite Soviet protests. Finally a force of 150 launched last week's attack. According to Russian commentators, Soviet border guards, using armored personnel carriers stormed Chinese positions with submachine guns and hand grenades. Two Russians were killed and eight reported wounded in a one-hour battle, while 25 Chinese died and 25 were wounded. A nagging discrepancy in the Russian account was the contention that the encounter took place six miles east...
...more likely culprits. By keeping the Kazakhstan-Sinkiang border stirred up, Moscow may hope to prevent the Chinese from starting trouble along Russia's more remote and vulnerable far eastern border. There, several cities lie within easy reach of Chinese guns. More important, they lie within an area that was once controlled by China, a point that Peking drives home nightly with Russian-language radio broadcasts beamed to Siberia. The broadcasts sign off with the words: "Good night, citizens of Vladivostok [or Khabarovsk, or Nakhodka], and all of you who are living on temporarily occupied Chinese territory." Occasionally...
...full-scale war ever erupts between the Soviet Union and China, a likely location for the opening battle is the Chinese region of Sinkiang. Occupying almost one-sixth of China's area, Sinkiang contains several volatile ingredients. Unlike other disputed border areas farther east, where the Amur and Ussuri rivers create a natural boundary, the 1,500-mile Sinkiang-Soviet frontier in many stretches is only vaguely demarcated. In addition, the area is the site of one of the most tempting targets in all of China: the nuclear testing grounds...
Russian involvement in Sinkiang dates to the Czars. In the mid-19th century, Alexander II sent troops into northwestern Sinkiang to quell a Moslem revolt. An 1881 treaty restored part of the area to China, but Russia retained a large hunk. Stalin expanded Soviet influence in Sinkiang by using Soviet consulates and cultural centers for propaganda. In 1944, Moslem rebels financed by Moscow set up the East Turkestan Republic in Sinkiang. Up to the time Mao Tse-tung won control of China, the Russians were trying to establish Sinkiang as an independent republic...
...Many. It will require more than mere conviction to govern the area. The 800,000 Papuan tribesmen of West Irian may be the world's simplest people. They live near-naked in Stone Age savagery in high, roadless valleys surrounded by nameless, unmapped tropical forests. In some of their 150 dialects, counting goes no further than "one, two, many . . . " Their weapons are stone axes, 16-ft. spears and poisoned arrows. Cannibalism, headhunting and tribal warfare are common...