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The book is an imaginative re-write of Chinese history in the vein of the newly done American neocon bios of Lenin, Stalin and new work on Spain and "the Gulag." Many of these books are produced by the Yale University Annals of Communism Project. Jung and Halliday got a jump on the Yalies and make many bold NEW anti-communist assertions about Mao, Stalin, WWII, the Korean war, etc. Unlike the neocons at Yale, Jung and Halliday are less sophisticated enthusiasts -- they overplay their hand. Their claims about Mao are so outrageous, and so obviously biased with anti-communism, that the book falls apart. All their new sensational claims can either not be substantiaited or, in some cases, can be proved false -- but they are sensational. Here are just a few: 1) WWII was NOT started by the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937. It was started on Stalin's orders via a Communist mole in the KMT who "provoked" the war AFTER this "incident". 2) Chiang Kaisheck protected the CCP during the Long March so that the CCP would not be defeated. 3) Chiang lost the Civil war only because all his leading generals were Communist moles. 4) Stalin provoked the Korean War and deliberately withheld the Russian veto in the Security Council that would have prevented war in the name of the UN. Stalin's purpose was to punish the USA by letting Mao's troops chew up as many American soldiers as possible. Stalin and Mao dragged out the war while Kim Il Sung begged them to stop. Except for #4, which I think can be proved false, these are all in the "can't be proved" category. The sources for these claims are interviews with surviving critics (or their spouses) of Mao and Stalin. Very weak, and contradictory too. I will be on Bonnie Faulkner's KPFA (Berkeley) radio show on November 30, 2005, talking about this book. My interview may later be available on line in the KPFA archives. David Ewing, Co-Chair, U.S. - China Peoples Friendship Association, San Francisco. 11/26/05