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30 PEACE IN VIETNAM nese have used propaganda and aid in attempts to influence these countries toward “anti-imperialist” and specifically anti-American policies. They have also carried on propaganda activities and given moral support to dissident elements in countries that have adopted strong pro-Western positions. In some places, such as the Congo and Algeria, where revolutionary warfare had broken out, they have supplied limited material assistance as well. Thus, even though the Chinese consider themselves faithful Marxist-Leninists, their policies in actual practice have been shaped much more by immediate national concerns. They view the United ‘States as an implacable enemy and their policies and activities have been directed more against it than for any program for world revolution or the creation of some new Chinese empire. China’s three major military ventures since 1949 have dealt with such national concerns. In Tibet it reasserted a long-standing Chi- nese claim to sovercignty—a claim which is asserted also by the Chinese Nationalist government of Taiwan.' Its participation in the Korean War was directed against what it felt to be an immedi- ate American threat to its security. The military conflict with India certainly involved invasion of another country, but was a limited action taken for the purpose of forcing a settlement of a frontier dispute. Furthermore, the Chinese military establishment, although pos- sessed of tremendous manpower resources, is extremely limited in offensive weapons and the kind of logistical support necessary for any strong action outside its borders. It is also the almost unani- mous view of observers on the spot that, as Charles Tayior, Peking correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail, says,? the Chinese are now primarily concerned with economic growth and other interna! problems rather than with militarism. Clearly what China would like to see, at least for the present, 'The Chinese Nationatist delegate to the United Nations Security Coun- cil in November 1950 pointed out during the discussion of the Tibetan question that Tibet had been a part of China for seven hundied years and had participated in the National Assembly of 1946 to draft the constitution as weil as in that of i943 to elect the President and V President. See ‘Tieh-Tveng Li, The Historical Status of Tibet (New York: King’s Crown Press, 1956). *The Nation, October 4, 1965.