ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1961, Adam Ulam was in Geneva attending a conference on the Soviet Union's relations with other Communist states. Delegates of the Western powers were meeting with those of the USSR and China about the knotty problem of Laos. The conference settled on a neutralist regime, which eventually gave way to a Communist one following the fall of South Vietnam. With bombing raids beginning in 1965, the US's undeclared war on North Vietnam in fact carried the risk of bringing about reconciliation between the two Communist giants. The massive US intervention turned out to be a great boon for the Soviets. The United States derived obvious benefits from the split between the two Communist powers. But both the rapprochement with China, and detente with the USSR, initiated in 1972, might have taken place earlier, had the turn of events in Vietnam been different.
