Here's an idea I just had...for good or ill:
You know how the Soviets were calling on their "Socialist brothers" and stripping divisions in Eastern Europe to throw into the meat-grinder of the Siberian front? What if the Chinese were doing the same with the North Koreans? A little tit-for-tat, we-saved-your-bacon-in-'48-now-pony-up action?
Given that the west was using the Sino-Soviet war as a proxy war, providing our Most Favored Nation Trading partner with weapons and ammo, gleefully watching them smash the Soviets (and vice-versa) I'm wondering if the Chinese wouldn't take the heat off of S.Korea by thinning out a potentially ambitious North Korea by "asking" for a few divisions to plug the lines.
Until the nukes fly in '97, this would leave the Korean Peninsula relatively quiet and keep the NKs from getting too ambitious without their Chinese masters keeping them from doing something stupid to S.Korea, which might piss off the west and stop the lend-lease from flowing in.
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