Until recent events so rudely contradicted them, the Nationalists officially regarded Mao Tse-tung et al. as a puppet government whose strings were pulled from Moscow; the Communists, for their part, have found it equally convenient to look at the Nationalists as a rebellious local government suffering under American “occupation.” However, in spite of the often renewed vows of one side to eliminate the other a sporadic dialogue has gone on between Peking and Taipei. This is not so surprising when one remembers the many short honeymoons which have occurred during the oft-renewed marriage of political convenience between the Nationalists and the Communists.