"Stalin's first move, uncharacteristically, was to apologize to the Chinese comrades for having underestimated them: "Our opinions are not always correct," he told a visiting delegation from Beijing in July, 1949. He then went on, however, to propose the "second front" the Americans had feared: [T]here should be some division of labor between us. . . . The Soviet Union cannot . . . have the same influence [in Asia] as China is in a position to do. . . . By the same token, China cannot have the same influence as the Soviet Union has in Europe. So, for the interests of the international revolution, . . . you may take more responsibility in working in the East, . . . and we will take more responsibility in the West. . . . In a word, this is our unshirkable duty.56"