Jim Devine wrote: > > > this is proof, once again, that Chairman Mao's dictum that "the enemy > of my enemy is my friend" is total and utter BS.
I don't remember Mao saying exactly that. I do remember something like it, though I can't remember the exact wording, and when I read it I both disagreed and _also_ saw, in the context in which he said it, that it made some sense. Something like it was, of course, the foundation of the United Front Against the Japanese invacion. And it is easy to make up hypothetical (but reasonable) situations in which it holds. If a purse-snatcher scares off a would-be rapist, for example. I would say the dictum (as you phrase it) is neither right nor wrong in the abstract. Its whole meaning depends on context. Carrol
