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Greyshaft -> RE: Name that MWiF counter - 28 (1/17/2006 8:30:08 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Recon
I'd have to go for Mao. Politics and indoctrination were higher on the agenda.
Aged 46 in 1939. Born into a prosperous peasant family, Mao Tse-Tung was expelled from three schools and did not finish his formal education until the age of twentyfive. He interspersed this schooling with service in the Hunan Provincial Army during the 1911 revolution. By 1920 he had a role as head of a primary school however his political interests were paramount and his involvement in political and military revolution led to his arrest by the Nationalist government in 1927. Mao was sentenced to death but escaped from his guards and joined a guerilla group in the mountains of southeast China where he was elected head of the Chinese Soviet Republic. His political control over the Party was never completely secure and his problems multiplied dramatically when the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek launched an offensive against the communist mountain stronghold in October 1934. The famous 9,600km 'Long March' was the result, involving a year of travelling and fighting and a casualty rate of 90% among the participants. During this march Mao consolidated his hold over the Party and from 1936 the government offensive against the communists petered out. When the Second Sino-Japanese war begun in July 1937 the government realized it could not fight both the Japanese and Mao and an uneasy alliance was formed against the Japanese. Mao used this time to consolidate his personal power and broaden the support for the communist cause. By his own admission only 10% of the efforts of the Communist Party during this time were spent fighting the Japanese. By 1940 the communists had recovered sufficiently to resume their attacks on government troops. It was an unusual war with Communists and the Nationalists sparring with each other in between avoiding the sparodic Japanese offensives. The outbreak of the wider Pacific War did not greatly affect the growth of the Communist Party although it did lead to greater aid given to the Nationalists by the USA. In 1944 the USA sent a special diplomatic envoy (the 'Dixie Mission') to the communists that produced a favorable report regarding Mao's popularity and his ability to govern China, but there is no evidence that the USA seriously considered abandoning their support for Chiang Kai-Shek. Russia's declaration of war on the Japanese in 1945 allowed the Communist to consolidate their hold in northern China. Despite massive external aid from the USA the Nationalists lost the ensuing Civil War and retreated to the island of Taiwan. Mao declared the founding of the Peoples Republic of China on October 1st, 1949 and (despite occasional setbacks) served as its leader in a variety of roles until his death in 1976. Mao’s greatest strength was his ability to successfully juggle the conflicting priorities of the many diplomatic, political and military battles he faced. Against this must be measured his megalomania and his political ruthlessness which led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese during poorly planned social (the ‘Cultural Revolution’ ) and economic (the ‘Great Leap Forward’) experiments.(499)
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