Throughout Chairman Mao's reign, he was very successful and was portrayed as a strong leader. During the Chinese Civil War, he only asked the army to attack if he knew he could absolutely win. Mao said, "When they attack we retreat. When they are tired, we attack." Mao's success on the battlefield made him, as well as his country, strong, and a force to be reckoned with. A huge percent of China was peasants. He believed that if he could gain support of the peasants, he could gain support of the country. Mao promised to the peasants that if they won the war, he would give them two square meals a day. He also staged an intermission of taking from the rich and giving it to the poor(the peasants), which gained support from the majority of the population. Mao also did a good job of eliminating his enemies. During the Hundred Flowers Campaign, he asked for feedback from anyone who had problems with his policies. Those who opposed him, he arrested. Mao's Red Guards helped destroy any other enemies such as people who threatened his authority or power. He used a system of dehumanizing other authorities by calling them "cow demons" and "snake spirits." The Red Guards destroyed all authority, other than Mao, that he dehumanized. After Stalin's death, many people spoke about the flaws of his reign including the Soviet's new leader, Khrushchev. The criticism towards Stalin, a man whom Mao had praised, scared him as he wanted to be known as a strong leader during life as well as after his death. To avoid being disliked later on, he earned praise from the young people of China. He did this by instructing for his red book to be taught that describes Chairman Mao's successes, which essentially made the young people praise him. Although Chairman Mao also had many failures, most people only saw the good in which he had done, making him a very successful, strong leader.
Mao was successful in winning over the people. However I believe he failed in running the country. He manipulated the minds of the youth and made them see him as a God like figure that could do no wrong but In reality he was doing a lot wrong. Just like Stalin no one was going to interfere and tell him was wrong or else they would get the Cowshed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he failed in many ways. In the paragraph above, I tried to focus on the successes he had as a leader. Although he did some good things to benefit both the country and himself, he also did a lot of negative things and had many failures. Mao failed during the Great Leap Forward(when he tried to mass produce steel.) He also failed as a result of killing the sparrows which evolved in economic problems and famine.
DeleteI think his military strategy was interesting. It seems so inefficient. If Mao refused to attack without a 6 to 1 ratio, how could fight more than one battle. And it would have been very easy for his enemies to amass a larger army that could not fight with the same odds. He is generally regarded as a military genius, but I think that he also had some luck and some slow-to-catch-on enemies.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it seems very inefficient. But in many ways its a good strategy as long as the enemy doesn't advance too far before they get tired. This strategy would not have worked against Germany during World War II, per say, because Germany's Blitzkrieg allowed them to capture a lot of land in little time.
DeleteI think that Mao was very smart when it came to the military but he made many mistakes when it came to other aspects of his country. Mao strategy of to not attack when you didn't think you could win was brilliant as it did not cause his country unnecessary military defeats and also showed him as a strong leader to the people of China. However he did make several mistakes when he decided to have everybody make steel and when he decided to have people kill all of the sparrows. I think that Mao was a good military leader but failed at other aspects of running a country.
ReplyDeleteI think Mao was one of the more interesting and questionable leaders. I was impressed that he was able to gain so much support from his country and he was definitely good at controlling them. Like we learned in class, people were so devoted to him that they would pin mao to their chest or eat people without Mao actually having to tell his people to do so. He was good at brainwashing them making them do things that was more than expected. However, he was not good at ruling the countries. From events like the great leap forward, killing of the sparrows and the cultural revolution, it is evident that he was not good at progressing china to success.
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