Mao Zedong

DOWNLOAD REFERAT

Preview referat: Mao Zedong

In 1934 the "Long March" led by Mao and his Red Army walked almost the entire length of China, to evade the 700,000 of Chiangs men who were trying to cut off the communists. By being a good leader and with flexible tactics, Mao made the arduous journey to meet up with his CCP rival to combine forces in Yenan.

During the war with Japan though, the united front was somewhat real but the nationalists and Chiang were funded by the Soviets and Mao received little or no help for his Red Army. This left a bad taste in Mao's mouth for the Kremlin. After the Japanese surrendered, Mao's Red Army, now called the PLA (peoples liberation army), would war with the nationalists for the right to lead China. With Mao's monkey tactics and his tiger prowess the NP was defeated and Chiang fled to Taiwan.

Now the building of communist China under Mao begins. Terrill goes into great detail on the personality conflicts of Mao's rule. Mao seems to start as a young ideological Marxist. Then as his power is secured he is more of a Lenist. The way he rules by his maxims later forms a Maoist thought unique to Chinese communism. Later during his rule, as his power wanes under that of the PLA, Lin Biao, and more moderate communists he becomes a tyrannical dictator that purges the politburo several times to keep his thin edge of power. Finally in his twilight years he is just plain out of touch and inflicts more harm with a second cultural revolution that dismays the people and hurts China as a country.

Throughout the biography, Terrill portrays the monkey and tiger in Mao. Though Mao's disdain for his father's authoritarian family rule, which later mirrors his own dictatorship over his people seems more like hypocrisy than a yin and yang approach to ruling a proletariat. There are many discrepancies in Mao's theories and practice. His writing of poetry while denouncing that art is for arts sake. He debunked Confucianism, yet it was deeply embedded in his Maoist thought. While still a young rebel, Mao believed in education, then later was quoted "the more books one reads, the more stupid one becomes" « mai multe referate din Stiinte Politice