My first post on Mao was too much, I realize. I cannot finish the detailed summary of
Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. Some summary thoughts will let me put the whole idea to rest:
a. Mao was not heroic at all. His behavior in the Long March, his terrorizing tactics at the Red Base (with self-criticisms and public denunciations), his incessant practice of falsely accusing and disposing of any who resisted his will - all have been "touched up," re-worked, or even totally rewritten in official Chinese history (and what the government tells the West) to make Mao seem heroic.
b. Mao wanted to dominate the world by himself. He deprived his own people of basic necessities for years through a system of taxation that involved fraudulent and thuggish tactics in most all Chinese provinces. His basic goal was to get his people to live on slimmer resources so that more and more resources could be used to purchase and develop the trappings of a superpower nation - atomic bombs, an air force, a space program, etc.
c. When Mao's health took a sudden downturn, he insisted that his nation's nuclear developments reach their goals much quicker than projected. He wanted to see it with his eyes and have that power at his disposal. He did not care in the least about the state of the nation after his death (or about the tens of millions of Chinese citizens who died in privation as part of Mao's ambitious pursuits). A couple of months ago a news report about Kim Jong-Il's health scare and his country's redoubled efforts to perfect their nuclear capabilities - these reminded me of Mao's intense drive to obtain full nuclear capability before his own death. Of course, recent reports claim that North Korea has halted its nuclear program (good news for the whole world).
d. Mao supplied tens of thousands of troops to North Korea and covertly managed the Korean war through his top officials. The books quotes Mao expressing his hope to grind the US military out of superpower status by sheer strength of numbers. I'm not looking at the book now, but I seem to remember that the authors claim Mao was responsible for starting and drawing out the Korean War. I think the authors did not claim nearly as much about Mao's role in the Vietnam War.
If you've read all this and find it interesting, I'd recommend you read the book, but read it with a high view of human dignity and justice firmly established in your own mind. The authors relay the inhumane tactics Mao used to get to the zenith and remain there. What I was taught about the history of the 20th century seems far from complete without this book's contribution. It opened my eyes.
