The Leadership of Mao Zedong

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Mao Zedong's rise to power in the Communist Party of China and focuses, in particular, how the Long March, in which Mao led some 130,000 men and women across 6,000 miles of China's countryside, actually promoted and solidified Mao's leadership.

From the Paper:

"Mao Zedong's leadership of 20th Century China has a heroic, almost mythic appeal to modern Communists, yet Chairman Mao cemented the majority of his power in the mid-1930s through a series of dramatic, forceful decisions. The greatest of these was a spectacular military campaign known as The Long March, in which Mao led some 130,000 men and women across 6,000 miles of China's countryside, losing nearly 120,000 of his soldiers to starvation and disease in the process. But by a magnificent twist of fate, instead of decimating him, the Long March proved his perseverance. It primarily created a mythology of Mao as Hero, but on more pragmatic terms it established a vital base of operations outside of the Kuomintang centers of power. It also strengthened his remaining army and roused support from a disgruntled peasant class who were later instrumental in shaping his mighty career."

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