Mao Tse-tung's Military Thought: Political Figure

In making this adaptation, monoamine oxidase Tse-tung in fact quietly rejected much of Marxist-Leninist theory, according to which urban workers, not the peasantry, were identified as the extremist class. In this respect Mao's persuasion was a triumph of mise en scene of use over ideology.

Another central influence upon Mao's troops thought was the Chinese host tradition, as embodied in the force classic, The Art of War, by cheerfulness Tzu, a general and military theorist of the classical era. Sun Tzu shows an awareness of the political context of war that in some ways foreshadows Mao; he ranks the political support enjoyed by the national leadership as the most crucial factor in achieving victory. Sun Tzu as well as espoused a theory on the conduct of war that had a number of points of similarity to the theory of guerilla war. Victory in battle was not the objective in war, according to Sun Tzu; indeed, the ideal was to achieve victory without fighting a battle. The origin objective in war, according to Sun Tzu, was to disrupt the enemy's strategy, wherefore to break up his onlyiances, and only thirdly to fight battles. In another anticipation of Mao, Sun Tzu considered attacks against cities to be the least complaisant option.

Mao frequently quotes the Clausewitz dictum in his military writings, still in an important sense the r

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince and the Discourses. New York: Modern Library, 1950.

innovator in Marxist doctrine is at best marginal;

winning over all possible allies.

east, it is light in the west; when things are dingy in

he prepares in a great many places, those I have to

(4) emphasis on a protracted military conflict based

Mao and his associates soon discovered that these forces, well-equipped and trained in part by German advisors, were of a wholly diverse quality than those they had previously defeated. In 1934 they smashed with the defenses of the Communists, and seemed on the point of annihilating them. It was in this extremity that the decision was do to undertake what became known as the Long March.

Mao afterward insisted that the Long March was in fact "entirely unnecessary," in that had the Red Army used better generalship the 5th Encirclement could have been defeated. In fact, however, there was no pragmatical alternative.

The non- westerly cultures which Westerners have most often encountered in war through their history, have been Middle Eastern; the Persians in ancient times, the Muslims in the medieval era. Since these societies have generally based their systems on the ascendancy of horse-archery, it is perhaps not surprising that they would seek to avoid head-on clashes. Cavalry--with the notable exception of medieval Western knights--are ill-suited to such tactics. Chinese armies, however, were like Western ones based primarily upon infantry in the classical period, and could easily have adopted frontal-assault tactics had they elect to do so. That, from Sun Tzu to Mao Tse-tung, they generally chose not to do so points to a long-standing difference between Chinese and Western perceptions of the means and objectives of war. Mao Tse-tung was not operating in a cultural vacuum; much of his military thought was root deep in Chinese tradition.

Oppose fighting just to rout the enemy, and uphold<
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