Sarah Paine

So as part of this program, it's not just land reform and educating people warm and cuddly.

It's also coercion.

Okay, that's Mao the social science.

Enough of him.

Now we're going to do Mao the military leader.

And you've probably heard this chestnut from Mao, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao spent his, it's still part of his early career, being right, but being a minority view, that he had certain views about military operations that was not shared by communists central.

And Mao kept following that dim light wherever it may lead, and events eventually vindicated him.

He survived a variety of encirclement campaigns, but then he had some troubles.

And here are his critics.

Lili San was a labor organizer.

He was a de facto head of the Communist Party from 1928 and 1930.

And after the White Terror on the Northern Expedition, Moscow had told its communist buddies in China that the next thing to do was to take the cities.

And so Lili San tries to with the Nanchang uprising in 1927, total disaster.

And he tries it again in 1930 with the Changsha Uprising, another disaster, and that gets him into exile in Russia.

And according to Mao, comrade Li Lishan did not understand the protected nature of the Chinese Civil War.

Li Lishan is trying to fight a decisive, i.e.

war-winning battle far too early.

You try to do that and you can get yourself ruined.

Here's another critic, Xiang Ying.