Sarah Paine

It's better than only looking at the military elements.

At least you got three more things.

But if you look at what Mao...

This is not a cookie-cutter event.

This is a different society, different elements of national power are available.

You've got to get to the other side of the tennis court net to see what the other team is doing.

Mao is famous for all these reasons, but also for his sinification of Marxism, where he makes all the things that I've told you about.

It makes...

his version of Marxism much more applicable to these countries, the newly independent countries after World War II, of how they put things together.

And he positions himself to replace Stalin, who dies in 1953, as the leader of communism.

So Mao was prescient on numerous levels.

He was certainly prescient about the centrality of the peasantry.

He was way ahead of his times on the importance of women.

He was calculating and cunning on how he was going to use minorities and POWs.

He had proven his Kudai determination with his military strategy.

He also...

He anticipated when the Japanese war in China would stalemate, and he also anticipated more or less when the United States was going to get into the war in Asia.

And he's the great signifier of Marxism.

All right, Mao...

produced all kinds of concepts and paradigms that are useful for insurgents who are trying to take over the host from within.