Mao Zedong

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Recommended: Critically discuss how Mao Zedong failed

Mao Zedong is a multi-talented figure that ‘found himself swept up in this excitement’, (11) of political madness. Mao is responsible for many of the political initiatives that transformed the face of China, which included land reform, collectivization of agriculture and the spread of medical services. The master behind the ‘Great Leap Forward’ campaign for rural development was the beginning of Mao’s failure as a leader in the forefront.

On the foreign policy level, Mao succeeded in separating China from the Soviet Union and domestically he became increasingly wary or paranoid of his subordinates’ approach to development, as he feared it was fostering deep social and political inequalities among China. His reluctance to adhere or listen to his advisor and team members also caused him to become very withdrawn from active decision-making. His approach to take step back and then pounced seems to only effectively work in certain situation and not others.

Mao who has the heart and goodness to help the poor, considered to be a visionary leader, labeled as a cult hero, a misguided social engineer, an idealist that got blinded and lastly a brutal tyrant; reminds me of a leader that just didn’t learn from his past mistakes and fully comprehended what balance meant.

Reading through the book I am more than convinced that he didn’t just decide that he was going to be tyrant leader one morning but instead he lost in the kaleidoscope mind of a leader.

He had the best intentions for his people but in the midst of implying his ideology of communism and industry to China he brought horror with him as well. It is certainly not Mao’s personal choice to decide that he wanted to produce a famine to his people. But instead he truly genuinely b...

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...alf-baked which some produced results and others vice versa.

Paranoid Mao Zedong also created the “lean to one side” policy. His approach to foreign policy of “whoever is not with us - is against us.” He basically created the follow me or don’t follow me rule. While he successfully branded himself as the person to be worshipped this showed us his insecurities of his leadership style. The need to be worshipped shows the tendency of dependency. Without his followers, his vision and goals are for nothing.

Overall, I see Mao as someone strong, confident and understood what he wanted as a leader but poor at executing his visions strategically in certain areas. While he only had great intentions, power and greed became huge obstacles that cause his to become a megalomania in his approach as a leader. His failure to recognize his own weakness prompted me to give him 4.

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