Mao: The Unknown Story Paperback – November 14, 2006

Before travelling to China, I wanted to read a bit about its recent history, so I began with the book about the empress Xicí, by the same author, and liked it so much that I decided to continue with the one about Mao.
I have to confess I was appalled with what I learned. During my university years the picture I had of Mao, was the one the Chinese propaganda wanted the world to have. More amazing was finding out the majority of the Chinese people have no clue about the kind of person Mao really was. Except for an older guide, who had lived the through the Cultural Revolution, and a younger one whose grandfather had been tortured in jail; the rest of the young guides had no idea of the tragedy their country had suffered.
The book is very well written. But at times, the information was so upsetting, I had trouble going to sleep at night.
Anyway it is a book I higly recommend.

Preliminary Note to the readers: This is A Review of Mao -- The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2005, 814 pages. But I have chosen to include this Preliminary Note before the formal review for reasons that will soon become apparent. This authoritative biography and history comes in a hefty tome illustrated with many rare photographs as well as detailed Maps of specific areas discussed in the text, which actually ends on page 631. The supportive material includes an additional 85 pages of meticulously compiled Notes followed by a comprehensive Bibliography of Chinese as well as Non-Chinese Sources. There is also an Index and a List of Interviewees and Archives Consulted.

Although I have considerable experience with Amazon Reviews, I found the early Reviews (and negative comments and votes in the thousands) shocking. The book was appreciated by most readers; nevertheless it ended up unjustly with 3.6 stars out of 5 rating because of an unfair, orchestrated political campaign of vilification of which Mao himself would have been proud. This reminds me, frankly, of the Active Measures and Disinformation Department of the Soviet KGB, although of course this orchestration would be directed, not from Moscow, but from Beijing and bolstered by the remaining bastions of Marxism in Western academia. The brief Epilogue in Mao (page 631) reads: "Today, Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital. The current Communist regime declares itself to be Mao's heir and fiercely perpetuates the myth of Mao." The same can be said for the followers of Mao in the West, who have fiercely attacked the courageous authors for revealing that the Chinese idol of communism was indeed rotten at the core! My sincere congratulations to the authors, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, for this powerful exposé on Mao and The People's Republic of China.

Review per se: This superb, comprehensive and authoritative biography of Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976) as well as a history of China in the 20th century has a very appropriate subtitle -- "The Unknown Story" -- because much of the information here is not well known and is not found in other books on Mao or China. As such, the authors, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, should be commended for their herculean task, vivid narration, and encyclopedic scholarship.

Among the many revelations, Mao -- The Unknown Story, depicts and documents Chairman Mao as the brutal monster he really was; how Mao desolated his own country, exterminated his own people -- party cadres and impoverished peasants, alike, even whole Red Army regiments. Mao committed in his blind rage whatever crimes were necessary to attain and preserve supreme political power. "democracy," "justice," "equality," " fraternity," "freedom" were just words to be used for propaganda purposes, not ideals to be pursued by Chinese communists!

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), another paranoid-megalomaniac and monster, who committed untold atrocities -- e.g., purges, executions, mass starvation, deaths by fatigue in labor camps in the Gulag, rule by terror, etc. -- shared some characteristics with Mao, yet there were differences. Stalin, at least, had personal appeal as a Soviet vozdh, who could inspire leadership; in Stalin fear was mixed with awe and even admiration, as the vozdh ruled the Soviet Union with a dictatorial iron fist.

Stalin was noticed by Lenin, who recognized his usefulness, first as a bandit, who could obtain funds for the Party; later, as a hard-working administrator, a man who could help Lenin and the Party reach power and rule a communist Russia. Stalin worked hard for the Bolsheviks behind the scenes and gradually achieved supreme power because his abilities were underestimated. A comparison of Stalin with Mao is instructive in understanding the enigmatic personality of Mao in all his savagery. Unlike Stalin, Mao was lazy, insubordinate, and disliked by all who knew him. Yet, Mao seized power by duplicity, forced his subordinates to kowtow to him in abject submission; at times, he even defied Stalin and the Soviets who sustained him with money, arms, and assistance of all kind, and got away with it! Mao killed 70 million of his own people, turned the Red Bases in which he ruled into impoverished wastelands, but with subterfuge, propaganda, and American moles in the FDR administration eventually came to rule all of Mainland China for twenty-seven disastrous years. And during all those years in power Mao never took a bath and only rarely brush his teeth! And yet he was respected as a communist statesman and head of state of the most populous nation on earth.

Mao was hated and feared by all his followers, including the subservient Chou En-lai (1898-1976), ruling by absolute terror, without any principles of government, strategic foresight or judicious planning for the betterment of his country. Despite the mythic heroics of the Long March, the Chinese Civil War or the Sino-Japanese War, the fact is Mao never inspired his troops. Mao was lazy and used subterfuge and deceit to seize power from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and obtain the title of "Chairman" from Stalin. Power was not gained by Mao by merit or recognition from the Party at large, but by subterfuge, intimidation of, and threats to the individual members of his inner circle Politburo.

Mao ruled the Yenan Red Base for over a decade, before and during World War II. The province was devastated by mismanagement and plundering by the Red Army, turned into a wasteland under Mao's communist dictatorship. Independent thought and action were punished. All goods and implements of labor were seized from the peasants to force them into compliance. Opium was cultivated and sold with all profits going to Mao's communists while the people starved. Yenan's population was decimated, impoverishment became rampant, much worse than under the Nationalist rule of Chiang Kai-shek. Mao's Yenan Red Base was a government from hell, a prelude to what was to happen to the nation, once the Chairman seized control of all of China in the Mainland.

Mao sacrificed his family members for political ends. Wives, brothers, sons and daughters were left behind, deliberately abandoned to be shot by the Nationalists or die destitute in poor villages throughout China. Mao betrayed whole communist armies, when they happen to be led by military rivals. Red soldiers were led to their deaths, by irresponsible decisions or deliberately, to be decimated based only on Mao's maintenance of power and the elimination of competitors. The army of rival Chang Kuo-t'ao, the greatest and most successful army in the Long March (1934-35), was sent to the desolate northwest district to be deliberately betrayed and exterminated - thousands of soldiers buried alive, sacrificed by Mao for his own political ends, for Mao supreme power was always paramount in all decisions.

This book also describes in graphic detail how China was delivered to Mao Tse-tung with active Soviet military assistance in Northern China, as well as the tacit consent of Britain and the U.S., misled by such moles as Owen Lattimore and Lauchlin Currie in the FDR administration. Little is know that Stalin attacked and occupied Outer Mongolia, seized portions and important posts in Manchuria, and expropriated the strategic Eastern China Railway. Mao received the help he needed; while Chiang Kai-shek was sidelined and betrayed.

The story of how Stalin helped Mao in the civil war that ensued immediately after Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945 has not been told before. The Russo-Mongolian Soviet army, 1.5 million strong, swept through and invaded all of Northern China across a 5,000 kilometer front, longer than the European front that stretched from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea. Stalin ordered this army to continue to advance for several weeks, helping Mao take control and giving him territories and large caches of arms left by the Japanese that would boost Mao in the ensuing Civil War against Chiang. The occupied territory in northern China, inner Mongolia and Manchuria, was larger than that occupied by the Soviets in Eastern Europe.

Moles in the FDR administration continued to act on the behalf of Mao and Stalin and against the United States, by slandering Chiang and exulting Mao. Mao was supposed to have fought the Japanese, while Chiang was not doing any fighting. The opposite was the truth. Except for one military campaign against the Japanese, fought in 1940 by the Red Army Commander Peng Dehuai (contravening Mao's orders not to engage the Japanese), the Red Army had done little against the Japanese, as Mao wanted to keep his army intact for his ultimate confrontation with Chiang. One of Mao's order to his Army was "retreat when the enemy advances," which they did in almost all occasions. Chiang's Nationalist Army, on the other hand, fought all the major engagements of World War II, while the Reds retreated to occupy territories left behind by the advancing Japanese. Chang and Halliday write: "In Burma, they [the Nationalists] put more Japanese out of action in one campaign than the entire Communist army had in eight years in the whole of China." (P.287) So how did Mao win China? You need to read this book.

And what happened to Mao's closest comrades-in-arms -- those whom he had tamed, humiliated and terrorized for nearly half a century, from the founding of the CCP in 1927 to Mao's death in 1976?

Chou En-lai was the charming face Mao presented to the world for diplomatic and propaganda purposes. Chou was probably the most gifted and conscientious follower; yet, he continued to serve Mao as a virtual slave, fawning over the Chairman, always submissive, frequently made to recant his "past mistakes," When Chou developed bladder cancer in 1974, Mao refused to allow Chou to receive treatment ,so that Chou would proceed him in death. Chou continued to work even on his deathbed, trying unsuccessfully to moderate the Cultural Revolution, end the state of anarcho-tyranny, and keep the People's Republic of China (PRC) running.

Lin Piao (1907-1971) was the youngest of Mao's henchmen and participated in the Long March as a military commander. He was Mao's strong supporter throughout the Civil War and later headed the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He became Mao's designated successor during the Cultural Revolution, but then mysteriously disappeared. Only later did the world learn that he (and other members of his family) was implicated in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate Chairman Mao. Lin, his wife, and son were killed in a plane crash in Manchuria while attempting mysteriously to escape to the USSR.

Liu Shao-ch'i (1898-1969) participated in the Long March, helped Mao rule and consolidate power in Yenan, and was appointed political commissar for the reconstituted New 4th Army. He was once designated successor to Mao as "Closest Comrade in Arms." After Mao's victory over Chiang Kai-shek and the establishment of Red China (PRC), Liu tried to exert a moderation in the radicalism of the Great Leap Forward (1958-1959), for which he later paid a heavy price. During the Cultural Revolution, Liu became a target. He and his family were imprisoned and tortured. He died a lingering and agonizing death in prison in 1969.

Jiang Qing (1914-1991), "Mme Mao," was Mao's fourth wife and companion. During the Cultural Revolution she was the head of the notorious "Gang of Four" deposed by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death. At her trial, she retorted, "I was Chairman Mao's dog. Whoever Chairman Mao asked me to bite. I bit." She was imprisoned and committed suicide in 1991.

Chang Kuo-t'ao (1897-1979) was the commander of the largest and most successful army during the Long March, acting independent of Mao. Later, his army was destroyed by Mao's treachery (1936-1937). Chang renounced communism, escaped Yenan, and joined the Nationalist Army in the Civil War (1946-1949). He was fortunate to escape to Taiwan and died in Canada in 1979. The other military commanders, as we have seen and will see further, were not as fortunate as Chang.

Zhu De (1886-1976) was one of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), participating in the Nanchang Uprising of 1927 that formed the Red Army. Zhu and Mao led the Zhu-Mao Army in the south, and with the advent of the Long March, Zhu was one of the military commanded. Later, he headed the 8th Route Army with Peng Dehuai during the Sino-Japanese War. During the Civil War of 1946-1949, Zhu commanded the PLA. After the victory over Chiang and the Nationalists, and the formation of the PRC, like Peng Dehuai, he awarded a "Marshall of the People's Republic of China." But, Mao did not let bygones be bygones, and Zhu was later humiliated and disgraced during the Cultural Revolution because of "past mistakes."

Peng Dehuai (1898-1974) was another Long March participant, along with Chang Kuo-t'ao perhaps the best Red Army military commander. He re-energyzed the communist army during the Sino-Japanese war and commanded the "Hundred Regiments," the victorious campaign and the only major battle the communists fought against Japan (August-December, 1940). He was to pay later for that victorious campaign, an engagement that had not been authorized by Mao. He became a target and victim of the Cultural Revolution, as Mao had a long and unforgiving memory. Peng was dragged in the street and beaten to death by Maoist Red Guards in 1974.

In short, Mao' legacy is one of unadulterated brutality and repressive dictatorship with no respect for life, liberty or justice. It is no coincidence that Mao's greatest disciples were notable psychopaths: Pol Pot (1925-1998 ) who killed one million of his own people in Cambodia; and Abimael "Gonzalo" Guzman (1934- ), who exterminated thousands of the indigenous peasants of Peru leading the Maoist terrorist organization, Sendero Luminoso, the "Shining Path" guerillas.

Despite its size at 814 pages, the book reads in enthralling, novelistic fashion with fast-paced, flowing narrative. Truly this is a magnificent book worth reading. I agree with Simon Sebag Montefiore who praised this tome in The Sunday Times of London, as " A triumph that exposes its subject as probably the most disgusting of the bloody troika of 20th-century tyrant-messiahs, in terms of character, deeds -- and number of victims. This is the first intimate, political biography of the greatest monster of them all -- the Red Emperor of China." I can not recommend this tome higher for those interested in the history of revolutions and totalitarianism in the 20th century, in general, and communist China and Chairman Mao, in particular. Get this book and read it!

The reviewer Dr. Miguel Faria is a retired Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, medical historian, and an Associate Editor in Chief and World Affairs Editor of Surgical Neurology International (SNI). He is the author of Cuba in Revolution -- Escape From a Lost Paradise (2002), and numerous articles on political history, including "Stalin's Mysterious Death" (2011); "The Political Spectrum -- From the Extreme Right and Anarchism to the Extreme Left and Communism" (2011); etc., all posted at his website haciendapublishingdotcom & drmiguelfariadotcom

For anyone who thinks that communism, socialism, or anything that resembles either of these is a viable means of governance, this book should be a must. While it is quite obvious that the author does not follow the Maoist line of political thinking, it is extremely well researched and includes first hand account of the dictator's rise to power and the turmoil that was to follow after he attained that power. This work is also necessary for anyone who despises the idea of an overbearing government because it spells out in detail, using actual events in recent history, that provides an explanation as to why one would be so distrustful of an all powerful and unchecked government. Well worth the read.

I both love this book and hate it. It's a very hard book to read as she is so detailed about the events that lead to the death and torture of 70 million people. I appreciate her honesty and believe people need to learn the story that has been kept secret all these years. This man had no hesitation or remorse with suffering that he caused. Having so much control is really dangerous and we need to be aware of the consequences as is could happen again.

It is clear that Jung Chang has no love for Mao and is heavily into the myth debunking business. However, there are few figures in the 20th Century so desperately in need of debunking. Mao's legacy seems to have got off almost scott free compared to his fellow dictators such as Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot.

Jun Chang paints the picture of a cunning, totally ruthless, self pitying, lecherous, cowardly, vicious, and largely incompetent psychopath who by means of being more ruthless and willing to backstab and murder than his peers managed to wrestle control of the CPC. But her story is backed up by extensive research and personal interviews. The background notes and references are almost as long as the main text.

The result is a very readable biography, even if a little one dimensional. The only positive attributes she is prepared to assign to Mao are his calligraphy and some of his poetry.

Outstanding! Traces Mao's life-long drive to gain, retain, and use power. He was a master manipulator, knew how to pit rivals against rivals, and he understood the power of propaganda and PR. Very thoroughly researched, masterfully written, and compellingly insightful. Innumerable accounts of people from all levels of society who knew Mao greatly enhance the work, providing rich and reliable details. Maps, photos, and a detailed index grace the work. A must read!

If you're interested in China, this book is a must read. Well written; thoroughly researched.

An excellent book that reveals Mao's ugly history in all its minute detail. Congratulations to the author for peeling back the mystique and revealing the true Mao. A good solid read that made me want to keep reading. Not a boring academic treatise.