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- Title
Mountain Warriors: The Importance of Mountains in Mao's People's War Strategy.
- Authors
Young, Benjamin R.
- Abstract
The globalization of Mao Zedong Thought has recently received increased attention from historians and political scientists. Within this growing scholarship, ideology and state repression have been emphasized. However, the military aspect of Mao's revolutionary schemata has received less attention, and it was precisely in the mountains of China where the Maoist concept of people's war took root. With its focus on political persuasion and irregular warfare, people's war was an effective strategy for anti-colonial rebels to wage armed struggle against stronger conventional militaries. Using multinational archival documents, state media sources, leader's speeches, as well as secondary sources, this paper looks at the importance of mountains in Maoist people's war and the ways this military strategy influenced armed conflicts in China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Peru. As a strategy that stressed mobile warfare, agitprop, and the rebellious potential of the peasantry, Mao rewrote the guidebook of revolutionary war theory for Marxism-Leninism. As a military strategy that reverberated with national liberation movements in the rural margins of the Global South, the military aspects of people's war and more specifically the role of mountains in Maoist-influenced guerilla warfare should be taken into greater account by scholars of global Maoism.
- Subjects
MAO, Zedong, 1893-1976; WAR; NATIONAL liberation movements; POLITICAL persecution; PERSUASION (Psychology); IRREGULAR warfare; POLITICAL scientists; MILITARY strategy
- Publication
American Journal of Chinese Studies, 2022, Vol 29, Issue 2, p131
- ISSN
0742-5929
- Publication type
Article