China Becomes Communist DH PT II Chp 1

40 years of revolution in China Americans making decisions about China gave little regard to its history or culture Remember during Imperialism – we had Open Door Policy, while others cut up China into their own ‘Spheres of Influence’ After revolution 1911 – Dr. Sun Yatsen preaches nationalism, democracy, and socialism western ideas, not based on China’s rich heritage and culture Two factions arise from revolution – Mao Zedong leads the communists – peasants; Scholars will turn to Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists – communist and nationalist factions work together for a bit; Mao decides his version of communism needs to be based on Chinese ideals – turns to peasants – gains support by telling farmers they could till own soil free from debt and obligations – commands his ‘army’ to help, not pillage the people

The Long March and Nationalist Defeat Chiang Kai-shek sees Mao as his biggest threat – seeks to destroy the villages Mao has ‘overtaken’ his army pursues Mao’s across 18 mountain ranges and 24 rivers – over 6600 miles over the course of a year Mao outlasts and forms a ‘state’ based on his principles – which eventually become communist China Japanese invasion forces two factions to work together until war is over U.S. supports Chiang Kai-shek, but attempt to negotiate a peace between the two not able to get sides to agree due to mistrust, U.S. tries to get Chiang Kai-shek to compromise Kai-shek refuses and is unable to get support from the people and his policies lead to run-away inflation As Kai-shek is failing, Mao is keeping promises to peasants and also using ‘indoctrination’ (propaganda)

Reaction in U.S. At home, Americans were surprised by Chiang Kai-shek’s failure diplomats had tried to encourage U.S. to begin becoming friendly with Mao and his followers – but will be seen as communist sympathizers Issues its China ‘White Paper’ on why we ‘lost’ China: not our fault -fault lies with Chiang Kai-shek and his government and leadership – it disintegrated due to bad decisions on their part Anti-communists in U.S. said it was the fault of America’s ‘do nothing’ policy toward China that caused it to fall to communism – the paper was a ‘whitewash’ of the issue – the problem was the fact that the State Department had withheld weapons from the Nationalists