the Armed Forces and secured the pas- would not survive the head-on confronta- phenomenon has nudged the general po- sage of p e r m a n e n t fair employment prac- tion with racism. On the night of h i s land- litical discourse Rightward. As they say, tice legislation. "The most unexpected slide 1964 election victory over Senator no good deed goes unpunished. and cruelest wound has come from the Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, he told dagger blow of a trusted friend," one seg- his young press secretary. Bill Moyers, regationist howled. "I think we j u s t delivered the South to the Inside But the Dixiecrats could not deny Tru- Republican Party for a long time to man the nomination in 1948, nor could come." the the creation of t h e States Rights Party and Indeed, the Second Reconstruction Strom Thurmond's candidacy prevent created a new South, for better or for Great "Give 'Em Hell" Harry's election. While worse. Certainly for better in embracing Truman himself remained highly conser- modern mores that ruled out the segre- Shipwreck vative and resistant to "social equality" gation of the past—though to be sure, Mao: The Unknown Story for blacks, his actions, Leuchtenburg racism, poverty and economic injustice notes, launched "a chain of events that are far from dead there or elsewhere in By Jung and Jon Halliday made the greater achievements of the America. The new order, as one histori- Knopf. 1960s possible." an quoted by Leuchtenburg observes, 832 pp. $35.00. HOSE ACHIEVEMENTS were shep- was not a result of "unguided market Reviewed by Therded to fruition by Lyndon John- forces alone.... It required national po- Thomas P. Bernstein son, who reassured Southern audiences litical leadership, working in tandem Professor of political science, of his soundness on Southern rights in a with the civil rights movement, to bring Columbia University down-home accent that grew thicker the about the demise of t h e old order." farther South he traveled during the Breaking the grip of the past is not al- ETTING right has been 1960 campaign, and who had a record ways universally popular. Some, like my- Ga formidable challenge. Not so long of watering down civil rights legisla- self, lament the loss in our homogenized ago he was hailed as a philosopher-king, tion in the Senate. But when this flawed 21 st century of distinctive patterns of the creator of an egalitarian, nonbureau- giant became President, the first from Southern language and culture that, un- cratic state, and a poet who disarmingly the South since Woodrow Wilson and like segregation, deserve respect and described himself as a "monk under a only the second since 1865, something preservation. A native New Yorker who leaky umbrella." Now he is widely seen shifted. taught at Columbia University before as a member of t h e monstrous trinity that Attuned to the direction of na- moving 25 years ago to the Uni- includes Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, tional opinion—and probably versity of North Carolina at and as responsible for more deaths than possessed of a genuine belief Chapel Hill, Leuchtenburg either of t h e m . But does recognizing Mao that the time for j u s t i c e had believes, contrary to as a bloody tyrant capture the range of h i s arrived—Johnson pushed popular opinion, that leadership during China's long-drawn-out through Congress both the pleasanter as- Communist revolution (1928-49), or p r o - the Civil Rights and Vot- pects of Southern vide a full understanding of the 27 years ing Rights acts of 1964 folkways still exist. (1949-76) he ruled the People's Republic and 1965, respectively, Nevertheless, I of China (PRC)? that ended—legally, at finished The White The question is raised by the publi- least—a century of dis- House Looks South cation of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's franchisement and segre- with a feeling of sad- Mao: The Unknown Story. Chang is the gation. Some of us who are ness. FDR's accomplish- author of the acclaimed family memoir old enough may remember ments were made (1991), and Jon Halliday is shedding happy tears when, possible in part by a Russian-speaking British scholar. facing Congress and a national the firm base of the Their book, complete with a 14-page list TV audience, he boldly old solid Demo- of interviews conducted in China and 37 quoted the unofficial cratic South, which other countries, is the product of a hero- anthem of the civil allowed relatively ic decade of research. They combed rights movement— risk-free political through Soviet archives and had unspec- "and we shall over- cultivation of Left- ified access to Chinese archives. A 44- come." leaning constituen- page Bibliography of primary and sec- Alas, even be- WILLIAM E. LEUCHTENBURG cies. Now it is Re- ondary sources suggests that they read fore sinking into the quagmire of Viet- publican Social Darwinists who enter almost every word ever written by or nam and enduring the urban riots of the each election cycle with a guaranteed about their subject. '60s, Johnson sensed that his own career vote from the old Confederacy, and that These prodigious labors yield a dis-

24 The New Leader mal picture of the Communist Party port. Instead, they contend that Mao op- its first atom bomb in 1964 elicited "gen- Chairman. Mao, the authors claim, was pressed, dragooned and exploited the uine exultation" from the Chinese, but motivated entirely by a lust for power. He peasants, forcing them to support the give short shrift to the import of t h a t sen- schemed, betrayed, tortured, killed, and Communists. Early in the PRC's history, timent. drove presumed rivals to suicide. His they add, Mao foisted a ruthless grain Chang and Halliday barely mention chief weapon, whether dealing with his requisitioning program on peasants to fi- that in the 1950s the U.S. threatened to use entourage or society, was terror. Early on nance military construction, and plunged nuclear weapons against the PRC, as did he began to take pleasure in the torture them into "utter misery." the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. The killings of his enemies. At the same time, it is noted, Mao in- Chinese had real enemies, and from their After his second-in-command, Liu sisted on special privileges for himself. perspective it was not unreasonable to Shaoqi, offered a blistering critique of Even during the revolution, far from liv- view atomic weapons as an essential de- the in 1962, Mao nur- ing the austere life of a guerrilla fighter, terrent. Mao once said, "without the bomb tured a "volcanic hatred" of h i m . It erupt- he occupied the most luxurious dwellings people j u s t won't listen to you." Whatev- ed four years later, during the Cultural available. Over much of the Long March er nostalgia for him persists in China Revolution. He delighted in learning he was carried by his servants, who suf- today partly stems from his record of about the cruel public humiliation of his fered atrociously. Throughout his rule, standing up to foreign powers. erstwhile lieutenants as they had their he had villas built all over the country at The authors further obscure an accu- arms bent backward in the painful "jet great cost that he rarely occupied. In ad- rate understanding of Mao by quoting plane" position. In the early 1970s, fear- dition, we are told he was a thoroughly selectively. Consider the case of the ing that Prime Minister Zhou Enlai—his disgusting person who never bathed, peasants. Yes, Mao did har- most "loyal slave"—might outlive him, maltreated his wives, and led a gro- ness them to his construc- Mao denied Zhou treatment for bladder tesque imperial-style sex life. tion projects and he will- cancer until it was too late. Confronted by Chang and Halli- ingly As a military leader, Mao comes day's portrait, one must at sub- across as a serial bungler who repeated- least ask whether it is the ly led the Communists to defeat. He did whole story. That is, / not himself devise the famous strategy if Mao was motivat- - of surrounding the cities and taking ed solely by a lust for them only at the last stage of the strug- power, ifhe could not / gle for power. Eager to seize cities at any do anything right, ' cost, he brought huge losses to his forc- and if the only bond es, as he had before on the Long March. between him and his In the pivotal conflict over Manchu- followers was fear, ria (the Northeast), he laid siege to the how could he have city of Changchun, starving the popu- inspired the commit- lation and causing more deaths than ment from his lieu- the Japanese had during the 1937 Rape tenants essential to JON HALLIDAY AND JUNG CHANG of Nanking. In the Korean War, he or- revolutionary triumph dered the "Chinese People's Volunteers" and the pursuit of his massive social jected them to harsh exploitation. Yes, to advance southward far beyond their projects? he was responsible for the Great Leap supply lines, again incurring large un- The overwhelming authority Mao Forward famine, an unspeakable cata- necessary losses. possessed in 1949 was rooted in his strophe that left 30 to 40 million people Mao's megalomania resulted in an achieving victory over Chiang Kai- dead. Was the latter comparable to Sta- overriding preoccupation with his "su- shek's Nationalists against all odds. The lin's deliberate use of mass famine in perpower program" and its objective— authors neglect to examine Mao's status 1933 to crush peasant resistance? The "to rule the world." His relations with the as founder of the People's Republic and authors harbor no doubts. "Mao know- Soviet Union in the 1950s revolved around leader of the nation. A year later, the ingly starved and worked these millions his quest to obtain modem military tech- Chinese people proudly watched their of people to death." The title of their nology. When in 1955 the Soviets agreed troops expel the United Nations expedi- chapter on the Great Leap is a Mao quo- to provide nuclear technology, "Mao was tionary force from North Korea. That tation, "Half of China May Well Have ecstatic." But subsequently the Russians was the first time a Chinese army had to Die." But in context that remark concluded he was too dangerous to be beaten a Western army, and many Chi- sounds less bloodthirsty. trusted and stopped their assistance. nese saw it as a historic watershed, signi- At the end of 1958, the first year of the HE AUTHORS reject the widely ac- fying the end to "100 years of humilia- Great Leap, Mao tried to moderate ex- Tcepted thesis that Mao came to pow- tion" at the hands of imperialist powers. cesses that had led to epidemics and to er w i t h at least some genuine peasant sup- The authors do grant that China's test of deaths from overwork and inadequate

September/October, 2005 25 food. While talking with provincial noted, unfairly derides both the Kuo- Enlightenment, when evidence that laws Party chiefs about the massive irrigation mintang and the Americans. Chiang Kai- hold sway over the physical realm led and industrial construction projects that Shek is said to have allowed the Commu- many to embrace the view that there is a were a hallmark of the Leap, he said if nists to survive their Long March be- natural self-regulating order to the uni- all the projects were tackled simultane- cause he wanted to protect his son, then a verse conducive to progress. ously, "half of China's population un- hostage in the Soviet Union. Chiang later Hence those like Montesquieu, who questionably will die; and if it is not half, lost the civil war because of "moles, be- were impressed with the enormous it will be a third or 10 per cent, a death toll trayals and poor leadership." As for the wealth being generated in the New World of 50 million people." Mao then pointed U.S., General George C. Marshall, Presi- by the large slave plantations producing to the example of a provincial Party sec- dent Harry S. Truman's emissary to the sugar, offered a rationale—^racist in char- retary who had been dismissed for fail- peace talks between the two sides, con- acter—for why slavery might be consid- ing to prevent famine, adding: "If with a tributed "significantly to Mao's conquest ered moral. Another believer in a natur- death toll of 50 million you didn't lose of C h i n a , " say Chang and Halliday, there- al harmony, Adam Smith, who was dis- your jobs, I at least should lose mine; by providing fresh grist to the "Who lost turbed by the cruelty of a system he whether I should lose my head would China?" school of yore. And, in the judged to be fundamentally immoral, also be in question.... It's quite all right 1970s, President Richard M. Nixon was struggled to explain how slavery could to do a lot, but make it a principle to have taken in by Mao and his wily premier, be inefficient yet still flourish in compe- no deaths." Zhou Enlai. tition with free labor. That is not, of course, to suggest the Getting Mao Zedong right clearly re- Benjamin M. Friedman's new book idea of working peasants to a point short mains a formidable challenge. It is truly continues the Enlightenment tradition. It of death is not shocking in itself, or that a pity that this immense research effort presents a subtle, wide-ranging argument it is forgivable in the eyes of history. did not yield a more balanced and in- that economic growth not only boosts Moreover, the authors are correct to sightful picture. material living standards but promotes point out that in the fall of 1959 Mao moral improvement. Recognizing that abandoned any concern for the peasants notions of what constitutes a moral soci- when he revived Great Leap extremism How ety vary widely, the author is explicit and caused the single largest death toll of about what he regards as its central ele- his reign. Prosperity ments: "openness of opportunity, toler- HE EVIDENCE Suggests that Mao was ance, economic and social mobility, fair- Tcruel, deranged by ideology and Can Promote ness, and democracy." tragically delusional in his ambitions for Friedman's treatment is grounded China—not that he purposely con- Virtue in the theories of Smith, Anne-Robert- demned tens of millions of peasants to Jacques Turgot and other observers of death from starvation. There were good The Moral Consequences early industrialization in Western Eu- reasons why he would not do so. The of Economic Growth rope. Those astute witnesses to the ini- promise that Communist rule had ended By Benjamin M. Friedman tial stirrings of sustained economic China's long history of famines was a Knopf. growth proposed that societies adapted core part of its claim to legitimacy. On 570 pp. $35.00. their political and legal institutions in the practical side, Mao frequently dwelt Reviewed by response to changes wrought by inde- on the need to maintain peasants' capac- Kenneth L. Sokoloff pendent economic forces, such as popu- ity to work, labeled "their enthusiasm for Professor of economics, lation increase, expanding markets and production." Starvation was hardly the University of California, advances in technology. Moreover, they way to accomplish this. Los Angeles noted a correspondence between the When Mao learned the dimensions of spread of commerce and of civility to- the Great Leap catastrophe in the fall of HE IDEA of a natural harmony gov- ward strangers—a connection that has 1960, he was deeply shaken. He support- Terning the world, whereby material received strong support from recent ed major remedial measures, including benefits are also morally good and vice cross-cultural behavioral experiments long-term, large-scale imports of grain versa, has long exerted a powerful attrac- conducted by the anthropologists Jo- from Australia and Canada that began in tion. It is easy to understand why. Life's seph Henrich, Jean Ensminger and their 1961. The authors make much of food ex- decisions and j u d g m e n t s would be much colleagues. ports as a cause of f a m i n e , but merely hint simpler if actions that were good in one In elaborating a logic for his argu- at the imports—at one point charging that respect were good in all respects, and ment, Friedman makes creative use of the regime sent the Canadian grain to its those that were detrimental in one signif- work by economists, psychologists and then ally Albania rather than feed its own icant dimension had no offsetting advan- sociologists who compile studies of in- people. tages in other arenas. This perspective dividual self-assessments. These show Mao: The Unkawn Story, it should be became popular during the 18th-century people tend to be happier when they have

26 The New Leader