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THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR: WHY DID the COMMUNISTS WIN? Wikimedia Commons This Chinese Painting Shows Mao Zedong Proclaiming the Founding of the People’S Republic in 1949

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THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR: WHY DID the COMMUNISTS WIN? Wikimedia Commons This Chinese Painting Shows Mao Zedong Proclaiming the Founding of the People’S Republic in 1949 Bill of Rights Constitutional Rights in Action Foundation SUMMER 2014 Volume 29 No 4 THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR: WHY DID THE COMMUNISTS WIN? Wikimedia Commons This Chinese painting shows Mao Zedong proclaiming the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. Behind him stand Communist Party leaders. As leaders fell in and out of favor over the years, the painting was redone three times. FROM 1911 TO 1949, CHINA EXPERIENCED His “Three Principles of the People” Soviet Union, which had been A REVOLUTION, A STRUGGLE AGAINST envisioned a New China based on na- formed after the 1917 Russian Com- WARLORDS, A FOREIGN INVASION, AND tionalism, democracy, and the well- munist Revolution. Joseph Stalin, FINALLY A CIVIL WAR BETWEEN NA- being of the people. In 1919, Sun emerging as dictator, agreed to pro- TIONALISTS AND COMMUNISTS. THE founded the Kuomintang (KMT), the vide Soviet aid to Sun on condition COMMUNISTS WON THE CIVIL WAR AND Chinese National People’s Party, to he form a “united front” with the RADICALLY CHANGED CHINA. put his principles into practice. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) In 1911, Sun Yat-sen led a revolu- Sun attempted to unify China by against the warlords. Sun agreed, and tion that ended thousands of years of defeating a number of regional war- his Nationalist KMT party joined rule by imperial dynasties and estab- lords, each of whom wanted to be- with the CCP in this effort. lished the Republic of China. Sun come master of China. He sought A small group of radical Chinese aimed to unify his country and create aid from Western countries, but they revolutionaries had organized the Chi- a European-style elected parliament. ignored him. He then turned to the nese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. One of its leaders, Mao Zedong, WAR AND THE MILITARY adapted the Communist theories of Karl Marx to conditions in China. This edition of Bill of Rights in Action looks at issues related to war and the mili- Marx had written that industrial city tary. The first article examines the Chinese Civil War and how the Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. The second article explores workers would be the ones to lead the the Cold War, the struggle between Western democracies and the Soviet Union Communist revolution. Mao, the son and its Communist allies following World War II. The last article looks at the cur- of a prosperous peasant, believed that rent issue of women and their role in the U.S. armed services. a Chinese Communist revolution had World History: The Chinese Civil War: Why Did the Communists Win? to be led by poor peasants, who made up the vast majority of the country’s U.S. History: The Cold War: How Did It Start? How Did It End? population. Many of these peasants U.S. Government: Women in the Military WORLD HISTORY © 2014, Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles. All Constitutional Rights Foundation materials and publications, includingBill of Rights in Action, are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators. (ISSN: 1534-9799) (c) 2014 Constitutional Rights Foundation http://www.crf-usa.org Wikimedia Commons land troops in China, south of Manchuria. The U.S. then airlifted Chiang’s troops into Manchuria to take over as the Soviets withdrew. The Manchurian people soon grew hostile to Nationalist military rule, corrup- tion, and support of the landlords. The Chinese Civil War When Japan surrendered, Chiang’s troops in Manchuria and the rest of China greatly outnumbered Mao’s guerilla fighters. The Nationalists mainly held the cities throughout China while the Communists domi- nated the peasant countryside in Manchuria and parts of northern Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek reviews his troops. China. In these Communist “liberated” barely eked out a living, going into the Japanese, kidnapped him and areas, Mao’s cadres were once again debt to rent land from rich landlords. forced him to agree to another “united distributing land to the peasants. Sun died in 1925 before achieving front” with the Communists. But be- Although Stalin had helped Mao his New China. He was replaced by fore the Nationalist and Communist build up his military strength in one of his chief military leaders, Chi- forces could accomplish much, the Manchuria, the Soviet leader doubted ang Kai-shek, who became the Na- Japanese invaded the rest of China. Mao’s revision of Marxism that called tionalist president of China. Chiang During the Anti-Japanese War in for a peasant-led Communist revolu- completed Sun’s campaign to defeat China, Chiang’s armies did most of the tion in China. Nor did Stalin believe the warlords in 1927. fighting. They were considerably that Mao’s Chinese Communist Party Chiang then turned against the weakened by Japan’s superior occupy- was ready or strong enough to rule Communists, whom he believed to be ing forces. Mao’s armed forces were China. A better strategy, Stalin ad- loyal to the Soviet Union and a threat to guerilla fighters who mostly harassed vised Mao, was to accept a compro- his government. Starting with a mas- the Japanese, but did not suffer great mise peace agreement with the sacre of Communists in Shanghai, Chi- losses as did Chiang’s military. Nationalists and then follow Marx’s ang’s Nationalist forces succeeded in Since the Japanese mainly occu- roadmap for a worker revolution. driving them into the countryside of pied eastern Chinese cities, ports, and Nevertheless, armed conflict soon southern China where Mao preached provinces, Mao was relatively free to resumed in China between the Na- his ideas of a peasant revolution. expand Communist influence in tionalists and Communists. U.S. Pres- Chiang’s armies crushed Commu- much of northern China. He had es- ident Harry Truman made several nist revolts in several areas of south- tablished his capital there after the attempts to mediate the conflict, ern China. Mao then led a 6,000-mile Long March. which included arranging a meeting Communist retreat to northern China, At first, Mao ordered his cadres between Chiang and Mao in the fall a trek known as the Long March. By (Communist political workers) to con- of 1945. Mao assured the Americans 1934, with most of his rivals killed off fiscate landlord properties and distrib- he was interested only in land reform by the Nationalists, Mao became the ute them to the peasants. But to gain and not the violent overthrow of Chi- unquestioned leader of the Commu- the widest support during the Anti- ang’s Nationalist government. nists in China. Japanese War, he pulled back from The U.S. pressed for a ceasefire this policy and only forced landlords and a new government that involved The Anti-Japanese War to reduce their peasant land rents. both the Nationalists and Commu- In 1931, the Japanese invaded and In the last days of the war, the So- nists. They agreed to a ceasefire, but occupied Manchuria, the homeland of viet Union temporarily occupied that quickly fell apart when both the last imperial dynasty in northeast Manchuria. Stalin then enabled Mao sides violated it. In the end, neither China. Because Chiang’s priority was to establish bases there. Stalin also Chiang nor Mao was interested in a destroying the Communists, he did lit- turned over large quantities of cap- compromise settlement. tle to oppose the Japanese takeover of tured Japanese weapons and military In the summer of 1946, Chiang this part of China. equipment to Mao’s forces. made a fateful decision. He ordered In 1936, a group of Chiang’s offi- In September 1945, a month after his armies into northern China and cers, fed up with his reluctance to fight Japan surrendered, the U.S. began to Manchuria to crush the Communists 2 WORLD HISTORY (c) 2014 Constitutional Rights Foundation http://www.crf-usa.org Two Critics once and for all. The Chinese Civil Below are the opinions of a Chinese city newspaper editor about the Nationalist War had begun. government and a Christian missionary’s account of how rural landlords were President Truman withdrew most being treated by the Communists. Based on these excerpts, what criticisms did American troops from China in early the writers make of the Nationalists and Communists? 1947. But the U.S. provided Chiang’s In general, everything is for the Government itself; this regime has no interest in Nationalist government with finan- anything that is not of direct benefit to it. The people have nothing to eat, cial aid, weapons, military equip- does it care? It does not. The people have no clothes to wear. Does it care? It does ment, and training for his armies. not. They have no houses in which to live. Does it care? It does not care. The Gov- Chiang’s military offensive ernment only protects the wealthy and cares nothing for the poor. against the Communists in northern — Ch’u An-p’ing, newspaper editor, May 1, 1948 China and Manchuria was at first We are still in the middle of land reform, and they [the Communists] are busy deal- successful. His armies captured ing with the landlords. They are hung by their toes and by their thumbs, they are Mao’s capital and forced the Com- whipped with thorns, their arms and legs are broken, and there are other tor- munists to retreat. But his armies tures. All of this is to make them declare everything they own and where it is hid- soon became overextended, as his den.
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