Mao and his son

[lostsoul]

During the Korea war, Mao's son was killed by America bombs.

here's pictures of Mao with nixon after the war.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB66/04.jpg
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB66/03.jpg

sorry i don't know how to put in pictures into the post. But why did Mao meet the enemy? i mean if someone harmed any member of my family i would want revenge not to have meetings.

my question is what could have made mao surpress his anger over his son's death, and meet nixon? Also, didn't Mao hate America(in his red book, he refers to them as paper tigers, and i believe he wrote a eassy on America, but i can't seem to find it right now so here's some thing simalir but not really what i was looking for)
http://www.maoism.org/msw/vol8/mswv8_52.htm
http://www.maoism.org/msw/vol9/mswv9_30.htm

accept my apolizies if my facts are wrong or the answer is very oboious. Many people i know from China say Mao had to supres his feelings for the benfit of the chinese people, but is it true?

thanks in advance

p.s. happy new year!

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

The problem in this world is that the mass is blinded.

Should Mao had send millions of soldiers towards the USA with the result of the death of millions and millions? Should he had continued the Korean war, for the his dead son, while millions of others die and suffer. The question is, letting himself been blinded (by anger) would bring nothing good and Mao knew that.

Mao did the right thing. Blinded with anger, seeking for revenge would have costed many ,many lives more. And of the 2 strong party's (USA and China), he did the good thing. You couldn't expect from Nixon to do something smart.

[lostsoul]

its just kind of hard to believe he kind of had no reaction to the death of his son.

but i guess when millions of livies are at stake, one life shouldn't be put ahead of the others. It must have been hard for Chairman mao, who lost alot already to lose his son(i heard his other son is retarded, i'm not sure if that is true).


Hey CCCP, you seem to know alot, i am wondering what do you(and everyone else) think would have happened if Mao's son didn't die? Would he have become the next charman? or do ou think he would have to compete against other members of the party for possible leadership?

i am asking, because some people at my school were telling me his death was good for china, since he didn't gain power. Do you think China would be different if he didn't die?


take care

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

I think he would had to compete others. Because the power of the Party in China was much bigger than in (example) Nortk Korea. You saw in N.Korea that Kim II followed Kim I without problems, because the others didn't had enough power to compete with him. But in China they do have enough power. So I think that he would have find some difficultys, taking over the country. But he would surtainly had advantage of his dad.

But I don't know much about China's politics.

[Man of the Cause]

Strange, because I've read that Mao lost his children in the Long March in the '30's. But anyway, Mao disliked U$a VERY much, as you can read from his book " All counter-revolutionaries are papertigers". Mao's public critisism of America started after WWII, when the American's started to fund Chiang- Kai Shek's Kuomingtang in China's civil war. The relations of the two powers declined fast until, in the 70's , Nixon went to China (Your picture is from the meeting).
Why
this sudden act of friendship? Well, the US was losing the Cold War and the war in Vietnam was going to horse's ass, so the last thing they would need was a second hostile communist superpower! So they decided to get closer to China to A) be sure that China was not going to do anything hostile against America and it's allies in East-Asia, and to B) get an allie against the soviets in the Cold war.
But why did China move closer to the U.$? There's three main reasons:
1. After the de-stalination of Soviet Union, done by Nikita Kruschov in the 60's, China's and Soviet Union's relations quickly got sore. Because of that, China was in the risk of being isolated from the rest of the world, only India, North Korea, Cambodia, Albania, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia had good relations with China. So they needed powerful friends.
2. Because of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, China's economy was ruined. In order to keep China's economy intact, Mao needed aid.
3. Taiwan. Taiwan had been the official China's republic from 1949, and it had the seat of China in the U.N.. The only reason Mao didn't annexe Taiwan to the mainland, was because U.S.A funded the Taiwanese military. Mao hoped that if he fooled the American's to believe that China would be fighting with them against CCCP, U.$.A woud stop funding Taiwan.

P.S. Good to see new members that are interested in Mao!

[lostsoul]

thank you CCCP and Man of the Cause, both of you helped me understand the situation better, but also understand how smart Mao actually was. thanks!

Man of the Cause - Here's a bit on info on Mao's son, and his death. I kind of think if he was still alive, maybe we'd be on his forum talking about him(i don't know if it'd be good or bad, tho)
http://www.paulnoll.com/Korea/War/KWL-Mao-Anying.html

I actually liked Mao right after Che, since Mike Tyson's tattoo was one of the first things that introduced me to Che, I also saw Mao from his Tattoo. I asked some chinese people in my school who the chinese guy was on Mike Tyson's arm, and then got all happy and kept talking about Mao to me. Mao is very intresting, many people i have talked to hate him, but also many people admire him so much to put huge pictures of him up all over china town and in other places.

In a newpaper in toronto(toronto star), i read a few months ago, that the editor was saying that we must support a war on Iraq because Saddam is as evil as Hilter, Stalin, and MAO. I got pissed and wrote them a letter about all the good things he did(unite china, battle impersist, etc..), but they didn't print my letter. I think the media is divided on Mao too, i have read good and bad things about him.

If you have time to read this(its very long) its very intresting, its comparing Gandhi and Mao.
http://ignca.nic.in/ks_41017.htm

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

Thank you.

[queen of diamonds]

I'm not so sure we should jump to the conclusion that Mao didn't let his emotion interfere with his politics.
Dr. Zhisui Li, Mao's personal physician, remembers Mao during the Great Leap Forward, after it was evident that the whole thing was a disaster, continuing the whole enterprise to save his pride.

All leaders make mistakes, and the personality of all leaders impacts on their countries - more so on socialist countries with dictators than democratic countries.

[legot]

keep you friends close but keep your enimies closer...