17th course of AFCC PLA PRC

Mao Tsetong’s military thinking
Richest source of power to wage war lies in the masses of the people

Introduction:
Ever since we started learning the concepts of Mao Zedong’s military thinking, one thing that really impressed me is how strong power is a mass of the people. Especially whence Chinese communist party gained support of peasants and overthrow the power imbalanced war………… By this paper I will attempt to make a more complete explanation of the concept which named “Richest Source of power to wage war lies in the masses of the people” of Mao Zedong's military thought.

People’s war
Before we start to understand about this concept We should clearly find out What is the people’s war actually. The ones who first created the “people’s war” conception in scientific theory and made distinction from other wars are Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . There are few famous revolutionary leaders such as Vladimir Ilych Lenin, Fidel Castro and also Mao Tsetung who inherited and developed Marxist theory of the people’s war.
As mentioned above Mao Tsetung who was a leader of Chinese completely enriched and developed proletarian concept of the People’s war. He deeply relieved the essence and political basis of the people‘s war, systematically expounded the basic principles of waging a people’s war. Mao Tsetung’s concept of the people’s war is not only concentrated in his military works, but also fully reflected in his great practice of directing people’s war of China on a magnificent scale.[MTST’s MT p34]
Once he pointed out that “Revolutionary war is a war of he masses. It can waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them”
The basic concept behind people's war is to maintain the support of the population and draw the enemy into the interior where the population can bleed them by means of mobile war and guerrilla war mescal. In other words
According to Mao Tsetung’s thinking this concept consists three phases defined from the development of the war itself:
1. Strategic defensive: associated to the guerrilla war and initial training of armed peasant groups. Here is when the guerrillas obtained the support of the population through attacks on the governmental machinery and by the dissemination of propaganda.
2. Strategic balance: linked to the war of positions and to the growth and expansion of the Revolutionary Army. It is characterized by the increase in attacks on military and vital institutions of State power.
3. Strategic offensive: is the phase of conventional combat, in which both forces are approaching the end of combat. The direct confrontation and the number of deployed contingents are increased. This phase is used to capture city, overflowing the Government and controlling the country.

Case study
This phases which created according to Mao Tsetung’s military concept successfully practiced and perfected in the Chinese revolutionary war from 1945 to 1949.
From 1945 after both the Chinese communist party (CCP) and the Kuomintang party (KMT) tried to take of as much territory as possible. The KMT occupied most of southern China, but the CCP took the north of China and a Civil War became inevitable. Manchuria was occupied by soviet troops at the end of the war and they allowed the CCP to move in.
The Americans did not want the communists to win control of China. They organised a gigantic airlift to fly 80,000 of the best KMT troops to Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing. From these key cities of the KMT soon seized control of the eastern coastal area. The Americans did not, however want a civil war in China. They tried to persuade the KMT and CCP to reach an agreement, and early in 1946 a truce was signed, but by November a full scale Civil War had begun. The KMT soon controlled the railways and the major cities and captured the CCP headquarters at Yanan, but the CCP held the countryside and continued with land reform.
The KMT's army was very strong and had good munitions, although it was now un-popular and had only a small percentage of support. They were also often seen by peasants as being brutal. Peasants made up 95% of the population, and this is whom the CCP aimed at getting their support from. They had a loyal and disciplined army and were thought of as being heroic after the Long March.
The Red Army had grown to 1,000,000 men by 1945 because of peasant support. By 1949 this amount had increased to 4,000,000 and the KMT had fallen to 1,500,000.
The CCP used guerrilla tactics, which were proven to work for them after ridding Japan. They said that when the enemy advances we retreat, when the enemy halts and makes up camp, we harass him. They also said that when the enemy seeks to avoid battle, we attack and when the enemy retreats we peruse. On the other hand, the KMT weren't practiced in dealing with or using guerrilla tactics. The KMT acted as bullies to helpless peasants, which lost them support.
The final collapse of the KMT and victory for the communists came in 1948. Many of the soldiers from the KMT were leaving for Mao. Chiang eventually resigned as president of the KMT in January 1949, he fled to Formosa were he set up the country of Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army entered Beijing and on the 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China.
That is the classic example for the clarification for Mao’s concept which is related to people’s war and role of the mass. In addition Mao also pointed out this famous quoto: What is a true bastion of iron? It is the masses, the millions upon millions of people who genuinely and sincerely support the revolution. That is the real iron bastion, which it is impossible, and impossible, for any force on earth to smash. The counter-revolution cannot smash us; on the contrary, we shall smash it. Rallying millions upon millions of people round the revolutionary government and expanding our revolutionary war, we shall wipe out all counter-revolution and take over the whole of China

Conclusion
History shows that only those who fought for their independence, honor could achieve the support of mass. As once Mao expounded “Patriotic, just and revolutionary character of the War of liberation is certain to get support of the people of the whole nation”, just character or unjust character of the war is decisive factor of whether it can gain full support of common mass. According to my understanding on this concept the Just character of war only belongs to those nation or class ,who are willing to fight their liberty, independence, right, honor opposed by external invaders or internal dictator class.
As the military, it is very important to win the hearts and minds of the people because we do not operate in a vacuum. We need to cooperate with masses because if we stand on our own, we will be like fish that has been taken out of the water, in other hand we will not sustain the war effort.
THE MASSES ARE THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND ANY WAR!

1. Cover page 2. Introduction 3. Main part a. People’s war b. Richest source of power to wage war lies in the masses of the people c. Case study 4. Conclusion 5. bibliography