but they're not dictators

I don't know if I'd compare them to a communist dickhead that killed millions of innocent people and decimated a beautiful culture.

That was interesting. I thought Mao was mainly so dangerous because he was so incompetent, what with all those marvelous policies he came up with that starved everybody. I suppose to more incompetent you are the more ruthless you have to be to stay in power.

mmmhhhmmm yum yum yum I am feasting on this banquet of knowledge you're preparing for me. Largest part of what I know comes form Dutch history textbooks, not exactly a well-informed and unbiased source.

By the end of the Korean war, Mao had almost supreme political power. Having killed, imprisoned or banished most of his political enemies. The Central Committee were now mostly made up of people who were loyal to him and those that don't dare defy him.

But what of the military leaders? A national leader can't have supreme power without the support of the military?

Thing is, Mao did have control of the military, his "brainwashing campaigns" (involving blackmail, conscription, forced education etc) during the civil war made sure that the average villager and soldier were deathly loyal to him and his party. His only other opposition was Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao. With the worst opposition being Peng Dehuai since he is the commander of all military units in China.

Mao was furious about his son's death and Peng Dehuai's incompetence in protecting his son. (maybe if his son weren't using open fire to cook, the Americans wouldn't have seen the smoke in enemy territory and called in an air strike) So he had probably been plotting to have Peng Dehuai killed anyway.

So after the Korean war and some minor reforms, an infamous policy called the Great Leap Forward came into action. This reform is kind of complicated so I won't describe it in detail now, but I will say that this is the policy that caused a long lasting famine that ended up starving tens of millions of people to death across the nation. The national granaries were overflowing with wheat and rice, but were left there to rot even though people starved to death clawing at the gates of the granaries.

Why did Mao do this if he's a competent leader you might ask? It's his first test of power, he needed to differentiate his current loyalists from enemies so that he may further strengthen his stance in the Chinese political theater. So, Peng Dehuai, the grand marshal being his enemy number 1 (because of his military power) was a dense motherfucker so he took the bait.

Peng Dehuai ended up publicly criticize Mao's policies and his actions, at the same time blamed Mao for the death of the millions of people, as well as advocating for an open democratic government so that the people's voices can be heard. He wrote a poem for it and I highly recommend you read it up if you are interested in these parts of Chinese history. Peng Dehuai openly accused Mao of taking national subjects personal and disregarding the collective leadership nature of the Chinese Communist government and of the party. It's quite heartening to know that communists like this actually existed back then, *sob*.

So Mao started a conference called the Lushan Conference, so that everyone may offer their criticism on his and the government's mistakes and shortcomings, and he promised that he will not attack anyone that do offer their opinions. Many people took the bait and actually went and offered their opinion. Peng Dehuai flew all the way from a foreign nation (he was on a diplomatic mission) back just to criticize Mao.

Peng Dehuai being the dense but actually diplomatic person he is, wrote a full letter detailing his opinions and how the policy should be reversed. Many of the communist members and some of the most senior members (like Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping) agreed with Peng's letter. But Mao after noting all those that agreed with him, attacked Peng Dehuai saying that his letter is a direct confrontation to his leadership.

So after threatening that Mao would split the party and raise another civil war, he revoked Peng Dehuai's office and purged his supporters in the coming years. He completely isolated Peng politically and was eventually publicly humiliated during the Cultural Revolution (which I will talk about in detail later), after years of torture and humiliation, he died of poor health. There goes Mao's enemy number 1, but many more death are to follow.

Character count up again will continue. Pic related, it's Peng Dehuai.

I have some errands to run right now, but be assured that I am reading every word you write with the largests of interests.

After Peng Dehuai was stripped of his power, Mao installed Lin Biao as the grand marshal, he made many military reforms to please Mao but he himself was extremely concerned with how Mao is dealing with things being one of the senior members himself.

Of course Mao's actions would not go unnoticed, senior Chinese Communist leaders were calling to strip Mao's powers so that the nation may progress normally towards its ideal state.

Now almost all of the senior members, particularly Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping (Deng Xiaoping survived and eventually became chairman after Mao's death, who then reversed many of Mao's harms done to the nation, Liu Shaoqi wasn't so lucky), started advocating for Mao to be removed from true political power and to be installed as a figurehead. The two of them then started by taking control of economic political powers and asserting their own powers in the political arena like Mao had done decades ago.

This didn't go unnoticed by Mao. So here comes another infamous policy; "The Cultural Revolution". The policy that eradicated traditional Chinese culture, burnt historical texts, torn down buildings up to 3,000 years of age, killed thousands up to millions of students and scholars, imprisoned thousands of his political enemies and ran the nation's economy to the ruins. This "Cultural Revolution" was put to place not because the nation needed one, it's all for his enjoyment while he takes down the old senior Communist leaders.

There were many films and photographs for this event, if you are interested you could search them up, there are plenty.

Because of the persecution of many people who didn't share his views and the destruction of great cultural artifacts/buildings etc. Many scholars/students and other people that didn't share Mao's views were driven to suicide, some because they just cannot take the destruction anymore, some who cannot take how this once great nation is ran, and others because they don't want to end up being tortured for weeks on end before being slaughtered like animals.

So Mao and his police chief made some statements like; "People who try to commit suicide — don't attempt to save them! . . . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people." and "Don't say it is wrong of them to beat up bad persons: if in anger they beat someone to death, then so be it."

With this policy, he successfully killed off (indirectly, as they mostly just "fall sick due to declining health" and die) Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai, among others. After the fall from power or death of the most senior members of the Communist party, Mao truly has supreme power in China. Deng Xiaoping was sort of forgotten because he just sort of stay hidden when his comrades started dying left and right.

Mao, now having completely assumed his political power as the supreme ruler, wanted to make Lin Biao as his heir (he has no capable sons, his only capable son was killed by an American air strike, thank all the Gods and the Americans for that). The two of them, however did not share a common political view as Mao had later found out, so they sort of had a split. Lin Biao later realized that his life was in danger because of the death of the senior members.

Now Mao goes all out to kill off Lin Biao, saying that he wishes to assassinate Mao. So Lin Biao defected to the Soviet Union and was on his way to the Soviet border. Then, his plane to USSR carrying him and his wife with his children fell. Nobody official knows why his plane fell and killed all of them, but I think we all know what happened here.

That's basically it, about 100 million+ people died due to his actions despite what "official" sources say, China suffered major economical setbacks and had its entire culture destroyed. All on the whim of one man. Because he wanted to, he's not incompetent as you can tell from the events I described, he is just truly evil.

Pic related, Cultural Revolution victim.