Mao and Again
If you glanced at the front page of The New York Times on this day in 1976, you would've read an almost effusive obituary of Chinese despot Mao Tse Tung, who had died the previous day. I often like to celebrate the death-anniversaries of dictators, but it seems even death doesn't entirely halt the body count. Reporters Sans Frontières reports that Maoist rebels in Nepal publicly and brutally murdered a journalist today.
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Digamma, I also enjoy Stanton Boyd's reaction to Chevy Chase's intrusion in Fletch:
"Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick."
When are you unsophisticates going to realize that had Mao and Stalin's tactics been refined slightly, they would have achieved a majority of their Marxist/Leninist goals?
Remember: (as an undergrad history TA told me) "Totalitarianism and communism are not mutually exclusive. We must compare and contrast communism & capitalism without falling prey to value judgements on the way they were implemented during the 20th century."
Jumpin' Jesus on a Moped!
(I have nothing to add but that)
I think you people are confusing "great" and "good." Think of the Great Man theory of history - it's not about really nice fellas. China under Mao did indeed go from being easy pickings for foreign powers to a major power in its own right.
Too bad his dream wasn't to make his country decent and humane.
As left leaning as the NY Times is now, they could not get away with this sort of thing nowadays. It actually cheered me up to read this.
joe - what you said is strange but true. Hitler was great in a Marge Schott sort of way. After all, he did rebuild those roads, you know...
"Born at a time when China was wracked by civil strife, beset with terrible poverty and encroached on by more advanced foreign powers, he lived to fulfill his boyhood dream of restoring it to its traditional place as a great nation. In Chinese terms, he ranked with Chin Shih-huang, the first Emperor, who unified China in 221 B.C., and was the man Chairman Mao most liked to compare himself to."
Jesus Christ on a crutch!
Despots comparing themselves to Emperors?
Plus ca change...
And kept the trains running on time. Almost forgot: Jesus jumped-up Christ on a pony!