Summary Of Mao Tse-Tung's On Guerilla Warfare

Over the course of history, the strength of China has risen and fallen. At its heights, China stood at the pinnacle of economic and military power; however, by the time of the Second Sino-Japanese war, the nation had significantly declined. At the time, China 's political structure was destabilized by the continued civil war between its Nationalists and Communists. Seeing this political weakness, Japan—the new Asian power—aimed to conquer China. With the invasion of Japanese forces, a wave of oppression and terror spread throughout the country. In this environment, Mao Tse-Tung authored his now infamous book, On Guerilla Warfare. In it, Mao gave his case for the implementation of revolutionary guerrilla forces against the militarily superior Japanese invaders.

He considers guerrilla operations to be one aspect of total war that can allow a militarily inferior nation to combat a more powerful foe. Guerrilla warfare enables a nation to make use of its terrain, climate, and even its own society. As such, the true strength of the nation is the sympathetic population who provides the guerrillas with the intelligence that allows them to harass and surprise the enemy. Owing to its decentralized and highly adaptive nature, guerrilla warfare also allows for the protracting of the war. Furthermore, Mao believes it is vital for guerrilla forces to coordinate with more conventional forces and in time integrate into the traditional military power of the nation. However, to be truly successful, there must be a clearly defined national policy goal. With this, Mao means that war should not be a purely military matter, but instead, the war should be a revolutionary war fought by a united people. To put it briefly, Mao promotes a war that whole nation can rally behind—a war of emancipation—and maintains that such a war cannot be