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Vietnam began to be a success only after its ruling Communists accepted that capitalism, free markets and free trade were the surest route to riches. They began in 1986 with a liberalisation programme called doi moi (renewal), though real reform came in fits and starts over the following 20 years. Collectivisation was scrapped, farmers were given their own land to till and agricultural prices were freed...
Depends on whom you ask.
If you ask the younger Chinese generations, who are his greatest supporters because they've never experienced any of the hardship under Mao, and have been told from cradle to love Mao using nationalism as an excuse (or patriotism as we call it in the US), Mao was a great leader who did no wrong. But if you ask the older generations who know China's history first hand because they've actually lived under Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' and 'Cultural Revolution', the answer will not be as rosy and flowery.
With his 'Great Leap Forward', Mao launched an economic and social policy around the end of the 1950's. He basically wanted to use China's massive population to transform the country from agrarian oriented to iron and steel oriented industrial nation, so the country didn't need to import heavy machineries anymore. It all sounded grand, but he didn't have any knowledge of metalurgy, and didn't even have the foresight to post knowledgeable team to oversee the execution of this policy. As a result, in order to produce as many steel and iron outputs as possible, many backyard furnaces sprung up all over the country where peasants, farmers, villagers, practically burned anything metal (pots, pans, forks, you name it) in their homes, and used doors, tables, trees, anything wood to fire the furnaces, in their exuberance to produce irons/steel as ordered by Chairman Mao. Because the labor forces were diverted to industrial production, their open fields were neglected and many harvests were left to rot. Many Chinese citizens ended up starved to death instead (some estimated anywhere from 14 - 50 millions died from this failed policy). Anyone who dared to speak out against this policy were removed from position, jailed, or promptly executed.
The failed 'Great Leap Forward' policy caused considerable damaged to Mao's power grip with the increasingly loud criticism he received from his own party members.
In order to gain back his full power, Mao launched 'cultural revolution' in the mid 60's to early 70's to get rid of his loudest critics whom he called 'the liberal elitists' and 'class enemies'. He ended up sending China into the brink of civil war instead. Religious buildings, historical sites, schools, and other cultural materials were destroyed. Intellectuals who lived in cities were stripped of their belongings and forced to move to the countryside to work as farmers or manual laborers as part of 're-education' program. Millions of people were killed, lives ruined, and many simply committed suicide because of this.
In a book called 'Mao's last revolution', when Mao was confronted with the death toll, he reputedly admitted his admiration towards Hitler, whom he called ferocious, and that ferocious is a good leader's trait, because Mao believed the more people you kill from your ferocity, the more revolutionary you are. My own uncle could write a book about his own experience through this hellish period.
Somebody said Mao is a man of the people. Hogwash! He used peasants and uneducated villagers because he knew they were the silent majority who could easily be manipulated into helping him achieve his ambition.
If you want to point out a successful Chinese leader, it's Deng Xiao Ping, who himself was one of Mao's sharp critics and was one of victims of Mao's 're-education' program. It's Deng who brought China to the world stage they are today. Not Mao.
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