Saturday, December 03, 2005
MOUNTAIN OF SKULLS, OCEAN OF BLOOD: MAO'S CHINA AS THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DEATH
RJ Rummel, the noted scholar of genocide and murder by government, has retabulated the totals for democide for The People's Republic of China under " The Geat Helmsman" Mao ZeDong:
77, 000,000 Dead
This total is twice as large as all combat deaths for the Russian and Mexican Revolutions,WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars combined. It may exceed all combat deaths in the 20th century and puts the maniacally genocidal exertions of Hitler ( 20,946,000) and Stalin (61,911,000) in the shade. (All figures here are Professor Rummel's). Only Pol Pot, in the percentage of population category, approaches Mao in sheer savagery and bloodlust. As Professor Rummel commented:
"Now, my overall totals for world democide 1900-1999 must also be changed. I have estimated it to be 174,000,000 murdered, of which communist regimes murdered about 148,000,000. Also, compare this to combat dead. Communists overall have murdered four times those killed in combat, while globally the democide toll was over six times that number.
Let freedom ring. "
Somewhere, Mao's academic and journalistic apologists in the West are enjoying a comfortable retirement. ¶ 9:22 PM
RJ Rummel, the noted scholar of genocide and murder by government, has retabulated the totals for democide for The People's Republic of China under " The Geat Helmsman" Mao ZeDong:
77, 000,000 Dead
This total is twice as large as all combat deaths for the Russian and Mexican Revolutions,WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars combined. It may exceed all combat deaths in the 20th century and puts the maniacally genocidal exertions of Hitler ( 20,946,000) and Stalin (61,911,000) in the shade. (All figures here are Professor Rummel's). Only Pol Pot, in the percentage of population category, approaches Mao in sheer savagery and bloodlust. As Professor Rummel commented:
"Now, my overall totals for world democide 1900-1999 must also be changed. I have estimated it to be 174,000,000 murdered, of which communist regimes murdered about 148,000,000. Also, compare this to combat dead. Communists overall have murdered four times those killed in combat, while globally the democide toll was over six times that number.
Let freedom ring. "
Somewhere, Mao's academic and journalistic apologists in the West are enjoying a comfortable retirement. ¶ 9:22 PM
Comments:
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Hey Mark,
I knew it was bad, but had no idea it was like that under Mao...staggering! Let's hope this century does not see the massacres of the past. We cannot forget about these types of losses.
I knew it was bad, but had no idea it was like that under Mao...staggering! Let's hope this century does not see the massacres of the past. We cannot forget about these types of losses.
Hey Von,
Mao generally has always been deemed to have had the highest death toll amongst dictators but there has been a strange unwillingness amongst historians to assign him the full moral blame the way they do with Hitler and Stalin. Many excuses in terms of mitigating circumstances are made for why Mao was not " really" as bad as Hitler or Stalin ( well he wasn't - he was worse!)The Chinese government, incidently, peddles this line as well - Mao was " 70 % right, 30 % wrong" they say.
This has much to do I think with the uncritical empathy Mao's Cultural Revolution enjoyed here from antiwar activists and the New Left during the Sixties. The people who once felt that way are now dominant among professional historians and there's not much enthusiasm for shining a light on issues where they were once flatly wrong. Calls too many other things into question.
Mao generally has always been deemed to have had the highest death toll amongst dictators but there has been a strange unwillingness amongst historians to assign him the full moral blame the way they do with Hitler and Stalin. Many excuses in terms of mitigating circumstances are made for why Mao was not " really" as bad as Hitler or Stalin ( well he wasn't - he was worse!)The Chinese government, incidently, peddles this line as well - Mao was " 70 % right, 30 % wrong" they say.
This has much to do I think with the uncritical empathy Mao's Cultural Revolution enjoyed here from antiwar activists and the New Left during the Sixties. The people who once felt that way are now dominant among professional historians and there's not much enthusiasm for shining a light on issues where they were once flatly wrong. Calls too many other things into question.
I was around when Mao was a hero (60s) and I never understood his popularity.
Maybe when he was supposedly a great peasant-loving outlaw in the hills, there might be some excuse.
But when he was an emperor with his puerile mass movements? Please.
Maybe when he was supposedly a great peasant-loving outlaw in the hills, there might be some excuse.
But when he was an emperor with his puerile mass movements? Please.
# posted by 
: Sunday, 04 December, 2005
: Sunday, 04 December, 2005
Hi Anon
"Maybe when he was supposedly a great peasant-loving outlaw in the hills, there might be some excuse."
Even that hoary Edgar Snow agrarian reformer myth is taking a hell of beating in light of new scholarship. I have not read this argument yet for myself but apparently there' some evidence Mao became a millionaire in Yenan and began collecting harems of young women for himself.
"Maybe when he was supposedly a great peasant-loving outlaw in the hills, there might be some excuse."
Even that hoary Edgar Snow agrarian reformer myth is taking a hell of beating in light of new scholarship. I have not read this argument yet for myself but apparently there' some evidence Mao became a millionaire in Yenan and began collecting harems of young women for himself.
Getting and guarding a harem might drive a lot of man's bellicose activity. U.S. Civil War? etc.
# posted by : Sunday, 04 December, 2005
: Sunday, 04 December, 2005
If the Past was horrible, the Future looks bleak...At Philippine Commentary today we are worried about China's New East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
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