"To find positive elements in Mao Zedong's thought and action is not to deny that he was a dictator. Although he constantly warned against indiscriminate resort to imprisonment and execution, he was ruthless when he believed he had to be; the revolutionary consensus was to be protected at all costs from its enemies. Yet to assume because most dictators are paranoics or kleptocrats or closet fascists does not mean that all are. I do not see Mao as another Stalin or another Hitler. I see him more as I see Oliver Cromwell - a man of profoundly democratic instincts forced by circumstances to play the tyrant in defence of his democratic values and ill-served by his major generals."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Anti-fascistsPoets from ChinaGeneral Secretaries and Chairmen of the Communist Party of ChinaAnti-imperialistsNon-fiction authors from China
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Jack Gray, "Mao in Perspective", The China Quarterly (2006)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Mao Zedong
1893 – 1976
chinesischer Revolutionär
338 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Mao Zedong →
Related Quotes
"Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically."
"Mao then rose from guerrilla chief in the late 1920s to a party leader in the mid-1930s on the Long March, the flight…"
"The question of how to deal with the legacy of Mao Zedong, how to separate man from myth, ranged among the most diffi…"
"One of the paradoxes in Mao as a revolutionary thinker is that despite the emphasis in his teaching on the need for r…"
"As he approached his death in 1976, Mao ruminated that he could claim two great victories: the conquest of China and …"
"Mao lies a-mouldring in his tomb, but his soul and his body of work will keep marching on as long as the C.C.P. remai…"
"Paradoxes are found in all great men. One need think only of the contradictory principles and impulses that motivated…"
"Mao’s key idea about the need for violent rebellion to sweep away social injustice and his practical strategies to ac…"
"The adulation Mao received during his lifetime and the outpouring of national grief evoked by his death may have appe…"
"The ever-growing historiography devoted to Mao does not present the clearest of pictures. Often depending on the poli…"