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I have been reviewing the literature about Mao Zedong in the West. Sadly, most of it is pure propaganda, lies, and exaggeration about the man. Even finding hard evidence about the fantastic claims made about him is not easy to find. Most of the narrative surrounding him has become the usual set of lies, that once repeated enough, become burned into the brains of the public. “Mao killed 75 million,” we hear. “Worse than Joseph Stalin,” say others. Nonsense. Much of this garbage comes from The Black Book of Communism, a discredited propaganda piece that came up with the “Communism killed 100 million” figure. Not to be outdone, the numbers are getting even higher. I heard 300 million earlier today. Alexander Finnegan's answer to What is the most biased book you’ve ever read?When I first googled “Mao Zedong” one of the first links was from Wikipedia. Scrolling down the initial biographical information about him, you then reaching a section where it states, with a straight face, that Mao killed 30–70 million people, according to Phillip Short, author of “Mao: A Life.” I started listening to interviews from Mr. Short and he takes great liberties to portray Mao in the worst possible light, without evidence. For example, he says that Mao was “ungrateful and treated his father terribly.” In reality the evidence we have shows that Mao did sometimes complain about his father, but this was common among the group of intellectuals with whom he would hang out. It was fashionable, but there is little evidence that he actually did treat his father poorly. This is just one example, but I have yet to find a Western accounting of Mao that hasn’t been a slurry of sensationalized exaggeration to sell books.The claims about Mao being responsible for 30–70 million deaths is fantastical and untrue. The evidence doesn’t support it. And those who have examined some of the supposed “proofs” based on census figures have been easily debunked. In fact, there were journalists and Western delegations that had visited during the Great Leap Forward and found there to be hunger but no evidence of mass starvation. Nevertheless, famines were a routine part of life in China going back for centuries. Many years ago there was a ridiculous book written about how Mao’s policy of killing sparrows was the substantial cause of the famine, that Mao had “violated the balance of nature.” While this had some effect, the author fails to mention that there were multiple causes for the famine, and that Mao was not the primary cause.Let’s assume there was a famine, for the sake of argument:Chinese history scholar Carl Riskin believes that a very serious famine took place but states “In general, it appears that the indications of hunger and hardship did not approach the kinds of qualitative evidence of mass famine that have accompanied other famines of comparable (if not equal) scale, including earlier famines in China.” He points out that much of the contemporary evidence presented in the West tended to be discounted at the time as it emanated from right-wing sources and was hardly conclusive. He considers whether repressive policies by the Chinese government prevented information about the famine getting out but states “whether it is a sufficient explanation is doubtful. There remains something of a mystery here.” 13Source: Monthly Review | Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?It therefore remains an open question why the accounts presented by these authors should be treated as certain fact in the west. In his famous 1965 book on China, A Curtain of Ignorance, Felix Greene says that he traveled through areas of China in 1960 where food rationing was very tight but he did not see mass starvation. He also cites other eyewitnesses who say the same kind of thing. It is likely, that in fact, famine did occur in some areas. However Greene’s observations indicate that it was not a nation-wide phenomenon on the apocalyptic scale suggested by Jasper Becker and others. Mass hunger was not occurring in the areas he traveled through, although famine may have been occurring elsewhere. Why are the accounts of people like Becker believed so readily when the account of Felix Greene and the others he cites is discounted? Of course, the sympathy of Greene for Mao’s regime may be raised in connection with this and it might be suggested he distorted the truth for political reasons. But Becker, MacFarquhar and Jung Chang have their own perspectives on the issue too. Could anyone seriously doubt that these authors are not fairly staunch anti-communists? Id.Most of the supposed claims about the famine were elaborated by Roderick MacFarquhar, who also happened to be a paid propagandist for the CCF, which is directly funded by the CIA. No surprise. Robert Conquest, the founder of the idea that Stalin killed 30 million intentionally during the Ukrainian Famine was also a paid propagandist for the IDF, which was funded directly the the British Intelligence Services. Both fed information to journalists, the media, and other institutions. These are the typical propagandists front groups. Id.Further, there is substantial evidence that the Deng Xiaoping regime falsified some evidence to make the Great Leap Forward and the famine seem much worse, to legitimize the move from Maoism to enacting capitalist reforms. Id.Mao enjoyed popular support by the peasants who desperately needed land reform. They lived lives of desperate hunger and poverty. Mao brought the nation together. He brought enormous economic growth and prepared China to become one of the leading economic powers in the world. Mao’s strength was in mobilizing the majority of farmers and peasants to support him. He guided them. He had less power than any U.S. President.The supposed terror of Mao’s rule is total propaganda. In fact the supposed “famine” that he caused turned out to be a period of hunger, and the numbers extolling his supposed 45 million killed are unsubstantiated lies. Most of it comes from bitter members of the CCP who found themselves purged for embracing capitalism and had to do some service work in the country to learn the value of not being antisocial. Mao did not execute his political enemies. He believed in rehabilitation and service work. That is why President Xi’s father and Deng Xiaoping himself were not killed and Deng would eventually become the leader of China.The only landlords that got hurt were the ones who took up arms and violently resisted the land reforms. Landlords that caused deaths or had collaborated with the Japanese invaders would face a trial and if found guilty could be executed.Source: How Mao Greatly Strengthened ChinaThis man has just been given land as part of the land redistribution.Land was given to peasants, who previously were essentially serfsOn collectives food was more abundant than beforePhotos: COMMUNES, LAND REFORM AND COLLECTIVISM IN CHINAMassive irrigation projects improved the landFantastic series of photos of everyday life in Maoist China: Everyday Life in Maoist ChinaWhen the land reforms were announced Mao anticipated there would be resistance from the landlord class, as any privileged class is unlikely to just happily give up their riches for the well being of others. But landlords had the option to abide by the law and be fine. Estimating resistance is not a death sentence. In fact landlords that complied were given land to till and welcomed into the community. They were not exterminated.Source: The Land Reform -- china.org.cnLand is redistributed more equitablyI double checked the Wikipedia account of Mao’s land reform measures, and the citations refer to rabid anti-communist books that are filled with lies. I shouldn’t be surprised. The story of Mao in the West is filled with outright lies.You rarely hear it but the reality was that even though slavery was officially abolished, the practice continued before Mao stopped it. The Dalai Lama had slaves up until 1959. But for Mao this would continue.Source: White Paper on Tibet's March Toward ModernizationSource: Gwydion Madawc Williams's answer to Is it true that landlords in China still owned slaves before Mao initiated land reform?The Mao as mass murderer lies began, interestingly, 20 years after his death with cooked numbers. But in the West these lies are entrenched.Monthly Review | On the Role of Mao Zedong Exploring the lies about Maocum monsterMonthly Review | Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?Gwydion Madawc Williams's answer to What happened to those who opposed Mao Zedong?Mao’s only screw up was during the Great Leap Forward, in which he tried to go too fast, causing a setback. But this in no way reduces his prior accomplishments. Further, the nation bounced back quickly.Graphs and sources charts from Gwydion Madawc Williams's answer to Considering that China has a great firewall, what level do Westerners know about China and Chinese people know about the West? Who knows more objectively and comprehensively? and Godfree Roberts's answer to Was failure of communism the reason China switched to capitalism?The Mao Zedong you never hear aboutMao was not a brutal dictator. He was someone who deeply believed in bettering his country but also bringing socialism to all around the world, because he hated capitalism and wanted the masses to lift themselves up and build a Marxist society. As a Marxist Leninist, Mao embraced the model of socialism working toward communism. The goal was communism, a society which is moneyless, stateless, and classless. The workers would own the means of production and manage themselves. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” That is why he was so horrified when Khrushchev backed down from international struggle, and why he was so angry about the capitalist reforms and the de-Stalinization of the USSR. He saw Khrushchev as a traitor to socialism, and this would cause an irreparable rift between the two major socialist powers.Khrushchev permitted some capitalist reforms, which led to the growth of the underground black market, which would ultimately do enormous harm to the official economy and lead to shortages, along with the refusal to adopt cybernetics, which was offered but declined. Cybernetics would have helped efficiently plan the planned economy and develop the consumer sector. He also ended the rotation of government officials to prevent corruption, which would ultimately destroy the Communist Party and the destruction of the entire USSR, as the corrupt elites would choose to dissolve the USSR and become oligarchs, to the detriment of everyone else.Khrushchev treated Mao Zedong poorly, and his de-Stalinization and abandonment of international world revolution horrified Mao. It would lead to a breakdown in relations with the two nations. Mao would later choose to form relations with the U.S., which proved fruitful because the sanctions were lifted, permitting the Chinese economy to blossom. Plus China was less likely to get invaded, meaning more money could be spent on the consumer economy and not the military.Stalin was against militarily invading other nations that might provoke a Western response. Insignificant countries, yes. So he would support conflicts in Korea, for example. The official position was still “Socialism in one country.” Lenin and Trotsky favored worldwide revolution for long term elimination of capitalism, thus making socialism safe from imperial attack. Mao still strongly favored worldwide revolution. He supported the Vietcong and Kim il Sung. When Khrushchev withdrew arms from Cuba Mao considered this a capitulation to the West. He believed that this would long term destroy the international communist movement. Mao also considered Khrushchev's rapprochement with Yugoslavia to be a capitulation that weakened the cause of international communism. Khrushchev's Human Dimensions Brought Him to Power and to His DownfallWhy people loved Mao ZedongMaoism appealed to the rural people and the young. It was anti-elitist. Most of Mao’s teachings were about mobilizing the rural proletariat, the peasants and common people. For what seemed an eternity the peasant farmers worked themselves to death while the landlords lived lives of relative comfort. Mao’s reforms improved the quality of their lives immensely. That is why the life expectancy doubled during his leadership. On the collective farms people could eat until they were full, which was unheard of previously. The communists also unified China and brought it into the modern era. The people loved Mao. After Deng Xiaoping’s rule in 1978 the official story about Mao became that Mao was 70% right and 30% wrong. But this was not the consensus in the 1960’s.Mao began to notice the infiltration of counter revolutionaries in the Communist Party. After 1953 when Stalin died Khrushchev began his de-Stalinization process, which was used to consolidate Khrushchev's power. He abandoned Stalinism and embraced some Western style reforms that would ultimately prove fatal to socialism. This disgusted Mao, first because the claims about Stalin were untrue, and because it was an attack on Marxism, and Mao was a firm believer in Marxism Leninism.Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army, and various spheres of culture are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of them we have already seen through; others we have not. Some are still trusted by us and are being trained as our successors, persons like Khruschev for example, who are still nestling beside us.—Mao ZedongTo prevent what happened in the USSR Mao instituted the Cultural Revolution. The rural people and students were expected to help renew the spirit of socialism. And they willingly did.The Cultural Revolution was indeed a revolution, just a non armed one. But it was a war for the soul of the Chinese people. And its outcome would determine whether China would become a post Soviet Russia or become the world’s largest economy and the next superpower under the leadership of President Xi and the CCP.Mao taught that socialism is not a goal you reach. Instead, it is a continuing process of breakdown and renewal.After 1978 the Deng government portrayed the Cultural Revolution in a negative light. Of course Western journalists and historians have exaggerated the violence (which was not endorsed), have only spoken about the negatives, and have failed to discuss the benefits of the Cultural Revolution.BenefitsIt called for the peasants and students to join the democratic process. It required elitists to answer for their antisocial actions.It enabled peasants and students to voice their grievances.It chased away the reactionary elements that were present and sought to abandon socialism to embrace Western style capitalism and democracy, which would have resulted in the rise of oligarchs and the destruction of the society as seen in post USSR Russia.It had an enormous uplifting effect to the regular people.It rooted out corruption, stopped the capitalist reactionaries, and strengthened the leadership of the CCP. This would ultimately save China from the same fate as the USSR.Western propagandists will have you believe that Mao was a egomaniac trying to remain relevant, that nothing good came from it, that it was a disaster, and that Deng Xiaoping was the hero that “saved China from communism and Mao.” Total rubbish. This is revisionism at its finest. Deng Xiaoping had been purged during this process but was rehabilitated. So after he took power the government condemned the Cultural Revolution as being bad. But the non elites didn’t feel that way.High school and college students organized the Red Guards, pro-communist student groups. Mao’s Little Red Book of quotations was the guide.The negativesSome people took it too far, as young people do. Some individuals became violent, and killed people.Some people were shamed undeservedly. This caused some to become very stressed and a few committed suicide.A few leaders became overzealous and would later need to be reigned in.Some overzealous students destroyed rare antiquities, which was horrendous.Mao believed in rehabilitation. He was not vindictive. And he criticized Stalin for being violent when rehabilitation could have worked better. Mao believed violence would lead to internal contradictions that would later greatly disrupt the entire society, and unravel the legacy of those who used it. Nevertheless, he stated that Stalin was 70% right and 30% wrong. Interestingly, Deng Xiaoping would later say the same thing about him.An example of Mao’s generosity of spirit:This letter was written to students during the Cultural Revolution. Notice the generosity of spirit and call for understanding at the end of the letter. This was Mao.[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.]Red Guard comrades of Tsinghua University Middle School:I have received both the big-character posters which you sent on 28 July as well as the letter which you sent to me, asking for an answer. The two big-character posters which you wrote on 24 June and 4 July express your anger at, and denunciation of, all landlords, bourgeois, imperialists, revisionists, and their running dogs who exploit and oppress the workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and revolutionary parties and groupings. You say it is right to rebel against reactionaries; I enthusiastically support you. I also give enthusiastic support to the big-character poster of the Red Flag Combat Group of Peking University Middle School which said that it is right to rebel against the reactionaries; and to the very good revolutionary speech given by comrade P’eng Hsiao-meng representing their Red Flag Combat Group at the big meeting attended by all the teachers, students, administration and workers of Peking University on 25 July. Here I want to say that I myself as well as my revolutionary comrades-in-arms all take the same attitude. No matter where they are, in Peking or anywhere in China, I will give enthusiastic support to all who take an attitude similar to yours in the Cultural Revolution movement. Another thing, while supporting you, at the same time we ask you to pay attention to uniting with all who can be united with. As for those who have committed serious mistakes, after their mistakes have been pointed out you should offer them a way out of their difficulties by giving them work to do, and enabling them to correct their mistakes and become new men. Marx said: the proletariat must emancipate not only itself but all mankind. If it cannot emancipate all mankind, then the proletariat itself will not be able to achieve final emancipation. Will comrades please pay attention to this truth too.Source: The real Mao, not the Western caricature by Alexander Finnegan on PostsNotice the number of worldwide famines, most of which happened long before there was Stalin and Mao:Interestingly, Mao’s China was so enlightened that some black U.S. Korean War POW’s chose to stay in Red China instead of returning back to the U.S., where they faced lynchings, segregation, and other vile forms of racism.Black POW chooses Mao’s China over the U.S. by Alexander Finnegan on PostsDid people like living under Mao Zedong?Yes.The vast majority of the peasants loved Mao. They lived as serfs under an oppressive system. Landlords lived comfortable lives while the people could barely eke out a living. When Mao redistributed the land the people were given great hope. And landlords were welcomed to take part. But the elites hated him. The elites running China now hate Mao too, because they were made to work in rural areas to learn about the poor during the Cultural Revolution. Because some of them were shamed. Older people in China, the rural people, and many students love Mao. Sadly, there are many who were born after 1976. They only know about Mao what they have heard. In the West there is nothing good about Mao said. It is the usual anti-communist propaganda.I have read some Chinese Quorans who have said that some people have become so focused on making money that they have become superficial and materialistic, displaying their status and forgetting the importance of higher virtues. Mao’s life was a testament that we are not simply rats running on a spinning wheel, making money and thinking of nothing else:We stand for active ideological struggle because it is the weapon for ensuring unity within the Party and the revolutionary organizations in the interest of our fight. Every Communist and revolutionary should take up this weapon.But liberalism rejects ideological struggle and stands for unprincipled peace, thus giving rise to a decadent, Philistine attitude and bringing about political degeneration in certain units and individuals in the Party and the revolutionary organizations.Liberalism manifests itself in various ways.To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism.To indulge in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one's suggestions to the organization. To say nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards. To show no regard at all for the principles of collective life but to follow one's own inclination. This is a second type.To let things drift if they do not affect one personally; to say as little as possible while knowing perfectly well what is wrong, to be worldly wise and play safe and seek only to avoid blame. This is a third type.Not to obey orders but to give pride of place to one's own opinions. To demand special consideration from the organization but to reject its discipline. This is a fourth type.To indulge in personal attacks, pick quarrels, vent personal spite or seek revenge instead of entering into an argument and struggling against incorrect views for the sake of unity or progress or getting the work done properly. This is a fifth type.To hear incorrect views without rebutting them and even to hear counter-revolutionary remarks without reporting them, but instead to take them calmly as if nothing had happened. This is a sixth type.To be among the masses and fail to conduct propaganda and agitation or speak at meetings or conduct investigations and inquiries among them, and instead to be indifferent to them and show no concern for their well-being, forgetting that one is a Communist and behaving as if one were an ordinary non-Communist. This is a seventh type.To see someone harming the interests of the masses and yet not feel indignant, or dissuade or stop him or reason with him, but to allow him to continue. This is an eighth type.To work half-heartedly without a definite plan or direction; to work perfunctorily and muddle along--"So long as one remains a monk, one goes on tolling the bell." This is a ninth type.To regard oneself as having rendered great service to the revolution, to pride oneself on being a veteran, to disdain minor assignments while being quite unequal to major tasks, to be slipshod in work and slack in study. This is a tenth type.To be aware of one's own mistakes and yet make no attempt to correct them, taking a liberal attitude towards oneself. This is an eleventh type.We could name more. But these eleven are the principal types.They are all manifestations of liberalism.Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.Liberalism stems from petty-bourgeois selfishness, it places personal interests first and the interests of the revolution second, and this gives rise to ideological, political and organizational liberalism.People who are liberals look upon the principles of Marxism as abstract dogma. They approve of Marxism, but are not prepared to practice it or to practice it in full; they are not prepared to replace their liberalism by Marxism. These people have their Marxism, but they have their liberalism as well--they talk Marxism but practice liberalism; they apply Marxism to others but liberalism to themselves. They keep both kinds of goods in stock and find a use for each. This is how the minds of certain people work.Liberalism is a manifestation of opportunism and conflicts fundamentally with Marxism. It is negative and objectively has the effect of helping the enemy; that is why the enemy welcomes its preservation in our midst. Such being its nature, there should be no place for it in the ranks of the revolution.We must use Marxism, which is positive in spirit, to overcome liberalism, which is negative. A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions, so as to consolidate the collective life of the Party and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses; he should be more concerned about the Party and the masses than about any private person, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a Communist.All loyal, honest, active and upright Communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us, and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.Source: Mao on Combating Liberalism by Alexander Finnegan on PostsFor a much more in depth analysis of Maoism and Neo-Maoism in China, click here.To understand the similarites and differences between the two giants of communism, Stalin and Mao, it helps to look at the question: “Why didn’t Mao and Stalin get on?”First, don’t read the secondary sources from the New York Times or other publications. These are inaccurate descriptions of the relationship between the two. There is an attempt to create a rivalry between the two that misrepresents their relationship. Were they best friends that went drinking together? No.However, Mao respected Stalin and after Mao proved himself Stalin trusted Mao. They also shared a common purpose—Marxism Leninism and socialism. Stalin helped Mao in many ways to develop China after 1949. As the more senior party controlling a more powerful nation, Stalin regarded himself as more of a senior figure. However, there is no indication of Stalin being especially rude to Mao or Mao being rude back to Stalin. But there were things Stalin did that Maowas angry about.Below is the transcript of their meeting in 1949. You see from it that Stalin is trying to consider the international implications of how the USSR and China get along, while trying to be of assistance to Mao to shore up some internal and external domestic matters. Stalin had more experience as a world leader and diplomat compared to Mao at this time. So naturally Stalin is going to take more of a lead.December 16, 1949Source: Cold War International History Project (Smithsonian Institution)Conversation between Stalin and Mao, Moscow, 16 December 1949[Classification level blacked out: "NOT SECRET" Stamped]RECORD OF CONVERSATION BETWEEN COMRADE I.V. STALIN AND CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA MAO ZEDONG on 16 December 1949After an exchange of greetings and a discussion of general topics, the following conversation took place.Comrade Mao Zedong: The most important question at the present time is the question of establishing peace. China needs a period of 3-5 years of peace, which would be used to bring the economy back to pre-war levels and to stabilize the country in general. Decisions on the most important questions in China hinge on the prospects for a peaceful future. With this in mind the CC CPC [Central Committee of the Communist Party of China] entrusted me to ascertain from you, comr[ade]. Stalin, in what way and for how long will international peace be preserved.Comrade Stalin: In China a war for peace, as it were, is taking place. The question of peace greatly preoccupies the Soviet Union as well, though we have already had peace for the past four years. With regards to China, there is no immediate threat at the present time: Japan has yet to stand up on its feet and is thus not ready for war; America, though it screams war, is actually afraid of war more than anything; Europe is afraid of war; in essence, there is no one to fight with China, not unless Kim Il Sung decides to invade China?Peace will depend on our efforts. If we continue to be friendly, peace can last not only 5-10 years, but 20-25 years and perhaps even longer.Comrade Mao Zedong: Since Liu Shaoqi's return to China, CC CPC has been discussing the treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance between China and the USSR.Comrade Stalin: This question we can discuss and decide. We must ascertain whether to declare the continuation of the current 1945 treaty of alliance and friendship between the USSR and China, to announce impending changes in the future, or to make these changes right now.As you know, this treaty was concluded between the USSR and China as a result of the Yalta Agreement, which provided for the main points of the treaty (the question of the Kurile Islands, South Sakhalin, Port Arthur, etc.). That is, the given treaty was concluded, so to speak, with the consent of America and England. Keeping in mind this circumstance, we, within our inner circle, have decided not to modify any of the points of this treaty for now, since a change in even one point could give America and England the legal grounds to raise questions about modifying also the treaty's provisions concerning the Kurile Islands, South Sakhalin, etc. This is why we searched to find a way to modify the current treaty in effect while formally maintaining its provisions, in this case by formally maintaining the Soviet Union's right to station its troops at Port Arthur while, at the request of the Chinese government, actually withdrawing the Soviet Armed forces currently stationed there. Such an operation could be carried out upon China's request.One could do the same with KChZhD [Chinese Changchun Railroad, which traverses Manchuria], that is, to effectively modify the corresponding points of the agreement while formally maintaining its provisions, upon China's request.If, on the other hand, the Chinese comrades are not satisfied with this strategy, they can present their own proposals.Comrade Mao Zedong: The present situation with regard to KChZhD and Port Arthur corresponds well with Chinese interests, as the Chinese forces are inadequate to effectively fight against imperialist aggression. In addition, KChZhD is a training school for the preparation of Chinese cadres in railroad and industry.Comrade Stalin: The withdrawal of troops does not mean that Soviet Union refuses to assist China, if such assistance is needed. The fact is that we, as communists, are not altogether comfortable with stationing our forces on foreign soil, especially on the soil of a friendly nation. Given this situation anyone could say that if Soviet forces can be stationed on Chinese territory, then why could not the British, for example, station their forces in Hong Kong, or the Americans in Tokyo?We would gain much in the arena of international relations if, with mutual agreement, the Soviet forces were to be withdrawn from Port Arthur. In addition, the withdrawal of Soviet forces would provide a serious boost to Chinese communists in their relations with the national bourgeoisie. Everyone would see that the communists have managed to achieve what [Nationalist Chinese leader] Jiang Jieshi [Chiang Kai-shek] could not. The Chinese communists must take the national bourgeoisie into consideration.The treaty ensures the USSR's right to station its troops in Port Arthur. But the USSR is not obligated to exercise this right and can withdraw its troops upon Chinese request. However, if this is unsuitable, the troops in Port Arthur can remain there for 2, 5, or 10 years, whatever suits China best. Let them not misunderstand that we want to run away from China. We can stay there for 20 years even.Comrade Mao Zedong: In discussing the treaty in China we had not taken into account the American and English positions regarding the Yalta agreement. We must act in a way that is best for the common cause. This question merits further consideration. However, it is already becoming clear that the treaty should not be modified at the present time, nor should one rush to withdraw troops from Port Arthur.Should not Zhou Enlai visit Moscow in order to decide the treaty question?Comrade Stalin: No, this question you must decide for yourselves. Zhou may be needed in regard to other matters.Comrade Mao Zedong: We would like to decide on the question of Soviet credit to China, that is to draw up a credit agreement for 300.000.000 dollars between the governments of the USSR and China.Comrade Stalin: This can be done. If you would like to formalize this agreement now, we can.Comrade Mao Zedong: Yes, exactly now, as this would resonate well in China. At the same time it is necessary to resolve the question of trade, especially between the USSR and Xinjiang [Sinkiang], though at present we cannot present a specific trade operations plan for this region.Comrade Stalin: We must know right now what kind of equipment China will need, especially now, since we do not have equipment in reserve and the request for industrial goods must be submitted ahead of time.Comrade Mao Zedong: We are having difficulties in putting together a request for equipment, as the industrial picture is as yet unclear.Comrade Stalin: It is desirable to expedite the preparation of this request, as requests for equipment are submitted to our industry at least a year in advance.Comrade Mao Zedong: We would very much like to receive assistance from the USSR in creating air transportation routes.Comrade Stalin: We are ready to render such assistance. Air routes can be established over Xinjiang and the MPR [Mongolian People's Republic]. We have specialists. We will give you assistance.Comrade Mao Zedong: We would also like to receive your assistance in creating a naval force.Comrade Stalin: Cadres for Chinese navy could be prepared at Port Arthur. You give us people, and we will give you ships. Trained cadres of the Chinese navy could then return to China on these ships.Comrade Mao Zedong: Guomindang [Kuomintang] supporters have built a naval and air base on the island of Formosa [Taiwan]. Our lack of naval forces and aviation makes the occupation of the island by the People's Liberation Army [PLA] more difficult. With regard to this, some of our generals have been voicing opinions that we should request assistance from the Soviet Union, which could send volunteer pilots or secret military detachments to speed up the conquest of Formosa.Comrade Stalin: Assistance has not been ruled out, though one ought to consider the form of such assistance. What is most important here is not to give Americans a pretext to intervene. With regard to headquarters staff and instructors we can give them to you anytime. The rest we will have to think about.Do you have any assault landing units?Comrade Mao Zedong: We have one former Guomindang assault landing regiment unit which came over to join our side.Comrade Stalin: One could select a company of landing forces, train them in propaganda, send them over to Formosa, and through them organize an uprising on the isle.Comrade Mao Zedong: Our troops have approached the borders of Burma and Indo-China. As a result, the Americans and the British are alarmed, not knowing whether we will cross the border or whether our troops will halt their movement.Comrade Stalin: One could create a rumor that you are preparing to cross the border and in this way frighten the imperialists a bit.Comrade Mao Zedong: Several countries, especially Britain, are actively campaigning to recognize the People's Republic of China. However, we believe that we should not rush to be recognized. We must first bring about order to the country, strengthen our position, and then we can talk to foreign imperialists.Comrade Stalin: That is a good policy. In addition, there is no need for you to create conflicts with the British and the Americans. If, for example, there will be a need to put pressure on the British, this can be done by resorting to a conflict between the Guangdong province and Hong Kong. And to resolve this conflict, Mao Zedong could come forward as the mediator. The main point is not to rush and to avoid conflicts.Are there foreign banks operating in Shanghai?Comrade Mao Zedong: Yes.Comrade Stalin: And whom are they serving?Comrade Mao Zedong: The Chinese national bourgeoisie and foreign enterprises which so far we have not touched. As for the foreigners' spheres of influence, the British predominate in investments in the economic and commercial sectors, while the Americans lead in the sector of cultural-educational organizations.Comrade Stalin: What is the situation regarding Japanese enterprises?Comrade Mao Zedong: They have been nationalized.Comrade Stalin: In whose hands is the customs agency?Comrade Mao Zedong: In the hands of the government.Comrade Stalin: It is important to focus attention on the customs agency as it is usually a good source of government revenue.Comrade Mao Zedong: In the military and political sectors we have already achieved complete success; as for cultural and economic sectors, we have as yet not freed ourselves from foreign influence there.Comrade Stalin: Do you have inspectors and agents overseeing foreign enterprises, banks, etc.?Comrade Mao Zedong: Yes, we have. We are carrying out such work in the study and oversight of foreign enterprises (the Kailan [?] mines, electric power plants and aqueducts in Shanghai, etc.).Comrade Stalin: One should have government inspectors who must operate legally. The foreigners should also be taxed at higher levels than the Chinese.Who owns the enterprises mining wolfram [tungsten], molybdenum, and petroleum?Comrade Mao Zedong: The government.Comrade Stalin: It is important to increase the mining of minerals and especially of petroleum. You could build an oil pipeline from western Lanzhou to Chengdu [?], and then transport fuel by ship.Comrade Mao Zedong: So far we have not decided which districts of China we should strive to develop first - the coastal areas or those inland, since we were unsure of the prospects for peace.Comrade Stalin: Petroleum, coal, and metal are always needed, regardless of whether there be war or not.Comrade Stalin: Can rubber-bearing trees be grown in southern China?Comrade Mao Zedong: So far it has not been possible.Comrade Stalin: Is there a meteorological service in China?Comrade Mao Zedong: No, it has not been established yet.Comrade Stalin: It should be established.Comrade Stalin: We would like to receive from you a list of your works which could be translated into Russian.Comrade Mao Zedong: I am currently reviewing my works which were published in various local publishing houses and which contain a mass of errors and misrepresentations. I plan to complete this review by spring of 1950. However, I would like to receive help from Soviet comrades: first of all, to work on the texts with Russian translators and, secondly, to receive help in editing the Chinese original.Comrade Stalin: This can be done. However, do you need your works edited?Comrade Mao Zedong: Yes, and I ask you to select a comrade suitable for such a task, say, for example, someone from CC VKP/b/ [All-Union Communist Party of bolsheviks].Comrade Stalin: It can be arranged, if indeed there is such a need.Also present at the meeting: comrs. Molotov, Malenkov, Bulganin, Vyshinskii, [Soviet translator N.T.] Fedorenko and [Chinese translator] Shi Zhe /Karskii/.Recorded by comr. Fedorenko.[signature illegible 31/XII][Source: Archive of the President, Russian Federation (APRF), fond (f.) 45, opis (op.) 1, delo (d.) 329, listy (ll.) 9-17; translation by Danny Rozas.]https://digitalarchive.wilsoncen... This link provides the transcript of another meeting between Stalin and Mao, along with Molotov and Zhou En lai“December 21 of this year is Comrade Stalin’s sixtieth birthday. It can be anticipated that this birthday will call forth warm and affectionate congratulations in the hearts of all those people in the world who are aware of this event and who know suffering.“To congratulate Stalin is not merely doing something to observe the occasion. To congratulate Stalin means to support him, to support his cause, to support the cause of the Soviet Union, to support the victory of socialism, to support the orientation he points out for humanity, and to support our own close friend. Today in the world the great majority of humanity is suffering and only by following the orientation pointed out by Stalin, and with Stalin’s aid, can humanity be rescued from disaster.“We Chinese people are now living in a time of profound calamity unprecedented in history, a time when help from others is most urgently needed. The Book of Poetry says, ‘Ying goes its cry, seeking with its voice its companion.’ We are precisely at such a juncture.“But who are our friends?“There is one kind of so-called friends who style themselves our friends, and some among us also unthinkingly call them friends. But such friends can only be classed with Li Linfu of the Tang dynasty. Li Linfu was a prime minister of the Tang dynasty, a notorious man who was described as having ‘honey dripping from his tongue and a sword concealed in his heart.’ These friends today are precisely friends with ‘honey dripping from their tongues and swords concealed in their hearts.’ Who are these people? Part of those imperialists who say that they sympathize with China.“There is another kind of friends who are different; they have real sympathy for us, and regard us as brothers. Who are these people? They are the Soviet Union, and Stalin.“Not a single country has renounced its special rights and privileges in China; only the Soviet Union has done this.“At the time of the Northern Expedition, all the imperialists opposed us, and the Soviet Union alone assisted us.“Since the beginning of the anti-Japanese war, not a single government of any imperialist country has really helped us. The Soviet Union alone has helped us with its great resources in men, materiel, and money.“Is this not clear enough?“To the cause of the liberation of the Chinese nation and the Chinese people, only the socialist country, the socialist leaders, the socialist people, and socialist thinkers, statesmen, and toilers are truly giving assistance. Without their help, it is impossible to win final victory.“Stalin is the true friend of the Chinese nation and of the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people. The Chinese people’s love and respect for Stalin, and our friendship for the Soviet Union, are wholly sincere. Any attempt, from whatever quarter, to sow dissension by rumor-mongering and slander will be of no avail in the end.”—“Stalin Is the Friend of the Chinese People” (Dec. 20, 1939), MRP7, pp. 307-308, in full. A different translation is available in SW2, pp. 335-6.Source: Mao's Evaluations of StalinIn the above paragraph Mao shows his thanks to Stalin for the support given to China, and how the USSR has been a good friend to China, while others have sought to take advantage.“I believe we should do things honestly, for without an honest attitude it is absolutely impossible to accomplish anything in this world. Which are the honest people? Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are honest, men of science are honest. Which are the dishonest people? Trotsky, Bukharin, Chen Tu-hsiu and Chang Kuo-tao are extremely dishonest…”—“Rectify the Party’s Style of Work” (Feb. 1, 1942), SW3, p. 44. Id.Mao continued his respect for Stalin, and considered him a partner who had acted in good faith.[Excerpt from Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War quoting Mao’s private reaction to the first of two telegrams Stalin sent him urging him to personally go to Chongqing (Chungking) for negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek.]“In the first cable (dated August 22 [1945]), Stalin said that China must hold to the road of peaceful development, that he believed the Nationalists and the Communists should reach a peace accord because a civil war would destroy the Chinese nation, and that, accordingly, he thought both Zhou [Enlai] and Maoshould go to Chongqing. After receiving Stalin’s cable, an angry Maoremarked, ‘I simply don’t believe that the nation will perish if the people stand up and struggle [against the Nationalist government].’”—UP, p. 7. Ed. note: Later on (in early 1948) Stalin admitted that he was wrong in initially opposing the Chinese revolution in the period after World War II. Milovan Djilas reports him as saying: “True, we, too, can make a mistake! Here, when the war with Japan ended, we invited the Chinese comrades to reach an agreement as to how a modus vivendi with Chiang Kai-shek might be found. They agreed with us in word, but in deed they did it their own way when they got home: they mustered their forces and struck. It has been shown that they were right, and not we.” [Djilas, Conversations with Stalin, p. 182.] Later still, on July 27, 1949, as the Chinese revolution was on the verge of complete victory, the authors of Uncertain Partners say that while speaking to a CPC delegation in Moscow Stalin“admitted that he was not ‘too well versed’ in Chinese affairs and may have caused obstacles in the Chinese revolution.” [UP, p. 73.] Id.Stalin and Mao had disagreements about strategy sometimes. When Stalin recognized he had been mistaken he admitted he was wrong. He was not acting in bad faith or to play games with Mao.[The authors of UP writing:] “In the late 1940s and well into the 1950s, Mao and other Chinese Party leaders repeatedly contended that Mikoyan [in his secret visit on Stalin’s behalf to Mao in early 1949] had recommended that the PLA not cross the Yangtze. That advice they charged up primarily to three reasons. First of all, the Soviets had simply erred in their estimate of the PLA and believed it could not defeat the Nationalists. Marshal Nie Rong-zhen comments that Stalin, lacking confidence in the military power of the Chinese Communists, ‘was somewhat like the ancient man of Qi who was worried that the sky might fall anytime.’ Fear that the crossing would raise the danger of U.S. armed intervention was the second reason, and, third, Stalin wanted to split China in half, creating conflicting ‘Northern and Southern Dynasties,’ the better to control the Communist half. [UP, p. 42. The UP authors go on to suggest that they have doubts about the truth of this story, but provide the following references in support of it:][The UP authors continuing in a footnote on p. 306:] “Mao’s first known statement on the ‘Northern and Southern Dynasties’ was made in the spring of 1949, when he said: ‘Some friends abroad half believe and half disbelieve in our victory. [They are] persuading us to stop here and make the Yangtze River a border with Chiang, to create the “Northern and Southern Dynasties.”’ … In 1954, Zhou Enlai told Liu Xiao, the new ambassador to the Soviet Union, that Stalin had ‘sent a representative to Xibaipo [i.e., Mikoyan’s secret visit in Jan.-Feb. 1949 —Ed.] principally for the purpose of understanding the situation in the Chinese revolution and the points of view from our side…. The Soviet Union was dissatisfied [with our intention to liberate all China] and demanded that we “stop the civil war.” In fact the Soviet Union attempted to create the “Northern and Southern Dynasties,” namely two Chinas.’ … Mao referred to this same issue on April 11, 1957.”[However, a cable from Stalin to Mao in April, 1949, just before the PLA crossed the Yangtze, shows that Stalin did not at that time oppose the crossing, though he still urged caution. On the other hand, not long before sending that cable Stalin was apparently still trying to mediate an end to the civil war and keep China divided. See UP, pp. 43-44.] Id.“We must not put on bureaucratic airs. If we dig into a subject for several months, for a year or two, for three or five years, we shall eventually master it. At first some of the Soviet Communists also were not very good at handling economic matters and the imperialists awaited their failure too. But the Communist Party of the Soviet Union emerged victorious and, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, it learned not only how to make the revolution but also how to carry on construction. It has built a great and splendid socialist state. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is our best teacher and we must learn from it.”—Ibid., p. 423. Id.Mao was a very wise person. He was not arrogant and he knew there were things he simply did not know. Instead of putting on airs he devoted himself to learning from Stalin as China was the little brother to the USSR, its socialist older brother who had collectivized and industrialized first.Differences between the two“They [the Soviets] did not permit China to make revolution: that was in 1945. Stalin wanted to prevent China from making a revolution, saying that we should not have a civil war and should cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek, otherwise the Chinese nation would perish. But we did not do what he said. The revolution was victorious. After the victory of the revolution he next suspected China of being a Yugoslavia, and that I would become a second Tito. Later, when I went to Moscow to sign the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance, we had to go through another struggle. He was not willing to sign a treaty. After two months of negotiations he at last signed. When did Stalin begin to have confidence in us? It was the time of the Resist America, Aid Korea campaign, from the winter of 1950. He then came to believe that we were not Tito, not Yugoslavia.”—Speech at the Tenth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC (Sept. 24, 1962), CMTTP, p. 191. (Most of this passage is also in TMT, pp. 146-7.) Id.Stalin was a very anxious person. He suffered from many fears, including flying, dying in his sleep, being poisoned, and being betrayed. Stalin was eventually betrayed by Tito of Yugoslavia, who became independent of the USSR in many ways and Stalin was unable to reign him in. Stalin had his reservations about Mao Zedong and China. He didn’t know which way Mao was going to go. Stalinpreferred a divided China with Chiang Kai Sheik still keeping part of mainland China. Stalin figured this would be geopolitically more stable and safer for the USSR as the power would be more divided. Stalin was also nervous about irritating the imperial powers and causing another war, so he was reticent to do things that might provoke the West. Mao went ahead conquered the mainland anyway. Later Stalin would agree to assist China with different things like industrialization, technology, etc. But Stalin also imposed some terms that Maofelt were unfriendly, and more like something an imperialist nation would impose. This angered him. Mao had his differences with Stalin that he would later vocalize, such as disagreeing with Stalin’s use of repression against fellow comrades. Mao was not one to use repression against his own people. He believed in rehabilitating people. When Mao would have someone purged they would be given an opportunity to learn about the error of their ways, work with the proletariat, learn self-criticism and then rejoin the party. He felt this was part of the process of Marxism Leninism. This was the embrace of contradictions, of trying to understand the never ending role of class struggle within already socialist nations. He believed that Stalin had failed in engaging the masses of the people to fight counterrevolutionaries and capitalist roaders within the party. Mao demonstrated this later with the Cultural Revolution. This was to be done by the people themselves, the students and the peasants, not by the leadership itself. Mao believed that Stalin relied too heavily on cadres within the party to deal with these elements instead of relying on the people.Khrushchev gave his “Secret Speech” in which he denounced Stalin and scapegoated him for all the problems in the past. He had the statutes of Stalin removed, had his body buried, and moved away from Stalinism, trying to embrace more reforms. The effect of these changes would pave the way for the eventual demise of the USSR. It had a huge demoralizing effect on the public and the members of the Party. Mao discussed this frequently. It destroyed the narrative that held together the Soviet society. Mao was disgusted by this. Mao said that Stalin was 70 to 80% right. Mao saw the scandal and negative effects within the CCP as well. Many comrades were disturbed by Khrushchev's actions. Mao continued to honor Stalin and refused to remove the giant portrait of him in Tienanmen Square. Khrushchev's arrogant and condescending attitude toward Mao would also lead to a rift between the USSR and China that would change the course of the future. Eventually Mao would agree to an alliance with the U.S., and this led China to a level of stability against invasion from the US. and the removal of sanctions, which helped China develop economically compared to Cuba and North Korea, which have been subject to crippling sanctions for decades.“This Comrade Stalin of ours had something of the flavor of the mandarins of old… In the past, the relations between us and the Soviet Union were those between father and son, cat and mouse.”—April, 1958. Quoted in TMT, p. 154. Id.Stalin died in 1953. Mao discusses the sometimes paternal, and sometimes difficult relationship between the two. Reading the conversations between them you get that sense, too.“When Stalin was criticized in 1956, we were on the one hand happy, but on the other hand apprehensive. It was completely necessary to remove the lid, to break down blind faith, to release the pressure, and to emancipate thought. But we did not agree with demolishing him at one blow. They do not hang up his picture, but we do. In 1950 I argued with Stalin in Moscow for two months. On the questions of the Treaty of Mutual Assistance, the Chinese Eastern Railway, the joint-stock companies and the border we adopted two attitudes: one was to argue when the other side made proposals we did not agree with, and the other was to accept their proposal if they absolutely insisted. This was out of consideration for the interests of socialism. Then there were the two ‘colonies’, that is the North-East and Sinkiang [Xinjiang], where people of any third country were not allowed to reside. Now this has been rescinded. After the criticism of Stalin, the victims of blind faith had their eyes opened a bit. In order that our comrades recognize that the old ancestor [Stalin] also had his faults, we should apply analysis to him, and not have blind faith in him. We should accept everything good in Soviet experience, and reject what is bad. Now we are a bit more skilful in this, and understand the Soviet Union a bit better, and understand ourselves.—Ibid., p. 101. In the 1950 treaty Stalin insisted on the creation of joint-stock companies in Xinjiang to develop oil and metal production. This continued the Soviet economic exploitation of the area that had already begun under the Nationalist regime. The USSR also kept control, for a time, of two important military bases in Manchuria and de facto control of the Chinese Eastern Railway which (among other things) was used to transport military supplies to those bases. A secret protocol to the 1950 treaty prohibited the Chinese from allowing citizens of any third country to participate in trade or industry in Xinjiang or Manchuria. —Ed. Id.Further, Mao felt that there were times when he had been treated poorly by Stalin.[Stuart Schram writing:] “When he [Mao] visited Moscow for the second time, in November 1957 to attend the conference of Communist and workers’ parties, Mao remarked that he still had a ‘belly full of pent-up anger, mainly directed against Stalin’, though he would not elaborate on the reasons, because it was all in the past. He then proceeded, in characteristic fashion, to do precisely that: ‘During the Stalin era, nobody dared to speak up. I have come to Moscow twice and the first time was depressing. Despite all the talk about ‘fraternal parties’ there was really no equality.’ Now, he said, we ‘must admit that our Soviet comrades’ style of work has changed a lot.’”—Nov. 1957. Quoted in TMT, p. 152. Id.Mao had many deep reservations about how Stalin’s legacy was handled.“Incidentally, let me talk a bit here about where our opinions differ from those of the Soviet Union. First of all, on the question of Stalin, we have contradictions with Khrushchev. He made Stalin appear so terrible! We do not agree with that, because he was made to appear so ugly! This is not a matter for their country alone; it is a matter that concerns all countries. We hang Stalin’s portrait outside our Tiananmen; this is in accord with the wishes of the laboring people of the whole world, and it demonstrates our basic differences with Khrushchev. As for Stalin himself, you should also give him [an evaluation of] 30 per cent [bad] and 70 per cent [good]. Stalin’s achievements count for 70 per cent; his mistakes count for 30 per cent. Even this may not be accurate; [his] mistakes may only be 20 per cent or perhaps only 10 per cent, or perhaps a little more than [20 per cent]. In any case, Stalin’s achievements are primary while his shortcomings and mistakes are secondary. On this point we and Khrushchev hold differing opinions.”—Speech at the Conclusion of the Third Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee (Oct. 9, 1957), version I, WMZ2, p. 707.Mao was more democratic minded than Stalin. He disagreed with Stalin’s inability to accept criticism. He also felt that Stalin was too conservative at times and needed to be more bold.“To affirm everything we did, without analyzing it—this thing is wrong. The dogmatists of the past were just like that. Rákosi was like that, and so was Stalin. Can you say Stalin was entirely dogmatist? No, you can’t say that. This man, he did a lot of things, but he did have [some] dogmatism. This dogmatism of his influenced China, making us fail in our revolution during a certain period. If we were to do things as he bade us, we would not have been able to carry out the revolution in the later stage, and we wouldn’t be holding a meeting here. Who built the building? Not us. We wouldn’t have had the opportunity [to hold this meeting] because it would still be the government of the Kuomintang [and the] imperialists [running things in China]. Stalin had [things on] both sides; he also had [some] dogmatism—[wanting us to] transplant the [experience of the] Soviet Union in everything. We must learn from the Soviet Union. The things of the Soviet Union, both the mistakes and the achievements, are very worthy of being learned from. The slogan that we propose now is to learn from the Soviet Union’s advanced experiences. We didn’t say that we should learn from their backward experiences. When did we ever propose such a slogan? However, even though it was not proposed, some things like that came over with the [good ones] all the same, [especially] in the last seven years. Nonetheless, in general, we can’t say that we weren’t selective at all … because we have been critical of dogmatism, and the source of dogmatism comes from Stalin.”—Ibid., p. 401. Mátyás Rákosi was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary at the time of Hungarian Uprising in 1956. For another translation, see SSCM, pp. 287-8.“It is good to have criticism. It would not be good to have no criticism, or to suppress criticism. It is this mistake that Stalin committed. Stalin did a lot of good things, but he also did some bad things. He confused the two; he used the methods that are for dealing with the enemy to deal with the people, with contradictions among the people. He wouldn’t let people say bad things about the government, or about the Communist Party; if you said anything bad or if there were any rustling in the air, any movement in the grass, he would say that you were a spy and have you arrested.”—Speech at [a] Conference of Members and Cadres of Provincial-Level Organizations of [the] CPC in Shandong (March 18, 1957), WMZ2, pp. 419-420. For a different translation, see SSCM, p. 308. Id.“Stalin was 70 percent a Marxist, 30 percent not a Marxist. [He] was 30 percent bourgeois, 70 percent Marxist.”—Ibid., SSCM, p. 173.“How [should we] look on the criticism of Stalin? We [humans] are also commodities of dual character. [This is an allusion to Marx’s comments about how commodities have the dual characteristics of use value and exchange value. –Ed.] The criticism of Stalin has a two-sided nature. One side has real benefit; one side is not good. To expose the cult of Stalin, to tear off the lid, to liberate people, this is a liberation movement; but his [i.e., Khrushchev’s] method of exposing [Stalin] is incorrect; [he] hasn’t made a good analysis, clubbing [him] to death with a single blow. On the one hand, this provoked the worldwide currents of the latter half of last year; on the other hand, it later also provoked the Hungarian and Polish incidents. But he [Stalin] had his incorrect side; although our published articles have not pointed at the [CPSU] Twentieth Congress, in fact [we’ve] talked about it. What have we discussed with the Soviet comrades face to face? About how the Stalinproblem has not been handled appropriately; [we] discussed our great-nation chauvinism….”—Ibid., SSCM, p. 178. Id.Mao was much more compassionate to counterrevolutionaries than the USSR:“The problem of eliminating counterrevolutionaries is a problem of the first type of contradiction [i.e., between the enemy and ourselves]. Speaking comparatively, in the last analysis how has our country handled the work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries? Poorly or well? In my view there have been shortcomings, but in comparison with other countries we have done relatively well. Better than the Soviet Union, better than Hungary. The Soviet Union was too leftist, Hungary was too rightist. We have drawn a lesson from this; it’s not that we’re especially clever. Because the Soviet Union has been too left, we have learned something from that experience. We ourselves have committed leftist excesses, too. During the period of the southern base areas, when we were still rather ignorant, we suffered losses and every base area without exception used the same Soviet method. Later [we] put things right, and only then did we gain experience. In Yan’an [we] finally enacted some rules. Not a single person was to be killed and the bulk [of offenders] were not to be arrested. Once in Beijing [i.e., after the 1949 Communist victory] there were some improvements, though naturally there are still shortcomings, errors. Still, by now progress has been made. Compared with the Soviet Union, it is two lines [i.e., two different lines on this were followed. –Ed.] (this refers to the past, not the present, namely the time when Stalin was in power; he did things badly). There were two sides to him. One side was the elimination of true counterrevolutionaries; that was the correct side. The other side was the incorrect killing of numerous people, important people.”—“On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People” (Speaking Notes), (Feb. 27, 1957), SSCM, pp. 141-2, and footnote 11. An alternate translation of some of this passage is given above. Id.

What is a good way to build up a successful business from nothing and have fun doing it? The import/export business may be your answer. Not only does it require little financial investment to start, but it offers the prestige of working with clients from all over the world.You don't need previous experience in the field, but you should have a good head for organizing. Fulfilling a successful import/export business requires constant attention to little details.Do you know some local manufacturers looking for ways to increase their market for the goods they make? Or are you planning a trip abroad and want to make some contacts for setting up a business?If you have an ability to sell, and an air of diplomacy, the import/export business might be right for you. All you need is the desire and determination to make it work.As you progress in the business, many factors become obvious and easy to handle. For example, you'll need to find a person to handle shipments, called a freight forwarder. And you'll need to create solid contacts and strong relationships with reliable suppliers. But after a short time, you can be well on your way to making a sizeable income - with a very low overhead.Do you like the idea of running your own business? How would you like a tax deductible trip to foreign places a couple of times a year? The advantages of an import/export business are great.The biggest advantage is the money you'll make. Once you get the business underway, the commission for setting up sales is very profitable. And after you establish and maintain a number of exclusive accounts, you'll find the time you spend is highly rewarded with money.Take a look into the import/export business. Consider the risks, and consider the advantages. Talk to people in the business. Is it for you?HOW IT WORKSOf all the manufacturers in the United States, only a small percentage distribute goods outside of North America. The goods that do find foreign markets are exports. On the other hand, anything that is manufactured outside the country and brought in for sale, is imported.Although it seems obvious that all manufacturers would want a worldwide market, it is not easy for a company that is limited in its scope and abilities. That's where you come in.An import/export agent is a matchmaker. Manufacturers of domestic goods seek foreign distribution; foreign manufacturers want a United States market. You need to find them, make a solid connection, and establish a business relationship with these companies.The agent's commission is generally about ten percent. Now, think of ten percent of $500,000 or ten percent of a million. Although that may seem like a large order, it wouldn't be, if you're talking about machinery, raw materials, or computers.The market is unlimited and there are hundreds of manufacturers looking for foreign distribution. Sporting goods, clocks, electronic games, radios, housewares, garments, tools - anything can be readily imported or exported if there is a consumer demand and if you can get the products.The United States Government encourages exports. Indeed, it is those sales that keep our balance of payments with the vast amounts of goods that are imported. And you'll find government agencies helpful in establishing your business.THE BASICSYou can start your import/export business at home with a telephone. You'll need a file system, business cards, and a machine to answer the phone calls. Once you get going, you'll want a cable address or a telex hook-up.And you'll need a classy letterhead. Until you establish personal contacts, it is your letterhead that represents you. Make it look professional, possibly embossed or two-color, or gold leafed. Have it printed on light-weight paper for airmail correspondence, but don't have airmail envelopes printed. You'll have a lot of domestic correspondence too.More than office equipment, you need the determination to make it work. It will be slow at first, and you'll need to plan your moves, make contacts and SELL YOURSELF. But once you make a few sales and sign several exclusive contracts worth money, you'll know your dedication was worthwhile.MAKING CONTACTSThe most important step in setting up your business is finding the contacts. You may have relatives in a foreign country; you may have frequently visited and established business relationships in a country. Or, you might just have a feeling for what will sell where. A person who keeps well-informed in the business world can pick up and ride the crest of worldwide trends.Foreign consulates located in the United States have commercial attaches who want to establish outlets in the U.S., and they're a good place to start. Sometimes these consulates can help you find indices of their own import/ export enterprises.The United States embassies abroad are another place to find contacts for commercial distribution. They can help you find out about a company's solvency and reputation.Another way to establish contacts is through the Chambers of Commerce of every city you are aiming for.Start small - don't tackle the world. Where do you want to sell the American goods you might have in mind? Which countries have the merchandise you want to import? Find out about the countries, what they have to offer, and what is generally in demand.Then prepare a massive mail campaign.The easiest way to mail hundreds of letters is to use a typing service that has the equipment to produce the same letter with a different address each time. It's worth the money it will cost - you'd go crazy typing so many identical letters.To every possible contact, write a letter introducing your company, requesting the names and addresses of appropriate firms to contact. Ask to have the notice published in the monthly bulletin or posted in an appropriate place.From the names you get back, write another letter, again introducing yourself, and asking information about their company. You can use a questionnaire, which fill out and invites a response.What goods do they want to import? What products are now imported and how are they distributed? Does the company have a certain territory, does it have sales representatives, branches in other cities? What are the basic details of operation - history, assets and liabilities, plans for growth.Request any information you need, to find out what they will buy and what they have to sell. If the company is a manufacturer, ask for samples or a catalog, the facts and figures of current foreign distribution, and the product demand in their own country.ANALYZE THE MARKETKeep informed. Read everything you can find about world trade. Look at trade publications, international newspapers, news magazines, and financial reports. Who is selling what to whom? Although the market for American-made airplanes is sewn up, there are thousands of medium to small sized manufacturers in every state of the union.You can get goods to sell, but you have to be sure to study where they are in demand and can get the price to make exportation viable. Your questionnaires will tell you what further and read the journals published by that country - and many are available in English. Do these publications confirm the desire for certain products?The American market for imported products fluctuates with the value of the dollar in comparison to the value of each other country's currency. And, importation prices reflect that directly. Can American consumers afford to pay the price of certain imported goods? Or will they?Finding the right market is as important as the actual particulars of making deals and selling goods. What do you think will sell? If you do some careful studies and think about the trends, you'll be able to come up with hundreds of products to import and export.The import/export business is actually smaller than you might think. There are only a few of these businesses - that's why there's plenty of room for more.WHERE TO FIND HELPEstablish a good business relationship with a local bank that handles international business. Your personal banker will follow through on the actual foreign transactions, and will help keep your credit afloat. In fact, that is one of the best factors about an import/ export business. Aside from office supplies and correspondence, or possible business trips, you need no personal cash outlay. All you need is good credit and a good reputation.Your banker is your credit manager and will give you valuable advice and references when you deal with both American and foreign manufacturers and distributors.The United States Government agencies are great places to find help. These agencies promote the import/export business, and publish many small booklets and pamphlets. They also distribute continually updated reports on foreign markets, commerce and financing.Read these sources of information and find out the particulars of exports, global surveys and ocean freight guidelines. Become familiar with the market share reports, current laws and regulations, and government promotional facilities.MAKING CONNECTIONSAs you continue your correspondence with foreign companies, build up a good rapport with their representatives. Pin down a few companies - perhaps in the same country or similar territory - to their exact needs. What are the two or three products most in demand?Consider their methods of distribution. You may be able to work directly with a wholesaler of an overseas importing company. Your commission will be lower, but you won't need to handle as many particulars, and they will take care of distribution.Or, you may need to supply catalogs and samples, working with a network of small companies, or sales representatives from a larger conglomerate.The highest fees that you can collect are for raw materials taken from the source and delivered directly to a manufacturer. But you must be certain of a guaranteed quantity and the continued ability to deliver.If you are importing goods, you'll need to find U.S. distributors that can handle the quantity of goods at a high enough price for you to profit by. A single retail outlet or two is not enough to make your time worthwhile. Look into how buyers work and make contacts in the larger retail chains if you have retail merchandise.GETTING THE GOODSThere are hundreds of American manufacturers with limited distribution looking for an overseas market. Exporting their goods is the place to start your business.You have many selling qualities for convincing the manufacturers to engage you as the sole export agent. You have foreign contacts and know the demand for specific goods. You will handle the sale, the paperwork, the money, all shipping, customs, and foreign distribution.The manufacturers in return provide quotations, and you put your fees on top of that - you cost them nothing.The manufacturers have everything to gain - an increase in sales, a broader market, and more profit. And you have everything to gain - establishing your business, an a commission on the cost of the goods. That is the basis of a firm business connection and a mutually profitable arrangement.Contact local manufacturers first and then move into larger territories. You can make these contacts by phone, in person, or by personal introduction from contacts you may already have. Or, you can advertise in business publications and newspapers.Before you do get into a legal agreement, be sure to check the reputation of the company. How long has it been in business? Where are the products distributed domestically? What is the solvency and reliability of the company and its goods? When you make your sale, you'll want to be able to deliver.MAKING AN AGREEMENTOnce you have agreed to represent the manufacturer as the export agent, you need to have a written and signed contract to bind this agreement. Your attorney should be the one to draw up this contract - later you can just use the same one, substituting names of other manufacturers.Basically, the contract is between the manufacturer and you as the export representative. You are granted exclusive rights to distribute goods to all countries except those they already distribute in.The manufacturer will pay you the specific commission quoted to the distributors on top of the price of goods. The company will also provide catalogs and samples for your use in distribution.You, the export representative, in turn will promise to do everything possible to make contacts and distribute the manufacturer's goods in foreign territories.The terms of the contract should then be stated: how many years the contract will be signed for, the terms of cancellation by either party voluntarily or because of no sales action over a certain period of time.THE SALEYou've made your contacts with foreign distributors who will buy the merchandise. You have a signed contract with an American manufacturer that will deliver the goods. Perhaps one of the distributors now asks for a firm quotation on the price of a certain amount of goods.You go to the manufacturer and get a price quotation on the quantity of goods. It should be valid for a certain stated period. The manufacturer may agree to deliver the goods to the ship, handling the freight to that point, or you may need to make arrangements from the factory.You add on the commission you want to the price of the goods. Then you add on all the extra costs of getting the merchandise from the factory to the warehouse of the distributor.If you've made an agreement with a foreign import/ export company, their representatives may take over the shipping, paying you the price of the goods and your commission. That's the easiest, but your commission will have to be reasonably lower.If your sale is to a company that will distribute the goods wholesale or retail from its premises, you have to arrange all the transportation.TERMS OF SHIPPINGYou will become more familiar with the terms of shipping used in quoting prices and delivering goods as you gain experience. Your responsibilities vary with the terms of the agreements and orders. Check with your freight forwarder to be clear about your responsibilities.A bill of lading is a receipt for goods shipped. It is signed by the agent of a ship or common carrier and assures the buyer that the goods were unloaded in the same condition as they were accepted. These are the documents you'll need to produce for your banker to release the letter of credit.FOB means free on board. The seller delivers the goods to a certain destination with no additional charges. The seller insures and takes the responsibility until that point. The buyer takes the responsibility and pays the charges after that. For example, FOB New York means the seller's price quotation includes full responsibility and shipping to New York.FAS means free alongside. The seller delivers the goods to the ship that will carry the merchandise. The buyer pays to load onto the ship and takes responsibility from there. FAS New York, for example, means that the seller will deliver and store the goods until they are ready for loading onto the ship.C & F means cost and freight. The seller pays the freight charges. The buyer insures the merchandise and takes full responsibility after the destination.CIF means cost, insurance and freight. The seller is responsible for the value and condition of the goods, and pays both insurance and freight charges to a certain point. The buyer is responsible from there.THE FREIGHT FORWARDERA freight forwarder is a person who takes care of the important steps of shipping the merchandise. This person quotes shipping rates, provides routing information, and books cargo space.Freight forwarders prepare documentation, contract shipping insurance, route cargo with the lowest customs charges, and arrange storage. They are valuable to you as an import/export agent, and they are important in handling the steps from factory to final destination.They can be found by looking in the yellow pages or by personal referrals. Find someone who can do a good job for you. You'll need someone who you can work with, since this may become a long-term business relationshipYou'll need the help of a freight forwarder when you make up the total price quotation to the distributor. Not only do you include the manufacturer's price and your commission - usually added together, but you need to include dock and cartage fees, the forwarder's fees, ocean freight costs, marine insurance, duty charges, and any consular invoice fees, packing charges, or other hidden costs.Be especially careful when you prepare this quotation. It certainly isn't professional to come back to the distributor with a higher quote including fees you forgot. You might go over the price quotation with your freight forwarder to be sure nothing is overlooked.Usually the quotation is itemized into three main categories of cost of goods, which includes your commission; freight charges from destination to destination; and insurance fees.Give a date the quotation is valid to, which should be the same as the date given on your quotes. You may also include information about the products, including any new sales literature.A formal letter that accompanies the price quotation should push for the sale. You can inform the distributor of the shipping date as soon as the order is received and confirmed by a letter of credit. Send the letter and price quotation by registered mail to be certain of its delivery.THE LETTER OF CREDITA letter of credit eliminates financial risks for you, the manufacturer, and the distributor. When your distributor confirms the order, a letter of credit is drawn from that company's bank to a branch in the United States or to your bank.This letter of credit confirms that funds are available from the distributor to cover the same costs you quoted. An irrevocable letter of credit assures you the order will not be cancelled at any time. When that letter of credit is likewise confirmed by your bank to deliver the goods, the distributor is assured of delivery. Once the letter of credit is confirmed by the bank, the currency exchange is also confirmed, so you don't have to worry about the fluctuation in currency.Basically, the bank holds the money until all shipping documents are presented. The letter of credit states the terms and conditions to make it legal and negotiable into money, usually holding for proof of shipment of the goods. Your freight forwarder helps you attain all those documents. When you hand them to the banker, the letter of credit is turned into liquid assets for you to then pay the manufacturer and all other invoices from the transaction.Never work on promises. Not only do you take a gigantic risk, but you create bad risks for everyone you are involved with. A letter of credit is the only sure way to transfer these payments.DELIVERING THE GOODSThere are many combinations of people and methods that you can use to deliver the goods that were ordered. When you produced a price quotation for the goods, you had to go through all the steps the merchandise will follow. Now, before you proceed, check again.Do you have a confirmed order signed by the authorized representatives of the distributing company? Has your banker approved the letter of credit from the company?Compare the amount of the letter of credit to the amount quoted for the goods. Be sure they match exactly. Or, if the distributor chose a certain quantity of several offers, check the prices again and confirm the quantity.Confirm the quotation and sale with the manufacturer, and do the same with the freight forwarder and any marine insurance agents you are working with. Then follow through.In order to assure the quality of merchandise, some manufacturers prefer to handle freight to the loading docks, which makes it easier for you. If you handle overland shipping, follow through to be sure the merchandise is picked up and arrives safely at its destination.Be informed of the date the goods are loaded onto the ship. The factory should have them freighted in time to avoid costly dock storage charges.Since all conditions of the sale must be met to comply with the terms of the letter of credit, you need all the signed documents. Have your freight forwarder or other contacts get authorized bills of lading for the merchandise each step of the way - from destination to destination.Once you have all the signed documents, present them to your banker. If all the terms are met, the funds will be released. Since your commission is part of the quoted price of the merchandise, you'll usually collect your fees from the manufacturer.When it is totally complete, you collect your money - and make a sizeable profit for simply making connections. Consider the commissions when you have dozens of orders coming and going.IMPORTINGTake a look at the household items and equipment you have in your home. Made in West Germany; made in Japan; made in Korea. You may have clothing from India, shoes from Brazil, a leather wallet from Italy. Your car may be an import; your stereo equipment may be manufactured elsewhere. There are hundreds and hundreds of items manufactured all over the world, now being used by the American consumer.The market is huge. And there are many American firms looking for foreign-made merchandise to distribute. Some items are less expensive; some are better made; some are imported because they are made in a country now fashionable with the designers.What can you tap into? Maybe you have contacts in the United States, distributors looking for certain goods. And you've already made contacts in the foreign countries that produce these goods. Follow through and get yourself an exclusive distribution agreement with those manufacturers.Importing requires the same diligence and follow-up as exporting does. You'll need a signed contract with the manufacturer to be the sole agent distributing to North America - or the world, depending.You'll also need to obtain firm price quotes from the manufacturer in the quantities your distributor requests. These quotes should be converted into the appropriate dollar figures representing the currency exchange.Investigate the reputation of the manufacturer and the reliability of the goods. If you import something like electronic components, check into the other distribution market the manufacturer has to assure the quality of merchandise.Your commission will come through from the foreign manufacturer. Have your bank investigate the solvency of that company and the reputation of living up to agreements. Since it's on foreign territory you'd have more trouble in any legal suits, even in light of the many international laws.Prepare the price quotation. It is easiest if you request terms of delivery to the port of that country. Your freight forwarder can help you move the merchandise from that port, overseas, and through domestic customs.Follow through with all the details of shipment. Be sure to include any insurance, dock fees, storage rates, and shipping overland. Overlook nothing so your price quotation to the American distributor is accurate.Itemize the quotation and give it to the American distributor. Upon receipt of an authorized order, double check prices and follow through on delivery.The letter of credit will go from the American distributor to the bank of the manufacturer. All terms and agreements regarding prices, freight and insurance will be defined. The manufacturer's representative will confirm receipt of the letter of credit, which will release the goods for shipment.Have your freight forwarder follow up on the shipment of goods. They may have to be freighted from the factory to the docks. Arrangements for shipping need to be carried out. Customs duties and unloading need to be followed through from the American port. Then, the goods may need to be freighted overland to the final destination.As soon as the goods have arrived at the proper assigned destination, papers have to be documented and presented to the bank that holds the letter of credit. Then, all carriers and agents need to be paid, and you collect your commission.PROMOTIONAfter you have completed a few sales transactions to establish yourself, you'll need to promote your import/ export business to get more clients. The first transactions give you the experience to learn the ropes of the business, and to establish contacts and agents both here and abroad.Join organizations of commerce and foreign trade associations to develop more contacts and extend your territory. Talk to everybody you contact about importing and exporting, learning from their mistakes and successes.Advertise in the print media for distributors and for goods. Manufacturers don't know how to make the contacts for foreign distribution. Show them your credentials and pick them up on exclusive contracts. With a little experience, you can market almost anything anywhere.EXPANDING THE BUSINESSThe profit of the import/export business is in the quantity of the goods traded. The higher the cost of the merchandise, the higher the profit from your percentage. Since you need to go through all the steps for each transaction, having more sales on a continual basis simply adds to profit.Send constant mailings to your original list of contacts and follow-up leads. You might develop a sales approach. As you develop more clients, you can convince the bigger companies of your reputation.Contact as many manufacturers and distributors as you can on both sides of the ocean. And solidify these contacts. You may be able to work out an arrangement with someone to work in a certain country for a commission. Or, you might want to take a business trip there to personally meet with the various companies.Get in-depth information on the products now selling. Why are certain products successful? Maybe you can get into the same market with a more competitive product. Investigate ways to sell more. Do the products need to be better made? Do they sell better at a reduced price? Know what sells and where to get it.MAKING IT WORKThe import/export business is a high profit enterprise. Because of the low overhead, most of the money you make on commission is yours. But building a truly profitable business requires dedication and a good knowledge of the business.You need numerous contacts who know you, respect you, and can recommend your work. You need to have good agents both here and abroad to help you follow through on the delivery of the goods. You need a good working relationship with your own bank and possibly the others that letters of credit come into as branch transfers from foreign offices.Don't be hasty for orders. Investigate the manufacturers and distributors to be sure the products and sales methods are reputable. Check out the particulars of shipping and manufacturing from the foreign country. Each culture works in a specific manner. Get to know how to work with those people.The import/export business is not for everyone. But it is a personal operation that you can run yourself - you don't have to answer to anybody. The rewards of negotiating in a foreign country are excitement, a touch of the exotic, and the great profit potentials. When you make the proper contacts and follow through completely with reputable manufacturers, reliable shipping companies, and responsible distributors, you have it made.

Let me give you two examples: Louis IX of France and Henry I of Cyprus.Louis IX of France, later St. Louis, born April 25, 1214, died August 25, 1270, ruled 1226 -1270.Louis was known not only for his piety and charity (as one would expect of a saint) but for his accessibility, his sense of humor, his determination to ensure justice even for the most humble, and his great love for his people. He ably intervened in the frequent disputes between his vassals, usually mediating successfully. Indeed, his wisdom was considered so great that King Henry III of England and Simon de Montfort agreed to let him mediate between them. Historian Thomas Madden claims “his power flowed not from raw might, but from what the ancient Romans called auctoritas, the authority that one obtains through fame, glory, and moral uprightness….[His contemporaries] saw the king of France as the epitome of chivalric and Christian virtue.” [Thomas Madden, The Concise History of the Crusades, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, p. 163]As one would expect of a future saint, Louis was generous to the church. He gave alms wherever he went particularly to poorly endowed churches, hospices, hospitals and leper-houses. He also built hospitals at Pontoise and Vernon and an asylum for the blind in Paris, as well as a convent for Franciscan nuns at St. Cloud. Yet he would not appoint any cleric to a benefice until the beneficiary first relinquished any other offices he held. Furthermore, despite his devotion to the Church, Louis could recognize base motives and greed even when it was clothed in the robes of the abbots, archbishops and popes. He was able and willing to stand up to the bullying of the collective clergy of his realm, calling them out when they accused him of committing “great sins” solely to protect their own wealth and privileges.His commitment to justice was legendary. He eliminated many of the more onerous taxes and levies that imposed unnecessary hardship on the poor. In addition, he daily heard complaints and sat in judgement, hearing any case that anyone brought to him. More important, he undertook massive judicial reforms in order to fight corruption. All officers of the crown had to take an oath to administer impartial justice on penalty of arrest and royal justice if found guilty of breaking their oaths. He sent out inspectors to hear directly from the people any complaints against crown officers and sought “men who would administer justice well and strictly, and not spare the rich any more than the poor” to replace those who were found incompetent or corrupt. [Joinville, 341]. He ended the practice of selling offices to the highest bidder, and made it a crime to do so or to appoint relatives to subordinate positions. He eliminated the procedure of “trial by ordeal” and introduced the concept of “presumption of innocence.”Yet, it was his love of his people that impressed his contemporaries most. A close friend and admirer wrote:Right from the time of his childhood King Louis had compassion for the poor and suffering. It was his custom, wherever he went, to entertain a hundred and twenty poor persons every day in his own house, and feed them with bread and wine, meat or fish. In Lent and Advent the number of poor increased and it happened that the king served them himself, setting their food before them, carving their meat, and giving them money with his own hand as they left. [Joinville, 342]Another example of his care for his people was given during the Seventh Crusade (1249 - 1250). When Louis, too ill to sit much less stand or ride, fell into Saracen captivity along with the bulk of his army, he he did not quickly negotiate his own release and leave the rest of his army in slavery (as his grandfather Louis VII effectively did when he abandoned his army in Cilician Armenia and sailed for Antioch.) Instead, he agreed to pay the ransoms of all his men — and extraordinary and unprecedented gesture. When the Mamluks went back on their word, releasing only a few of them, Louis leveraged the rivalry between Ayyubid Syria and Mamluk Egypt to secure the release of the prisoners. Likewise, when his ship seemed at risk of foundering during his return from the Holy Land, he refused to abandon ship, saying he would share the fate as the other 500 people on board with him.Allegedly, when he lay dangerously ill, he called to his son and heir Louis and he said: “My dear son, I earnestly beg you to make yourself loved by all your people. For I would rather have a Scot come from Scotland to govern the people of this kingdom well and justly than that you should govern them ill in the sight of the world.” [Joinville, 167]A contemporary, admirer, and friend, Jean de Joinville, wrote a biography of King Louis which was naturally designed to praise him, yet he did so by describing his everyday actions, his words and deeds with the intimacy of someone from his inner circle. The picture that emerges is engaging, amusing and impressive. It underlines the traits I listed above with example after example. It is also I delightful read, which I recommend to anyone. The Life of St. Louis by Jean de Joinville can be found in many translations and editions. All above sites are from the Penguin Classics edition of 1963.Henry I of Cyprus.Historians have dismissed Henry as a colorless, fat, puppet, yet this judgement ignores the fact that he inherited a bankrupt kingdom subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and bequeathed a prosperous and independent kingdom to his son. It also ignores the fact that Henry retained the respect and loyalty of his vassals throughout his reign — despite his conspicuous lack of revenues in the early years and his complete lack of military accomplishments.The trade treaties and the administrative reforms that he instituted and his steadfastness in the face of clerical sanctions suggest a man who was not so much weak as diligent. His misfortune was to focused on the unglamorous aspects of good-governance: the economy, the legal system and the spiritual well-being of his subjects. It is notable too that throughout his reign Henry relied heavily on various members of the Ibelin family, a clear indication of where his affections lay in the long struggle that dominated his childhood.Henry I could be viewed as a mirror image of Richard the Lionheart. The latter is accused of being a bad king because he was focused on warfare and crusading with the result that he was absent from his kingdom most of his reign. Henry I left his kingdom only under duress and never for more than a few months. He avoided wars and left his kingdom richer than he found it. Henry I of Cyprus deserves more respect.For those interested in learning more, I provide a short biography. The dramatic events of his youth — including his dramatic escape from capture “nearly naked” — are certainly factors that shaped the king he would become.Henry was born May 3, 1217, the third child but the first son of King Hugh I of Cyprus and his queen Alice de Champagne. He was just eight months old, when his father died suddenly, while absent from the kingdom on the Fifth Crusade. The High Court unanimously elected Philip d’Ibelin as regent.Philip d’Ibelin defended Henry’s crown from rival claimants, Ayyubid raids (that burned down the city of Limassol) and an attempt by the second husband of Henry’s mother to establish his own dynasty. In part to parry these repeated attempts to dethrone him, Philip crowned Henry in 1225, although he was only a child of eight. But in 1227, Philip died. He was succeeded by his brother, John d’Ibelin, the Lord of Beirut, and Henry soon found himself at the center of a conflict that would bring fifteen years of civil war to the Latin East.In 1228, Frederick II Hohenstaufen at last set off on his much delayed crusade. He stopped on Cyprus to take Henry’s homage as his vassal (Cyprus was technically a part of the Holy Roman Empire) and collect the troops and treasury of Cyprus for his crusading force. No sooner had the Emperor arrived than he sent a letter John d’Ibelin, begging him to come and bring King Henry along with “your children, all our dear and well-beloved cousins” to Limassol “that we [the Emperor] might have the pleasure of embracing you and knowing you personally.”[1]Beirut dutifully took King Henry and his sons to meet the Emperor and was persuaded to attend a great banquet hosted by Frederick II. The guests went in court attire without weapons; Frederick II, however, smuggled some three-thousand armed men into the palace during the night. After all the guests were well into the meal, the Emperor's men sealed off the hall. With these troops surrounding him, their hands on their hilts, the Emperor demanded that John d’Ibelin surrender his fiefdom of Beirut and all the revenues of Cyprus since his brother had become baillie (e.g. the past eleven years).Ibelin answered that he would account for the revenues before the High Court of Cyprus and would only surrender his lordship of Beirut (in the Kingdom of Jerusalem) after a judgment by the High Court of Jerusalem. When he did not back down even under threats of arrest and hints of violence, hostages were given for his appearance before the respective courts, and Ibelin — with nearly all the knights and barons of Cyprus — withdrew. (The details of the banquet are described in The Emperor’s Banquet.)For Henry, the consequences were dire. Henry found himself the prisoner of a man who openly threatened force rather than respecting the rule of law, who allowed noble hostages (not accused of any crime whatsoever) to be tortured and humiliated, and who forced Henry to do homage to him. Henry can have been in no doubt that he was a pawn, completely in the hands of the Emperor, while the barons who had up to this point defended him and his rights against the Duke of Austria, the Prince of Antioch and his mother’s ambitions had been dismissed. To underline this point, the eleven-year-old was forced to leave his kingdom, sisters, home, and household to accompany the Emperor on his “crusade” to Syria.In the event, there was no fighting and Henry was not personally in danger at any time, but the Emperor view of him as a mere “object” was made dramatically clear when Frederick II sold — for 10,000 silver marks —Henry’s guardianship to five men who have gone down in history as “the five ballies.” (See: The Emperor’s Men). If that weren’t indignity enough, Henry (now only twelve) was forced to marry by proxy a woman of the Emperor’s choosing whom he had never met.The next thing Henry knew his new guardians were making themselves heartily unpopular by imposing new taxes and harassing anyone opposed to them or the Emperor with the liberal use of foreign mercenaries. An eye witness account of the King’s behavior during the rapacious reign of the five baillies notes: “The king was in their power and was much afraid, and the king spoke very low and looked often towards Philip [de Novare].”[2]An appeal for aid was sent to Beirut from knights on Cyprus, and soon an Ibelin-led army landed at Gastria. It overpowered the baillies’ forces there and marched on Nicosia. The baillies called up the feudal levies and mustered the mercenaries left them by the Emperor. On June 14, 1229, the forces of the Ibelins met the forces of the five baillies on a plowed field south of Nicosia at the Battle of Nicosia. It was a decisive Ibelin victory, which enabled them to re-establish constitutional government on the island of Cyprus. (For more details see: Battle of Nicosia) But there was one problem: John d’Ibelin controlled the island but he did not control the king. Henry was still a prisoner of the Emperor’s baillies.As soon as news of the Beirut’s landing at Gastria reached Nicosia, the baillies had sent Henry under tight guard to the mountain castle of St. Hilarion. After losing the Battle of Nicosia, three of the baillies fled with their surviving supporters there. The castle was impregnable and well-stocked to withstand a siege. The baillies hoped the Emperor would send troops to relieve them and defeat the Lord of Beirut.Critics of Beirut and his supporters rightly point out that by besieging a castle containing their king (they held fiefs on Cyprus and so were vassals of King Henry) they were technically committing treason. Beirut, however, claimed Henry was a prisoner, held against his will, and they were fighting for the release of their king — a fundamental feudal duty. In short, who the “traitors” were depended on whether Henry viewed himself as a prisoner or not.The siege lasted nearly a year. By the end of that time, those trapped inside St. Hilarion were forced to eat their horses. While it is unlikely that Henry suffered the same levels of deprivation as the lower ranking troops, he would have been a witness to it. As he passed his 13th birthday besieged in his own castle, he must have felt helpless and angry.Shortly after Easter 1230, a Hospitaller officer managed to broker the surrender of the castle. The terms included a full pardon for the surviving three baillies, who were allowed to retain all their fiefs in Cyprus, in exchange for surrendering the person of the King, his sisters, and swearing never to take up arms against the Ibelins again. But the war was far from over.In late 1231 Emperor Frederick sent a large force under his marshal Richard Filangieri to reassert his authority in Cyprus and Syria. At the time, the Lord of Beirut was in Acre. Tipped off that the Emperor’s fleet was making for Cyprus, Beirut collected as many of his men as possible and crossed to Cyprus to join up with King Henry. They then rode together to meet the Emperor’s representatives. This suggests that while Beirut retained the nominal control of Cyprus as Baillie, he had deputized the actual governing of the island to others.With the ports occupied by troops loyal to the Ibelins, the Imperialists did not risk a landing, instead, the Bishop of Melfi went ashore with a small escort to deliver a message to King Henry directly from Emperor Frederick. According to 13th-century chronicle known as the Eracles, the message was a blunt order to Henry to expel John d’Ibelin and all his kinsmen from Cyprus citing in quotation marks the following phrase:“Our lord the emperor sends you word, as one who is his vassal, that you dismiss and require to leave your land John d’Ibelin, his children, his nephews, and his relatives, for they have done wrong. Wherefore he sends you his orders and forbids you as his vassal to harbor or shelter him [John of Beirut] in your land.” [4]The Eracles notes that Henry, being underage, took counsel and then delivered his answer through a knight, Sir William Viscount. The answer as recorded in the Eracles was:"The king … greatly marvels that your lord the emperor made such a command to him, for the lord of Beirut is his own uncle by his mother, and it is well known that he [and his kinsmen] are vassals, wherefore he cannot fail them…”[5]After the king had delivered his answer, Beirut stood and formally addressed King Henry in the presence of the Emperor’s envoys requesting the King’s support and offering to defend himself against any accusations of wrong-doing before the High Court of Cyprus. The Emperor’s envoys took note of both these statements and withdrew.It is hard to escape the impression that King Henry’s answer was crafted by Beirut himself and delivered by Viscount in order to make it possible for Beirut to stand and make his appeal for due process. Yet the substance was correct: King Henry was himself a nephew of John of Beirut. The Emperor’s demand that Henry expel all of Beirut’s kinsmen was tactless — not to say a calculated insult to Henry himself. It is highly unlikely that the 14-year-old king liked being ordered to do anything by a distant emperor — much less being told to expel himself from his kingdom.Rebuffed by King Henry and facing the full force of Ibelin troops at the ports, the Imperial forces hoisted sail and crossed to Syria where they captured without resistance Beirut’s seat of power and revenue: the city of Beirut. With almost all of Beirut’s men on Cyprus, the capture of Beirut was easy and bloodless. This has led some historians to speculate that the halt in Cyprus was a ruse all along, intended to lure Ibelin forces across the water and leave the real prize ripe for seizure. The only blemish to the plan was that the garrison of Beirut, small as it was, refused to cave-in and held out for Ibelin.Ibelin, however, was caught flat-footed. He could have taken all his men back to Syria to try to lift the siege, but he rightly estimated that the forces he had were inadequate. He, therefore, made a dramatic appeal to King Henry before the High Court of Cyprus, which — according to Novare — was assembled in full force. Having made his case for support, the Lord of Beirut knelt “as if to kiss the foot of the king.” Equally significant, Henry did not let him, but rather rose to his own feet (causing the rest of his vassals to kneel). He declared his full support — and offered the feudal army of Cyprus in its entirety — to the Lord of Beirut. Was Henry a puppet? Was the entire scene carefully staged? We can’t know for sure, but we have no indications that Henry dragged his feet or showed reluctance.Henry crossed to Syria with his army in bad weather, arriving after what is described as a terrible crossing, making landfall at Puy du Constable in the County of Tripoli. Here the three former baillies (who had held the King in St. Hilarion but received full pardons at surrender) deserted the Cypriot army. They eventually joined the Imperial forces besieging Beirut. They justified their actions in terms of loyalty to the Hohenstaufen emperor, who was the overlord of Cyprus and by claiming that King Henry was a “captive” of the Ibelins and not acting of his free will.Their desertion weakened the Cypriot army sufficiently to make it impossible for Beirut to effectively relieve his castle. Although he was able to slip roughly 100 fighting men through the Emperor’s blockade of galleys to reinforce the garrison, he was forced to withdraw to Acre to try to recruit more supporters. King Henry remained with Beirut, whether voluntarily or not remains the question.As soon as Beirut withdrew to Acre, the three former baillies took advantage of the fact that the Cypriot transport ships had been wrecked on the coast in a gale and returned to Cyprus. Here they dropped all pretense of serving King Henry and in the name of the emperor took control of the ports, preparing the way for a full-scale invasion by imperial troops to follow.Neither they nor the Emperor’s marshal had reckoned with Beirut successfully luring increasing numbers of Syrian knights to his cause and, more important, gaining the support of the Genoese with their fleet. In late April, Beirut started north with a large land force supported by a Genoese flotilla. He announced his intention to capture the city of Tyre, which the Emperor's marshal and deputy Riccardo Filangieri had made his base of operations.Filangieri felt sufficiently threatened to recall the troops besieging the citadel of Beirut (effectively handing the city of Beirut back to its rightful lord), but he also pulled off a surprise night attack on the Ibelin army while it was camped at Casal Imbert. The Lord of Beirut and his heir were both absent at the time, but the camp was overrun, the Cypriots lost nearly all their horses and equipment, the Genoese lost their ships. Twenty-five knights were taken captive. (For details see: The Battle of Casal Imbert)And King Henry? King Henry was put “almost naked” (one presumes in his nightshirt) on another man’s horse (the closest at hand? The fastest?) and told to ride to Acre to get help from the Lord of Beirut. Without an escort or companions, Henry galloped the roughly 8 miles to arrive at the gates of Acre causing a sensation. His feelings can only be imagined: he must have feared for his entire army and indeed his own life, not to speak of his crown and his dignity. To add a particular poignancy to the event, it was his fifteenth birthday, May 4, 1232 — the day on which he came of age.Henry was recognized as an adult, no longer tied to guardians, regents, and baillies. This meant that the Lord of Beirut was likewise no longer his guardian and baillie — John d’Ibelin was now nothin but Henry’s subject and vassal. Henry was at last free to show his loyalties and make his own policies. He could choose between the nearly destroyed Ibelins or the ascendant Imperial faction.It is important to stress that Henry had the option of abandoning the Ibelins. He could have blamed the Lord of Beirut for squandering his army, his resources, and his trust. In Cyprus, he could have embraced the Imperial baillies. Furthermore, he could have requested support from Marshal Filangieri in destroying the rebellious and traitorous Ibelins. Since Filangieri was already under orders from the Emperor to destroy the Ibelins, Henry would have secured the aid of Imperial mercenaries.Yet King Henry did nothing of the sort. Instead, he stayed with Beirut and started offering fiefs in Cyprus to any Syrian knights who would fight with him to regain his kingdom from the Imperialists. He also made substantial concessions to the Genoese, granting the wide-ranging trading privileges and immunities to secure a new fleet. He indebted himself to some of the Syrian lords to raise money to finance an expedition to regain his kingdom. Last but not least, King Henry appealed to the Patriarch, who was also the Papal Legate in the Holy Land, to confiscate the Imperial ships in the harbor of Acre on the grounds that Imperial forces had deprived a crowned and anointed king of his navy and his kingdom.The patriarch was reluctant to excommunicate the Emperor’s men, but he encouraged the seizure of the Imperial ships, which Henry’s supporters promptly did. King Henry returned in these imperial vessels to Cyprus, took Famagusta by surprise and advanced cautiously toward Nicosia. His army advanced through land which the Imperial forces had burned and wrecked. The sight of the harvest burnt in granges and broken mills, actions that impoverished both himself and his subjects, can only have increased King Henry’s hatred of the traitors and their Imperial puppet-masters.At Beirut’s command, the royal army camped outside of Nicosia to avoid a second Casal Imbert. The situation remained very precarious. Filangieri and the traitorous lords of Cyprus together fielded a force of more than 2,000 knights supported by a substantial force of sergeants and archers. The Cypriot army had just 233 knights, still desperately short of horses (some knights had only one), and an unnamed number of sergeants. Furthermore, the castle of St. Hilarion where King Henry’s sisters were besieged was running out of supplies; there was a serious risk that the castle would surrender to the Imperial forces giving them valuable hostages. Under the circumstances, Beirut (who remained in command) opted to take the Cypriot army to the relief of St. Hilarion. This led to the Battle of Agridi — a complete route of the Imperial forces. (For details see: Battle of Agridi.)Although the siege of the fortress at Kyrenia was to continue for ten months, Henry had regained control of his kingdom. Frederick II never again attempted to interfere in Henry’s realm or his affairs. Meanwhile, one of Henry’s first acts was to summon the High Court of Cyprus and charge the former Imperial baillies with treason. After a unanimous judgment against them, Henry bestowed their forfeit fiefs on those who had supported him in his hour of need.Yet while Henry was finally master of his own house, his treasury was depleted by the year-long campaign and further drained by the ongoing siege of Kyrenia. In fact, many of his vassals who held money-fiefs had seen no income in years. Strikingly, they remained loyal to him despite this. To try to spur the economy and recover financially, Henry not only expanded the privileges of the Genoese but extended trading privileges to Marseilles and Montpellier. He also fostered trading ties with the Sultan of Iconium and with Armenia. These actions show foresight and an appreciation of the economic advantages of trade to an island kingdom. Ironically, while the maligned King Henry was encouraging trade, Frederick II — usually depicted as “ahead of his time” — was introducing trade restrictions.In 1236, at 19, Henry negotiated a marriage for himself to replace Alix de Montferrat, who had died during the siege of Kyrenia. He chose the sister of the King of Armenia, Stephanie, and the couple was married in 1237. This was the same year in which the pope suggested creating a joint kingdom of Jerusalem and Cyprus to be reigned by King Henry. The pope’s suggestion was driven by his hatred of Frederick II Hohenstaufen and was designed to disinherit the Hohenstaufen heirs; it was almost certainly made without the slightest consultation with King Henry.Henry was not interested in the crusader states on the mainland. He refused to come to the aid of Jerusalem when the city fell in 1244 to the Khwarizmians, and he provided only reluctant and inadequate forces to relieve the siege of Ascalon three years later. Even when his mother died in 1246 and the High Court of Jerusalem recognized him as the rightful regent for the still absent Hohenstaufen king, Henry showed no interest in Syrian affairs. Instead of taking up the role of ruler, he appointed Balian of Beirut (John of Beirut’s eldest son and successor after his death in 1236) Baillie of Jerusalem.King Henry appears to have been far more pleased by the fact that in the same year (1246) the pope absolved him of all oaths of fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor. This act recognized de jure the de facto situation since the expulsion of the Imperial forces from Cyprus thirteen years earlier. Cyprus was an independent kingdom and its king vassal to none.When the vast crusading army of King Louis IX descended on Cyprus, King Henry remained notably aloof from crusading fever. He welcomed King Louis and his queen. Cyprus hosted the crusaders throughout the winter, and the flower of Cypriot chivalry was allowed to participate in the crusade — notably under the command of the Constable of Cyprus, Guy d’Ibelin, the youngest son of the Old Lord of Beirut.Henry was only three-two at this time, an age at which most medieval noblemen were keen to demonstrate their prowess at arms, but Henry was no warrior king — and he had the sense to recognize that. Indeed, Henry had earned the nickname “the fat.” It appears that his near escape from disaster at Casal Imbert had left a lasting scar upon his psyche. At a minimum, he had learned the vital lesson that battles could be lost, and lost battles could lead to lost kingdoms.Henry turned his attention instead to fostering the economy and to administrative reforms. One of the latter was the first recorded introduction of written court records. This practice that was not adopted in France until after King Louis returned from his crusade, i.e. after his contact with King Henry.Henry also defended the majority of his subjects who still adhered to the Greek Orthodox faith against attempts by the Latin church to interfere with their clergy. This conflict escalated to the point that the Archbishop of Nicosia placed the entire kingdom under interdict — and Henry withheld revenues due to the Archbishop and the church.In 1250, in the midst of King Louis’ disastrous crusade, Henry’s Armenian queen died childless. A king did not have the luxury to mourn for long; he needed heirs. In 1251, Henry took as his third wife, Plaisance of Antioch. She, at last, gave him the son he needed. The boy was christened Hugh after the father Henry had never known. Less than two years later, on January 18, 1254 [7] Henry I of Cyprus died. He was not yet 47. The cause of death went unrecorded.Henry I is an important character in Rebels against Tyranny and The Emperor Strikes Back.[1] Text of Frederick II’s letter to John of Beirut, contained in La Monte’s notes to Philip de Novare, Frederick II’s Wars against the Ibelins in Syria and Cyprus, 74.[2] Novare, Philip, The Wars of Frederick II against the Ibelins in Syria and Cyprus, trans John La Monte (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1936), 94-95.[3] Novare, 98.[4] French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), quoted in La Monte (trans), The Wars of Frederick II against the Ibelins in Syria and Cyprus (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1936) 119f.[5] Eracles, 120f.[6] Novare, Philip, The Wars of Frederick II against the Ibelins in Syria and Cyprus, trans. John La Monte (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1936) 123-124.[7] The date is often given as Jan. 1253, but Peter Edbury had brought evidence that in the Kingdom of Cyprus at this time the year began March 25 and that according to our practice the correct date of his death was 1254. See: Peter Edbury, “Redating the Death of King Henry I of Cyprus?” Law and History in the Latin East (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014) 339-348.