Often, he was proven correct in his decisions despite opposition, but his tactics were questionable at the least.

The first decade or so of Mao Zedong's rule, as neatly overviewed in the first essay of MacFarquhar's book, paints a picture of Mao that in large measure incorporates both of the extreme visions tat persist about him today. There is the brilliance and wisdom with which many of his decisions are made, tempered by the violence and unilateral nature of many of these same decisions. There is some truth in the belief that such smart and charismatic leadership must have come from a spirit and mind tat at least glimpsed nobility even if it did not possess it; surely, Mao's intention was not pure self-aggrandizement but the further growth of his native country and its people. The excessive zeal with which he pursued this end became the real issue that cast...
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