Today's selection -- from Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang.
In the late 1940s, Chiang Kai-shek's forces were engaged in a war with Mao Zedong's communist forces to establish who would rule China. Chiang had the decided advantage, but lost that advantage in a series of mistakes:
"[In the middle of the conflict], the Chiangs spent a week in Xichang, a place of strange beauty. Frequent earthquakes had torn apart the surrounding rocky mountains, which made the canyon walls look like giants' bared teeth. These savage-looking canyons cradled a lake, as still as an immense mirror. The Chiangs reclined on a boat under a crystal-clear high sky, basking in the dazzling sunshine and crisp fresh air, so different from humid and stifling Chongqing. In those seven days, Chiang let himself relax totally, not even shaving, which was unusual for him. After his return to Chongqing, on 10 October, he signed an agreement with Mao. Neither man intended to keep it, and both escalated the preparations for all-out war.....MORE
"Mao started to issue battle orders as soon as he returned to Yenan on 11 October. His army was not only much smaller than Chiang's, it had not had the experience of fighting tough battles against the Japanese as Chiang's had. It had only won conflicts against weak regional Nationalist units. Now it was facing the cream of Chiang's battle-hardened, US-trained forces. Before long Mao found to his dismay that the performance of his army fell far short of his hopes, and that Stalin, who was giving him covert backing, seemed to be keeping his options open. After a series of blows, in late November 1945 Mao collapsed with a nervous breakdown and took to his bed with cold sweats and convulsions.
"While Mao was laid low, Chiang toured the country as the victorious war leader. When he entered cities like Beijing, Shanghai and his old capital Nanjing, 'it was as if Julius Caesar were entering Rome', eyewitnesses observed. He was greeted by crowds numbering tens of thousands, hailed as the man who had won the war against Japan. The atmosphere was heady, and the Generalissimo revelled in his glory, evidently agreeing with the crowds that it was he who had beaten the Japanese. Standing tall and waving majestically; he gave every impression that he was 'infallible like God', his personal pilot commented. Those in the know felt he was seriously deluded. But no one levelled with him....
