Jackie's+Response

The Chinese Civil War presented many varying changes for China as a whole yet none more than the unexpected although unanimously accepted success of the Chinese Communist Party or better known as the Communist victory over the GMD. To date, there are numerous reasons for the Communist victory; military strategies/tactics/policy, foreign intervention and possibly the most important the leadership of the CCP. Leadership of the CCP is seen to be a prime reason for the success of the Communist victory. Mao Zedong as the leader of the party had a completely different view of and method of leading his troops compared to his counterpart Chiang Kai-shek leader of the Nationalist Party the Guomindang. Mao led his party with dignity and trust, leaving his commanders in charge; they knew what was happening on the battlefield so they souly were able to direct their troops. Zhu De, Lin Biao, Peng Duhuai and Liu Bocheng commanded the Communists and despite tensions they knew first hand the hardships of events such as the Long March and therefore but their opposition aside and commanded their troops to win the battle. Such a positive leadership style can be compared to the leadership methods employed by Chiang Kai shek who controlled his commanders and the troops having little or no idea what was actually taking place. “The communists made every effort to find the best people, promoting them on the basis of fighting ability, while the Nationalists used academic and financial background ans social and political backing as the basis for promotion. Fighting merit was secondary. ” Such an approach meant that instantly the CCP had the upperhand in the Civil War they were fighting a true battle with genuine troops who knew the cause and fought for it. Leadership of the CCP may have played a considerable role in the ultimate Communist victory but leadership had to work alongside military strategies, tactics and policies for a victory to take place. Due to Mao’s positive leadership style, morale was high amongst his troops, “Good leadership breeds good morale.” The Communist troops were constantly in touch with what was happening, what they were fighting for and who they were fighting for. There was also little ranking between commanders and the troops with food and conditions being shared between the two ‘ranks.’ Such a positive and supportive approach led to extremly high morale between the troops, with little or no reason to desert their army and hence having strong numbers to result in a victory against the GMD whose poor leadership led to an even poorer morale levels. “The Communists had a most effective strategy; they were not plagued by disunity and jealousy; their leaders were superb; their morale was high; and their support for the civillian population was wholehearted.” The support of the population of China was paramount to the success of the Communist Party. Mao, as he had on the Long March, gained considerable support from the majority of the population of China. He and his troops were fighting for the people, the peasants and therefore the masses with the 80 percent of the country being peasants. Many of his supporters willingly joined the battle compared to the GMD whose troops were mostly conscripted and therefore not always willing to be there. Therefore with no support from their leader Chaing Kai shek, leading to little morale and very little support of the masses the GMD were on their own and had little chance of success. Foreign intervention, support from the United States has also been labled as a contributing factor to the Communist victory. Chiang Kai shek and the Nationalists had been relying on support from the US who failed to show any such support for the Nationalists. This gave The CCP a clear position to move forward and receive victory. Chaing Kai-shek’s lack of direction, or at least him listening to advice, led to the economic collapse hence Chaing loosing support from the people and the CCP gaining the support ands thus striving to their victory. As can be noted many reasons played one the final outcome of the Civil War, leadership styles, military strategies, tactics and policies and foreign intervention. With all these factors, they all have one commonality and that is unity. Unity can be obtained as the main reason for the Communist Party’s eventual success. This is a great essay, Jackie. Well done. You have managed to logically organise your ideas and create obvious links back to the central argument. Let's discuss this in class.  I enjoyed reading this essay because it is clear and well set out. The only critisism would be to add where the quotes have come from and include historiography. Otherwise it was great! [:
 * Assess the reasons for the Communist victory **

This essay was very clear and the evidence used perfectly complemented what you were saying. You always linked your points back to your main argument- which was a strong argument to make. Great Essay!