A (projected) 10-volume English edition of Mao's writings, titled
Mao's Road to Power, 1912-49, by Stuart Schram
Schram said that Mao's Great Leap Forward was characterized by enormous waste, while the Cultural Revolution, his attempt to regain control through a broad-based purge of "counterrevolutionaries," was "even worse."
According to Schram, Mao's 27 years as ruler of China were marked by "faulty judgment, a failure to face facts, impetuosity, and vindictiveness. He made loyalty to himself the touchstone of ideological thinking, and the conviction that the party had become revisionist provided a fig leaf for an increasingly autocratic dictatorship."
He's going to give him the benefit of the doubt anyway:
But despite enormous blunders and crimes, he was a great leader who was trying to do the best for China.
If leadership and good intentions are what matters, I'd expect a lot more Americans to support Bush.
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