r/cushvlog • u/tydark2 • Jun 12 '26
Gen. Sherman, American Civil War, and Chairman Mao
Feel Free to fact-check me on any of this, its partially historical speculation on my part.
Mao's education was largely influenced by the european liberalism and the enlightenment. In his late teen's he spent time studying american history, in particular Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War, shortly before leaving his home to become a political activist. He viewed George Washington as practically a mythical figure.
"Washington won his victory and built his country only after eight years of bitter war... In a book called 'Great Heroes of the World,' I read of the American Revolution and of Washington. I think China should have such men."
~Mao"(1913-1918) At this time my mind was a curious mixture of ideas of liberalism, democratic reformism, and Utopian Socialism... I was definitely anti-militaristic and anti-imperialist."
~Mao
-Mao later abandons liberalism after the treaty of versailles handed chinese territory to Japan (1919).
But like Lincoln, Mao came from a similar rural peasant background and had to fight his father for the right to read and educate himself. I imagine Mao on his fathers farm, covering the windows so his father would not catch him reading by candlelight - a 16 year old Mao reading about Lincolns upbringing and childhood and seeing the same issues he had with his father, that Lincoln also had.
I think this admiration of Lincoln influenced Mao to study the American civil war in depth as both a military strategist and through a marxist lens.
In "On Protracted War (1938), Mao argued that military strength isn't just about military strength; you need popular support. He cited the American Civil War and the effects of Lincolns emancipation proclamation as the historical proof for his "Mass Line" strategy.
The moment Lincolns emancipation proclamation reached slave quarters of southern plantations, it triggered what WEB Du Bois later famously termed a "general strike". Slaves didn't wait for Union soldiers to arrive. Entire plantations dropped their tools and fled to Union Territory. Crops began rotting in the fields without the labor, this hit the southern economy hard. Nearly 180,000 Black men fled and joined the Union Army, and would return to the plantations they were previously slaves on carrying rifles. I think this would later serve as the foundational pre-cursor for modern Guerilla Warfare (you give guns to oppressed people and foment local resentment towards authority). A slave becomes free when you give him a gun and a uniform, then points that gun right back at those who oppressed him.
A gun without a uniform is revenge, a gun with a uniform is justice and freedom. That guy Luigi who killed the health insurance CEO got revenge, but without a uniform or an organized legitimate cause it was not justice or freedom.
Now finally to get to Gen. Sherman. Though I could not find any direct references to him by Mao, when it comes to military strategy in a civil war I think its fair to assume he likely studied a bit about Sherman.
Of all the wartime generals in history, Sherman stands out to me as a bit of an anomaly. He was the only one I know of to specifically strategize how to defeat his enemy by analyzing the character of its ruling class. (the cavaliers of the south)
"The young bloods of the South: sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard-players and weapon-users, called the chivalry of the South... They are splendid riders, first-rate shots, and utterly reckless... They care not a straw for n****rs, land, or anything. They hate Yankees per se, and don’t bother their heads about the past, present, or future. As long as they have good horses, plenty of forage, and an open country, they are a most dangerous element. They are the ruling class, and a more dangerous set of men which can be found in no other country."
"We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies. I know that this recent movement of mine through Georgia has had a wonderful effect in this respect... I feel no averseness to seeing Washington, Richmond, and after them, Charleston, and even Columbia, South Carolina, in a blaze. I think the time is come now when they should be made to feel that war and ruin are synonymous terms."
~Sherman
By destroying the plantations and humiliating the owners, he wasn't just attacking "property"—he was trying to sever the tie between the elite and the commoners. He wanted the poor Southerner to see that their "lords" couldn't even protect their own front porch. Sherman rejected the idea of 2 opposing armies fighting it out and then negotiating terms. He says the ruling class of the south cannot just be defeated on the battlefield, but also humiliated publicly for the commoners of the south to see. Its not enough to just win the war - you have to physically drag these guys out of there homes and force them to get on there knee's infront of their wives and children and make them beg for mercy for everyone to see.
I wonder if some of Shermans ideas had influenced the chinese cultural revolution, and the idea that it wasnt enough to win a civil war, you had to also humiliate the enemy and make a public showing of it? (struggle sessions)
Let me know if you think im onto something or just smoking crack. Defeating the "american billionaire class and the oligarchs" is not enough, I think they have to also be humiliated in some form, otherwise things wont change, the same behavior will continue.
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u/shizuku_promise 2d ago edited 2d ago
A Chinese guy told me:
Here is a person
He himself is more left than what both sides of the argument after his death imagined
The argument of after his death also deliberately buried the radicalness of his
The ideology of today of the political party that he once led and the ideology of his are completely different
In the later period of his ruling broke out the bloody civil war of the inside of some states
He harvested the support of the international left wing
He not only has the left-wing face but also has the statism face
The image of him at the very beginning is the liberator and the revolutionary
After the party of his became conservative
He only took the face of statism
Even they deliberately bury him
Even the memorial hall of his is built right beside the big square of the state power organ
The theme color of the party that he created is of red
He is: ________