Significant factors in Communist Victory (13/12/23)

• The CCP used a warfare tactic called Guerilla Warfare which was well suited to hilly and forested areas such as Manchuria. This strategy had been perfected against Japan.
• The CCP had tactical flexibility meaning they conceded when faced with superior force. For example, a tactical retreat was used in Yan'an 1946.
• Morale among CCP forces was high due to the ideaological aspect of their training. The forces helped spread communist propoganda.
• From 1928, Mao had impressed civilian respect and proper discipline among his forces.
• Lin Biao began using conventional warfare tactics from 1947; lauching full-frontal attacks.
• Jiang Jieshi had sent his best troops to Manchuria leaving Central and Northern China undefended.
• NRA commanders had very poor planning strategies in terms of supplies and stole money intended for soldiers
• Jiang had become more suspicious of independent thinkers so was trying to manage the entire war effort making his leadership impractical.
• The GMDs mainly conscript army was regularly left without food or water for days. This led to desertees and low morale
• When taking over areas controlled by CCP, the GMD gained a reputation for being brutal and ill-disciplined.
• Mao encourage political unity by only allowing debate among top officials and strictly enforcing Mao Zedong thought in lower ranks
• The CCP had created democratic dictatorship by allowing low-level peasants to particpate in revoloutionary comitees. These dealt with farming, healthcare and education.
• Land reform helped garner peasant support for the CCP and they became so violent that by early 1948, it became so violent that mebers began to campaign for restraint.
• Throughout the war, the base of communist support broadened as middle classes were drawn to the patriotism from fighting Japan.
• The GMD had failed to deliver on the three promises of Sun Yat-Sen so were losing support.
• The GMD had severly mismanaged the economy and there was inflation among the middle class. In 1949, there was economic collapse in nationalist controlled areas.
• American assitance to the GMD number $3 billion but Mao used it to point out how the GMD needed international help to rule.
• Aid for GMD began to fade when Truman was elected in November 1948
• The Red army established 16 training academies and provided military equipment for the CCP.
• Japanese arms, equiupment and soldiers were handed over to the CCP by Russia to aid their war effort
• The long standing animosity between Mao and Stalin prevented their full cooperation during the Civil War. Stalin always put his own intrest over benefit for China.