Question
What if the Red Guard were not stopped and the revolution continued?
War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
The Cultural Revolution, 1966
•All Mao’s idea
•Wanted to have a ‘pure’ form of Communism
•Red Guards began openly criticizing the gov’t officials
•Some people were upset about the following and were seen as targets:
•Those who wanted to return to capitalism
•‘Specialists’ - anyone who did not do manual labour were forced to work
•Anyone who disobeyed “Little Red Book”
•The Red Guard got so violent that the PLA had to restore order the Revolution ended by 1969
•Wanted to have a ‘pure’ form of Communism
•Red Guards began openly criticizing the gov’t officials
•Some people were upset about the following and were seen as targets:
•Those who wanted to return to capitalism
•‘Specialists’ - anyone who did not do manual labour were forced to work
•Anyone who disobeyed “Little Red Book”
•The Red Guard got so violent that the PLA had to restore order the Revolution ended by 1969
- specialists(teachers..) - no manual labour
- made them learn how to do manual labour
- crop failures
- this shut down schools
- red guard were beating and killing people resisting this in 1969. PLA(army) used to put them down
- this is revolution against his own revolution and then later he puts this new revolution down.
Summary
Mao had the idea that he wanted a pure form of communism that was led by the youth of the country. Red Guards (the youth) began to openly criticize government officials. People who did not agree with everything Mao said were seen as targets. The Little Red Book was brought in and it had quotes from Mao in it that if people didn't know or believe them they were also seen as a target. The Red Guards began to get really violent and Mao had to shut down the revolution because it got out of hand.