Jim Farmelant wrote:
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> Colonel Summers notes that during the Vietnam War, General Westmoreland
> attempted to understand the North Vietnamese, by reading Mao,
> and the Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu, both of whom, Westmoreland
> believed had influenced General Giap's strategic thinking. Summers
> suggests that Westmoreland was led astray in his reading, which led
> him to take Sun Tzu, a bit too seriously, while ignoring the
> Clausewitzian roots of Mao's strategic thinking, and more importantly,
> the Clausewitzianism of Giap. Basically, Summers thinks that Giap
> fought a Clausewitzian war, whereas the Americans under people like
> General Westmoreland did not.
>
An anecdote which may or may not be illuminating. Back in 1967 I was working in my office in the evening when a history asst. prof also working late dropped by with the glum news that his chairman had just bounced his dissertation draft on him: it was on the influcence of Clausewitz on Lenin. At the time I was just feeling my way into Marxism, had never read any Lenin, but had read two or three volumes of Mao's work. Since I'm fairly good at helping other people with their writing, I asked him if I could take a look at it. He gave it to me and I settled down in an all-night doughnut shop to read through it.
It echoed all sorts of things in Mao's writing. I produced a provisional outline for a redrafting of the thesis, which was good enough to respirit my friend. (He had an undergrad degree in chemistry and was considering going back to california and getting a lab job.) He went to work, finished it, and got his degree.
Clearly there is a really strong overlap in the thought of Clausewitz, Lenin, & Mao, which shows through in reading Mao even if one is ignorant of Clausewitz & Lenin, or I would never have been able to give my friend the help I did give him. Roughly, Lenin's political thought 'translates' Clausewitz's military thought, and Mao somehow translated it back into military/political thought useful in the Chinese Revolution. I've never gotten around to reading Clausewitz myself, but it certainly seems like there is a pattern of thought there that can invigorate the thought of others in quite different situations.
Carrol