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[Mao and his henchmen added “brainwashing” (Ed Hunter via publishers)(thought reform - Lifton) as a national policy of indoctrination, and in reeducation camps which became killing fields for millions.

The same with slave labor and slave labor type policies - The Blue Ants - Guillaume.

Also see “The Human Cost of Communism in China”, 1971, Prof. Richard Walker, Sen. Internal Security Subcom, Sen. Judiciary Committee.]

No question that by modern Western standards, Mao was brutal. But if you judge him by the standards of Chinese rulers, he was just one in a long line of ruthless emperors and not even the most brutal one, based on the % of the population that died under his rule. The Chinese can thank the USAF for whacking his only non-defective son, thereby forestalling the creation of a hereditary dynasty like the one ruling North Korea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Anying

I agree to a certain extent but in my life time I’ve lost family to Hitler, father-in-law wounded 3 times in the Pacific campaigns (Iwo Jima), met former Red Guards who told of wholesale slaughter between Hung Wei Ping (Red Guards) in the cities, and had to comfort the sister of an American pilot shot down (in an unarmed plane) most likely captured and then “disappeared” forever (off of Hainan Island).

Mao tops them all, including Stalin/Beria who were masters of torture and mass murder, just like Mengele (my late friends sister died in Auschwitz and the only reason both weren’t experimented on was because while they looked alike, they were not twins).

Mao was more educated than most Chinese historical leaders yet he turned his country and a lot of Asia into the biggest graveyard in modern history, if not all of history.

China had so much to offer the world yet its main product has been an ideology of death beyond belief.