Decisive Encounters
Possible Paper Questions

NOTE: The following are simply some possible questions for your paper. Of course you can choose to answer one of the following themes, but you are also encouraged to answer part of one, a combination of several elements from each, or make up your own entirely own theme. Do NOT summarize the book.

1. Indian diplomat M.M. Panikkar described Jiang Jieshi as a "mass of contradictions -- a Christian who believed in Confucianism, a democratic president who believed in military dictatorship, a scrupulously honest man who tolerated large-scale corruption among the people who surrounded him."  In what ways do these internal contradictions explain why Jiang failed to lead the GMD to victory?  Or conversely what do they leave out?

2. Westad, in his description of the Chinese Civil War (1946-1950), pays particular attention to the emergence of Mao as a charismatic leader.  Yet, he also suggests that the CCP had to adopt starkly different tactics than it had in the pre-1946 era.  Delineate what forces shaped Mao's and the CCP's tactics in the civil war and discuss how these ultimately allowed them to prevail over the GMD.

3. Many past accounts of the Chinese Civil War have tended to view the CCP's victory as a victory based on the lower (peasant) classes.  Westad argues that this support was hardly universal across all of China nor was it as widespread even among the CCP leadership, supporters, or even soldiers.  If the CCP victory was not one of a "mass-based socialist revolution" than what was it?  Select two or three key tactics/individuals/ideas of the CCP and explain why they offer a more realistic explanation of the Chinese Communist victory.

4. The Chinese Civil War is a topic that is often portrayed as a relatively rapid transfer of China after the Second World War to the Communists.  Yet, not only was this transfer not smooth, it took on different forms at different stages.  Describe the formative stages that the Civil War took during the 1946-1950 period concentrating not only on strategy and tactics, but also the different social, regional and ethnic elements that factored into the two sides' choices.