Lucky for Mao, the student got nuked out by the teacher when trying
to outdo the teacher. And after finally pushing the dogs to an
offshore resort island, Mao had to
face the monkey himself head on in Korea and Vietnam. He finally
outlasted the monkey's
patience through querilla warfare and by keeping the country in
a state of constant vigil for future harassments by the monkey.
The potential military threats from the monkey required China to beat
her plowshades into swords.
He called his programs the Great Leap Forward and Cultural
Revolution. These do-or-die programs were mistaken as economic
development plans, making a lot of people unappreciative of the
associated sufferings.
But they finally achieved their purpose in get the monkey off
China's back, making the sufferings all worthwhile.
At Tzung Tse Tong's initiative, a little ping-pong ball cracked open the nuclear fence around gorilla land. Although all the clueless Chinese diplomats rejected the initiative, to Mao this is the reason he refused to die earlier. He was waiting for this appology from the monkey for staying so long on China's back. He made absolutely sure that the monkey understand perfectly that China was ready to fight another war, no matter the cost. He knew he is the only person who can do this. He finally made the monkey give in and jump off China's back. And the rest is history.
But the monkey is still on Korea's and Japan's backs. The terrorama in Iraq presents a good opportunity to get it off their backs, too. This would allow them to reactivate the millineum effort of Asian unification under the common Asian values, like what had happened with the Mongolians and the Manchurians. The world is counting on a new traditional Asia to lead us out of the doomsday quagmire created by the West.
The following are some conventional measures taken by both sides. Some of the muddle-headed approaches on both sides and their potential to make the monkey a permanent fixture on China's back underscores the indispensible contribution Mao made to China.
What did Mao say about US after the Korean war?
"American imperialists are very arrogant, they are very unreasonable
whenever they can get away with it, if they became a little bit
reasonable, it was because they had no other choice."
On June 1950, Eisenhower met with Collins, Haislip, Ridgway, Ike
suggested use of two atomic bombs in the Korea area.
In July 1950, MacArthur suggested plan to use atomic bombs to
'isolate
the battle fields".
[From Hastings]
On November 30 1950, President Truman said in a press conference:
"There had always been active consideration of its[Atomic Bomb's]
use...".
On December 24 1950, MacArthur submitted a list of 'retaliation
targets' in China and North Korea, requiring 26 atomic bombs.
In January 1953, US tested its first tactical nuclear weapon, and
the
JCS considered its use "against military targets affecting operations
in Korea."
In February 1953, in a NSC meeting, President Eisenhower suggested
the
Kaesong area of North Korea as an appropriate demonstration ground for
a tactical nuclear bomb--it "provided a good target for this type of
weapon".
On May 19 1953, the Joint Chiefs recommended direct air and naval
operations against China, including the use of nuclear weapons. The
National Security Council endorsed the JCS recommendation the next day.
Dulles, the Secretary of State was visiting India and told Nehru to
deliver a message to Zhou Enlai: if peace was not speedily attained,
the United States would begin to bomb north of Yalu, and US had
recently tested atomic shells.
As a side question, did US threaten China with nukes after the
Korean war?
Yes.
US threatened China with nuclear weapons again in 1959.
From recently declassified documents, President Kennedy considered
using nukes to bomb Chinese nuclear facilities in early 1960s , when
China was on the verge of exploding its own bomb, but JFK was
assassinated and the plan was dropped by President Johnson.
In 1964, China exploded its first A-Bomb, 30 months later,
in 1967, it exploded its first H-Bomb, since then, China has developed
a variety of strategic and tactical weapons, China also produced
missiles of various ranges, initially targeting US bases at Japan and
Philippines, and eventually the North America continent.
Mao also
said:"We must have nuclear submarines even if this would take us ten
thousand years". China tested its nuclear subs in early 1970s and
tested SLBMs later. The exact size of PLA nuclear stockpile is unknown,
but reasonable estimate put it in the range of 2000-4000 warheads.
In March 1996, PLA conducted an exercise in the Taiwan Straits,
President Clinton sent two carriers to the straits, PLA responded by
dispatching its nuclear attack submarines and the US fleet stayed 300
nautical miles off Taiwan, in the meantime, PLA SAF (Secondary
Artillery Force) conducted exercise to retaliate against enemy
strategic strikes, PLA Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. Xiong Guangkai
reportedly hinted that US cares more about LA than Taiwan.