ABSTRACT
Mao Zedong’s statement that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” illustrates the value he placed on the military as a means for bringing about the revolution. Mao and most other high-ranking party leaders held high military positions. Mao’s followers claimed that his concept of the military and its relationship to society was revolutionary and represented a startling break from the past. These claims were often premised on a fallacious comparison: contrasting Mao’s ideals with the reality of the badly deteriorated civil–military relationships that characterized early twentieth-century China. China’s entry into the Korean War in late 1950 gave increased emphasis to external determinants in shaping the country’s military. Deng Xiaoping, purged from his post as party secretary general during the Cultural Revolution and rehabilitated only in 1973, became the symbol of resistance to radicals and the champion of military professionalism.
