What convinced Mao to order a year-old third world shithole to fight the nuclear superpower in Korea...

What convinced Mao to order a year-old third world shithole to fight the nuclear superpower in Korea? Was the decision that of a genius or a madman?

Strategic interests obviously. Better than waking up with a capitalist beachhead right on your border.

China will always be a world power because they have SO MANY PEOPLE. Same as India.

Phrases like "third world" refer to individual living standards, not to collective strenght. A country can be third world and still be a world power.

The only reason China didn’t get nuked and raped by the USA in October 1950 was because Truman didn’t want to nuke the Chinese civilians or risk WW3 in Europe.
That was a huge risk by Mao.

>The United States cannot annihilate the Chinese nation with its small stack of atom bombs. Even if the U.S. atom bombs were so powerful that, when dropped on China, they would make a hole right through the earth, or even blow it up, that would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole, though it might be a major event for the solar system.
This is literally what Mao was thinking.

I mean, the Soviets practically abandoned the Chinese in March 1951 and stopped supplying armanents until late-1952.

Mao’s entire general staff said “NO YOU MADMAN YOU CAN’T BEAT BACK THE SUPERPOWER”.
Mao retorted “hold my baiju.”

>proxy conflict advantage
>north korea's very uneven terrain disallowed for full invasion
>bordered north korea, very ideal supply lines for terrain
>prevention of direct border with US controlled Korea
>defense of the Soviet puppet before the Sino-Soviet split

>Maoism
Damn.... even Juche might be more logical.

That's what they said about Japan too.

India is a shithole struggling to remain relevant on the world stage.

>Soviets threatened China to remove its military from North Korea until it reluctantly did in 1956
>directly leads to the modern day clusterfuck that is the Korean Peninsula

Impressive. Stalin’s everlasting fuck you to the world.
Never, ever, ever trust a Russian.

India would get curbstomped and recolonized by the UK. It’s a shithole that barely manages to beat a far smaller muslim terror haven to its West.

I get your point, but India’s power != China’s power

No, it's a nuclear weapons state and one of the largest world economies. It has lagged behind China, but even if many of them are too poor to affod the internet and shitpost here, their country is more relevant than half of Europe.

>It’s a shithole that barely manages to beat a far smaller muslim terror haven to its West.
Pakistan has nuclear weapons too.

>India would get curbstomped and recolonized by the UK.
The UK wouldn't be able to recolonize India today.
Maybe in the 1980s. Today? Doubtful

>India’s power != China’s power
Agreed

Mao was actually quite adept at these sorts of gambles, where you leave yourself open to get punched by a gutsier opponent, and knew quite well how far he could push his luck. He's like that jock bully tapping his chin and daring you to sock him. You could just knock him out if you took advantage of how vulnerable he made himself, but he knows you won't.

Another famous gamble of his was the Hundred Flowers Campaign. It could well have ended in disaster, but the scheme was perfectly executed.

>India would get curbstomped and recolonized by the UK.
This says no.

>hundres flowers was perfectly executed

One of the most insane statements i have ever read

what do you mean? It was perfect for rounding up dissenters and punishing them

stalin died in 53 senpai

The difference between genius and madness is success

Well, "perfectly" was maybe too much since it was initially a flop and they had to redouble efforts to coax dissidents into speaking up, but on the second try it worked like charm.

the soviets would've backed china with their own nukes. whether he was reassured by stalin, mao knew this