Basic Tactics

166 Pages·1966·43.029 MB·English

by  Mao Tse-Tung, Stuart R. Schram

A M O V E fflE C E
E X
L I B R I S

B A S I C T A C T I C S

MAO T S E - T U N G
B A S I C T A C T I C S
TRANSLATED AND W IT H AN INTRODUCTION BY
S tu a rt R . S ch ram
FOREWORD BY
Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith, II
(Ret.)

u s m c
FREDERICK A. PRAEGER, Publishers
New York • Washington • London
FREDERICK A. PRAEGER, PUBLISHERS
111 Fourth Avenue, N ew York, N.Y. 10003, U.S.A.
77-79 Charlotte Street, London W . 1, England
Published in the United States of America in 1966
by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers
Second printing,, 1961
© 1966 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.
A ll rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-18912
This book is Number 186 in the series of
Praeger Publications in Russian H istory and W o rld
C om m unism ,
Printed in the Umted States of America
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
T w o contributions, different in nature but equally
indispensable, have made it possible to produce this vol­
ume. T he first of these, logically and chronologically,
consisted in providing the Chinese text. T he only known
copy of this little book is to be found in the library of
the Ministry of Justice near Taipei. A handwritten copy
obtained from this source is deposited at Harvard Uni­
versity. Mr. Eugene W u, the Librarian of the Harvard-
Yenching Library, very kindly supplied reproductions
of this copy for the use of General Griffith and myself.
For this I am under the deepest obligation.
M y debt to General Griffith is equally great. N o t only
did he generously agree to write a Foreword evaluating
the interest and significance of Basic Tactics from the
standpoint of a professional soldier long noted for his
competence in this domain. He also was good enough to
devote considerable time and effort to the examination of
my translation, and made a number of very valuable
suggestions for improving it. W ithout his collaboration,
I should not have felt justified in venturing into the com­
plex and highly technical field of guerrilla warfare, even
though it is obviously central both to Mao’s revolution­
ary methods and to his personality. It is a pleasure to
express my gratitude here.
S. R. S.

C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments v
b y General Samuel B. Griffith 1
F ,
o r e w o r d
by Stuart R. Schram 11
I ,
n t r o d u c t io n
From Politician to Guerrilla: Mao's
Evolution Before 1938 17
Mao's Policies and Political Style in 1938 28
T h e Guerrilla Heritage Today 37
N otes to the Introduction 47
b y Mao Tse-tung 49
B T ,
a sic a c t ic s
I. Introductory Remarks 51
II. Tactics 5 5
III. T h e A im of the W ar 67
IV. Organization 69
V. Tasks 81
VI. Operations 8 3
VII. Surprise A ttacks 90
VIII. Espionage 99
IX. Ambushes 102