Book Review: Far East: Chinese Communist Education
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| Author | C. P. FitzGerald |
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000437 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REvIEwS
567
tigers"
is
no
more
than
a
device
to
establish
faith
in
eventual
victory
(p.
71)
also
seems
to
the
reviewer
to
be
inadequate.
Applied
to
con-
temporary
events
the
claim
that
nuclear
weapons
are
the
claws of
a
paper
tiger
has
a
great
deal
of
truth.
Nuclear
weapons
cannot
be
used in
a revolutionary
war
such
as
is
now
raging
in
Vietnam
since
they
would
obliterate
the
people
whom
the
United
States
is
defending
as
well
as
those
to
whom she
is
opposed.
In
this
very
real
sense
nuclear
weapons
are
the
claws
of
a
paper
tiger.
So
long
as
the
United
States
holds
to
its present
declared
policy
that
it
has
no
intention
or wish
to
conquer
North
Vietnam,
nuclear
weapons
cannot
be
employed
against
that
country
either,
as
it
would be
impossible
to
substantiate
such
a
statement
if
they
were.
In discussing
the
one
claim
to
doctrinal
innovation
which Mr.
Cohen
admits-the
inclusion
of
the
"national
bourgeoisie"
among
the
classes which
can
be
enlisted
in
the
support
of
the
"People's
Demo-
cratic
Dictatorship"-Mr.
Cohen
permits
himself
to
be
less
than
ob-
jective
in
the
statement
"It
was
Mao's
desire,
fired
by
personal
and
chauvinist
conceit
...
to
establish
a
new,
Chinese
formula
to
describe
state
power
for
a
Communist
regime"
(p.
81).
What
evidence
for
"personal
and
chauvinist
conceit" is
there?
These
are
subjective
atti-
tudes,
to
which
no one
not
personally
very
well
acquainted
with
Mao
Tse-Tung
can
possibly
testify.
On
the
other
hand,
the
need
for
a
new
formula
to
fit
the
very different
Chinese
conditions
and
enlarge
the
base
of
support
for
the
revolution
was
clearly
obvious,
not
only
to
Communists,
in
China
in
the
early
days of
the
People's
Republic.
Much
of
that
support
came
indeed
from
the
sons
of
the "Nationalist
Bourgeoisie",
and
not from
the
rather
small
body
of
industrial
work-
ers.
It
was
not
necessary
to
be fired
with
conceit
nor
to
wish
to
depart
from
Russian
models;
it
was
a
real
condition
of Chinese
society
to
which
Mao
was
responding.
This
book
will
be
of
importance
and
real interest
to
those
who
are
mainly
concerned
with
the
development
of
Marxist
and
Communist
thought
and theory:
in
this
field
it
makes
a
valuable contribution
which
will
be
of
great
interest
to
all
engaged
in
the
study
of
theoreti-
cal
Communism.
Australian
National
University
C.
P.
FITZGERALD
CHINESE
COMMUNIST
EDUCATION.
Records
of
the
First
Decade.
Com-
piled
and
edited
by
Stewart
Fraser.
(Nashville: Vanderbilt
Uni-
versity
Press.
xvi,
542pp.
$10.00)
For
those
who
are
interested
in
the nature
and
development
of
the
Chinese
Communist
regime
there
can
be
no
more
important
aspect
than
the
system
of
education,
its
methods
and
purposes,
for
these
methods
are
shaping
the
thought
of
the
rising
generation, the new
generation
born and
educated
wholly
under
the
Peoples' Republic
of
China.
The
purposes
of this
educational system also
serve
to
illustrate
the
long
term
aims
of
the
regime
itself.
Professor
Fraser
has
col-
lected
and
compiled
an
invaluable
store
of
material
for
this
study,
the
documents,
explanatory
speeches
and
articles
on
the
subject
made
by
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