Mao Zedong's Thought Of Propaganda War And It's Successful Practice In The Civil War

Ever since the emergence of war, propaganda came along with it. From the cold weapon age to the information age, there are always two battle fields in every war: one with fire and blood, and the other with resourcefulness and propaganda-counter. Investigation of the characteristics and relationship of the two battle fields draws great attention from the military theoreticians, commanders and historians. Especially after the Gulf War in 1991, propaganda war became a new form of warfare with the change of war concepts. Now it's theory and strategy has become a part of the combined operations command system.Chairman Mao Zedong is a great politician, militarist, theoretician and propagandist all over the world. He was skillful in using politics to direct the war. Based on the propaganda war theory and Mao's military thought, this thesis reviews the history of CPC and its war years, explores the historical revelations from civil war, and analyzes Mao's propaganda war thoughts.From the research above, some conclusions are made. Firstly, Mao's propaganda war thoughts are an important source of the PLA's propaganda war theories. Secondly, Mao's propaganda war thought is an important and integrated part of Mao's military thought, the main contents of which are that propaganda should be paid equal attention to as armed force; the leading power must be in the hands of the Communist Party only; the press is a strong weapon of propaganda war and the power of propaganda war is rooted in the mass, etc. Thirdly, the author considers that the successful practices of civil war are typical cases that can help readers understand the tradition of propaganda war of PLA and quest for a scientific way to perform propaganda war in military operations in information age. Therefore, the thesis has a great practical significance as to innovate and enrich the propaganda war theories with Chinese military characteristics.