Question

How did Mao Tse Tung play a significant role during the Cold War?

Answer 1

Hint: Mao Tse Tung is the name by which Mao Zidong was addressed in the English media. Mao Zedong was the leader of China who made it into a communist country and is known as one of the most prominent leaders of the communist world during the Cold War period.

Complete answer: During the Cold War period, the poles of the USA and USSR were bound by ideology. Each of the two factions tried to increase their ideological dominance by imposing their ideology on many other newly independent nations. In the communist world, other than Stalin, Mao Zedong rose as a very prominent leader in the Chinese Republic who imposed the communist ideology in the country by his cultural reform program from 1927 to 1949.
This was a very prominent move as it gave rise to a vast resourceful territory who was self sufficient, rapidly growing, well populated, aggressive and communist. Thus, it added to the paranoia of the western world who favoured a capitalist system of society like that of the USA’s. In the 1950s, China also supported North Korean’s fight for a communist state and therefore, added to the fears of the Western world.
China was also supportive of th American War in Vietnam. This has gone down as one of the most denounced interventions of America against communism and had been heavily invested in by the American government. Thus, having a powerful opposition like China with nuclear capabilities polarised the war furthermore.
Even so, China was not subservient to the USSR just because they adopted communism. After the criticism of Stalin by Khruschev, China’s tension with the USSR started growing. This ended in the Sino-Soviet war on the border after 1956 and is said to have been exploited by Nixon who was the then President of the USA.

Note: The Cold War finally came to an end in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin war, disintegration of the USSR and the fall of communism in Russia. Even so, China continued its ideological communism and even today the Communist Party of China is the most dominant and powerful party controlling the Chinese government.