The Civil War

Question 1

When was the civil war?

Answer 1

1946-49

Question 2

What were the two main reasons the CCP and the GMD could not agree to peace? What was the ultimate reason?

Answer 2

The Communists, whilst willing to recognise Chiang as the legitimate leader of China were not willing to co-operate in practise and were planning to overthrown him.
The communists had doubts that the nationalists would allow them to retain the land they held if they admitted defeat.
Ultimately, they did not trust each other and even as talks were held they were seizing the territory and preparing for the conflict they knew was coming.

Question 3

Why were the Nationalists initially seen as being more triumphant?

Answer 3

They had the support of the US who continued to formally back the GMD and fund them.

Question 4

Why did the US back the GMD?

Answer 4

They thought it was too late to shift support to the CCP after having supported Chiang for so long, even though most of the Chinese people had shown their support for Mao.
The US had also issued millions of dollars worth of military equipment to the Nationalists.
The US had also provided transport to take the GMD troops over to the previously Japanese occupied zones.
55,000 US marines had been sent to give formal advise to the GMD troops.

Question 5

How big was Chiang’s army compared to Mao’s?

Answer 5

The five million NRA troops outnumbered the PLA four to one.

Question 6

How were the peasants treated throughout the civil war?

Answer 6

Although the PLA had been told to conduct themselves as ‘friends of the people’, they were met with resistance from both sides if they did not cooperate and both sides were just as ruthless.
Local militia which had banded together during the conflict with Japan often stayed together to try and fight any intruders.

Question 7

What were the 3 essential phases of the Civil War?

Answer 7

1. The Nationalist armies attempted to take the initiative by crushing the communist bases in Manchuria and north-Eastern China (1946-47)
2. The communist armies resisted these attacks.
3. The communists taking the offensive from 1947 onwards by moving South to take the previously Nationalists held areas of central and southern China.

Question 8

What were the 5 main campaigns that determined the outcome of the civil war?

Answer 8

The struggle for Manchuria: 1946-47
The 'strong point offensive': 1947
The Liaoshen campaign: Sep-Nov 1948
The Huaihai campaign, Nov - Jan 1948-49
The Pingjin Campaign, Nov - Jan 1948-49.

Question 9

Why did Chiang want to take Manchuria?

Answer 9

It would be a knockout for Communist forces and secure the success of winning the war and bring it to an end.
Its recovery would return the most industrially advanced region of China to Nationalist control.

Question 10

What was the result of the GMD trying to obtain Manchuria?

Answer 10

The communists fought off the 200,000 GMD troops who were stationed in and around Manchuria and managed to secure bases such as Harbin and turn them into strongholds.
The way the Nationalists tried to control the areas of the province resulted in the NRA running roughshod over the people which then resulted in support for the GMD falling as people turned to supporting the CCP.

Question 11

How did the communists resist and retaliate after the GMD tried to take Manchuria?

Answer 11

They destroyed airships on which the NRA depended and sabotaged railways which the NRA were also depended upon. By 1947, 10,000 miles worth of railway line in Manchuria had been ripped up as well as the destruction of telephone lines.
The CCP were by far more strategic than the GMD forces. they avoided GMD strongholds unless they knew winning was favourable and were able to live off the land and confidence of the people.

Question 12

How did the weaknesses presented by the GMD help the CCP to keep a hold of Manchuria?

Answer 12

Because Chiang had made obtaining Manchuria his most important objective, his losing it meant he was on the defensive for the rest of the war.
Chiang also lacked the popular following in the countryside that Mao had generally managed to obtain.
In addition, his army was betrayed by top level commanders, many of whom became moles for the communists.

Question 13

Why was it important that the PLA retained Manchuria?

Answer 13

It was crucial to the outcome of the war.
The most important reason for the CCP needing to retain control of Manchuria is that the CCP were able to turn it into a base from which they could plan and launch strategic attacks.

Question 14

What was the Nationalists biggest flaw?

Answer 14

They were unable to turn their resources into military domination.

Question 15

Why was the NRA’s taking of Yan’an (part of ‘The strong point offensive’) a hollow victory?

Answer 15

A mole in the NRA had leaked to Mao of Chiang’s plans to take Yan’an, therefore communist forces mounded a delaying action in order to allow for the inhabitants of the base to evacuate. When the Nationalists finally stormed the base, it was a ghost town.

Question 16

What did Chiang do after he won Yan’an?

Answer 16

He spread his forces to attack communist pockets in the shandong and shaanxi provinces, but they were overstretched and vulnerable to the opposition as Mao took advantage of this and retaliated. This meant that by the end of 1947 the GMD had lost north-eastern China.

Question 17

What did the ‘strong point offensive’ do to Mao’s strategy?

Answer 17

It changed it, before, Mao had thought his forces too weak to take on the GMD forces but after gaining more ground it proved that the nationalists forces were weaker than Mao had originally thought. Therefore the CCP adopted a more offensive, destructive strategy which they aimed at the GMD from that point onwards.

Question 18

Where did Mao choose as the main targets of his attacks during the Liaoshen campaign (the beginning of it)?

Answer 18

Changchun and Shenyang, the last remaining Nationalists bases in Manchuria. The Liaoshen campaign was therefore the climax to the long-running struggle over Manchuria.

Question 19

Where did the CCP gain control of after Manchuria?

Answer 19

They took the Jinzhou railway which linked Beijing to Changchun and then shorty afterwards Changchun fell after the people had resorted to cannibalism.

Question 20

When did Shenyang surrender? How?

Answer 20

Nov 1948. It was an isolated Nationalists occupied zone as a result of the Communists gaining the railway that linked Beijing to Changchun.

Question 21

What were the results of the Liaoshen campaign?

Answer 21

• The NRA lost 400,000 troops to casualties and desertions.
• They lost Manchuria.
• They lost the north-east of China.

The NRA were now on the defensive with the PLA on the offensive.

Question 22

Where did Chiang decide to stand and fight at first during the Huaihai campaign?

Answer 22

He decided to position his forces in a way which would prevent the PLA from taking central provinces between the Yellow and Yangzi rivers. He chose to stand and fight at Xuzhou, a key junction linking the GMD capital, Nanjing and and the great port of Shanghai.

Question 23

What were the results of the Huaihai campaign?

Answer 23

It was a disaster for the Nationalists and a victory for the Communists.
The nationalists had lost over 200,000 men.
Vast quantities of equipment (mostly supplied by the US) had fallen into communist hands.
The communists now dominated northern and central provinces.
The US, who had already given the nationalists $3 billion worth of supplies did not want to give further aid.

Question 24

What was the first and main event which took place during the Pingjin campaign?

Answer 24

Mao took Beijing - although it wasn’t of strategic importance at this stage, it held symbolic value as it was China’s historic capital.

Question 25

How did the communists take Beijing?

Answer 25

After the capture of Tianjin, the road to Beijing was now open for the PLA to take and the fight depended on whether the 200,000 Nationalists troops were willing to fight knowing they had no realistic chance of preventing its capture.
The nationalists governor of Beijing was willing to talk with the CCP and during those discussions was told to either vacate his troops or they would be bombarded. Faced with this choice he decided to vacate his troops and Beijing fell into the hands of the Communists.

Question 26

What was the significance of the three major campaigns? What were the 5 order of events which led to the communist victory in the campaigns?

Answer 26

1. In barely 4 months, the CCP had won the three campaign victories.
2. The nationalists had lost control of northern and central China.
3. The communists were on the verge of establishing their dominance over the whole of China.
4. Ultimate communist victory was only a matter of time.
5. In Nanjing, on Jan 21st, Chiang Kai-Shek officially handed over authority to Li Zongren, his Vice-President.

Question 27

What event and date is regarded as the end of the civil war?

Answer 27

In December 1949, when Chiang fled to Taiwan and established a nationalist government.

Question 28

How many people died overall?

Answer 28

3 million nationalists, 1 million communists and including civilians over 6 million in total.

Question 29

What was the main reason for communist victory?

Answer 29

The nationalists were faced with growing desertions and moles within the party and Chiang could never fully reply on his supposed supporters.
Splits occurred in the party, such as the ‘Democratic League’ and the ‘GMD revolutionary alliance’.

Question 30

What do historians emphasise as Chiang’s most basic military failing?

Answer 30

His lack of patience at a critical early juncture.
His eagerness to establish a grip on Northern China- where the nationalists were least influential, if he had consolidated the nationalists bases in central and southern China, they might have been more successful.

Question 31

How did Mao’s dominance over the CCP and the PLA help the communist victory in 1949?

Answer 31

His strength of will and sheer dominance over the party meant he could overcome many of the doubts of his commanders and change from a defensive to an offensive strategy at a critical stage of the civil war.

Question 32

What is considered the most significant factor for communist success?

Answer 32

Mao’s leadership

Question 33

Why did Mao’s victory in the civil war also mark as a victory over the SU?

Answer 33

Because since the 1920’s, Stalin had refused to believe the Chinese Communists could achieve a genuine revolution and urged them to merge with the nationalists.
In 1945, the SU formally signed a treaty of friendship with the Nationalists.

Question 34

Why was it unlikely that Mao and Stalin would ever share a common purpose and vision?

Answer 34

For Mao, he was convinced that for the Chinese , their way was the only way and he had taken an independent Marxist line since the 1920’s. They started on different nationally and ideological standpoints and if Mao had listened to Stalin’s advice they would not have won the civil war.