ch. 22

The chapter on global communism was very interesting. China and Russia have historically had strong Empires. So it is somewhat ironic that communism, a political and economic value system based on the ideas of collectivism, would occur in two historically strong Empires. It is interesting that in both countries they felt they could alter Karl Marx's path to communism. Many scholars and pundits cite the failures of Russian/Chinese communism to dismiss communism. However, it is important to note that Karl Marx felt that it should be industrialized capitalist countries, like in western Europe, that would become communist. Neither China or Russia was industrialized or had a strong capitalist economy. It is also interesting to note that Karl Marx did not foresee the rise of the middle class. In China, the rise of the middle class has led to many economic and political reforms, eroding communism and building towards a free market with more political freedoms. The chapter also brings up military conflict during the Cold War. My father is a Vietnam Vet, and in hindsight it a tragedy that so many people died in the Vietnam War. Had the U.S. policy makers read a good history book they would have known that the Vietnamese had been resisting Chinese aggression for centuries and would not bow to their will. We misinterpreted a nationalist post colonial revolution as a strictly communist one.