A M O V E fflE C E E X L I B R I S B A S I C T A C T I C S MAO T S E - T U N G B A S I C T A C T I C S TRANSLATED AND W IT H AN INTRODUCTION BY S tu a rt R . S ch ram FOREWORD BY Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith, II (Ret.) u s m c FREDERICK A. PRAEGER, Publishers New York • Washington • London FREDERICK A. PRAEGER, PUBLISHERS 111 Fourth Avenue, N ew York, N.Y. 10003, U.S.A. 77-79 Charlotte Street, London W . 1, England Published in the United States of America in 1966 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers Second printing,, 1961 © 1966 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. A ll rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-18912 This book is Number 186 in the series of Praeger Publications in Russian H istory and W o rld C om m unism , Printed in the Umted States of America A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S T w o contributions, different in nature but equally indispensable, have made it possible to produce this vol­ ume. T he first of these, logically and chronologically, consisted in providing the Chinese text. T he only known copy of this little book is to be found in the library of the Ministry of Justice near Taipei. A handwritten copy obtained from this source is deposited at Harvard Uni­ versity. Mr. Eugene W u, the Librarian of the Harvard- Yenching Library, very kindly supplied reproductions of this copy for the use of General Griffith and myself. For this I am under the deepest obligation. M y debt to General Griffith is equally great. N o t only did he generously agree to write a Foreword evaluating the interest and significance of Basic Tactics from the standpoint of a professional soldier long noted for his competence in this domain. He also was good enough to devote considerable time and effort to the examination of my translation, and made a number of very valuable suggestions for improving it. W ithout his collaboration, I should not have felt justified in venturing into the com­ plex and highly technical field of guerrilla warfare, even though it is obviously central both to Mao’s revolution­ ary methods and to his personality. It is a pleasure to express my gratitude here. S. R. S. C O N T E N T S Acknowledgments v b y General Samuel B. Griffith 1 F , o r e w o r d by Stuart R. Schram 11 I , n t r o d u c t io n From Politician to Guerrilla: Mao's Evolution Before 1938 17 Mao's Policies and Political Style in 1938 28 T h e Guerrilla Heritage Today 37 N otes to the Introduction 47 b y Mao Tse-tung 49 B T , a sic a c t ic s I. Introductory Remarks 51 II. Tactics 5 5 III. T h e A im of the W ar 67 IV. Organization 69 V. Tasks 81 VI. Operations 8 3 VII. Surprise A ttacks 90 VIII. Espionage 99 IX. Ambushes 102