giving an overall impression of youth and vigor, as well as pragmatism. “The test of everything,” he suggested, “was whether it works—in China.” He did observe that there was a certain “uniformity” in their way of thought.49 But in general, the assessments of Service praised Mao’s achievements and contrasted them unfavorably with Chiang’s. The views of Service differed strongly from Vladimirov’s, who wrote that anti-Nationalist propaganda and the Rectification movements had led to an “oppressive, suffocating atmosphere in the party”: people “abandoned any initiative” in their haste to “redeem
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