Impulsive and unscrupulous, a supreme manipulator of personalities with a fine turn of phrase, a relentless reader and history buff, with a superb memory, he possessed an unyielding will to dominate. Influenced like so many by social Darwinism, which dovetailed with Marxist class struggle, Mao believed that ‘Long-lasting peace is unendurable to humans’; rather ‘We love sailing on a sea of upheavals.’ China had to be ‘destroyed and reformed’ to rise again.
