On April 5, 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died of illness at Taipei Shilin Official Residence, ending his magnificent life. Looking back on Chiang Kai-shek's decades of activities, he had had a strong influence in military, politics and diplomacy.
The debate on such a complex character never ended in his evaluation of him before or after his death.
Many media and historians at home and abroad have made mixed reviews of Chiang Kai-shek's life. Some people affirmed that he had played an irreplaceable and important role in history, while others pointed out his essential appearance as a dictator.
And the important leaders of our party fought with Chiang Kai-shek for decades. How did they evaluate Chiang Kai-shek?
Picture丨Cheng Kai-shek
A rival for life
If you want to say the person who is most qualified to evaluate Chiang Kai-shek, it is undoubtedly Chairman Mao. Chiang Kai-shek fought with Chairman Mao for most of his life. Chiang Kai-shek often sighed in Taiwan in his later years: "If it weren't for him (Chairman Mao), I would have succeeded long ago."
1957, mainland my country prepared to publish a book "Collection of Chiang Kai-shek". This incident caused a great sensation at the time, and many people did not understand, because wasn't Chiang Kai-shek's enemy?
Finally, Chairman Mao explained the reason. He said: "Many people hate Chiang Kai-shek, but not many people know what kind of bastard Chiang Kai-shek is, so we must let everyone know what kind of person he is."
Chiang Kai-shek and Chairman Mao are often compared together. Except for the supreme leaders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the two have similarities in their birth and many experiences.
Picture丨Chairman Mao
Chiang Kai-shek started earlier in military and political terms than Chairman Mao. After Mr. Sun Yat-sen's death, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang and achieved unity of the country in form.
At that time, Chairman Mao still had no decent army at all. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's attitude towards Chairman Mao was always arrogant, and he did not take Chairman Mao at that time seriously.
Until 1927, after Autumn Harvest Uprising, Chairman Mao led Red Army to establish Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base , slowly expanding its power and gradually threatening Chiang Kai-shek's rule.
From then on, Chiang Kai-shek regarded Chairman Mao as a thorn in his eyes and a thorn in his flesh. Whether it was a direct battle between the two parties, or during the anti-Japanese cooperation, Chiang Kai-shek had been plotting against various power schemes and wanted to suppress Chairman Mao's power.
It can be said that Chiang Kai-shek has been on a downward trend in the second half of his life when he fought with Chairman Mao. He was trying his best, but he had to admit that Chairman Mao has always been more skilled in strategy than him.
picture丨Cheng Kai-shek
It was not until Chiang Kai-shek finally ran to Taiwan in disgrace that the direct struggle between the two came to an end.
What kind of person is Chiang Kai-shek? Chairman Mao once commented on this: "A set of old tricks of feudal lords, one person who takes over the same thing, and no one who poisons them is not feasible in the 1940s."
It can be said that Chairman Mao pointed out incisively that Chiang Kai-shek's feudal nature, he has never been a truly progressive person.
What he does is for his own interests and benefits. He tries to make China come back hundreds of years ago. How can such an act that goes against the trend of history be achieved!
Chairman Mao’s words also pointed out a significant shortcoming of Chiang Kai-shek, who has always liked to be nepotist in his work.
Picture丨Chairman Mao
He always likes to send troops that are not direct in the front as scapegoats, while troops closer to him reap the benefits in the rear. This behavior has led to the Kuomintang army acting independently, shirking responsibility for each other, and often sending troops but not doing their best.
Since people's hearts are so disintegrating, how can they fight a good battle?
In addition, as a selfish bourgeoisie, Chiang Kai-shek could not tolerate anyone who could surpass himself, so he always regarded himself very highly and never faced the strength of the Communist Party’s army.
Picture丨Cheng Kai-shek
Even in the War of Liberation, when he found that the Communist Party had enough power, he actually made an action to tear up the Double Ten Agreement. This person cannot tolerate others winning the win-win situation with him in his heart!
. In response to Chiang Kai-shek's combat power, Chairman Mao once said such intriguing words: "Mr. Jiang's character "Jiang" is a general's "General". He is just a grass-headed general."
This is a humorous sentence. When you think about it carefully, you will find that it is actually very sharp.
At this time, Chairman Mao’s judgment on Chiang Kai-shek and even the entire Kuomintang army, they are more like paper tigers, strong on the outside but do not look like such a huge and scary power, but in fact, there is nothing scary about the soft .
Picture丨The War of Liberation
Zhou Enlai said bluntly: Tactical layman!
In addition to Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and Chiang Kai-shek also have a deep connection. In 1936, American reporter Edgar Snow interviewed Zhou Enlai in northern Shaanxi.
He asked, "What do you think of Chiang Kai-shek as a soldier?"
Zhou Enlai smiled twice immediately, and then replied humorously, "This Principal Jiang is not very good in military affairs. Tactical, he is a clumsy layman, and it may be better to regard him as a strategist."
Snow I couldn't understand the meaning behind Zhou Enlai's words, so I asked him to explain further.
Picture丨Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai continued: "Cheng Kai-shek is not very particular in tactical matters. He thinks he is Napoleon, and he likes to treat himself as a hero who commands thousands of troops.
always feels that the soldiers he leads are suicide squads, and likes to spread the army to fight against the other side head-on."
Zhou Enlai specifically talks about the battle of Wuhan commanded by Chiang Kai-shek. In 1927, when the two parties started war in Wuhan, Chiang Kai-shek was his usual style of play. first gather a division or regiment, and then attack the hardest defensive fortifications.
Chiang Kai-shek's idea was to wipe out the army and then send subsequent troops to continue attacking . He had no other way. In Northern Expedition , Chiang Kai-shek personally led three divisions to attack Nanchang , and he still made the same mistake.
Chiang Kai-shek had the mentality of becoming a good man if he failed, and led a division to attack the city defended by Sun Chuanfang , but he did not expect that Sun Chuanfang would set up a trap early and wait for him.
Picture丨Cheng Kai-shek
Sun Chuanfang led the troops to pretend to retreat, and gradually lured Chiang Kai-shek into the urban area. When Chiang Kai-shek entered the fortification trap that had been laid out, he suddenly returned to attack, and Chiang Kai-shek's army suffered a painful blow.
In fact, at that time, under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the Northern Expedition Army lost a lot of strength in vain. Even Ye Jianying was so angry that he left the command center directly.
It can be seen that Zhou Enlai knows Chiang Kai-shek's combat style well. He deeply grasps Chiang Kai-shek's military advancement and impulse and subdues his opponents many times.
When Snow heard Zhou Enlai's comment, couldn't help but nodded with praise. Zhou Enlai is the person who truly understands Chiang Kai-shek!
Picture丨Zhou Enlai
It can be said that Zhou Enlai's analysis of Chiang Kai-shek was as objective as possible. Chiang Kai-shek has always been a suspicious person. When it comes to war, he has to ask about everything.
1944, during the Anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek called the battalion commander and regiment commander because he was worried about the war under his commander.
Jiang Dingwen , and , every few minutes, he would receive a call from Chiang Kai-shek.
According to Jiang Dingwen: "Cheng Kai-shek wished he could come to fight by himself. He didn't let me decide anything. He told me to fight like this, and then issued new instructions later."
Jiang Dingwen was still very depressed about this. How could there be a general like Chiang Kai-shek? says that people are not doubted, and people are not doubted. is on the battlefield, so the commander should be the biggest, but Chiang Kai-shek is coming to command, so he can't say anything.
Picture丨Jiang Dingwen
But Chiang Kai-shek himself did not end up feeling relaxed. Later, Soong Mei-ling recalled that Chiang Kai-shek got up at 3 a.m., and he kept waiting by the phone, thinking about where there was still something needed, and even Soong Mei-ling felt tired when he looked at it.
This is actually very unwise in tactical terms. After all, everyone in the army should have their own appropriate position and mission.
To put it nicely, Chiang Kai-shek shared a lot of worries for the people below and better grasped the overall situation. But in fact, he disrupted the original military deployment of the army, and even made the lower-level officers unable to display their talents.
In fact, the Kuomintang army at that time had such a problem, because Chiang Kai-shek was too authoritarian and had to make the final decision on everything himself. caused the officers below to be unable to display their talents, thus causing many talented people to be buried.
Picture丨Song Mei-ling
This is why Whampoa Military Academy has cultivated so many talents, but it is difficult for anyone to shine within the Kuomintang army.
But the view of Chiang Kai-shek cannot be just a blind derogatory, after all, the Kuomintang also had certain strength back then. How could Zhou Enlai say that Chiang Kai-shek is a little better in strategy?
If you want to talk about the beautiful battle that Chiang Kai-shek fought, you must talk about the anti-Japanese war. is a frontal battle that we will always remember - Taierzhuang victory .
Chiang Kai-shek faced the crazy invasion of Japan, and adopted the strategy of exchanging time for space . He led the Kuomintang to flee from Nanjing to Wuhan, and then from Wuhan to Chongqing. fully won favorable time for the war, allowing the Kuomintang to rectify its strength and rise up to resist.
pic丨Cheng Kai-shek
In this battle, all the factions of the Kuomintang truly cooperated sincerely. Under Chiang Kai-shek's command, they cooperated from all sides, severely attacked the enemy from the front, and greatly encouraged the people of our country's confidence in the war of resistance.
This war has been recorded in history. is not only because it is the first large-scale victory on the front battlefield, but more importantly, this war has an important strategic position for the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War.
In this regard, it has to be said that Chiang Kai-shek's vision is accurate. In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, he had a keen grasp of the overall situation. This also created favorable objective conditions for the war to be able to turn into a protracted war and take a series of actions for the Communist Party.
pic丨Kuomintang
Huangpu Past events
Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek have known each other for a long time, but at the beginning, the relationship between the two was not so tense, and even Chiang Kai-shek showed his appreciation for Zhou Enlai more than once.
As early as when Zhou Enlai was the director of the political department at the Whampoa Military Academy, Chiang Kai-shek once commented on him: "There are two people I admire most in the Whampoa Military Academy, one is Deng Yanda and the other is Zhou Enlai."
However, the later words proved how ironic Chiang Kai-shek's words were. After he launched the "April 12 Coup", these two people he once favored chose to part ways with him.
Zhou Enlai later publicly participated in Wuchang Uprising , , and Deng Yanda also publicly opposed Chiang Kai-shek and was eventually killed by Chiang Kai-shek in 1931.
Picture丨
Chiang Kai-shek once served as the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy. He wanted to use this to train a group of his capable generals, but in fact, the outstanding generals trained by the Whampoa Military Academy eventually broke with Chiang Kai-shek without exception.
In fact, when Zhou Enlai first joined the Whampoa Military Academy, he still had the attitude of reaching cooperation with Chiang Kai-shek. After all, Chiang Kai-shek also showed his desire and friendly attitude towards talents at that time.
After Zhou Enlai served as director of the political department, he immediately implemented a series of reform measures in the entire Whampoa Military Academy, , making the entire military academy look new.
On the one hand, Zhou Enlai attached great importance to political education for students to improve their political awareness and unity; On the other hand, Zhou Enlai proposed to establish the Blood Flower Drama Club to promote the revolution in the form of drama, and the facts proved that his move was very effective.
Faced with the talent shown by Zhou Enlai, Chiang Kai-shek praised him and repeatedly expressed his desire to take Zhou Enlai for his own use.
Picture丨Cheng Kai-shek
However, even with the friendly attitude that was maintained on the surface, Chiang Kai-shek failed to maintain it for too long. Not long after, he showed his fierce minions.
In 1925, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly met Zhou Enlai and asked him to summarize the list of all Communist Party members in the Whampoa Military Academy and hand it over to him in the near future, and at the same time called "management". This is naturally not the first time Zhou Enlai has seen such a trick. He immediately understood how terrible Chiang Kai-shek wanted to take, so he sternly rejected Chiang Kai-shek, and the two parted in disagreement.
At this time, Zhou Enlai realized that Chiang Kai-shek was a terrible dictator and conspirator. Although he has always talked about democracy and freedom on the surface, it is impossible for other political parties to tolerate it.
Picture丨Zhou Enlai
As expected, in 1926, Chiang Kai-shek planned and manufactured the Zhongshan Ship incident, causing the white terror to begin to emerge.
At that time, when Zhou Enlai heard the news, he immediately went to Guangzhou as one of the supreme leaders of our party. tried to negotiate directly with Chiang Kai-shek and finally resolve the problem smoothly in a peaceful way.
However, no one expected that Chiang Kai-shek was already so fierce at this time. In order to prevent the plan from being destroyed, he directly ordered people to detain Zhou Enlai.
Although the detention lasted only one day, it had fully demonstrated Chiang Kai-shek's horror. Since then, Zhou Enlai never returned to the Whampoa Military Academy, and the relationship between the two became increasingly tense.
After the "April 12 Coup", Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek broke up completely. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's cruelty was far beyond people's expectations, and our party almost suffered a catastrophe.
Picture丨"April 12 Coup"
From then on, the long struggle between Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek officially began. It has been nearly 10 years since the two broke up and met again. In 1936, the Xi'an Incident occurred, and the relationship between the two parties was once again pushed to the forefront.
Zhou Enlai knew that the most important thing at the moment was by no means the self-interest of one party, but how to unite with the Kuomintang and fight against Japan together.
. In the current situation, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng's army detained Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek faces life worries at any time. If he faces an accident at this critical moment, he may only cause trouble for the anti-Japanese plan.
So, Zhou Enlai decided to go to Xi'an in person, and the United Nations Nationalist Party unanimously resisted Japan.
Picture丨Zhou Enlai
As soon as Zhou Enlai arrived in Xi'an, he found Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng and persuaded them not to hurt Chiang Kai-shek. Zhou Enlai talked about the interests and importance of it one by one. This stabilized the situation in Xi'an and created good conditions for the War of Resistance.
Zhou Enlai also visited Chiang Kai-shek, who was still under house arrest at the time, with Soong Mei-ling. At this time, Zhou Enlai was full of concern for the future of the nation.
But Chiang Kai-shek didn't think so. As soon as he saw Zhou Enlai, suspected that he was here to take his life, so he was always afraid of Zhou Enlai throughout the conversation.
When Zhou Enlai talked about cooperation in anti-Japanese war, Chiang Kai-shek always showed a strong attitude of resistance.
Zhou Enlai was not relaxed at all. Faced with the issue of national justice, he said seriously to Chiang Kai-shek: "This is your only choice at present, and it is the common wish of the people of the whole country!"
Picture丨Zhang Xueliang
Chiang Kai-shek was reluctant to let go, until the two left . Zhou Enlai also left a sentence: "Persist on civil war with will only accelerate the demise!" 's sentence is a piece of advice, and even a warning that Chiang Kai-shek had to listen to Zhou Enlai's suggestions.
Later, it was only after Zhou Enlai's various actions that finally made Chiang Kai-shek make a public speech, asking him to publicly recognize the legal status of the Communist Party of China .
In fact, through this incident, we can see the difference in the pattern between the two. When Zhou Enlai was worried about major national affairs, Chiang Kai-shek only cared about his own personal interests and hesitated even more about doing things, and hesitated at all.
So, looking back at Zhou Enlai's evaluation of Chiang Kai-shek, it can be said that he did it. He tried his best to objectively put aside the personal grudges of the two, stood at a military height, and regarded Chiang Kai-shek's behavior as an objective object, giving the most pertinent evaluation.
In fact, whether it is Chairman Mao or Premier Zhou’s evaluation of Chiang Kai-shek, has one common feature, that is, the Communist Party of China has always adhered to to seek truth from facts.
Picture | Chairman Mao
Conclusion
It was during the decades when they fought directly with Chiang Kai-shek that they knew Chiang Kai-shek better than others, and as opponents, they were more qualified to evaluate what this person was like.
As a historical figure, the evaluations faced by them have always been different in , each with different differences, especially those with great controversy like Chiang Kai-shek.
It is undeniable that he once played an irreplaceable influence in Chinese history, and to a certain extent, he also influenced the direction of modern Chinese history.
But on the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek once did things that harm national interests and violated the will of the people. can definitely not be explained by partisan conflicts just. He has indeed made many mistakes in this regard.
Which is right and wrong? History has become the past, and more must be left to future development and the people to make a real decision.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-