Mao, the Untold Story. Yung Chang

This is a book that most people could learn a tremendous amount from.
Few political leaders are as shrouded in mystery and myth as the dictator and homicidal war criminal Mao Tse Tung. His story is an object lesson on strategic geo politics, as well as abnormal psychology and the bizarre sets of circumstances and providence that contribute to modern day fascism.
Anyone who has studied Mao or Stalin will tell you that communism was simply a fad, or a smokescreen for them. A cynical charade used to fool the masses into surrendering ultimate power to them.
Reading this book illuminated my perspective enormously. I came away literally punching myself that I had not done more investigation and reading about politics until this rather late point in my life, and since then I have very actively tried to further educate myself in this area.
"Mao, The Untold Story" sets out to debunk and shed light on the truth of every myth and falsehood perpetuated to this day by the chinese "communist" government.
Some of the more fascinating points,

Mao's Red Army never once engaged the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese war. They simply followed behind, more or less, taking command of the regions the japanese could not garrison, but had cleard of Generalissimo Chiang's nationalist forces

The "Great Leap Forward" was an effort to gain the financial resources to
turn china into a military superpower. This was done by exporting and selling all agricultural products from china during this era, rusulting in almost universal famine, and the death of more that 10 million chinese.

The "Cultural Revolution" was not an effort to reform culture in any way, but to merely wipe it out, leaving the masses with blank, empty lives devoid of art or amusement, and totally dedicated to serving the state. Millions were imprisoned in labor camps or killed, including Deng Xioping,
merly for being artists, musicians or writers.

During the "Long March" Mao nearly bungled his way to the total elimination of the red army several times, and was only saved by a political situation that did not allow the nationalists to destroy them utterly, despite the fact they had the means to do so. (Thanks, Edgar Snow, you douchebag).
Chairman Mao himself was carried on a litter during the entire debacle, despite the fact that his troops were in utter disarray, and most had no shoes at the time.

The president of China under Mao, Chou En Lai, was nothing compared to Mao, even though he was the best diplomat in China, and Mao would have been lost without him. He lived the life of an indentured servant, was made to eat the scum off of raw sewage to "test" it to see if it could be safely fed to the citizens, and was denied treatment for the cancer that eventually killed him, because Mao was determined Chou would die first, so that he could not tell the tales the would destroy the Mao myths.

Even Stalin was shocked at the level of brutality and cruelty dispayed by Mao, to the point where he intentionally tried to subvert Mao's plans to aquire nuclear weapons, as well as other military assets.

Mao died peacefully in bed, but was responsible for the deaths of more than 70 million of his own citizens. Will GWB and Cheney be allowed to do the same?