Mao Zedong, and Nuclear Submarines

Young Mao Zedong

From the last post we can get a peek into Mao Zedong’s bag of tricks. When Mao learned that Moscow announced a 12-year plan for China to acquire nuclear weapons, “he announced grandly to his inner circle, ‘We must control the Earth’”[i].

Let’s peek into Mao’s bag of tricks again. Nuclear weapons are useless unless you have a way to deliver them to your target.

Shrapnel on home in Quemoy 1954

China bombarded Quemoy with over 30,000 Russian made artillery shells to begin the 2^nd Taiwan Strait crisis. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles made it clear that the US would defend not only Taiwan but also Quemoy both in word and deed. A large US Navy fleet steamed into the Taiwan Strait.

USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko flew secretly to Peking. He stated in his memoirs that Mao had a plan in case the Americans invade China because of a war over Taiwan. Gromyko quotes Mao:

Andre Gromyko

“In the event of war ... you should let them (the Americans) penetrate deep inside the territory”[ii] of China. “Only when the Americans are right in the central provinces should you give them everything you’ve got”[iii] (meaning nukes).  

“I was flabbergasted,”[iv] Gromyko exclaimed. “I heard at first hand utterances that showed a willingness to accept the possibility of an American nuclear attack on China, and then to discuss means by which to fight against it”[v].

Nikita Khrushchev

Mao “told Gromyko he would like to discuss with Khrushchev at some stage how to coordinate in such a war, and then raised the specter of Russia being wiped out”[vi] in the process.

“'When the war is over,' (Mao) asked, ‘Where shall we build the capital of the socialist world’ implying that Moscow would be gone”[vii]? Mao then played his trump card by telling Gromyko China would not involve Russia, if they, the Chinese, had the means to fight America.

Submarine launched nuke

High-end technology was then given to China comprising “a whole range of advanced ships and weapons, including conventional-powered ballistic missile submarines and submarine-to-surface missiles”[viii].

The 1^st Taiwan Strait crisis got Mao nuclear weapons. The 2^nd got him the means to deliver them. Still, Mao continued to bombard Quemoy for twenty years until his death on January 1st, 1979.

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[i] Jung, C., Halliday, J. (2005). Mao: The unknown story. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 398.

[ii] Gromyko, Andrei, & Shukman, H. (translator) (1989). Memoirs. New York: Doubleday, p. 251.

[iii] Ibid., p. 252.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Jung, C., Halliday, J. (2005). Mao: The unknown story. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 414.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid., p. 415.