Much credit to this post.

  • The USSR had great success in many areas

    The PRC struggled during the Great Leap Forward

    You seem to be papering over the part where a shit ton of their own people died, so I don’t think this really works as a pitch. You’d need to find a way to ensure that mass death wouldn’t happen again, and then succinctly express it.

    Mao was only about 70% good

    Anyone who does mass executions is a fucking monster. Probably better to leave this out of the pitch.

    • I can discuss in-depth with you if you’d like, but Blackshirts and Reds is the perfect book for you. AES is by no means a fantasy wonderland, but it is a dramatic improvement on existing conditions. The Kuomintang and the Tsars were more brutal than the Communists, and that brutality lasted for centuries.