The Chinese revolution in the late 1940s resonated deeply across the capitals of Western Europe and the United States. Somehow, what at first appeared to be a ragtag force of Communist guerrillas had defeated a U.S.-backed ally in the Chinese Nationalists. After the onset of growing tensions with Moscow following World War II, American policymakers provided limited, largely ineffective aid to the Nationalists as the world’s fourth-largest country in terms of landmass and largest country by population, with about 20 percent of the global total, “went red.”

Mao Zedong’s stunning communist revolution sent an urgent telegram to revolutionary movements around the globe, especially in what was then usually called the Third World. In short, Mao showed that dogged perseverance and political acumen could overcome enormous military disadvantages. Over the next several decades, numerous “Maoist” insurgencies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America broke out in attempts to replicate the spectacular success of Mao’s Chinese forces.