"On Protracted War"

At the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance against the Japanese aggression, many people in the KMT camp believed either that China would be quickly subjugated, or that it would win a quick victory. Some on the CPC side also pinned their hopes for victory on open warfare waged by the KMT regular army, and decried the importance of guerrilla warfare.

At a conference held from May 26 to June 3, 1938 in Yan'an, the seat of the CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong gave a series of lectures entitled "On Protracted War." This reviewed the experience already gained in battle, refuted the prevailing wrong ideas, and explained the Party's rationale behind a protracted war of resistance.

Mao analyzed the situations of China and Japan, the nature of the war, the strengths and weak points of the two sides, and the attitude of the international community, and drew the conclusion that the war against the Japanese would be long, but that the final victory would be China's. He forecast that for the Chinese, the war would go through three stages: strategic defensive, strategic stalemate, and strategic counter-offensive. He emphasized that the people were the foundation of victory.

Mao's "On Protracted War" discussed the evolution of the war, pointed out a logical path leading to China's victory, criticized various erroneous views about the war, and inspired the whole Party, the Chinese army and the general public, giving them confidence in China's ability to win the war. The value of the article was acknowledged by senior officials of both the CPC and the KMT, and the article became the strategic program guiding China's resistance. It was an excellent example of applying Marxist dialectical and historical materialism to the problem of waging successful war.

《論持久戰(zhàn)》

抗戰(zhàn)全面爆發(fā)后，國(guó)民黨內(nèi)出現(xiàn)了“速勝論”和“亡國(guó)論”等論調(diào)。在中國(guó)共產(chǎn)黨內(nèi)，也有一些人寄希望于國(guó)民黨正規(guī)軍的抗戰(zhàn)，輕視游擊戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。1938年5月26日至6月3日，毛澤東在延安抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)研究會(huì)上，作了《論持久戰(zhàn)》的長(zhǎng)篇演講，初步總結(jié)了全國(guó)抗戰(zhàn)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，批駁了當(dāng)時(shí)盛行的種種錯(cuò)誤觀點(diǎn)，系統(tǒng)闡明了中國(guó)共產(chǎn)黨的抗日持久戰(zhàn)方針。毛澤東分析了中日兩國(guó)的社會(huì)形態(tài)、雙方戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的性質(zhì)、戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)要素的強(qiáng)弱狀況、國(guó)際社會(huì)的支持與否等，指出抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)是持久戰(zhàn)，最后的勝利屬于中國(guó)。他科學(xué)地預(yù)見到抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)必將經(jīng)過戰(zhàn)略防御、戰(zhàn)略相持、戰(zhàn)略反攻三個(gè)階段，強(qiáng)調(diào)持久戰(zhàn)的基礎(chǔ)在于廣大民眾。

《論持久戰(zhàn)》科學(xué)地論證了抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的發(fā)展規(guī)律，以無(wú)可辯駁的邏輯力量闡明了爭(zhēng)取抗戰(zhàn)勝利的道路，批判了對(duì)于抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的各種錯(cuò)誤認(rèn)識(shí)，因而從思想上武裝了全黨、全軍和廣大人民，極大地鼓舞和堅(jiān)定了廣大軍民爭(zhēng)取抗戰(zhàn)勝利的信心?！墩摮志脩?zhàn)》印刷出版后，不僅獲得國(guó)共兩黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的共識(shí)，更成為抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中的戰(zhàn)略指導(dǎo)綱領(lǐng)。這篇著作是運(yùn)用馬克思主義的辯證唯物主義和歷史唯物主義從具體情況出發(fā)解決戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)問題的光輝典范。