III
The first law of war is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy.
—Mao Tse-tung, 1937
MAO HAS NEVER CLAIMED that guerrilla action alone is decisive in a struggle for political control of the state, but only that it is a possible, natural, and necessary development in an agrarian-based revolutionary war.
Mao conceived this type of war as passing dirough a series of merging phases, the first of which is devoted to organization, consolidation, and preservation of regional base areas situated in isolated and difficult terrain. Here volunteers are trained and indoctrinated, and from here, agitators and propagandists set forth, individually or in groups of two or three, to "persuade" and "convince" the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside and to enlist their support. In effect, there is thus woven about each base a protective belt of sympathizers willing to supply
