As I have mention above, Nazi Germany and People’s Republic of China both had involvement in the wars. To begin with, soon after the death of the Weimar Republic’s president, Hidenburg, Hitler seized the ultimate power of Germany and declared himself as a dictator, Fuhrer. With this, he commenced very radical and aggressive foreign policies. Since breaking Germany itself free from Versailles, step by step, Nazi prepared an ultimate war to retain its glory back. On 1 September 1939 the German army invaded Poland from the west. On 17 September, Soviet forces invaded Poland from the east. Poland was swiftly defeated by the German tactics of Blitzkrieg. Britain and France could do little. On 3 October Poland surrendered. The path towards the world war, which has been intensified from series of events and circumstances in the Europe, has now been triggered by the invasion of Poland. Through 4 years of war, it had brutal consequences; most of countries in Europe and USA were involved in the war; moreover, the Poland invasion triggered Pacific-War in Asia and several countries in North and Centre Africa were the victims as well since the they were the colonies, so they were compelled to provide their stocks. Similar to Germany, Mao’s PRC had participated in Korean War and Vietnam War. The war that had a most significant influence, which PRC involved, was Korean War. The tension between communist and non-communist state was not limited to Europe and in 1950 it led to war in Korean peninsula. Korean was divided into two states: North Korea was communist and supported by USSR and China; South Korea had an anti-communist dictatorship and was supported by America. The two Koreans were divided by 38th parallel. Until now, the intense conflict between two parties still exists. And this controversial and critical issue is not only a major issue only for Korean but for whole world. An Issue such as nuclear missiles is one of them. To conclude, the two nations both were involve in the wars and this had considerable influence outside their own country. Especially, the event in which German devastates Poland, Belgium, and other nations in Europe and Chinese participation in Korean War was an identical one and most significant since it had absolutely changed the direction; history to politic, ideology, economy, culture, and life.
Until now we have seen the common influence of the war, which had an involvement from the absolute dictator. However, there are also contrasts in many perspectives. Here we must explicitly identify the nature of the involvement. For Hitler, the purpose of war was mainly focused own his behalf. Hence, he advocated Lebensraum that would establish a living space and Nationalism, which would retain the respect diplomatically. Unlike the gloomy Weimar era, he wanted to transform Germany into a superior nation. So he was the one who triggered the war, and took over other countries and instigated Italy, and Japan to get involved in the war. Therefore, Hitler had a clear intention and aim that he wanted to achieve in the war. Whereas, the nature of Chinese involvement the wars were much different; unlike Hitler and Nazi, they were not the one who triggered the war; they participated wars that undermined their ideology, communism. Therefore, it was more likely to be a war against the ideology and not for their behalf. Thus the involvement of the PRC was much passive compared to Nazi. The Vietnam War is a good case. It was likely to be an aid rather than war since the troops of PRC was not involved in the war and only sent advisors and munitions to the Vietcong. Lastly, the scale of the war the two nations were involved in was different. The war that Hitler triggered was a global one; USA to Japan and Congo, it would not be an exaggeration to say that all the nations in the globe were influenced by the WW2. Whereas the wars, which China participated, was in few Asian countries. To sum, since the nature of their involvement in the war was different, the contrast between the influences has been shown.
Throughout the essay, I have been discussing about the comparison and contrast by spotlighting the wars that the two leaders were involved in. Mainly, there is no doubt that Mao and Hitler were both involved in wars changed our history and is still influencing our generation. But the nature of its movement should be distinguished since Hitler had an ambition to conquer Europe and Mao’s focus was towards on containing Capitalism. I personally think this was effective way to compare for the two totalitarian dictators. However, Mao’s PRC was established after the end of WW2 and death of Hitler. Thus, I believe a comparison between two dictators was not the most effective question since Hitler was a leader during 1933~1944 and Mao was in 1945~1976. Therefore, for example, comparison between Mao and Stalin would had been a better comparison since the two totalitarian leader were involved in Cold war against USA and Capitalism states. For Hitler, Mussolini would have been a perfect comparison.
