Mao Zedong

=== Korean War ===
Mao pushed the Party to organise campaigns to reform society and extend control. These campaigns were given urgency in October 1950, when Mao made the decision to send the [[People's Volunteer Army]], a special unit of the [[People's Liberation Army]], into the [[Korean War]] and fight as well as to reinforce the armed forces of North Korea, the [[Korean People's Army]], which had been in full retreat. The United States placed a trade embargo on the People's Republic as a result of its involvement in the [[Korean War]], lasting until [[Richard Nixon]]'s improvements of relations. At least 180 thousand Chinese troops died during the war.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-06/28/content_20365659.htm |title=180,000 Chinese soldiers killed in Korean War |website=china.org.cn |access-date=28 November 2019}}</ref>

Mao directed operations to the minutest detail. As the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), he was also the Supreme Commander in Chief of the PLA and the People's Republic and Chairman of the Party. Chinese troops in Korea were under the overall command of then newly installed Premier [[Zhou Enlai]], with General [[Peng Dehuai]] as field commander and political commissar.<ref name="Burkitt">{{Cite book |last1=Burkitt |first1=Laurie |last2=Scobell |first2=Andrew |last3=Wortzel |first3=Larry M. |author3-link=Larry Wortzel |title=The lessons of history: The Chinese people's Liberation Army at 75 |publisher=[[Strategic Studies Institute]] |pages=340–341 |year=2003 |isbn=978-1584871262 |url=http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf |access-date=14 July 2009 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205072610/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>