The John Batchelor Show

PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT THE SLOW REHABILITATION OF XI ZHONGXUN Colleague Joseph Torigian. Torigian details the slow rehabilitation of Xi Zhongxun, noting it took years after his release to fully return to work. He explains this delay occurred because Xi was persecuted by Mao personally. The Party moved cautiously to avoid signaling a sudden directional shift that might suggest the political system was collapsing. 1910 MAO

PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT MAO'S SINICIZATION OF MARXISM AND THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD Colleague Joseph Torigian. Torigian discusses how Mao "sinicized" Marxism, rejecting Sovietdogmatism to interpret ideology flexibly. While Xi Zhongxun respected Mao's practical application of Leninism to China, Torigian notes that abandoning the Soviet model—viewed as "revisionist"—ultimately resulted in the Great Leap Forward, causing the deaths of approximately 30 million people. 1910 QING DYNASTY

PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT PARTY PERSECUTION AND THE MINDSET OF PURGED OFFICIALSColleague Joseph Torigian. Joseph Torigian explains the mindset of purged officials like Xi Zhongxun, comparing them to characters in Darkness at Noon. He notes that loyal revolutionaries believed the Party represented a "world historical force." Consequently, enduring persecution without losing faith was viewed as a way to prove one's "mettle" and selflessness. 1966 TIBET RED GUARDS

PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT: LINDBERGH'S DISMAY AT BRITISH COMPLACENCY AND GERMAN POWER Colleague H.W. Brands. Professor Brands details Charles Lindbergh's complex worldview, combining a stubborn admiration for German efficiency with confusion regarding Nazi politics. Lindbergh viewed Britain as a declining empire that would inevitably drag the United States into another war to bail them out of their diplomatic failures. 1931

PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT: FDR'S NATIONAL EMERGENCY AND THE SHIFT TO A WARTIME FOOTING Colleague H.W. Brands. The segment examines Franklin Roosevelt's May 1941 declaration of a national emergency, which halted daily activities like baseball and movies as Americans listened via loudspeakers. Professor Brands explains how FDR used this moment to prepare the American mind for a "moral war" alongside Britain. SEPTEMBER 1941