A. Investigation Plan In 1966, Mao mobilized Chinese youth to initiate the “Cultural Revolution,” a violent process that eliminated old Chinese culture, customs, thoughts, and habits, purged “counterrevolutionary” party members, and intensified the cult of Mao's personality. I will summarize evidence gathered from textbooks, official documents, biographies and eyewitness accounts about events between 1959 and 1966. I will describe the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao's resignation as chairman, his struggle for power with Liu Shoaqi and Deng Xiaoping and the spread of the cult of personality. I will then identify how these events may have given Mao reasons to launch the Cultural Revolution, and whether his motivations were ideological or selfish in nature. After making a source assessment of Jung Chang's “16-Point Directive on the Cultural Revolution” and “Mao: The Unknown History” and analyzing my evidence, my essay will answer the question: To what extent did Mao have the Cultural Revolution begins? ideological?B. Summary of evidence1. The struggle for powerMao resigned as president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in April 1959, after the Great Leap Forward, and the plan that Chinese production would "overtake Britain in 15 years", failed and caused a widespread famine in China, where 20-30 million people died of starvation. President Liu and General Secretary Deng began to restore China, while Mao remained the ceremonial head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Liu and Deng introduced many liberal and effective policies, which included retreating from communist ideals. Collectivization and municipal canteens were abandoned and peasants began private, “capitalist” agriculture again. They also restore... middle of paper... five ideological objectives, such as the overthrow of bourgeois and counter-revolutionary ideals. The “16 Points” and Mao's thoughts on revolution suggest ideological motivations behind the Cultural Revolution. However, he ensured that there was no real “dictatorship of the proletariat,” but rather a proletariat that acted according to his dictatorial commands, helping Mao win the power struggle with Liu and Deng. This suggests that the Cultural Revolution was at the same time, if not primarily, a tool to secure Mao's power. Jung Chang argues that Mao's motives were purely selfish, but since his attitude is uncompromising anti-Mao, this judgment may be biased, although similar views are expressed by other historians. It is very likely that Mao was simply "killing two birds with one stone" and had both ideological and selfish motivations when he started the Cultural Revolution..