Different Tactics

       I think that when the Communist Party in China implemented the land reform program and the Red Guards, they desired both different results and had different intentions for each tactic. When they began to enforce the land reform program, they used it as a way to appeal to the greater Chinese population, of peasants and farmers. It was their way of saying "we are on your side" and "we want the best for you." It was their intention to appeal to the public and downsize the power of the current people of status. The result of this tactic was unity under their cause and trust in their ideas. When they implemented the Red Guard program, their intention was more to cause fear in people and show how powerful they could truly be. Their violence and enforcement of power upon the people shows that they didn't care whether or not the people wanted to follow them and comply, just that they were forced into doing so. The result of this tactic was fear, and fear supplied them with power. Fear was what made the people not content with their former government. After the new party appealed to them by seeming to diminish this factor of fear, they also stooped to ruling in the same manner. 

       While both tactics strive for the overall same goal, gaining the support and power of the people, they are quite contradictory to one another. The land reform program promises revenge and equality, downsizing the power of those who were previously vicious. The Red Guard then simply redistributes that power to an equally vicious party. That is why overall each specific tactic gained different results in terms of followers. Both did result in erasing the previous government and way of life, and leading to a socialist rule. But it seems as though the land reform program was used to soften them up, and then the Red Guards regained power through fear.