Book
The Dream and the Destiny
First published 1975
Lin-Wai, a young doctor newly attached to the Red Army, joins the immense retreat that became known as the Long March. Communist forces break out from encirclement and move across mountains, rivers and grasslands while Kuomintang armies pursue them and hunger, illness and exhaustion reduce their numbers.
Mao Zedong’s rise within the Communist movement gives the journey its larger political importance, but Cordell keeps the story close to the people who must walk, treat the wounded and decide whether to continue. The Long March is presented as both military escape and founding legend. Lin-Wai’s medical responsibilities provide a human measure of the sacrifices behind a campaign later central to the history of Communist China.
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