“The Little Red Book played a similar role to Mein Kampf and, like Hitler, Mao used military drill, massed bands and son et lumière to produce illusion and hysteria. For his 1966 rallies, 1,000-piece bands played ‘The East is Red’, and a film of the ninth National Congress of the CCP in 1969 showed delegates, holding the Little Red Book aloft, jigging up and down in frenzy, tears rolling down their cheeks, yelping and baying like animals, in the Great Hall of the People. The virulently abusive language Mao and his henchmen used to evoke violent and intolerant activism was very reminiscent of Hitler’s anti-Semitism.”
—Paul Johnson, Modern Times
