[quote=Pasta Sentient]
I look forward to seeing what ya do with it :) I'm going to follow the five year plan for the most part; but subtly change a few things so that the Great Leap Forward and Cultural revolution are positive as opposed to negative :)
[/quote]

Was the mass slaughterings avoidable? I don't know much of Chinese modern history, on account of me never finding them interesting even though they're going to greatly effect things probably within my life time. All I know is that Mao got well angry, and started destroying cultural stuff, and people, on an industrial scale. I'm guessing that he wasn't mad? Just brutally practical when it came to China's greatness?

I'm trying to figure out how I could realisticly destroy the Ba'ath party. From what I know of suppressed politics, it's that the groups that are forced underground never go away, and if they are able to get popular support, then BOOM civil war. I've either gotta go down the route of nationalism, which'll bring me closer to the West and shun the other Arab states, or I've gotta go down the route of Communism, which ... meh. I'll see what happens when the game starts; I will likely approach various governments and ask for support in keeping Syria capitalist and stable. If they shrug me off, well then it's going to be HELLO UNCLE JOE :D