Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life

Reading the Deng Xiaoping biography brings home how well organized and systematic the Communist Parties were in the early part of the 20th Century.  They were organized more like military-religious organizations as opposed to "voluntary" party organizations similar to today's political parties.  I imagine this is partly because the book is written by Americans working in American universities who tend to see the world in a certain way.  They see Communism as a conspiracy designed to threaten their way of life.  However, there was a lot of coordination between the Soviet Union and the CCP.