War is a comprehensive competition between people and weapons. According to the basic principle of historical materialism, Mao Zedong criticized the viewpoint of "only weapons" and scientifically expounded the position and role of man in the war. He pointed out that weapons are an important factor in war, but not a decisive factor. The decisive factor is people, not things. Power comparison is not only the comparison between military power and economic power, but also the comparison between manpower and people's hearts. It is the people who decide the outcome of the war, not one or two new weapons. This is Comrade Mao Zedong's incisive exposition and high generalization of the relationship between man and weapons on the issue of war.
The comparison of strength is not only the comparison of military strength and economic strength, but also the comparison of manpower and people's hearts. Need to master military and economic power. People in war include manpower, human heart and human initiative. Human heart is the driving force of human initiative, manpower is the material force, and human heart and human initiative are the spiritual force. Therefore, man is the unity of material strength and spiritual strength, and is a material strength with spiritual activities. Any weapon and substance must be mastered by people, which constitutes the dominant and non-dominant relationship between people and weapons.
Man is the decisive factor in winning or losing a war. On a certain material basis, whoever can give full play to people's initiative will win the war.
Weapons are an important factor in winning or losing a war. Mao Zedong attaches importance to the role of weapons as an important factor. In the past war years, when we had no military industry, Mao Zedong took the method of seizing weapons from the enemy to narrow the gap between them. After the founding of New China, we emphasized that we should have what the enemy has and what the enemy doesn't have, thus quickly establishing an independent defense industry system. Mao Zedong has always opposed the one-sided exaggerated "voluntarism" which ignores the spiritual role of weapons and equipment, and at the same time opposes the one-sided exaggerated "weapons-only theory". The Iraq war seems to provide an excuse for the "weapons-only theory", but the victory of the US-British Coalition forces is still decided by people, because it is people who create a strong American economy, develop high-tech weapons, use high-tech weapons and equipment, and command the quasi-information-based US military.