An American Professor Is Calling Mao ‘Perhaps the Greatest Historical Figure of the 20th Century’

New Mexico State University (NMSU) professor Ken Hammond marked the 50th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s death by mourning what he called “perhaps the greatest historical figure of the 20th century” during a Friends of Socialist China webinar earlier this week. 

Hammond is no ‘casual’ Mao admirer. He served as the founding American director of NMSU’s Chinese-government-funded Confucius Institute, which shuttered in 2020 amid widening scrutiny of Beijing’s influence in U.S. academia. He has publicly denied that China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang constitutes genocide, appeared in Chinese state media to defend the CCP, and now sits on the advisory group of Friends of Socialist China.

Even worse, Hammond praises Mao for advancing communism, touting his use of analytics, investigative methods, and relentless efforts to “improve” the system as a natural progression of the ideology. Never mind that those very attempts to perfect his governmental structure helped produce a death toll well over 50 million people.

🚨 Meet the Professor Calling Mao “Perhaps the Greatest Historical Figure of the 20th Century”

New Mexico State University professor Ken Hammond made the remark during a Friends of Socialist China webinar marking the 50th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s death.

Hammond said Mao did… pic.twitter.com/uXLolHlnSA

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 9, 2026

“It’s going to be the 50th anniversary of the death of Chairman Mao, the loss of perhaps the greatest historical figure of the 20th century,” Professor Ken Hammond said. “What he does is exactly what Marxism is supposed to do. He takes an analytical method, the methods of dialectical materialism, historical materialism, and he investigates and he writes a lot about, you know, if you don’t investigate, then you don’t have the right to criticize. We have to investigate.”

“As Marxists, as communists, as revolutionaries, we can’t just take a theoretical proposition and say, this is how we’re going to go forward. We have to apply materialist analysis to our actually existing circumstances,” he continued. “This is the great insight and this seeking truth from facts, socialism with Chinese characteristics, Marxism with Chinese characteristics, whatever you want to call it, it’s the living practice, the ongoing practice, the practice that has allowed China to pursue its course of socialist construction, allows leadership like that of Xi Jinping to continue to adapt, revise, advance the work of the party, the work of the state, the work of the people in building a new China, a new future for China, for the people of China, and for the people of the world.”

“So when we come together today and we think about Chairman Mao 50 years on,” Hammond added. “And the continuing changes in the world, all of this is grounded in his intellectual endeavors, as well as his practical organization, his ability to pursue the dialectic of theory and practice, and through that materialist process, make the breakthroughs, have the insights to lead a successful revolution and start the process of building a new China.”

This self-styled professor holds a remarkably rosy view of a man widely regarded as the most murderous figure in human history. Not through conquest like Genghis Khan but through the systematic starvation of his own people. Progressives often argue that Mao never intended to starve millions, and that may be technically true; he was simply willing to sacrifice them in pursuit of his communist utopia.

In a society increasingly receptive to the lures of socialism, it’s worth remembering the kinds of creatures that inhabit academia, and the effect they can have on impressionable students just entering college. 

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