Mao and the others In March 1959 La Chine published official pictures portraying President Mao together with foreign personalities, being members of the local Communist Parties or leading politicians. These were difficult years for Mao Zedong: having launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958, he was now being attacked by members of the party (as Peng Dehuai), who thought that the goals of the Great Leap Forward were utopian; actually, in the years 1959-1961 a great famine occurred in different parts of the country, officially caused by "natural disasters". "President Mao Zedong with Ho Chi Min, president of the Laodong Party of the Vietnamese Democratic Republic. President Ho stopped in Beijing during his voyage to Moscow in occasion of the soviet Communist Party Congress." "President Mao Zedong receives Ali Yata (on the left), secretary of the Central Committee of Morocco Communist Party and Abdeslam Bourguia (in the center), member of the Politic Bureau of the Central Committee during their visit to China" "President Mao Zedong in company of Prince Saleh Ben Issa el Harithy, vice-imam of Oman in visit to China." "President Mao Zedong receives Ajoy Kumar Ghosh, general secretary of the Indian Communist Party visiting China. In the center the vice-president of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Liu Shaoqi." In December 1958, Mao had retired from the charge of President of the People's Republic, as he has planned since 1957, though remaining the President of the Communist Party. In April 1959, a month after the publications of this picture, Liu Shaoqi was nominated President of the People's Republic of China.