Word: lin
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...appointed a tubercular army marshall, Lin Piao, to take over the Defense ministry. Lin had been a brilliant strategist against the Japanese and the Nationalists and had a number of important contacts in southern China, but he came back halfway through the Korean War suffering from wounds and disease, and remained inactive for the next eight years...
Unexpectedly, Lin as Defense Minister became one of the most dynamic men in the government. He successfully (though perhaps only temporarily) resolved a heated argument between officers who favored an army based on technical expertise and officers who stressed political reliability. Through his energetic insistence on political control, Lin turned the People's Liberation Army over to Mao lock, stock, and barrel...
...first duly impressed, and then later deeply grateful for control of the army at the very moment he wished to risk a major purge. Lin's outspoken support of Mao's thought in speeches, articles, and private Party discussions apparently convinced the Chairman that Lin could be trusted with the country. Still, to insure an easy succession, Mao and Lin had to eliminate all possible opposition to Lin's rise...
...Chen, mayor of Peking and rated seventh in the ruling Politburo, was removed from his post as Chairman of the Peking Central Committee. P'eng may or may not have been actively building a power base with Mao's job in mind, but his vigor and ambition rivalled Lin's and he was an obvious threat. The real purge...
...Lin erased any doubts about the extent of their control over events by pulling their most trusted aides up into high Party offices. T'ao Chu, one of Lin's political officers during the Civil War and a Party leader in southern China, became director of the Party's propaganda department. Ch'en Po-ta, who had served for years as Mao's Bill Moyers, ghost-writing speeches and handling the press, was put in charge of the entire purge, dubbed the "Great Cultural Revolution." Official control over the Red Guards was reserved for Lin, who probably gave orders...