Word: pla
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...enlisted man would be about 21-years-old (in many cases a high school graduate) and might be stationed in his native province. Three years ago he cagerly registered for the draft along with many of his most ambitious classmates. The PLA, all students know, is a good way to the top. Older brothers returning from four years in the army--many of them new Party members--receive the good jobs in the local government and party committees...
...economy has not caught up to the pace of the schools, and thousands of young men and women are turned out yearly with skills that cannot yet be used. Many are sent out to work in the fields. Realizing this, young men flood the recruitment offices, and the PLA can be quite selective...
Such stories spread all over the country in 1964 when an "Emulate the PLA" campaign began. The tales tailored for public consumption tole of modern army heroes who had glorified themselves by losing their lives in some courageous act, conveniently leaving behind a diary full of prayers...
...perhaps the Chinese really know how much national pride and Maoist commitment this training has awakened in the young soldiers or officers. Most of the experiences--the steady political education, the "Officers to the Ranks" movement, the "Emulate the PLA" campaign, the abolition of ranks--are devices introduced or reemphasized by Lin Piao since he took over the Defense Ministry in 1960, but Mao almost certainly had a hand in them also...
...emergency has obviously arrived, but where is the ideologically tough New Army? For some reason, Mao and Lin have not been able--or perhaps are unwilling--to cash in on it. For the first five months of the current upheaval, they ignored the PLA and put all their faith in the Red Guard. Now it appears that their problem may be the small impression ideological devices have made on the army officers. In the past month, Mao and Lin have begun to tinker with the army mechanism. They have taken some of their doubtful supporters out of the central military...