PROFILE SUCCESSFUL SOLDIER BECOMES No. 2 MAN TO MAO TSE-TUNG

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 14

PROFILE SUCCESSFUL SOLDIER BECOMES No. 2 MAN TO MAO TSE-TUNG

(By

SIMON KAVANAUGH)

In Hampstead, traditional home of London’s more “progressive” thinkers, a middle-aged lady once ran an exclusive sect, the teachings of which, she claimed, could solve every personal problem. The trick was to think in certain colours: Pale blue for affection, red for health, orange for business success, green for money. (The lady did not think green often enough; she went bankrupt eventually.)

Today the entire population of China is bei same rule, but in their case it is “think Mao” for

The now-famous night-soil collectors of Peking are instructed to recite Mao’s poems as they go about their dismal task. Steelworkers are alleged to have doubled their output since being instructed to read the Collected Works, and extensions to Peking airport, it is said, were finished well ahead of schedule because of the inspiration of the written word, enthusiastically read and recited by the construction gangs. Mao The Best-seller Mao, not surprisingly, is the world’s best-selling author, and the number of his books printed, his propagandists claim, now exceeds that of the Bible. But as every schoolboy with memories of Shakespeare knows, the reading of a book a dozen times does not necessarily mean that it is appreciated, remembered or even understood.

Mao is old and possibly sick; in spite of his wellpublicised nine-mile swim, he had to be helped up and down the steps of a public platform a fortnight later. Who then is top of the class as a Maothinker? Students of Chinese politics and economy in the West are bedevilled by the very nature of their studies. Not surprisingly, they were caught out by the appointment of the number two man. Lin Piao was about as wellknown as the boss of Peking’s tramcars. He was a guerrilla strategist, he had endured the “Long March.” and he had once brilliantly defeated a Japanese army by ambush. These were the facts on file at the time. Diligent research by China experts all over the world is only now filling in the picture. Lin Piao (his real name is Yu-Yung; he has had a dozen aliases) was the son of a capitalist who owned a textile mill in Hipeh province. At 16 he went to a military academy in Canton, where his teacher was Chiang Kai-shek, who now remembers him as a brilliant pupil. Classmates there were Ho Chi Minh and Chou En-lai. All the boys did well, as we know today, but in his teens, Lin did better than most. He became a regimental commander in the guerrilla army, in charge of raiding Nationalist camp stores for food and weapons. At that time, in the 19205, the rebels were on starvation rations and fighting with sticks and stones; Lin’s efforts were highly regarded. He was less concerned with politics than the art of guer-

rilla fighting, and in this he was to prove himself a master. He was placed at the head of the “Long March” columns, to search out food for the troops and cattle, cut enemy communications and secure bridges and roads. The “Long March” lasted 7000 miles, from the south to the north-west of China, and the survivors became men of history. On the final crossing of the Tatu river, Lin lost nearly half of his force of

90,000 men, but the fact that he crossed it at all was a major victory. Ironically, his enemies became his allies shortly afterwards, when the Communist and Kuomintang forces linked up to face the Japanese invaders from Manchuria.

Chiang, remembering Tatu, no doubt, made Lin a divisional commander and placed him in the centre of the line. Instead of spreading himself with the visible panoply of war, Lin told each of his troops to dispense with everything but his rifle and his rice bag, dig a hole for himself and sit in it until the enemy arrived. When the crack Japanese Itagaki Division came to the Great Wall, their scouts saw nothing but a few herds of goats and donkeys In the middle of the night, however, the ground around them opened up and Lin’s men poured out of their holes, wiping out the Japanese before sunrise. It was a complete and breath-taking victory. In 1946 and the following two years, the Nationalists were once more the enemy, and once more Lin’s superior tactics prevailed; the cities of

ing taught to follow the everything.

the north fell in quick succession through encirclement or infiltration. Nearly half a million of Chiang’s troops were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Peking fell in 1948, and Chiang fled to Formosa. Emergence Unnoticed Little is known of Lin’s activities through the years that followed. He wrote a manual of military strategy, freely dutifully quoting Mao, and he headed Peking’s military academy. Throughout the “Great Leap Forward,” in which Chinese agriculture and industry went backwards by ten years, his name was unheard in the West. Five years ago it was announced that he had taken personal control of the army’s General political office, which meant supervision of such diverse departments as counterespionage and liaison with the Party. This appointment marked his emergence as a strong man in the hierarchy, though outside China it passed virtually unnoticed at the time.

The past three years have been ones of growing discontent for the Chinese peasants, who still form 80 per cent of the population and who still—the middle-aged, at least — retain a traditional culture and independence that is a danger to Mao-type communism. Crops have failed, farms are either parched or flooded, machines are rusting through lack of spare parts. Millions of precious dollars have to be spent to buy wheat from Canada. The newlyannounced New Leap Forward is understandably looked forward to with cynicism, if not apprehension Mao, then, clearly needs to stiffen the backbones of the weak and the wavering, and to suppress ruthlessly the growing murmurings of criticism. Who better than an army man and a dedicated Maoist? Who better than Lin Piao? His Red Guards have struck terror into those who might have ventured even a mild questioning of the policies which have brought China economic disaster at home and humiliation abroad. They have effectively silenced all political noise beyond the shouts of “Long Live Mao.” And the appointment of the successful battle veteran, the Defence Minister, as Mao’s heir points up the possibility of military battles to come. The West has a great deal more to learn about Lin Piao. And the answers to the so-far unanswered questions are not. unhappily, likely to be found in Mao’s poems.