By Harsh Thakor
On 13th September we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Lin Biao, due to a plane crash in 1971, when allegedly attempting to flee to the Soviet Union. Lin is one of the most controversial or complex and impactful characters of the Communist Movement. Few leaders more befitted the role of a Dr. Jekyll and a Mr. Hyde.
POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION
Lin made a great contribution to
the Chinese revolution as a military commander, after 1945. In the last stages
no military leader did as much justice to Mao’s military teachings. He
exhibited genius in carrying out military affairs, settling up traps for the
enemy at their hardest point. Few commanders patrolled troops with such skill,
to overpower the enemy as Biao as a military leader was more responsible than
anyone in delivering the final knockout punch, to Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang.
By
the end of 1945 Lin had 280,000 troops in Manchuria under his command, but
according to Kuomintang estimates only 100,000 of these were regular forces
with access to adequate equipment. The KMT also estimated that Lin also had
access to 100,000 irregular auxiliaries, whose membership was drawn mainly from
unemployed factory workers. Lin avoided decisive confrontations throughout
1945, and he was able to preserve the strength of his army despite criticism
from his peers in the Party and the PLA. On
May 8 Lin launched the first of his "three great campaigns", the
Summer Offensive, intending to engage a large garrison at Huade, while a second
force positioned itself to ambush the force that would predictably be sent to
relieve it. With
the skill of a surgeon performing an operation Lin crystallised an ambush, to
deliver a striking blow to the Kuomintang in Siping, Jilin.
In the winter Offensive in Siping
in Manchuria and at Jinzhou in Liaoshen he confronted encirclement of
Chiang Kai Shek’s troops with daunting courage and military skill, rarely
transcended. He went on to penetrate North China, annexing Taiwan and Beijing,
through the Pingin campaign. The Pingjin Campaign saw Lin
remove a total of approximately 520,000 enemy troops from the enemy's battle
lines. Many of those who surrendered later joined the PLA. In the last stages no
military leader did as much justice to Mao’s military teachings. He exhibited
genius in carrying out military affairs, setting up traps for the enemy at
their hardest point. Few commanders patrolled troops with such skill, to overpower
the enemy.
In the post-revolution period after 1949 he was responsible for pioneering the projection of Chairman Mao’s military theory through printing of Chairman Mao's red book, where his writings were incorporated or assembled in readable form for everyone. Lin wrote a masterpiece on ‘International Significance of Peoples War,’ which lit the red spark of Mao’s teachings at an unprecedented level. Never in China's history were any leader's writings sparkled to such a magnitude. He also abolished ranks in the army and paved the way for the Socialist education movement to succeed. Possibly the Great Proletarian Cultural revolution could never be launched without the seeds sown of the Socialist Education Movement. In rendered the spirit of selflessness at the very core within the army by persuading them to participate in farm labour, to build a soil for planting a Socialist man. I recommend everyone to refer to ‘Daily lives in Revolutionary China’ which vividly illustrates the unparalleled democratic strides of the Peoples liberation army. In 1965 his speech on ‘Long Live the Peoples War’, elevated the pulse of the oppressed masses of the people to undertake peoples war at an unparalleled intensity. Above all it was Lin Biao who formally proclaimed Mao Tse Tung[1] thought as the higher or highest stage of Marxism-Leninism.
NEGATIVE TURN
Sadly, from the period of the
Cultural Revolution Lin Biao exhibited a big deviation from genuine Marxism, by
placing the army over everything, and giving scant respect to the class
struggles within the sphere of production and enhancing the striking power of
the masses. During mass movements, the people’s liberation army often curtailed
the civilians, and in 1967-69 it was only after the intervention of Premier
Zhou En Lai, that the army had to withdraw. Lin Biao attempted to
project chairman Mao like a prophet and often it was Chairman Mao who had to
intervene to eradicate personality cult. He now turned bloodthirsty for power,
eulogising Mao to promote his chances of being anointed head of state. In 1969
Lin was chosen as Mao's successor. However, from late 1969 relations
deteriorated between Lin and Mao. Lin insisted that the Cultural revolution be
withdrawn and sole emphasis be placed on production In contrast Chairman Mao
felt there were still glaring flaws in the society, which could be only
resolved through continuous revolution. He also became a bitter critter of
Chiang Ching as well as wished to restore relations with the Soviet Union.
By 1970 the relations of Lin and
Mao embittered at crescendo and in the moral sense no more did Mao wish Lin to
b his successor. Finally in September 1971 Lin fled in plane with his family,
heading to Soviet Union. The Chinese govt alleged that Lin plotted to overthrow
Chairman Mao, which is maintained by many Marxists today. However some comrades
like Joma Sison feel we still have to look under the telescope to examine the
correct facts. In recent years Lin's daughter has come out with another version
on the incident.
The aftermath of Lin Biao's death
was major determinant of the future course of events in the Cultural Revolution
of China, breaking the backbone of the genuine left forces, and paving the way
for the revival of the rightists or capitalist roaders. A major 2 line struggle
was waged by the Maoist gang of four, portraying Lin as a 'Confucius' of the
modern age or a mandarin. It had the overtones of famous emperor being
overthrown and disgraced. Rightist commanders almost completely infiltrated the
Peoples Liberation Army. After the rightist coup in 1976 shortly after Mao's
death, in Biao was publicly disgraced and eventually sentenced as a criminal in
the 1981 trials. It was ironic how a so called 'capitalist roader' was
condemned by the anti-Maoist or revisionist like Deng Xiaoping, along with the
Maoist gang of 4. In Mao's time after 1971, Lin was characterized as a
capitalist roader.
Even if he betrayed Marxism
towards the end it was travesty that on his birth centenary no memorial was
staged for Lin Biao in China or amongst Marxists worldwide. Indian Maoists
treated him like a demon as well as those in Peru and Nepal. Only the pro-Lin
Biao camp groups paid him homage like the Leading Light Communist Organisation
and the C.P.I.(ML) 2nd CC in India. Marxist writer Joseph Ball hardy gave
credibility to Lin Biao being treated as a villain and plotting to kill Mao.
Chairman Joma Sison is also neutral. Lin Biao would win a permanent place
amongst the great Marxist or anti-imperialist military commanders but would
also go down in history of marking a turning point in revisionism—in the
International Communist Movement.
PERSPECTIVE OF ANALYSIS
What Marxist need to analyse is
what phenomena led to a figure like Lin biao sprouting up within a Socialist
state or Communist party, to the extent of his even being appointed as Chairman
Mao's successor. I feel it reflected how Confucian culture was still embedded
in the minds of the Chinese people, which upheld feudal authority. For
historians it is worth probing into what caused such a sensational turnabout in
Lin Biao. There was also deep penetration of the Army in all spheres. Strong
hierarchy existed within the party itself. In my view the trend asserts that
mere 2 line struggle within a Communist party, does not build a genuine
Socialist society or Socialist democracy to flourish. Even if factionalism is
negative, vanguardist tendencies of the party were not properly checked by the
masses. in also most erroneously defined the era in 1969,as that of "Total
Collapse of Imperialism and Worldwide Victory for Socialist Revolution,' replacing
Leninist evaluation of 'Era of Imperialism and Proletarian Revolution. ‘The
Chinese model of revolution was exported by Lin, giving no regard to the unique
characteristics engulfing different regions. Marxists were made to asses
everything through the prism of the Chinese revolution. in Biao most
mechanically analyzed that the third world was a storm centre for world
revolution that would besiege the cities of the 1st world. Morally, Lin
virtually classed the working class of the developing countries to be
counter-revolutionary and only workers of developing countries to be a potent
revolutionary force. In fact genuine Marxists have to counter the Lin Biaoist
tendency that classes all Workers of the 1st world to be reactionary, apart
from the Afro-Americans or Asians. Lin’s writings compiled in the Red Book
had powerful tendencies of rhetoric and generalisation, has pointed out by
Stuart Schram in his biography of Mao.
Few leaders more illustrated a
dual aspect to their nature. I feel Lin deserved a gold medal for some of his
contributions, while on the other hand should face the equivalent of punishment
for dealing establishing of a genuine Socialist state. It is very important
that we evaluate him in the correct perspective and not devalue his
contribution. One must take note of how even revisionist parties in the Indian
camp denounce Lin Biaoism, with groups like C.P.I.(M.L) Red Star, even equating
the CCP from 1966-76 as Lin Biaoist. I asesss Lin Biao to a kind of a
Brezhnevite and not a Kruschevian like Liu Shao Chi or Deng Xiaoping. To me in
the classical sense Lin was not a 'capitalist roader' like Deng Xiaoping.
I would love readers to refer to
Edgar Snow's notes on Lin Biao in 'Red Star over China’, which does justice to
his leadership before 1949.Lin's military writings too are very insightful,
with semi- colonial features still persisting in third world countries.
All Marxists should dialectically
study the phenomena of Lin Biao, to study his plus points and major flaws and
understand the complexities that arise within a Socialist Society itself. His
treachery towards the end, all the more illustrates how imperative it was to
stage the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to keep Leninism a float. The
mass movements undertaken to confront Lin Biao's ideology also have great
importance. Arguably an error of Mao was over deployment and excessive power
within the army and not awarding sufficient independence to mass movements.
Still I feel we should tooth and nail confront anyone who projects Lin Biao's
line a s a Marxist one as well as those who use his example to denounce
Socialist China under Mao. I do not ascribe to the view that Chairman Mao
fostered his personality cult, but completely endorse that Lin Biao completed
tried to promote himself through glorifying the chairman. It is also
significant that chairman Gonzalo has shades of Lin Biaoism in his thesis on
'militarization of the party.’ Readers must critically study all the writings
of Lin Biao, to be enriched in Marxism-Leninism., published in the ‘Marxist
Internet archive.’ They must demarcate or distinguish the sectarian elements of
his writing which replace Marxism-Leninism or Mass line with military ideology.
From Lin Biao’s negative experience we further understand the importance of
treating Maoism as an integral part of Leninism and the importance of the
Leninist vanguard party. At the same time certain chinks are exposed in our
armoury, ideologically in terms of genuine democracy within a Socialist society
and not mere mechanical interpretation of Maoist peoples War. His life also
expressed the mysterious aspect of Marxism itself.
CHAIRMAN JOMA SISON ON LIN BIAO
Very surprisingly Chairman Joma Sison is inconclusive on the Lin Biao affair 50 years ago, remaining neutral.
"The CPC Central Committee
led by Mao himself made decisions in favour of and then against Lin Piao. The
circumstances and decisions must be subjected to concrete review and analysis
by dialectical and historical materialists. But if a telescope were to be used,
especially by outsiders like us, the downfall of Lin Piao meant a split of the
Left within the CPC and PLA (between Lin Piao and the group of 4) which opened
the way for the rehabilitation and ultimate ascendance of Deng with the help of
Chou En-Lai who had to defend himself from the attacks of the group of 4. Lin
Piao was well-known as the first PLA commander to deliver the first big blow
against the Japanese invasion army and as the consistent defender of Mao in the
Lushan conference, in the socialist education movement and in the first four
years or so of the GPCR. Remember that the support of the PLA led by Lin Piao
to the Left was crucial in mobilizing the Left and the Red Guards against the
bourgeois headquarters in the CPC and the state. For this, Lin Piao gained the
title of being the closest comrade in arms of Mao. He was enshrined in the
Chinese constitution as the successor of Mao. He was responsible for stressing
that China was the central base of the third world's struggle of peoples and
countries against the first world of imperialist powers. He was also associated
with rhetoric about Mao thought as the atom bomb of the people and about the
world era of the impending collapse of imperialism and global victory of
socialism over imperialism. For the ultimate Rightist victors in the class
struggle to discredit and bring him down, he was the target of the intrigues
that he was in a hurry to take power for himself in order to displace Mao,
letting his wife abuse her power in the PLA Political Department and
prematurely promoting his young son to a senior position in the PLA and
conspiring with him to assassinate Mao. At the ideological and political level,
he was accused of immodesty and recklessness in depicting China as the central
base of the world revolution, contrary to the wishes of the Right to adopt
capitalist reforms and open up to and integrate China with the capitalist world
as the way to modernize China and catch up with the rise of technology. The
circumstances of the death of Lin Piao also need concrete review and analysis.
There are certain serious claims that he and other pro-Lin officers were
already dead at the start of the supposed flight to the Soviet Union. What an
irony that one of the top opponents of Soviet social imperialism should be
fleeing to the SU. The plane could have been put on auto-pilot before leaving
the Chinese border. I state conflicting facts and arguments here."
REVIEW ON LIN BIAO BY LATE NICK
GLAIS IN 2011
Below I am posting a most lucid
analysis by late Comrade Nicholas Glais of Democracy and Class Struggle blog,
who asserts how Lin Biao towards the end had betrayed the revolution and was at
loggerheads with the ideology of Mao. In a dialectical manner it portrays the
revisionist essence of Lin after 1969.
"Chang Jung and Jon Halliday
love to compare Mao to Hitler but the absurdity of their comparison becomes
evident when they raise Lin Biao's son Li Guo also known as "Tiger” to a
comparison with Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who tried to assassinate
Hitler in 1944.
Jung Chang and Jon Halliday skip
over the political differences between Mao and Lin Biao and everything becomes
personal between Lin Biao and Mao and politics disappears.
The important political
differences between Mao and Lin Biao manifested themselves after the 9th Party
Conference in the way Lin Biao was using his control of the military in a
bureaucratic way.
Lin Biao also took advantage of
Sino-Soviet border clashes in the spring of 1969 to declare martial law and
further used his position to rid himself of some potential rivals to the
succession.
Several leaders who had been
purged during 1966–68 died under the martial law regime.
In foreign affairs the Lin Biao
line was the tactical policy of the Cultural Revolution, fight both enemies at
the same time with equal force and spread revolution, ignoring or showing
hostility to other aspects of the international situation.
In regard to party and state Lin
Biao intended to retain military hegemony if not dramatically increase army
control over society.
Zhou Enlai supported by Mao
wanted the return of civilian control of society after the Cultural Revolution
in opposition to Lin Biao's line of the army in control.
In foreign affairs both Zhou
Enlai and Mao wanted a foreign policy that favoured distinctions between
imperialists, to determine which the principal is and which the secondary enemy
is at a given time and to make use of the contradictions within the enemy camp
and between the enemy camps.
The new foreign policy line represented
Chairman Mao's ideas tactically applied to the current world situation.
This line meant accepting the
temporary relaxation in relations offered by US Imperialism so as to remove one
threat from China, attempt to divide the superpowers to the extent possible
where they collude and build an important alliance of small medium and third
world nations - to struggle against the "two overlords" defeating
them one at a time
On August 22nd 1970 the Second
Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party was once again held in Lushan. It was the
Lushan Conference that first brought the differences between Mao and Lin Biao
to the public. Lin Biao surprisingly did not provide a copy of his Lushan
speech in advance which was the normal courtesy he gave to Mao.
The sharp difference at the
Lushan conference was over the post of State President, Mao did not want the
post but Lin Biao insisted that Mao take the position. It was Lin Baio's
insistence on this matter that alerted Mao to the fact that Lin Biao wanted him
to take this position to ensure the vice President would go to himself and
confirm his succession to Mao.
There was also Chen Bo Da
insisting that Mao's genius be inserted into the Constitution of China. Mao was
seeing clearly that Chen Bo Da and Lin Biao were using the Mao Cult as a cover
for naked power seeking for themselves. Mao had Chen Bo Da removed from the
standing committee as a warning to Lin Biao to change his ways.
After the Nineth Party Congress
Lin Biao had continuously requested promotions within the party and Central
Government leading Mao to suspect him of wanting supreme power as quickly as
possible. If Lin were to become Vice President he would legally have supreme
power after the Presidents death.
Mao made his position clear about
Lin Biao on a visit to Southern China after the Lushan meeting when he said
that Lin Biao's politics had overestimated the role of the army in society, Lin
Biao says that the army is everything, Mao said no the people are everything.
Mao wanted the rectified
communist party to return to governing the provinces but Lin Biao wanted the
army supervising the party. Mao made it plain the party controls the gun not
the gun the party. Mao started moves to bring the army under control and this
was the trigger that sent Li Guo the "Tiger:" into action to
overthrow Mao.
During his visit to Southern
China Mao still hoped to bring Lin Biao back to the straight and narrow
inviting Lin Biao to criticise Chen Bo Da's "genius" nonsense which
Mao so brilliantly ridiculed in with his classic sense of humour. Lin Biao comment
that one word of Mao Tse Tung is worth 10,000 words of anybody else's were also
the subject of Mao's wit on the South China visit. But Lin Biao refused to
criticise Chen Bo Da and take Mao's offer of a way out of conflict and started
to behave erratically at public functions.
Mao however had not calculated on
the devastating effect of Lin Biao's son Li Guo who saw in his father’s
diminution his diminution and saw in his father’s rise his rise. While Chang
Jung and Jon Halliday relish any gossip abouts Mao's personal life they are
more circumspect when it comes to Li Guo conceding he was something of a
playboy, but no details here as he is another Claus von Stauffenberg and it
would not do staining the character of their hero, albeit he was the spoilt son
of a doting mother who could see no wrong in him, but worried about his
womanising.
Without the fanatical hatred of
Li Guo for Mao (shared by Jung Chang) there would probably not have been the
571 or Wu Qi Yi chinese pronounciation like "armed uprising"
But Li Guo was determined to kill
Mao and raise his father to number one.
Qui Jin an historian who has
studied the Lin Biao incident probably more than anyone else and whose father
was head of the Airforce under Lin Biao believes that Lin Biao did not know all
his son was up to and his son may have been acting on his own in organising the
attempts on Mao's life.
Her view that Lin Biao he did not
know anything until the 12th September at 9 pm I do not find credible as to
many things were going on for him not to know nothing.
Lin Biao was not a stupid man as
his history demonstrates he was a brilliant military commander and his
Manchurian Campaign a classic of military history.
Li Guo, Lin Biao's son contacted
Jiang Teng -Jiao the youngest general in China to kill Mao. with a plan was to
shoot up Mao's train in Shanghai but the plot did not proceed as planned
because the Korean War ace asked to do the job deliberately hospitalised
himself to avoid carrying out the task.
Li Guo was now getting desperate
and planned a suicide helicopter attack on Tiananmen Gate in Beijing but this
was aborted at the last moment. There does appear to be evidence of some kind
of attack on Mao in Shanghai, assassination attempts were made against Mao in
Shanghai from September 8th to September 10th 1971 according to police records.
However everything unravelled
when Dodo, Lin Biao's daughter informed on her brother, father and mother as
fleeing the country, the first plan to flee to Hong Kong was abandoned in
favour of fleeing to Russia, with Li Guo shooting Lin Biao's bodyguard on the
way to the plane, the plane was forced to take off without sufficient fuel and
crashed over Mongolia killing Lin Baio his wife and son and all on board.
Mao was deeply shocked by the turn
of events and began a purge of the armed forces which according to Jung Chang
and Jon Halliday "not a single person was executed" page 685 of
"Unknown Mao".
What did Hitler do after Claus
von Stauffenberg failed in his assassination attempt?
“About 180 to 200 plotters were
shot or hanged or, in some cases, viciously strangled with piano wire or hung
up on great meat hooks, and executed. Hitler had some of the gruesome
executions filmed and watched the movies."
Well you make an ambitious
playboy son into an brave man like Claus von Stauffenberg, you admit Li Guo
wanted to kill Mao on a number of occasions but failed, furthermore he caused
the death of his mother and father as a result from his fool hardiness in
taking off in a plane half full with fuel which crashes resulting in the death
of all on board. That was not all, as Lin Biao's friends and associates like
Qui Jin's father as head of the airforce were also implicated in Li Guo's plots
and suffered disgrace and were purged and we are told to regard him as a hero
and not as the fool he was.”
“Let the consequences Li Guo's
self consuming hatred of Mao stand as a warning to Jung Chang and Jon
Halliday."
A PERSPECTIVE: STEVE OTTO
Lin Biao (林彪) holds an interesting place in Marxist history. He is a hero to some Marxists and he is also a minor theoretician to others. But to other Marxists and Maoists he is a trator, accused of trying to kill Mao Zedong and create a coup. The evidence on that is not very clear, According to Wikipedia:
“Project 571 (Chinese: 五七一工程; pinyin: Wǔqīyī gōngchéng) was the numeric codename given to an alleged plot to execute a coup d'état against Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1971 by the supporters of Lin Biao, then Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party of China. In Chinese, the numbers "5-7-1" sound like the term "armed uprising" (Chinese: 武起义; pinyin: wǔqǐyì). The Chinese government initially claimed that Lin Biao himself had devised Project 571, but evidence inside and outside of China has made it more likely that Lin's son, Lin Liguo, a high-ranking officer in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, instead developed the plot.
So it does not seem so clear as to whether Biao actually was in
on the plot to kill Mao. Biao played in important role in Chinese communist
history.
In Aug 12, 1972, Roxane Witke made contact with Chiang Ching, so she could write a biography of her. Before she met Chiang Ching she was introduced some of her followers who read some of Chiang’s speeches. She made this observation:
“Why not let me read these texts
in the original on my own time?”
“Because Comrade Chiang Ch’ing
instructed us to read them to you.”
My hunch then, confirmed upon my return to America when I could investigate the records of Chiang Ch’ing’s speeches, was that the original printed versions, most of which have restricted circulation in China, contain comradely references to Lin Piao, Ch’en Po-ta, and other pilots of the Cultural Revolution, who were later dismissed from the ranks of the revolutionary elect. “[2]
So, what was the significance of comradely references to Lin Biao?
The two revolutionaries seemed to have clashed at times and yet she seemed on
good terms almost a year after Biao was accused of trying to overthrow Mao.
All of this gives us a picture of a very complicated man and
revolutionary. As Harsh Thakor said, Biao was a man with positive and negative
attributes. He gave us a very complicated personal history.
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