Mao’s “closest comrade in arms” Lin Biao is finding his way back into Chinese history, 36 years after the former defense minister died fleeing from a failed coup attempt against the Chinese leader.
From the IHT:
A portrait of Lin Biao is included in a display of the “Ten Marshals,” a group lauded as founders of China’s armed forces, at the Chinese Military Museum in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
“With objective thinking, we decided to put the picture of Lin Biao together with the other nine marshals,” Jiang Tingyu, senior researcher at the museum, was quoted as saying. “We have to show history as it was.”
Analysis of Lin’s military accomplishments by academics has been more objective since the 1980s but his portrait has rarely been displayed with the other nine Marshals since his death in 1971. The latest display, which still comes as a surprise, indicates that the Communist leadership is recognizing his contributions.
In 1971 Lin Bia
o, Mao’s handpicked successor and the compiler of the Little Red Book, got tired of waiting for the Great Helsman to finally go and meet Marx. Wary of Mao’s record with sidekicks (where have you gone, Liu Shaoqi?) and worried about the Chairman’s increasingly cold shoulder, Lin reportedly planned a coup involving tanks, flamethrowers, bazookas, and–for all we know–baozi laced with cardboard. Lin, his wife and son as well as several close aides died when their plane crashed in Outer Mongolia as the suddenly ex-closest comrade in arms was escaping the PRC, reportedly on his way to the Soviet Union.
The government hid the story for a time, but eventually admitted the fall of Lin with–what else–a mass campaign to “Criticize Lin Biao and Criticize Confucius”.
As one might suppose, Lin’s recent tentative rehabilitation focuses on his early role as a military strategist against the KMT, Japanese, and Americans.
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Picture top right: late-1960s poster, “Chairman Mao and his close comrade-in-arms Lin Biao inspect the Great Cultural Revolution.”
Picture bottom left: 1974 poster, “Fight the people’s battle of criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius well.”
Both posters from Stefan Landsberger’s incredible Chinese Propaganda Posters Pages.
