It is undeniable that this man served as one of the greats in the history of modern China. However, was he really merely a power-hungry man as he was made out to be or a military genius and someone who wished the best for China? The answer would be that he could very well be all of them.
He started off with humble origins as the son of a small landlord in Hubei. He later progressed on to joining a military academy when he was 18. He quickly rose up the ranks due to his military expertise.
The Chinese Civil War then broke out and he commanded the Red Army’s 1st Corps fighting the KMT. It was a long and arduous journey for them. Lin Biao partook in the long march and it was through this adversity that he found his strengths. He turned out to be an excellent battlefield command especially adept in the guerilla warfare of that era. When the KMT raced to catch up to the Reds during the Long march, he persevered and pushed on evading capture.
However, he was forward looking as he easily managed to see that the only way to prevail over the vastly superior KMT forces was through irregular and insurgency warfare. On an open battlefield the massive logistical support that could be mustered by the KMT could not have been overcome by the motley crew that constituted the Red Army. This was despite the great dissent apparent in the CCP even as most of the CCP proved adamant towards Lin Biao’s controversial tactics. They believed that the Reds should stand and fight instead. This can be easily explained by the fact that most of the professional officers in the Red Army were trained in large-scale conventional warfare. Lin Biao was daring. He decided to take the plunge and became an ardent supporter of Mao’s hit-and-run tactics despite the opposition from high-levels of the CCP as well as their Russian allies from the COMINTERN.
Lin Biao rose up the ranks quickly from his successes. Following battles for independence with the Nationalists later on, he eventually became the minister for defence as Gen. Peng DeHuai was purged due to political trouble. He used this new-found power to institute various reforms in the government. He believed, as did Caesar, that every man has to learn to obey before leading. As such, every single officer in the Red Army had to spend time as a private. He abolished elitism in the army following Mao-ist thoughts and ideals by recruiting officers from the ranks of the bourgeoisie.
Communism was taking root even in the army. He was evidently here a great visionary due to his foresight. He knew that if he wanted to prevent mass rebellions against the elites and remove social stratification in the Army, he had to move quickly to ensure an equal proportion of the working class in the leaders. People that could relate to the man on the ground.
With his successful reforms, he eventually displaced Liu Shaoqi in the later party congresses and became one of the top 3 leaders. It was set in stone in 1969 when Mao identified Lin Biao as his successor.
This would be Lin Biao’s pinnacle of success. It would also lead to his fall. Perhaps power corrupted him but he sought to overthrow Mao as was is claimed and as a result, was “assassinated” by means of a plane crash.
However, this does not change the fact that Lin Biao was a great tactical leader. One of the greats that had ever lived. He was a visionary who managed to identify the flaws in the Red Army and improve on them. He sought power too, yes, at the later stages but all in all he was a great visionary and yet a military genius.
USA's ideological differences from communist nations in the Mao era
