Suggested Reading:
James T. Johnson, Ideology, Reason, and the Limitation of War: Religious and Secular Concepts, 1200–1740 (1975). | Lin Biao (Lin Piao, 1907–1971).Communist marshal. Born into a workingclass family, Lin Biao graduated from a leading Guomindang military academy in 1926. As a young officer he fought in the Northern Expedition, 1926–1927, before leading his regiment out of the Guomindang to join the armed forces of the Communist Party. He supported Mao Zedong in the Jiangxi Soviet, in 1927–1934, and fought against Chiang Kai-shek in the bandit suppression campaign of 1934. He commanded a corps during the Long March and held combat commissions again in the Sino-Japanese War, scoring a notable victory in 1937 but faring less well in 1940. He spent much of the war organizing guerrillas behind the Japanese lines. When the Chinese Civil War resumed in 1945, he concentrated on building the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a conventional force, supplemented by guerrillas, and advanced into Manchuria.He secured the north of China for the Communists by 1947, after initial losses and much heavy fighting. He took Mukden in late 1948 and Beijing in January 1949. He commanded China’s forces in the Korean Conflict, pushing MacArthur’s troops from the Yalu River in November and December 1950. He was made a marshal in 1954. He became defense minister in 1959, and completed the major reforms of the PLA begun during the Sino-Soviet split. He commanded Chinese forces during the Indo-Chinese War of 1962 and oversaw China’s military assistance to the DRV (Democratic Republic of Vietnam, North Vietnam) during the Vietnam War. Lin backed Mao during the Cultural Revolution, rising to be his designated successor and recruiting Chinese Communist Party members into the PLA in greater numbers. His base in the PLA was thus seen by Mao as threatening a new warlordism or, more likely, just as threatening to Mao’s own position. Mao and Zhou Enlai were moving forward with plans to have Lin purged when he died (or possibly was murdered) while fleeing to the Soviet Union. The details of his final flight—if there actually was one—are as yet not publicly known. In death, he became a figure of utter vilification in Maoist propaganda. See also Nguyên Võ Giáp; Zhu De; Giorgii Zhukov. |
| Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865). “The Great Emancipator.” Republican president of the United States, 1861–1865. Lincoln was president during the |
-963-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations.
Volume: 2.
Contributors: Cathal J. Nolan - Author.
Publisher: Greenwood Press.
Place of publication: Westport, CT.
Publication year: 2002.
Page number: 963.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
One moment ...
- Georgia
- Arial
- Times New Roman
- Verdana
- Courier/monospaced
Reset