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Lin Biao (zh-cpw|c=林彪|p=Lín
Biāo|w=Lin Piao) (December 5, 1907 -
September 13 1971) was a Communist Party of
China|Chinese Communist military and political
leader, once known as Mao Zedong's comrade-in-arms
and likely successor, but later discredited as a
traitor.

== Revolutionary ==

The son of a small landlord and a native of Wuhan,
Hubei province, Lin joined the Socialist Youth
League (1925) and matriculated at Whampoa Military
Academy when he was 18. While at Whampoa he became
the protégé of both Zhou Enlai and the Soviet
Union|Soviet General Vasily Blyukher. Less than a
year later, he was ordered to participate in the
Northern Expedition, rising from deputy platoon
leader to battalion commander in the  National
Revolutionary Army within a few months. Lin
graduated from Whampoa in 1925 and by 1927 was a
colonel.

After the Chinese Civil War|KMT-CPC split, Lin
escaped to the remote Communist base areas and
joined Mao Zedong and Zhu De in Jiangxi in 1928.
Lin proved to be a brilliant guerilla commander
and during the 1934 breakout he commanded the
First Corps of the People's Liberation Army|Red
Army, which fought a two-year running battle with
the Kuomintang, which culminated in the occupation
of Yan'an in December 1936 (see Long March). As
commander of the 115th Division of the Communist
8th Route Army, Lin orchestrated the Battle of
Pingxingguan|ambush at Pinghsingkuan in September
1937, which was one of the few battlefield
successes for the Chinese in WWII. Lin was
seriously injured in 1938 and was given the post
of commandant of the Communist Military Academy at
Yan'an. He spent the next three years (1939-1942)
in Moscow. After returning to Yan'an, Lin was
involved in troop training and indoctrination
assignments.

With the resumption of Civil War after World War
II, Lin was made Secretary of the Northeast China
Bureau and commanded the Red Army forces that
conquered the Manchurian provinces and then swept
into North China. In achieving victory, he
abandoned the cities and employed Mao's strategy
of guerrilla warfare and winning peasant support
in the countryside.

==Politician==

In 1950, Lin was one of the many prominent
generals against Mao's plans for the Korean War.
Despite Lin's opposition, however, the war still
went on. 

Due to periods of ill health and physical
rehabilitation in the Soviet Union|USSR, Lin was
slow in his rise to power. In 1955 he was made a
marshal. In 1958 he was named to the Politburo
Standing Committee of the Communist Party of
China|Politburo Standing Committee, becoming one
of the architects of the Cultural Revolution. He
worked closely with Mao, creating a cult of
personality for him. Lin compiled some of Chairman
Mao's writings into handbook, the Quotations from
Chairman Mao Zedong, which became known simply as
"the Little Red Book."

After the purging of Liu Shaoqi, on April 1, 1969,
at the Communist Party of China National
Congress|CCP's Ninth Congress, Lin Biao emerged
with as primary military power and second in
ranking behind Mao Zedong in the party. Even the
party constitution was later modified to put Lin
as Mao's special successor.

As the Cultural Revolution spun out of control,
the People's Liberation Army, under Lin's command,
effectively took over the country from the party.

==Downfall==

Lin disappeared in 1971. The circumstances
surrounding Lin's purported death remain clouded.
Some historians believe Mao had become
uncomfortable with Lin's power and had planned to
purge him and Lin planned a pre-emptive coup. The
Chinese government explanation was that Lin, with
the help of his son Lin Liguo, had planned to
assassinate Mao sometime between September 8 and
September 10|10, 1971. Lin's own daughter, Lin
Liheng (Doudou), exposed her father's plot. As his
plans failed, Lin and his family (his wife Ye Qun
and his sons) and several personal aides attempted
to escape to the Soviet Union. Their plane is said
to have crashed in Mongolia on September 13, 1971.


Most of the high military command was purged
within a few weeks of Lin's disappearance. The
National Day celebrations on October 1, 1971 were
cancelled. The news of Lin Biao's plot and
disappearance was withheld for nearly a year. When
it did break, the people felt betrayed by Mao's
"best student."

In the years after Lin's death, Jiang Qing, Mao's
fourth wife and a former political ally of Lin's,
started the Criticize Confucius, Criticize Lin
Biao campaign, aimed at using Lin's scarred image
to rid her own political enemies, notably Zhou
Enlai. Like many major proponents of the Cultural
Revolution, Lin's image was manipulated after the
movement. For many formal publications,  negative
aspects of the Cultural Revolution were blamed on
Lin and the so-called Gang of Four (China)|Gang of
Four. Lin was never politically rehabilitated.

==Quotation==
*"Study Chairman Mao's writings, follow his
teachings and act according to his instructions."
- Foreword of The Little Red Book

==External links==
*http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/lin-bia
o/index.htm The Lin Biao Reference Archive
*http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDbiao.htm
Lin Biao Biography From Spartacus Educational