AP News, July 17th, 2007
A former defense minister whose name was stricken from history books after he was accused of plotting to assassinate Communist leader Mao Zedong has been included in a museum exhibit honoring a group of China's military luminaries, state media reported Monday.
A portrait of the late Lin Biao, once Mao's hand-picked successor, is included in a display of the "Ten Marshals," a group considered 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."
Academic analysis of Lin's military accomplishments, which include helping defeat Japanese invaders and routing Nationalist troops in China's civil war, 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 comes as a surprise, indicates that the Communist leadership is recognizing his contributions.
Lin was once designated as Mao's "closest comrade in arms" and hand-picked to be the chairman's successor, but he was considered a traitor when he died for allegedly concocting a plot to attack Mao's special train with artillery, flamethrowers and bazookas. In case the chairman survived that blitz, a commando squad was to finish him off.
According to official Chinese accounts, Lin died in a September 1971 plane crash in Mongolia as he was trying to flee to the Soviet Union after the unsuccessful plot to assassinate Mao.
The Chinese version says the plane ran out of gas, but other reports say Lin had been shot before the plane went down, leading to speculation of a gun battle aboard the plane.
After the Chinese people were told about Lin's plot and mysterious death, his reputation became so poisonous he was excised from history books.
But Lin was also a brilliant battlefield tactician. He was credited with masterminding the ambush and annihilation of more than 1,000 Japanese troops on Sept. 25, 1937, at Pingxiangguan pass in Shanxi province.
As commander of the Communists' 4th Field Army in the 1945-49 struggle with the Nationalists, he secured the northeast and swept down to capture Beijing, entering the city without firing a shot after government forces surrendered.
Lin's political fortunes soared in 1959 when he replaced Defense Minister Peng Dehuai, who was fired for criticizing Mao's disastrous "Great Leap Forward" economic experiment.
Lin ingratiated himself with Mao and became his most ardent disciple, enthusiastically waving the chairman's Red Book of quotations when the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966. He was named Mao's constitutional successor in April 1969, but Chinese historical accounts say he showed his true nature two years later as a murderous opportunist obsessed with seizing power.
