Peng Dehuai - Later Life

Later Life

In September 1959 Mao replaced Peng as Defense Minister with Lin Biao, effectively ending Peng's military career. Peng was relocated to a suburb of Beijing, forfeiting his Marshal's uniform and military decorations. Lin reversed Peng's reforms, abolishing all signs and privileges of rank, purging officers considered sympathetic to the USSR, directing soldiers to work part-time as industrial and agricultural labourers, and indoctrinating the armed forces in Mao Zedong Thought. Lin's system of indoctrination made it clear that the Party was clearly in command of China's armed forces, and Lin ensured that the army's political commissars enjoyed great power and status in order to see that his directives were followed. Lin implemented these reforms in order to please Mao, but privately was concerned that they would weaken the PLA (which they did). Lin used his position as Minister of Defense to flatter Mao by using the army to promote Mao's personality cult throughout China, devising and running a number of national Maoist propaganda campaigns based on the PLA. The most successful of Lin's efforts to promote Mao's personality cult was the "learn from Lei Feng" campaign, which Lin began in 1963.