Chapter 4 The difference between resisting all opinions and going one's own way

A prominent feature of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea was that the army of a poor and weak country voluntarily crossed the border and went beyond the border to beat the world boss. We all know that in the relationship between countries, the strong country fights the weak country, and the big country fights the small country. Just look at Iraq, Libya, and the vanished Yugoslavia, and you'll understand. It is not easy for a weak country to not surrender or passively resist when a strong enemy invades.And it is a rare thing in the world to take the initiative to cross the border and go to a third country to fight a powerful enemy!

Moreover, at that time, the founding of the Republic had just turned one year old; Moreover, it is still going to war with the "Sixteen-National Allied Forces", and the leader of the world is the United States; Moreover, this decision was made when there were differences of opinion among the top leaders, and when the vast majority of people disagreed with the fight, Mao Zedong tried his best to overcome all opinions and made it through unifying his thinking. This decision pierced the sky. October 1, 1950, the first birthday of the Republic. When the people of the country were still immersed in celebration and happiness, when Mao Zedong was celebrating with the people on the Tiananmen Gate tower, he received an urgent telegram for help from North Korean Prime Minister Kim Il Sung to the east.

The telegram stated that hundreds of thousands of "United Nations troops" headed by the United States had crossed the 38th parallel and were advancing towards the border between China and North Korea at an extremely fast speed, asking China to send troops to rescue them. A sleepless night. At 2 o'clock in the morning on October 2, Mao Zedong called Gao Gang, the commander and political commissar of the Northeast Military Region, to Beijing to discuss the situation in North Korea, and ordered the border guards to be dispatched at any time.In the afternoon, Mao Zedong urgently convened a meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee in the Yi Nian Hall to study the issue of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea.

Next, there are meetings and discussions again and again. It was not until the 19th, nearly 20 days, that China officially made the decision to send troops. At that time, Chairman Mao Zedong could be said to follow advice like a stream.In order to let everyone speak freely, he refused to keep minutes of several important discussion meetings. In the first two meetings, the main battle was the minority, and the vast majority of the main peace expressed concern about sending troops. Nie Rongzhen, who was acting chief of staff of the PLA at the time, recalled: "Everyone's tendency to speak is: 'It is best not to fight this war until it is absolutely necessary.'"

The reasons are roughly as follows: the civil war has not yet completely ended, Taiwan has not yet been liberated, and the United States is so strong. The genius military strategist Lin Biao made a reasonable analysis speech.According to the memory of Military Secretary Lei Yingfu: Before the meeting, Lin Biao had entrusted Wan Yi, the first deputy commander of artillery of the Military Commission, to collect information on the equipment of the US military. On October 6, at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Military Commission held in Jurentang, Lin Biao said that it is not worthwhile to destroy a China with a population of 500 million in order to save a North Korea with a population of several million.He said thoughtfully: "Our army is sure to fight against Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army; but it is hard to say whether it can beat the American army."

His reasons are: the Yankees have a huge army, navy and air force, which we cannot compare with; the United States has too strong an industrial base, with almost countless cannons, tanks, and aircraft; If we drop two atomic bombs, our fortune will be ruined.Therefore, Lin Biao believed that even if troops were sent, they should "go out without fighting", and stationed troops in northern North Korea. Depending on the development of the situation, they would not fight if they could. This is the best policy. Here, Lin Biao cannot be said to be afraid of U.S. imperialism because of his later behavior. In fact, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Chen Yun, Gao Gang, Zhang Wentian, Li Fuchun, and Deng Xiaoping, who participated in the meeting, almost all held similar views with Lin Biao. know.

When everyone spoke, Mao Zedong hardly said a word and listened very carefully. In his concluding remarks, he said affirmatively: "You all have a point." But Mao Zedong is Mao Zedong, he will listen to others to clarify the truth, but he will never follow the crowd.He thought about it, judging the pros and cons. According to Yang Shangkun, then director of the General Office of the Central Committee, in order to make the shocking decision to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, Mao Zedong stayed up almost all night, wandering around a big tree in front of the door for most of the night.

The next day, there were cigarette butts everywhere under the tree. The cigarette butts in this place are worth hundreds of billions of RMB. At first, only Chairman Mao Zedong thought it necessary to fight.Later, Premier Zhou Enlai also tended to fight.Later, Mao Zedong, the master strategist, saw that most of the comrades did not agree to fight. He didn't want to force it, so he "moved troops" and asked Deng Xiaoping to use a special plane to bring Peng Dehuai, who was in power in the Northwest, to Beijing quickly. He knew his General Peng: "Meng Zhang Fei" absolutely wanted to fight.

As a result, Boss Peng fired the "cannon" after listening to the meeting for a long time.He proposed: This battle should not only be fought, but must be fought, it must be fought, and it must be fought if it cannot be won. As soon as he fired the "cannon", coupled with Mao Zedong's explicit support, most people were persuaded to agree. An earth-shattering decision that was unthinkable was made just like this. Indeed, after the war had been going on for a while, U.S. President Truman and United Nations Commander MacArthur still did not believe that China would send troops to fight the United States.

Even if a very few Americans who knew Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists, such as Snow, suggested that Mao Zedong would send troops, the U.S. government regarded it as being bewitched by the red, bluffing, and did not believe it at all. Judging from the objective situation at the time, sending troops to North Korea was indeed a decision with mixed gains and losses.Just inferring from the results, seeing China's victory, people will say that the chairman's decision was correct. In fact, this decision can no longer be evaluated simply by whether it is correct or not, but should be understood from a higher level, that is, whether it is wise or not.

Yang Shangkun wrote in his diary on New Year's Day in 1951: "The chairman's decision to enter the DPRK with volunteers is really a very wise and far-sighted decision. Today, the matter is as clear as black and white. If I had to decide at that time, I would It will be biased towards 'Gou'an'!" It is often said that the biggest mistakes are bad decisions.Wrong decisions can harm the country, defeat the country, or even subjugate the country.There are many such things in history. If you look at the Qing Dynasty and Chiang Kai-shek, you will understand. Conversely, the greatest right is the right decision.If a politician can adapt to the current situation and make correct decisions, then the country, the nation, and the people will be blessed. To be able to see three steps ahead and make wise decisions is not something that can be summed up in a nonsense like "leadership is wise". It requires the insight to see the future clearly through the fog, the decisiveness to overcome all opinions, and the whole process. The test of the test and the test of historical results, and even the test of counterexamples. Just imagine, without the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, would the U.S. and other Western powers, like the Qing Dynasty, kick us if they wanted to kick us, bomb us whenever they wanted to bomb us, and arrest us if they wanted to arrest our leaders? What about the leaders? So, what really prompted Mao Zedong to make up his mind to fight this war? The reason everyone knows is that the U.S. military crossed the 38th parallel and hit the Yalu River, and our border security was seriously threatened. This is one; The United States does not recognize us and hinders the restoration of the new China's legal seat in the United Nations, which is also one; In fact, there is another one, which is more important than the previous two, and it is fundamental, that is: as soon as the North and South Koreas go to war, the U.S. government will immediately send troops to participate, and it will be like a dog and a mouse.It even sent its Seventh Fleet directly to China's territorial waters to block the Taiwan Strait and prevent the People's Liberation Army from liberating Taiwan. On June 25, the Korean War broke out.On the third day after the outbreak of the war, that is, on June 27, the powerful American President Truman issued a tough statement, in addition to the two contents of sending troops to North Korea, he also added this one: "I ordered the Seventh Fleet to stop any attack on Taiwan. attack." This article shocked all Chinese people and deeply hurt the national pride of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists. It's too funny and too domineering!There is a civil war in North Korea. China is neither a war maker nor a war participant. It is wholeheartedly liberating its own land, Taiwan. Which toothache is hindering you in the United States? What is especially funny is that the U.S. government did not even dare to say shit about the Soviet Union, which strongly supported North Korea, but it was aggressive toward China, which neither sent troops nor acted provocatively.It is nothing more than the fact that the Soviet Union is strong and China is weak!It's nothing more than bullying the weak and fearing the hard! People who are good are bullied, and horses who are good are ridden by others.The law of the jungle, the law of the jungle, is the iron law of international relations.This is still the case today. If you don't believe me, just look at Iraq and Libya, which were beaten and bombed, and the United States, which loves to beat people, and you will understand. But Mao Zedong is not Chiang Kai-shek, the Communist government is not the Qing government, and the Republic is not the Qing Dynasty. Dignity as heaven. The nascent republic quickly responded.Mao Zedong instructed Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai to issue a statement immediately, categorizing the actions of the United States: "Truman's statement on the 27th and the actions of the US Navy are armed aggression against Chinese territory." Aggression, do you understand, that is to say, you invaded me. No matter how I hit you in the future, it will be against aggression, and that is a matter of course. In order to make the United States and the West understand this simple truth, the Chinese government has gone to great lengths and painstaking efforts. On November 28 of the same year, Wu Xiuquan, a representative of the People's Republic of China, rushed to the United Nations General Assembly and told the Yankees in typical Mao Zedong-style language: "Can it be imagined that because of the Spanish Civil War, Italy has the right to occupy Corsica in France? It cannot be imagined that because of the Mexican Civil War, Britain has the right to occupy Florida in the United States? This is unreasonable, it cannot be imagined. However, for those in power in the United States who believe that they are the most powerful in the world, they only believe in power and themselves values, and ignore the protests of other countries at all. The only way to fight back is to retaliate with strength!" It can be seen that it was the United States that sent troops to the Taiwan Strait of China and its domineering behavior and contemptuous attitude, which deeply hurt Mao Zedong and the leaders of New China. The United States and all Western countries are countries that believe in strength.If you can't beat him on the battlefield, if you don't fight him head-to-head, if you don't beat him all over the ground looking for his molars, people will not take you seriously, and they will beat you up when they think about it, China It is also impossible to engage in construction with peace of mind. To borrow General Peng's words: "This battle will be fought sooner or later. I think it is better to fight sooner than later!" It means: for the dignity of a great country and to win a peaceful environment for future generations, we have taken on this responsibility and suffering. A poor and weak country, for the sake of dignity, does not hesitate to fight the world boss; China's status as a great power was built with the lives of that generation; I hope people today will keep this truth in mind. At that time, New China had almost no navy, and it was impossible to go to war with the Seventh Fleet. So the strategist Mao Zedong shifted his eyes to the north and chose the battlefield in North Korea, where our military's strengths could be easily utilized. There is a saying that Taiwan has not been liberated because of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. This is typical nonsense.Because it reversed the cause-and-effect relationship, it was not because the resistance to US aggression and aid to Korea prevented Taiwan from being liberated, but it was because the United States blocked the Taiwan Strait that China resisted US aggression and aided Korea.