ABSTRACT

In small unit tactics and individual fighting ability, the Chinese soldier has proven himself against United Nations forces in Korea and against the Indian army in the one-sided 1962 border war. In the mid-1960s, there were two or three types of army corps, divided according to the amount of vehicles, armor, and artillery in each. The control of the army corps is a complex balance between the military region headquarters and the high command in Peking. Important operational orders to main force units originate or are approved in Peking. New recruits go through basic training in a “training division” attached to a military region headquarters. As the old wounds from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution began gradually to heal, Lin Piao political use of the main forces opened new sores which are troubling China. He wanted to use the People’s Liberation Army —including the main forces—as the primary base for his national political power.