ABSTRACT
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was in essence the struggle over the manner in which political reconstruction of the provinces would proceed and which groups would rule. The sixteen-point resolution of the Eleventh Plenum laid the ground rules for the assault on the provincial power structure, but only dimly and implicitly reflected the political infighting and strategic maneuver of which it was the product. University and higher school students had been involved in the Cultural Revolution since early May 1966. The introduction of the People's Liberation Army in late January indicated that Mao's "revolutionary rebels" had failed in the task of seizing power. The means Mao Tse-tung employed in the cultural revolution were the classic ones of divide and rule combined with piecemeal assault on isolated positions. By the end of the year the rampaging Red Guards and Revolutionary Rebels presented a confusing spectacle in China's large and medium-sized cities.
