ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from its origins in the early 1920s to the eve of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It explores the development and interaction of Mao Tse-tung's military line and the much more professional military ideas advocated by most of the PLA's top commanders. In the optimistic atmosphere of girding for the coming showdown with Chiang K'ai-shek, the PLA was reconsolidated and reorganized along regular lines, while the emphasis in Yenan shifted to modernization. Kao Ying-mao and Lin Piao worked out a pragmatic strategic policy: Nuclear weapons development was accelerated dramatically, and technological modernization of air, sea, and land forces continued without Soviet assistance. William W. Whitson probably overstates the ease when he concludes that the "commanders have blended Russian and earlier warlord perspectives into a unique professional operational code," that he believes to have prevailed since 1950, and that the trend toward professionalism continues.
