The China History Podcast · Laszlo Montgomery

The Lin Biao Incident (Part 1)

·40 min·2 clips

The Lin Piao incident is still guessed at 54 years later, even on September 12th and 13th, 1971.

1. The China History Podcast episode “The Lin Biao Incident (Part 1)” frames Lin Piao as a central figure in the 9-13 incident and a major PRC military leader. 2. Laszlo Montgomery hosts the episode and explains that listeners have requested the topic since 2010, while part two will cover the main event. 3. The episode asks what happened in the secret moments around September 12th and 13th, 1971, and why Lin Piao’s story still matters 54 years later. 4. Lin Piao was born in Huanggang on December 5th, 1907, and his family moved to Shanghai in 1919 during the May 4th era. 5. He joined a Communist Youth League-sponsored organization at age 18, took part in the 1925 May 30th Movement, and enrolled at Wampoa Military Academy in 1925. 6. He graduated in 1926, saw action in the Northern Expedition and the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, and later aligned with Mao’s Fourth Red Army. 7. During the Jiangxi Soviet years from 1931 to 1934, Lin succeeded Zhu De as commander of the First Army Corps and joined top party leadership. 8. In 1935, he led troops that captured Zunyi in Guizhou, helping secure Mao’s position at the Zunyi Conference. 9. During the anti-Japanese war, Lin commanded the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and won at Pingxingguan in Shanxi on September 25th, 1937. 10. In March 1938, a Nationalist soldier shot Lin in the head after mistaking him for a Japanese officer, and he went to the Soviet Union for treatment until January 1942. 11. Back in China, Lin sided with Mao during the Yan'an rectification movement and later commanded large communist forces in Manchuria after October 1945. 12. The episode says Lin led more than 100,000 troops into Manchuria in 1945 and later commanded over a quarter million men by the end of that year. 13. Lin’s Liaoshan campaign in November 1948 and the Pingjin Campaign from November 1948 to January 1949 helped put Manchuria and North China under communist control. 14. By spring 1949, Lin’s troops took Wuhan and Hunan, then Guangzhou in October, followed by Guilin, Nanning, and Hainan by April 26th, 1950. 15. Laszlo describes Lin as reclusive, hypochondriac, and politically quiet in the early PRC years, often missing meetings and relying on staff summaries. 16. Lin backed Mao during the Great Leap Forward, became defense minister after Peng Dehuai’s purge, and praised Mao in Red Flag and Liberation Army Daily. 17. The episode presents Ye Qun as a powerful manager of Lin’s office from 1960, with control over access, documents, and much of his political environment. 18. Mao’s trust in Lin peaked during the Cultural Revolution, when Lin stood beside him on August 18th, 1966 and the PLA followed the line of politicizing the army. 19. This episode uses a lecture-style format with many dates, rank lists, and campaign names, and Laszlo adds several side comments and asides. 20. Best for listeners who want Chinese Communist Party military history and Lin Piao’s rise; skip if you want a short, low-detail overview.

As heard by us

A brisk biography frames Lin Biao's rise as the long buildup to an unresolved 1971 mystery.

The Lin Biao Incident (Part 1) begins with the still-unsettled question at its center: what happened in the secretive hours of September 12 and 13, 1971, and how much Lin Biao himself shaped those events. Its strongest choice is to let uncertainty stay visible.

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Want to follow Lin Biao toward the still-murky Lin Piao incident of September 1971?

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