284 { China’s Quest
Enlai. Kosygin had flown to Hanoi to attend the funeral of Vietnamese leader
Ho Chi Minh, and was on his way back to Moscow when he abruptly reversed
course and flew to Beijing at Zhou’s invitation to discuss the escalating ten-
sion between the two countries. Zhou and Kosygin talked for three hours in
the Beijing airport, reaching an oral understanding that the border dispute
would be settled peacefully and without threat of any kind. Pending settle-
ment, the status quo was to be maintained, with the armed forces of the two
sides withdrawing from disputed areas. Maps exchanged in border talks in
1964 would serve as the basis for settlement—an implicit Chinese concession
ruling out claims to large pieces of the Russian Far East. Zhou and Kosygin
also agreed that the military forces of neither side, including nuclear forces,
would attack or open fire on the other.^39 A week after the airport meeting,
Zhou sent Kosygin a letter putting into print earlier verbal understandings.
Zhou had expected to receive Soviet written confirmation of the agreements,
but the Soviet letter of reply merely stated that orders had been issued to
Soviet border forces, without mentioning the September 11 agreements.^40
The Zhou-Kosygin meeting did not eliminate China’s fears of possible at-
tack. Those fears peaked in October and became entangled, in ways which
are still not understood, with relations between Mao and Lin Biao, Mao’s des-
ignated successor since the 9th Party Congress in April 1969.^41 Following the
Zhou-Kosygin airport meeting, China’s leadership, apparently led by Mao,
greatly feared that Moscow would choose China’s October 1 National Day cel-
ebration, when most people would be off work, to launch a large-scale nuclear
and conventional surprise attack. At the end of September, Lin Biao became
active in overseeing defense preparations, ordering the immediate dispersal
of aircraft in the Beijing area, the placing of obstructions on runways, and the
issue of weapons to personnel assigned to defend against Soviet parachute as-
sault. Lin also ordered the strengthening of defenses between the Mongolian
border and Beijing—an expected Soviet invasion route.
When October 1 passed without an attack, CCP leaders fixed on October
20, when a second round of talks agreed to by Zhou and Kosygin were sched-
uled to start, as the probable day for the anticipated Soviet attack. Zhou
Enlai ordered compilation and distribution of documents regarding sur-
prise attacks, including Pearl Harbor and the German attacks on Poland in
1939 and the USSR in 1941. Then, on October 17, PLA Chief of Staff Huang
Yongsheng issued an eleven-point “First Verbal Order” from “Vice Chairman
Lin” [Biao] putting the PLA and the nation on full wartime alert. Units and
commanders deployed to combat positions. Weapons production, especially
of anti-tank weapons, was greatly increased. Some ninety-five divisions, about
940,000 troops, 4,100 airplanes, and huge numbers of tanks and railway wag-
ons were deployed to wartime positions. According to another Politburo ses-
sion chaired by Lin Biao at Mao’s request, China’s central leaders evacuated