174 { China’s Quest
“Khrushchevism without Khrushchev”As conflict with the Soviet Union and within the CCP elite over agricultural
policy escalated, Mao pondered the possibility that he might be removed by
some sort of coup d’état. The purge of defense minister and Great Leap critic
Peng Dehuai and his replacement by Mao loyalist Lin Biao in August 1959
had diminished that possibility. But the possibility still concerned Mao. At a
Politburo Standing Committee meeting on military work in June 1964, Mao
directed that a study of military coups be undertaken to better understand
their dynamics.^20 Mao stressed the Soviet propensity for organizing coups
and the imperative of learning from this. It was necessary both to step up
preparations for a possible attack by the USSR and to guard against pos-
sible coup attempts by revisionists within the CCP.^21 Mao’s fears were under-
lined in October when Khrushchev was ousted from power by a group led
by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin. Interactions with the new Soviet
leadership offered Mao further evidence that Moscow intended to oust him
by coup.
Mao convened the Politburo the day after Khrushchev’s ouster to discuss
the new situation. It was necessary for Beijing to make a few friendly gestures
toward the new Soviet leaders, Mao said, because that would be expected by
“the people of China and the Soviet Union, the entire socialist world, and
[Cambodian leader] Sihanouk.”^22 It was thus necessary, Mao said, “to run
up the flag of friendship” in Moscow. In line with this, Zhou Enlai led a del-
egation to Moscow in November to participate in the anniversary of the
Bolshevik insurrection. In Moscow, Zhou was confronted with a Soviet pro-
posal that Mao be ousted.
PLA Marshal General He Long was a member of the CCP delegation. He
Long was a Politburo member, but also had dangerous political baggage.
Following Peng Dehuai’s challenge to Mao’s Great Leap policies at the August
1959 Plenum, He Long was appointed to head a special commission investigat-
ing the charges against Peng. That commission found that most of the charges
against Peng were baseless, and in 1965 Peng was partially rehabilitated on the
basis of this determination. Of course, this meant that He Long, like Peng,
was challenging the wisdom of Mao’s decisions, a dangerous position to be in
as Mao was maneuvering toward the purge of “hidden revisionists.” He Long
would be one of the first PLA leaders to be purged as the Cultural Revolution
began in 1966. In any case, during one evening’s festivities in Moscow, Soviet
defense minister Rodion Malinovsky approached He Long and said now that
the CPSU had gotten rid of Khrushchev, the CCP should get rid of Mao so
that the two countries could restore friendly solidarity.^23
He Long considered these words to be a “serious provocation” and imme-
diately reported the matter to delegation head Zhou Enlai. Zhou, while still
at the formal banquet and in a voice loud enough for others to hear, protested