MARSHAL PENG DEHUAI
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 24 OCTOBER 1898 - 29 NOVEMBER 1974
Regarded as one of the most senior generals in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Peng was born from peasant stock in the south east Hunan province and became a manual labourer and foot soldier, joining the Nationalist Kuomintang Party in the 1920s. After a purge of the Nationalists’ left faction in 1927, he soon turned to communism and became one of Mao’s most senior generals, accompanying his forces on their 1934-5 ‘Long March’ across China.
During the Korean War, he was given absolute authority over the PLA, answering only to Mao and his foreign minister Zhou Enlai. Marshal Peng was known to have misgivings about the PLA’S lack of effective artillery and air support. He committed his troops to savage human wave attacks that incurred massive casualties. After the Korean War, Peng served as China’s minister of national defence but his opposition to Mao’s burgeoning personality cult and the disastrous ‘Great Leap Forward’ led to him being purged. He died in jail in 1974. He was officially rehabilitated after Mao’s death.