Peng De-huai
A
general in the
Red Army,
Peng led the only non-guerilla battle fought by the
Communists during
WWII in 1940. The operation was a failure with heavy losses.
Criticized the
Great Leap Forward for wasting resources and manpower in 1959.
Mao took it as a personal attack and replaced him as
Defense Minister with
Lin Biao.
Peng became a symbol of party revisionists when he headed a “cultural revolution group” in 1965, appointed by Mao. After he lost control of this group, it snowballed into the
Cultural Revolution.