Luo Guibo, this name may not be familiar to most people. But in that tumultuous era in the middle of the last century, he was a figure in the limelight. As the first ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Vietnam, he personally witnessed and participated in China's large-scale military and financial assistance to Vietnam. What role did Luo Guibo play in this special historical process? And how did he grow from a guerrilla to an important diplomat of the party and the state? What special instructions did Mao Zedong personally say to him? Let's take a look at the legendary life of this "general of the Eighth Route Army with great powers in the eyes of Westerners".
He first got involved in the fire of revolution and the baptism of war, and grew from a guerrilla to an outstanding commander
In 1907, Luo Guibo was born in an ordinary peasant family in Tankou Town, Nankang District, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province. Growing up in a poor family, he experienced social injustice at an early age. In 1924, after graduating from the Ganzhou Provincial Normal School, he returned to his hometown to teach. In 1926, Luo Guibo germinated a revolutionary consciousness and joined the Communist Party, thus beginning his long and tortuous revolutionary road.
At the beginning of 1928, at the age of 21, Luo Guibo organized and led an armed uprising among the peasants in Tankou Town, thus beginning his career as an armed revolution. In 1929, he served as the secretary of the Ganxian County Party Committee and the leader of the guerrilla army, and showed his skills in southern Gan, participating in the establishment of the revolutionary base in southern Gan. In the following years, Luo Guibo grew rapidly, serving as the political commissar and commander of many divisions and regiments of the Red Army.
In 1934, on the difficult Long March of the Central Red Army, 23-year-old Luo Guibo was appointed political commissar of the 3rd Battalion of the Red Army Cadre Regiment. During the Zunyi Conference, his unit also served as a security guard at the venue to ensure the smooth convening of the meeting. After the meeting, Luo Guibo bravely killed the enemy and established his prestige in a series of battles.
In 1935, when the army arrived in Huili, Sichuan, Luo Guibo was wounded, but at the risk of his life, he led the whole battalion to march 200 miles for two days and two nights, and arrived on the south bank of the Jinsha River first, opening a passage for the Red Army to break through the encirclement, thus winning the trust and praise of his superiors.
After the Red Army Conference in 1936, Luo Guibo was transferred to the director of the Political Department of the Red Fourth Front Army, and after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was transferred to the head of the Democratic Movement Department of the Political Department of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and served as the important task of creating an anti-Japanese base in the northwest of Shanxi.
In the Jinxi Incident in 1939, Luo Guibo bravely commanded and counterattacked the attack of the Kuomintang army Yan Xishan. In the following year's Battle of the Hundred Regiments, he was even more heroic and tenacious, repeatedly thwarted the siege of the Japanese puppet army, and held the good base in the northwest of Shanxi. The smoke of war awakened his commanding talent, which made him quickly grow into the backbone commander of the Eighth Route Army.
He served as the liaison officer of the Party Central Committee and had full authority to coordinate military and financial assistance between China and Vietnam
At the beginning of 1950, Luo Guibo, who had just taken up the post of director of the General Office of the Central Military Commission, was appointed to take on a special task. The Central Committee decided to send him as a party liaison to work in Vietnam for about three months. This seemingly short-lived task has made Luo Guibo shoulder a great responsibility.
On March 9, Luo Guibo arrived in Vietnam and began the inspection and assessment of the Vietnamese People's Army. Accompanied by the commander-in-chief of the Vietnamese army, Vu Yuanjia, he witnessed the embarrassing situation of the Vietnamese army: the troops were generally short of food and fuel, and ammunition was even more of a mess; The warriors were weak, ragged, and barefoot; The weapons are old and messy, and it is difficult to unify the ammunition supply. As Luo Guibo said: "How can such a force fight a big battle on the border between Vietnam and China? ＂
In view of this, he bluntly put forward a proposal to the Vietnamese side for the reform of the army. He proposed that the Party Central Committee of Vietnam should begin to reorganize the regular army and reorganize the stragglers into a strong force of combat divisions, so as to concentrate forces to open the border.
The Vietnamese side agreed with Luo Guibo's proposal and put forward further demands: It hopes to provide training bases for the reorganized troops in Yunnan and Guangxi, and that the Chinese side will be responsible for providing the new army with a full set of weapons, equipment, ammunition, medicine, and communications equipment; At the same time, it is also necessary for China to send senior commanders at the division level to serve as campaign advisers, and to transfer a large number of regimental and battalion-level officers to the Vietnamese army as advisers. Finally, the Vietnamese hoped to have a regular army of about 100,000 men by 1950.
Faced with a series of demands from the Vietnamese side, Luo Guibo did not answer hastily, but reported all this to the central government. The Party Central Committee attached great importance to this matter and quickly replied that it would gradually provide the necessary weapons and equipment and military personnel according to the situation.
In the months that followed, Luo Guibo devoted himself wholeheartedly to this arduous military cooperation, day and night. He is responsible for coordinating and supervising the work of the various integration points on the border and ensuring the smooth progress of the integration of the Forces nouvelles. At the same time, he also had to supervise the transportation of arms from the interior of the motherland to ensure that supplies were delivered to the front line in a timely manner.
Under the full coordination of Luo Guibo, in the autumn of 1950, the first batch of Chinese military officers and advisers arrived in Vietnam and participated in the actual command of the border campaign. With the close cooperation and selfless help of China and Vietnam, the battle finally began, and the Vietnamese army opened up a new channel for the transportation of Chinese supplies.
In parallel with military cooperation, Luo Guibo also set out to solve Vietnam's financial and food crisis. He advocated that the Vietnamese regime should set about establishing a new economic system to ensure the country's financial revenue and solve the dilemma of having no way to meet the needs of the military...
Chairman Mao earnestly admonished: Attach equal importance to internationalism and patriotism, and must take root in Vietnam
In September 1950, Luo Guibo was allowed to return to China to report on his work while working in Vietnam. This debriefing had a profound impact on his later life path.
At the report meeting, Mao Zedong personally presided over and gave important instructions. First of all, Mao Zedong spoke highly of Luo Guibo's work in Vietnam and instructed him to continue to work hard to help the Vietnamese people completely free themselves from French colonial rule.
Then, Mao Zedong turned to the main topic and said earnestly: "Our assistance to Vietnam is by no means to establish a sphere of influence in Vietnam, but to truly help the Vietnamese people achieve national independence." He further pointed out that after gaining independence, Vietnam would inevitably follow its own path, and therefore the Chinese Communists must not repeat what Lenin called "great power chauvinism."
"Vietnam will eventually embark on a socialist path different from ours, and we must not rigidly transplant the mainland's experience, but respect the Vietnamese people's choice on the basis of the principles of internationalism and patriotism. Mao Zedong said, "We must unite the Vietnamese people of all nationalities and all strata of the forces, take root among the Vietnamese people, and do not regard ourselves as old cadres who are leaders!" ＂
Mao Zedong's earnest teachings inspired Luo Guibo, who realized that he not only shouldered the heavy responsibility of assisting Vietnam, but also served the fundamental interests of the Vietnamese people wholeheartedly and won their trust with practical actions.
Since then, Luo Guibo has insisted on being low-key and pragmatic, humble and courteous in his work. He not only personally inspected the grassroots units, but also often organized Vietnamese servicemen to study and visit China. They were often moved by Luo Guibo's amiable style, and they all expressed their desire to learn from old revolutionaries like him.
In the military cooperation between China and Vietnam, Luo Guibo also insisted on putting the interests of the Vietnamese people first. Whenever the Vietnamese side made unreasonable demands, he would politely persuade them and strive for mutual understanding. On several occasions, Luo Guibo has been criticized by Chinese officials for this, but he still sticks to his principles and never wavers.
It is based on this purpose that Luo Guibo's work in Vietnam has won a high level of trust and support. Many Vietnamese soldiers had no reservations about him and broke all the doubts in their hearts. And after listening to their hearts, Luo Guibo can also give pertinent suggestions to help them solve practical problems...
The central government unanimously approved that he was appointed as the first ambassador to Vietnam
In the spring of 1953, France's obstruction on the Yunnan-Vietnam border once again made the Chinese party and government aware of the need to intervene directly in support of the Vietnamese struggle. As a result, the Central Committee made a major decision to send Luo Guibo to stay in Vietnam for a long time to serve as the head of the Central Political Delegation to Vietnam.
This new appointment means that Luo Guibo will be fully responsible for coordinating cooperation between China and Vietnam in the military, diplomatic, economic and other fields. In the face of heavy work, he did not back down, but redoubled his efforts to fulfill his duties.
In September 1953, with his accurate judgment of the military situation in Vietnam, Luo Guibo promptly suggested to the Central Committee that additional military advisers be sent to make full preparations for the upcoming campaign. In January of the following year, he again went to meet with Ho Chi Minh to make specific arrangements for the deployment of a general offensive against the French army.
As the war was about to break out, the intensity and pressure of Luo Guibo's work increased suddenly. He not only had to coordinate and guide the Vietnamese army's campaign operations, but was also responsible for the overall planning and dispatch of China's arms transportation to ensure that ammunition was delivered to the front line in a timely manner. Under his full promotion, a continuous stream of arms rushed in, and finally helped the Vietnamese army achieve the final victory.
In the smoke of war, Luo Guibo won the high trust of the Vietnamese leaders with his superb military command ability and excellent work style. At the beginning of 1954, Ho Chi Minh personally recommended Luo Guibo to the Central Committee for the post of Chinese ambassador to Vietnam, and received full support.
On May 7, Premier Zhou Enlai officially appointed Luo Guibo as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. This was the first ambassador sent by New China to a foreign country, and Luo Guibo became the first ambassador to a foreign country.
At this important moment, Chairman Mao Zedong made a special appointment to meet with Luo Guibo and personally instructed him to have a few thoughts: First, we should fully affirm and support the revolutionary cause of the Vietnamese people and get along with each other in accordance with the principle of fellow travelers rather than masters; Second, it is necessary to strengthen positive publicity in Vietnam and strive to win the hearts and minds of local people; Third, we should be good at listening to different opinions and promote unity between China and Vietnam.
Luo Guibo humbly accepted Chairman Mao's earnest teachings and said that he would work wholeheartedly for the interests of the Chinese and Vietnamese peoples. Since then, he has always kept his mission in mind, and during his stay abroad, he has adhered to a low-key and pragmatic attitude and respected the dominant position of the Vietnamese people, which has won high praise from all walks of life in Vietnam.
We will strive to turn the tide and properly resolve the crisis in China-Vietnam relations
In 1956, Vietnam was plunged into turmoil as the Saigon clique split internally. During this critical period, Luo Guibo, as ambassador to Vietnam, played an extremely important role in easing the tension between the two parties and two countries and safeguarding the overall situation of bilateral friendship.
At the beginning of that year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam clashed seriously with some warlords, and the two sides fell into a long-term standoff. After being attacked by Ho Chi Minh in succession, these warlords were arrogant, openly stating that they wanted to withdraw from the united front led by the Viet Cong, and even intended to launch a rebellion.
Faced with the grim situation, Premier Zhou Enlai immediately instructed Luo Guibo to "do everything possible to ease the contradictions between the Viet Cong and these warlords" so as to prevent the two sides from falling into a greater armed conflict. To this end, Luo Guibo did not shy away from difficulties and dangers, and went deep into the hinterland of Vietnam many times to mediate.
After more than a few months of hard work, Luo Guibo finally persuaded some of the warlord leaders to abandon armed confrontation and instead resolve their differences through dialogue. Under his mediation, in early 1957, the Central Committee of the Viet Cong and the warlords finally reached a reconciliation and regained their side.
However, just as the situation eased, Sino-Vietnamese relations encountered a new crisis. Some narrow-minded nationalists have set off an anti-China wave in Vietnam, not only slandering the CCP's aid policy as "imposing neo-colonial rule over Vietnam," but also wantonly sabotaging the work of Chinese experts in Vietnam.
After hearing the news, Premier Zhou Enlai personally signaled Luo Guibo to "deal with it carefully to avoid the situation from deteriorating." Luo Guibo's approach is: on the one hand, he tries his best to dissuade Vietnam from curbing this anti-China wave through diplomatic channels; On the other hand, they began to counsel the Chinese experts and staff in Vietnam, asking them to remain calm and restrained, and never fall for the agitation of people with ulterior motives.
In this way, under Luo Guibo's maneuvering, the crisis was finally brought under control. In May 1957, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) made a decision to publicly and severely criticize those anti-China words and deeds, and reaffirmed the policy of solidarity with the outside world.
While alleviating the crisis in Sino-Vietnamese relations, Luo Guibo is also making unremitting efforts to provide assistance to Vietnam. Under his auspices, China not only continued to provide Vietnam with a large amount of weapons and ammunition, but also established a number of factories, farms and schools in the north, providing a lot of support for Vietnam's economic construction and personnel training.
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Despite the pressure and criticism he often faced, Lo Gui Bo still insisted on upholding the responsibilities entrusted by the Party and the motherland in the spirit of being highly responsible for the interests of the Vietnamese people, and fulfilled his mission as ambassador to the letter...