In 1984, the US press made an "explosive" news headline about the US State Department of the Us General, this report has appeared and has been quickly reprinted, expanded, major newspapers, news and current affairs programs have reported on this matter, the Chinese General Brain The US State Department has become the top hot search of the year. The Chinese general who made a big fuss about the US State Department was none other than General Zhang Aiping, who was awarded the rank of general in 1955, and there was a small episode at the end of this matter, which actually caused General Zhang Aiping to be angry, and even wrote to Comrade Deng Xiaoping to resign, but under the skillful handling of Comrade Deng Xiaoping, General Zhang Aiping's temper was still taken back, and in the end there was no mistake.
General Zhang Aiping
Today we want to sort out this past, first of all, we must understand the background and situation at that time, in order to accurately grasp the causes and consequences of the matter, and avoid one-sided understanding.
The Soviet Union gained the upper hand in the Cold War
Around the 1970s, the situation of the Cold War changed, the emergence of the international energy crisis caused the economic stagnation of the capitalist camp countries, including the United States, the capitalist world was full of contradictions, the economy was also in crisis, coupled with the United States fell into the quagmire of the Vietnam War and could not extricate itself, the relationship between the United States and European allies appeared cracks, and various factors intertwined, making the strength of the United States greatly weakened.
In the 1970s, the capitalist world economy stagnated
The Soviet Union on the other side of the Cold War was not affected by the economic crisis of the market economy countries, the economy did not stagnate at all, at the same time, the talents of various disciplines cultivated in the country in previous years have gone out of school to enter the work, the land development projects that have been continuously invested in the past have also begun to bear fruit, coupled with the rise in the price of the world energy market, the Soviet Union has obtained a lot of wealth because of the export of energy, which has greatly expanded the strength of the Soviet Union.
In 1981, the Soviet Union held the largest military exercise in human history, code-named "Western-81", which means the sword in the name. The total strength of the exercise reached 500,000, and more than a dozen army groups were dispatched, including fighters, bombers, various short- and medium-range missiles, airborne corps, and the most advanced T72 and T80 tanks. There was no predetermined script for the exercise, and everything was a temporary performance of the participants, because the Soviet military's requirement for the exercise was to get as close as possible to actual combat.
Western-81 military exercise
The momentum of the Soviet army in the exercise can be said to be unstoppable, first a round of fire strikes by air force bombers and various types of missiles, followed by a rapid surprise attack by tanks and other armored groups and airborne corps, after the air raid and ground attack, it is the advance of the army that quickly occupies the control of the battlefield, and the three rounds of attacks in the exercise are carried out in an orderly and chaotic manner.
According to NATO's estimates at the time, there were no weapons in the NATO camp that could effectively penetrate the frontal armor of Soviet tanks, and today it seems that the countries on eurasia at that time could not resist such a devastating attack alone, and countries outside the Warsaw Pact heard the news and paid attention to it.
Previous Soviet military exercises were conducted in a low-key manner, even in secret, but this military exercise was completely public, and The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Brezhnev even welcomed NATO countries to observe and exchange.
Leader of the Soviet Army at its peak Brezhnev
Seeing such a large army, the European countries were frustrated that if a great war broke out, the European countries could only hope that the United States would come to reinforcements before the Soviet Union had taken all the targets, and the United States was separated from the Eurasian continent by the ocean, and the American observers had to admit that the Soviet offensive was fast enough to end before the arrival of American reinforcements.
Since then, the United States has begun to constantly look for allies, hoping to cooperate more together to counter the strong pressure from the Soviet Union, and throughout the world, the most promising power to compete with the Soviet Union is obviously China.
Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, and Sino-US relations changed
The earliest crack in Sino-Soviet relations occurred during the agrarian revolution from 1927 to 1937, when the Soviet Union and the Communist International had a paper-based and unrealistic problem in the guidance of our Party and our revolution, and a generation of Communists represented by Chairman Mao began to explore the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.
Stalin
After the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated in resisting the Japanese aggressors and finally won the great victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the attitude of the Soviet top brass, especially Stalin, was more inclined to support the Kuomintang, which also caused distrust between our Party and the CPSU.
In 1956, at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev criticized the model of building socialism before the Stalinist Soviet Union, which aroused the vigilance of Chairman Mao and other Chinese leaders, who realized that the alliance between China and the Soviet Union might be challenged in the future.
In 1958, the important long-wave radio incident and the joint fleet incident in the history of Sino-Soviet relations broke out, and the Soviet Union proposed to build a long-wave radio station for military use in China, but the sovereignty of long-wave radio was not entirely in China, and it was necessary to form a Sino-Soviet combined fleet, but the command of the fleet was mainly on the Soviet side.
Chairman Mao realized that this was the first step for the Soviet Union to control our country militarily, so our country proposed to the Soviet Union that the sovereignty of long-wave radio stations belong to our country, which was opposed by the Soviet side, and the Soviet side said that if cooperation could not be reached, it would not provide china with assistance in the development of nuclear submarines and related nuclear weapons in accordance with its previous commitments.
Nuclear submarine scenario diagram
Chairman Mao was very far-sighted, decided to defend the country's independence and self-determination, rejected the proposal to form a joint fleet, and said that nuclear submarines would be built even if they were built for ten thousand years. Since then, there have been drastic changes in Sino-Soviet relations, the Soviet side's desire to control our country has been exposed, and Chairman Mao later recalled Sino-Soviet relations and said that the fallout with the Soviet Union began in 1958, starting from opposing their military control of us.
After that, a fierce polemic ensued between China and the Soviet Union, and Chairman Mao presided over the publication of nine articles entitled "Open Letter" to the CpSU Central Committee; when the controversy between the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union reached its peak, our side even thought that the Soviet Union was no longer a socialist country, still less the leader of the international socialist movement, but social imperialism, that is, socialism was used as a cloak to cover up the essence of imperialism.
Chairman Mao and Khrushchev
In addition to the polemics between the two parties, China and the Soviet Union also fought over national interests, the Soviet Union supported India in the Sino-Indian conflict, and also supported Vietnam in the Sino-Vietnamese conflict, in addition to co-opting Mongolia to help Mongolia strengthen the so-called southern border defense, China also protested with the United States and other Western countries after the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, and boycotted the Olympic Games held in Moscow.
In the border areas, the Two Sides even broke out a direct armed conflict, in the Xinjiang area of Tiretik, the Soviet army crossed the border into our territory, in protest, our army stationed on the position of the soldiers fired two shots to protest, the Soviet side ignored the protest, using 3 armored vehicles as a cover, attacked our position, after being repelled, continued to mobilize more fierce artillery and more armored vehicles, and even transferred advanced main battle tanks, our personnel were all equipped with light weapons, and finally the position fell, Dozens of our personnel were all sacrificed.
In the northeast region of Zhenbao Island, China and the Soviet Union broke out a large-scale armed conflict, the Soviet Union used tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft and rocket launchers, our army used anti-tank artillery, individual rocket launchers, etc., around the Treasure Island to compete, and finally our army played a better battle, the entire Treasure Island control.
Treasure Island self-defense counterattack
The Soviet Union deployed more than 1,000 aircraft, 25 divisions, missiles and other advanced weapons on our Xinjiang border, deployed group armies on our northeastern border, and even in Mongolia, the Soviet army was able to garrison millions of troops on the Mongolian plateau from Xinjiang, Mongolia, and the northeast through an agreement, posing a huge threat to our country in the north, west, and south directions.
U.S.-China Military Cooperation and the "Sino-US Honeymoon Period"
The period of close contact and cooperation between China and the United States is precisely the period of the Soviet Union's national strength as in Japan and China, and the military cooperation between China and the United States is first of all in military equipment, because the aircraft equipped by our army cannot efficiently pass through high-altitude areas, so the Black Hawk helicopter and the peace model plan were introduced from the United States; in order to form an effective blow to the steel torrent composed of Soviet tanks, China obtained the Dow anti-tank missile and related technology provided by the United States; in order to capture the movement of Soviet warplanes as soon as possible. Our country has received advanced vehicle-mounted detection radar provided by the United States. In addition, there are several jointly developed projects such as transport aircraft, fighters and anti-tank guns.
We are observing the advanced equipment of the US military
In addition to weapons and equipment, China has also sent observation groups to the United States to watch the training and performances of the UNITED States Air Force, board the aircraft carriers of the UNITED States Navy to learn from experience, and have also exchanged research teams and training on many occasions to study and study high-tech weapons such as radar, sonar, and military computers.
With the deepening of reform and opening up, the cooperation between China and the United States has expanded to trade, foreign exchange and capital and other economic fields, through cooperation with the United States, China has been integrated into the world trading system for the first time and has begun to play an increasingly important role in the world economy.
In 1983, US Secretary of Defense Weinberg visited China, and China held a grand welcoming ceremony, this time Weinberg came with the mission of strengthening Sino-US military cooperation, and arranged follow-up high-level visits to lay the foundation for a possible future visit to China by a US president.
The UNITED STATES realized that China, as a major country in the Asian region, can bring great help to its own interests in Asia, and we also believe that the United States can serve as a powerful foreign aid to deal with the Soviet threat.
When Weinberg left, he sincerely invited China to also send leaders responsible for military and national defense to the United States to visit the United States and jointly finalize the cooperation plan.
Deng Xiaoping received Weinberg
Why Zhang Aiping
Since joining the party in 1928, Zhang Aiping has always been a faithful practitioner of the spirit of our party and a firm promoter of our party's cause.
Since then, Zhang Aiping has been fighting in the front line of the construction of the national defense industrial system and the research of national defense science and technology; she has been responsible for national defense and military modernization for a long time; she has presided over the appropriate disarmament and improved the military establishment of our army; she has led the development and launch of China's first retrievable satellite; and she has grasped the research and development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which has enabled our army to gain the ability to strike strategically.
Once in our country to study nuclear fission and atomic bomb technology, the Soviet Union withdrew experts, took away the drawings, cut off the aid, China's nuclear industry encountered setbacks, many people in china on whether to successfully develop nuclear weapons and feel confused, Zhang Aiping made an important judgment, he said, China's nuclear industry has a foundation, uranium ore supply can also meet the needs, the most important thing is that there is a group of patriotic scientific research workers, so we will be able to finally complete the research and development task. The fact is also just like Zhang Aiping's judgment that China successfully tested nuclear weapons in 1964.
In 1984, Zhang Aiping was invited to visit the United States, as an authoritative expert in the field of China's national defense construction, Zhang Aiping's current visit is of great significance, after arriving in the United States, the United States held a grand welcome ceremony in front of the Pentagon, and gave Zhang Aiping a meticulous reception.
After visiting the US military base, defense industry enterprises and old friends reunion meeting, the special place of this visit is also the highlight of the visit, Zhang Aiping, accompanied by the US side, entered the Pentagon to discuss cooperation with senior US officials in the US Department of Defense.
The Pentagon is the daily office of the US government department, for the United States is highly involved in state secrets, so only military personnel are allowed to enter, not diplomatic personnel are allowed to enter, the implication is that this time only Zhang Aiping and other military attachés were invited, and the staff of our embassy in the United States could not enter the Pentagon.
Zhang Aiping's straightforward personality raised objections at that time, seeing that the US personnel did not have the slightest intention of compromise, Zhang Aiping even more fiercely raised objections, because of the loud voice and more serious expression, it seems that it is a bit of a pentagon.
Because the political system of the United States is very different from that of our country, and the way of handling matters involving confidentiality is also different, Zhang Aiping knew that the key to achieving realistic results in this visit lay in the subsequent negotiations, and simply did not let the personnel of my embassy in the United States accompany her.
Zhang Aiping visited in the United States
After intense and substantial discussions and discussions, China and the United States reached a series of strategic consensus and signed a number of cooperation agreements, and Zhang Aiping's current visit can be said to be full of results, but after returning to China, Comrade Deng Xiaoping received a "whistle-blowing letter." The letter to the effect that Zhang Aiping's visit has a tendency to over-cooperate with the United States and does not conform to the principle of Non-Alignment in China.
Zhang Aiping was very angry when she learned of this, and coupled with his straightforward personality, she directly wrote down her resignation letter and handed it to Comrade Deng Xiaoping and the Central Military Commission, saying that if this matter was true, then she was not worthy to be the minister of national defense.
Comrade Deng Xiaoping knew Zhang Aiping's personality and also knew the importance of Sino-US cooperation to the overall situation during this period, so he ordered everyone not to discuss the "whistleblower letter" anymore.
Comrade Deng Xiaoping was aware of Zhang Aiping's temper, and in his early years he said that two people in the army could not be troubled, and Zhang Aiping was one. So he enlightened Zhang Aiping and asked him not to deal with the problem too impulsively.
In the time that followed, General Zhang Aiping continued to work in national defense construction posts until his retirement.