Peng Dehuai (or Peng Teh-huai) (1898-1974)

Chinese communist military leader and politician. As deputy commander in Zhu De's 8th Route Army, he played a leading role in the liberation war against Japan 1937-45, successfully using guerrilla tactics. He was made defence minister in 1954, but clashed with party leader Mao Zedong in August 1959 over economic policy and military modernization and was replaced by Lin Biao. Peng was later formally purged in December 1966, during the ‘Cultural Revolution’, and was to spend the remainder of his life in prison.

Born in Hunan province, a peasant's son, Peng trained at a military school. In 1928 he led an uprising against the Kuomintang (Guomindang) nationalist army and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), becoming a commander in Zhu De's army. He was a key military strategist in the Long March of 1934-35, in which the CCP's army escaped northwards away from Jiang Jie Shi's (Chiang Kai-shek's) nationalist army. After the communist victory in the struggle with the Kuomintang party in 1949, Peng was placed in charge of the Chinese ‘volunteer’ forces during the 1950-53 Korean War.

His demotion from the position of defence minister followed Peng's presentation, at a party meeting in Lushan, of a letter in which he had strongly criticized Mao's rash ‘Great Leap Forward’ communalization programme and the impending break with the Soviet Union. He was posthumously rehabilitated in December 1978 by the refomist Deng Xiaoping, who, in a special memorial service, praised Peng for his ‘ardent love for the Party’ and for his courage, honesty and integrity.