Dispatching Troops to Korea -- Part 1 At noon on October 4, 1950, three days after National Day, an airplane arrived in Xi'an city. I was told to leave for a meeting in Beijing without the slightest delay. The Party Central Committee was holding a meeting to discuss the dispatch of troops to aid Korea when I arrived at 4 p.m. Some comrades told me that Chairman Mao had asked those attending the meeting to list the disadvantages involved in dispatching troops to Korea. Chairman Mao then said: "You have reasons for your arguments. But at any rate, once another nation is in a crisis, we'd feel bad if we stood idly by." I did not speak at the meeting because I had arrived late. But I thought to myself that troops should be sent to rescue Korea. When the meeting broke up, I was taken to the Beijing Hotel by comrades of the administration section of the Party Central Committee.

I could not fall asleep that night. I thought it might be because I could not enjoy the nice soft, cozy spring bed. So I lay on the carpeted floor. But sleep did not come and a train of thoughts flashed across my mind: The U.S. occupation of Korea, separated from China by only a river, would threaten Northeast China. Its control of Taiwan posed a threat to Shanghai and East China. The U.S. could find a pretext at any time to launch a war of aggression against China. The tiger wanted to eat human beings; when it would do so would depend on its appetite. No concession could stop it. If the U.S. wanted to invade China, we had to resist its aggression. Without going to a test of strength with U.S. imperialism to see who was the stronger, it would be difficult for us to build socialism. If the U.S. was bent on warring against China, it would want a war of quick decision, while we would wage a protracted war; it would fight regular warfare, and we would employ the kind of warfare we had used against the Japanese invaders. As we had a national government and Soviet assistance, our situation was much better that it had been during the War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression. We would dispatch troops to Korea to safeguard our national construction.