Method for Dealing with Captured Officers and Soldiers
# Date: 1945-11-03
# Source: en:MRP
Method for Dealing with Captured Officers
and Soldiers
(November 3, 1945, 11 P.M.)
To Liu [Bocheng], Deng [Xiaoping], Bo [Yibo], Zhang [Jichun], and Li [Da]:1


We have received your telegram of November 3.
	 1.	 It is correct to give preferential treatment to the officers of the Northwest faction, but they should not be released. If they are willing to publish statements
and comments opposing the civil war and advocating peace, they should be
encouraged to do so.
	 2.	 In principle, according to the instructions of the Central Committee, all captured officers and soldiers should be retained and educated. Keep a close
watch over the reactionaries, but do not release any of them. Only when
absolutely necessary can we consider releasing a few special individuals.
	 3.	 Search very carefully for Chiang Kaishek’s “bandit suppression” documents
(for example, the Handbook on Bandit Suppression2 and so on) and publish
them openly. Special attention should be given to materials regarding collusion with the United States in waging the civil war.


The Military Commission


Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 121–22, where it
appears in Mao Zedong junshi wenxuan. Neibuben, p. 382.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Liu Bocheng was commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu) Military Region, Deng Xiaoping was political commissar, Bo Yibo was first deputy political commissar, Zhang Jichun was second deputy political commissar and chairman of the
Political Department, and Li Da was chief-of-staff.
2.  The Handbook on Bandit Suppression was a manual edited by Chiang Kaishek in
1933 detailing methods for attacking the Red Army and the revolutionary base areas. After
the end of Anti-Japanese War in 1945, Chiang reprinted this manual and distributed it
to Guomindang officers, with secret orders that read: “This time, when we eradicate the
bandits, the happiness of the people is at stake. The fundamental task from here on in is
to follow the spirit of the War of Resistance and to respect and follow the correct way set
forth in the Handbook on Bandit Suppression by encouraging those below you to strive
for eradication and quickly complete this mission. Those who contribute to the nation will
surely be rewarded. Those who delay and commit errors will be prosecuted for their crimes
according to the law. We hope you will pass this along to the officers and men in your bandit eradication units so they will follow and familiarize themselves with it.”
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-68



reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives. It also