Telegram Fully Approving the Deployment Plan Proposed by Peng Dehuai (April 13, 1951)

Comrade Dehuai: Your telegram of 2400 hours on April 10 [2] has been received and noted.   (1) I fully approve your proposed deployment plan. I urge you to implement it resolutely in accordance with the evolving situation.   (2) In order to guard against an enemy landing at Wonsan, it would seem advisable to position the main force of the 42nd Army within Wonsan city and its immediate vicinity to secure the port. Please make a decision accordingly.  Mao Zedong  April 13

Printed from the manuscript.

Notes

[1] Peng Dehuai was then Commander and Political Commissar of the Chinese People’s Volunteers.

[2] Refers to Peng Dehuai’s telegram of 2400 hours on April 10, 1951, to Mao Zedong, concerning the enemy situation, the current assembly positions of our forces, and operational deployment plans. The telegram stated that it was planned to drive a wedge through the heavily mountainous terrain along the line from Gimhwa to Gapyeong, thereby splitting the enemy forces into eastern and western sectors. Subsequently, the Ninth and Nineteenth Corps were to execute a double envelopment of the enemy on the western front, while the Third Corps would launch a frontal assault, with the aim of isolating and annihilating the enemy in separate pockets. The objective was to destroy several enemy divisions north of the 38th Parallel; once this had been achieved, further advances into the enemy’s depth would be made.