(June 24 and 27, 1951)

Comrades Liu Yalou, Wu Faxian, and Wang Bingzhang:

I have received the report you sent me on June 23. I approve of this plan of yours. I hope you will carry out concrete preparatory work according to this plan, so that combat operations can be implemented in September. This is of the utmost importance.

Mao Zedong
June 24
[I]

This first piece is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Liu Yalou, Commander of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army; Wu Faxian, Deputy Political Commissar and Director of the Political Department; and Wang Bingzhang, Chief of Staff. The second piece is Mao Zedong’s comment on a report dated June 27, 1951, from Nie Rongzhen, Acting Chief of General Staff of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central People’s Government.

Approved. Please attend to this promptly and handle it without delay.

Mao Zedong
June 27
[II]

Nie Rongzhen’s report stated: “Regarding the preparatory work for the Air Force’s participation in combat, after convening a study this afternoon with Comrades Liu Yalou, Commander of the Air Force; Wang Bingzhang, Chief of Staff of the Air Force; and Li Tao, Director of the Operations Department of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission, the following matters are hereby submitted for instructions:

(1) Now that the Air Force units participating in combat have increased from five divisions to eleven divisions, it is necessary to place urgent orders. It is proposed that the Air Force dispatch a responsible comrade to Moscow to handle this matter specifically; otherwise, there will be no guarantee for the Air Force’s deployment. (2) The four airfields north of Pyongyang originally being built by the friendly side (the Soviet Union) still lack 423,000 workdays for completion. The 201st Division of the 67th Army is now due to return to its organic establishment. Apart from having already ordered the 150th Division of the 50th Army to set out on the 25th to take over, in order to gain time (one division requires forty-five days to complete the work), it is proposed to order the Headquarters of the 50th Army, currently in Andong, to proceed with the 149th Division to reinforce the effort, striving for completion in July. The defense duties in the Andong area shall be readjusted by the Northeast Military Region. Under the circumstances of our Air Force increasing its participation by six divisions, the jet-capable airfields in Pyongyang and to its south are already insufficient, and it is necessary to build an additional two to three airfields. It is suggested that a telegram be sent in the name of Premier Zhou to Premier Kim to resolve this.”