(April 1967)
The prestige of the army must be resolutely upheld, without the slightest ambiguity. The publication of the editorial on supporting the army and cherishing the people is the central task of current work. The army's first involvement in supporting the Left, supporting industry, supporting agriculture, military training, and military control constitutes a large-scale combat mission; mistakes are unavoidable. The issue is that the main danger at present is that some people are trying to bring down the People's Liberation Army.
In supporting the Left, if support goes in the direction of the conservative faction, it is enough to correct it—that is permissible. In these five major tasks, if we get two-thirds right and one-third wrong, that is already very good.
Some are influenced by the views of their wives and children; some are county party secretaries or prefectural party secretaries, whose children are members of the conservative faction in that locality, or whose wives are among the power-holders in that locality. This is something we must be especially vigilant about.