In the early 1960s, Mao was on the political sidelines and in semi-seclusion. By 1962, however, he began an offensive to purify the party, having grown increasingly uneasy about what he believed were the creeping capitalist and anti-socialist tendencies in the country. "As a hardened veteran revolutionary, Mao continued to believe that the material incentives that had been restored to the peasants and others were corrupting the masses." (2. View Bibliography for details)

By mid 1965 Mao had gradually but systematically regained control of the

Red Guard activities were promoted as revolutionary enthusiasm and Mao's ideas made prevalent in the "Quotations from Chairman Mao" ("The Little Red Book" as it became formerly known), by which all revolutionary efforts were to be judged. The "four big rights"--speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates, and writing big-character posters became an important factor in encouraging Mao's youthful followers to criticize his rivals within the CCP. The result of the open criticism of established organizations of control by China's high-spirited youth was massive civil disorder, emphasized also by clashes among rival Red Guard gangs and between the gangs and local security authorities, which contributed to the general atmosphere of chaos and violence. The Party organization was shattered from top to bottom and anarchy was imminent. (The Central Committee's Secretariat even stopped functioning in late 1966). The resources of the public security organizations were extremely strained. So much so that in many cities, "local PLA commanders had to take over the running of the transportation, food collection and distribution networks, and the policing of the cities" (1.) due to so many civil servants and organizers being driven out of office.

The Red Guards essentially were a product of the "Socialist Education Movement" which had been carried out in the intervening years between 1963-66 to indoctrinate the youth with revolutionist propaganda. Schools were closed in May of 1966 (most remained so for a period of 2 to 6 years until a new educational policy could be developed), which gave the opportunity (encouraged strongly by Mao) for students to vent their grievances, and react against a system of "entrenched privilege that had begun to flourish in the very Party that had promised them a genuine classless Socialist society".(1) They styled themselves the "Revolutionary Successors" of Mao and went about trying to stamp out any evidence of pre revolutionary or counter revolutionary thought or social patterns. Considerable amounts of temples, monuments, and works of art were destroyed, and the Red Guards fervently sought out party officials and teachers to denounce as counter-revolutionaries. Indeed thousands were killed and imprisoned in incidents of mob violence.

The principle and openly-stated purpose of the Cultural Revolution was to purge the government of counter-revolutionary, bureaucratic, and capitalist individuals. It was carried out at first in the press and then in a series of mass demonstrations by various groups, including the Red

Some common words found in the essay are:
Red Guards, Deng Xiaoping, Cultural Revolution, Red Army, Committee's Secretariat, Education Movement, Red Book, Red Guard, Liu Shaoqi, Ussuri River, cultural revolution, red guards, mao supporters, deng xiaoping, liu shaoqi, counter revolutionary, june 1999, red guard, shaoqi deng xiaoping, three-in-one committees, central cultural, 23rd june 1999, liu shaoqi deng,
Approximate Word count = 1752
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)