capture their minds, and endeavor to stage a
comeback. The proletariat must do just the
opposite: it must meet head-on every
challenge of the bourgeoisie in the
ideological field and use the new ideas,
culture, customs, and habits of the proletariat
to change the mental outlook of the whole of
society. At present our objective is to struggle
against and crush those persons in authority
who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize
and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois
academic authorities and the ideology of the
bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes
and transform education, literature, and art
and all other parts of the superstructure that
do not correspond to the socialist economic
base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and
development of the socialist system.
Soon the Cultural Revolution, just like the Great Leap
Forward, would start wrecking both the economy and many
human lives. Units of Red Guards were formed across the
country: young, enthusiastic members of the Communist
Party who were used to purge opponents of the regime.
Many people were killed, arrested, or sent into internal
exile. Mao himself retorted to concerns about the extent of
the violence, stating, “This man Hitler was even more
ferocious. The more ferocious, the better, don’t you think?
The more people you kill, the more revolutionary you are.”
Deng found himself labeled number-two capitalist
roader, was jailed in 1967, and then was exiled to Jiangxi
province in 1969, to work in a rural tractor factory. He was
rehabilitated in 1974, and Mao was persuaded by Premier
Zhou Enlai to make Deng first vice-premier. Already in
1975, Deng supervised the composition of three party
documents that would have charted a new direction had
they been adopted. They called for a revitalization of higher
education, a return to material incentives in industry and
agriculture, and the removal of “leftists” from the party. At
the time, Mao’s health was deteriorating and power was
increasingly concentrated in the hands of the very leftists
whom Deng Xiaoping wanted to remove from power.