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What happened to Chinese military leaders associated with Lin Biao after his death?

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Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai, and other Chinese officials stand in uniform, holding up Little Red Books during a 1967 Red Guard rally in China. — Lin Biao At a 1967 Red Guard rally, Lin Biao (left) and Zhou Enlai publicly display copies of *The Little Red Book*.

Following the death of Lin Biao in September 1971, the Chinese leadership moved swiftly to dismantle his influence within the government and the military. In the weeks immediately following his demise, virtually the entire high military command that had served under him was purged.12

Prior to this, in late 1970, Mao Zedong had already initiated a campaign to criticize Lin’s top military supporters, accusing them of arrogance and a refusal to submit to civilian authority. Following Lin's death, he was posthumously denounced as a traitor to the cause of Chinese communism and a rightist reactionary. These events, along with the revelation of Lin's alleged assassination plot against Mao, caused widespread disillusionment among the Chinese public, many of whom felt they had been manipulated for the sake of unprincipled power struggles.231