Dispatching Troops to Korea -- Part 2 Again and again I turned over the Chairman's remarks: "You have reasons for your arguments. But at any rate, once another nation is in crisis, we'd feel bad if we stood idly by." I came to realize that his instruction combined internationalism with patriotism. "You must have reasons for your arguments" --- yes, but if the matter was considered outside the light of emergency in Korea, you would get nationalism, not internationalism. I believed that sending troops to Korea would be a correct, necessary and wise policy decision, which should be carried out without delay. I gave my support to the Chairman's wise decision.

The Central Committee meeting resumed in the Yiniantang Hall in Zhongnanhai the next afternoon. After listening to other comrades, I said, " If China is devastated in war, it only means the Liberation War will last a few years longer. The U.S. will find a pretext at any time to invade China, if its troops are poised on the banks of the Yalu River and in Taiwan.

Chairman Mao made the decision to send me to Korea. I did not decline the offer. When I was walking by the lake, someone said to me, "You don't seem to be resigned to your advanced age."