1966 PLA Pictorial Map of 'U.S. Imperialist Aggression in Asia'

A fascinating piece of Cold War propaganda, this map was published in 1966 in the PLA Pictorial, a periodical of China's People's Liberation Army. It presents U.S. military involvement in East Asia, including in Vietnam, as coordinated staging for an invasion of China.

A Closer Look

East Asia is presented with the People's Republic of China shaded in red. To the country's east and south, American ships and bases are indicated, including on Taiwan, which is shaded red like the mainland to reflect the P.R.C.'s territorial claims. More specifically, air, naval, and missile bases and the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet are noted. These bases are divided into a first and second strategic line, bearing some resemblance to the 'First Island Chain' and 'Second Island Chain' discussed today in U.S. military and government documents. The first strategic line is divided into three sections, one emanating from Japan, a second from Taiwan and the Philippines, and a third from South Vietnam, Thailand, and the Bay of Bengal.

China and the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War)

When Chinese Communist forces occupied southern China, they provided a steady stream of weapons, supplies, and advisors to Viet Minh forces across the border in Tonkin. New units were formed, armed, and trained which were capable of launching full-scale offensives against French and French-aligned forces, resulting in the tide turning perceptibly towards the Viet Minh. Viet Minh troops also became increasingly effective at guerilla tactics, wearing down French supply lines and morale. The breaking point came with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (March - May 1954), when the French overcommitted to a distant 'hedgehog' outpost that was difficult to relieve or resupply, leading eventually to the garrison's surrender. Afterward, the French government fell, and the 1954 Geneva Accords were signed, allowing for the independence of North Vietnam. This result would have been difficult to achieve, certainly within the same timeframe, without Chinese support.

Even though China and North Vietnam had some issues between them (the Vietnamese were unhappy that the Geneva Accords were negotiated 'over their heads' by Zhou Enlai, for instance), the two countries remained close and North Vietnam modeled its political consolidation, land reform, and other policies on the Chinese experience a few years prior. With China under a U.S. maritime blockade and concerned about the potential for a U.S. invasion (their main motivation for intervening in the Korean War), continued support for North Vietnam and, by extension, the Viet Cong, was an easy choice as U.S. involvement in Vietnam increased during the 1960s.

Domestic propaganda in China constantly played up the threat of U.S. invasion and glorified the Vietnamese people's resistance to 'U.S. imperialism'. However, by the time this map was published, Mao Zedong was already well on the way to determining that his greatest internal and external threat was 'Soviet Revisionism'. As the Sino-Soviet Split worsened, the relationship between China and North Vietnam likewise deteriorated, and several years later, the U.S. and China moved towards rapprochement. In recent years, as U.S.-China relations have again come under strain, Chinese concerns about U.S. military encirclement have resurfaced (though, within the PLA, they had never really disappeared).

Publication History and Census

This map was published in the April 19, 1966, issue of People's Liberation Army Pictorial, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. It was an addendum to provide a clearer and more accurate version of a map that appeared in an article in the same issue, titled 'US imperialism is shifting its strategic focus to Asia and targeting China with its aggression ' (美帝正把战略重点移到亚洲，侵略矛头指向中国). The only institution noted as holding this map in the OCLC is Stanford University.