Could China have collapsed during the Cultural Revolution?

It would be interesting because I could see most of the Red Guard being wiped out and so there goes a good portion of China's teenagers.
Nah, most likely some of them are defeated and the rest disperse (i.e. desert) or surrender. Young punks with some red armbands doesn't make them effective or coherent units.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
I don't know much about the Red Guard, I thought they were kind of just like a Communist Version of the Hitler Jugend, fanatical and all that jazz
 
I don't know much about the Red Guard, I thought they were kind of just like a Communist Version of the Hitler Jugend, fanatical and all that jazz

They also had legal carte blanche, and exercised it frequently. By the mid-cultural revolution, they'd devolved into gangs arguing over which group was more loyal to Chairman Mao.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
How would the PRC fall apart.

If it happens in 66, then getting weapons and equipment to the NVA becomes a hell of a lot harder. The Americans manage to eek out a victory in vietnam somehow, annhilating the NVA. Vietnamization and what not begins early. This is really bad for the PRC because the PLA now has to focus on the border with Vietnam and can't focus on the internal problems and dealing with the Red Guard.

Recipe for disaster or what.
 
during the 1966-1968 the Cultural Revolution was out of control
the Red Guard were running amok in China, original concept was to purge the "bourgeoisie force" in party and administration.
now there burring Buddhist & Taoist temple and schools and university.
murdering priest, politician, bureaucrats, teacher and common people.
there was one case were group of Red Guard massacred another, about skirmish on the layout of Mao little red book.
it had a eerie parables what happen later in Cambodia under Khmer Rouge

in 1969 Lin Biao had to give the order to Army to break down the Red Guards in China
this phase is very interesting because it potential for many POD

like what if Lin Biao murder Mao or the PLA get divided between Lin Biao and Mao ?
or what if fanatic Red Guard group attack Soviet border patrol ?
 
The Red Guards were crazy nutcases, but were (usually) careful not to cause Chairman Mao to lose face. Hence it was "counterrevolutionary" to attack foreign embassies, and whatever radical Party leader who fell out of Mao's favour was instantly denounced as "reactionary".
 
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