40. The behavior of military units and the role
 they played appear to have differed in some particulars
 from place to place. The over-all pattern, however,
 indicates that the armed forces displayed great internal
 cohesion and took a conservative position--in
 opposition alike to the "rebel" revolutionaries and
 troublemaking local authorities. The PLA appears
 generally to have held back until the movement to slow
 down and to moderate the Cultural Revolution began to
 gain strength.
 An Olive Branch to the Party Establishment
 41. Moves to bring the armed forces into the
 struggle were accompanied by a parallel shift in Peking's
 approach to the party apparatus, signaled by
 a red Flag editorial broadcast on 30 January which
 referred to experienced cadres as the "treasure of
 the party" and warned against indiscriminate attacks
 on them. This was not a new line in that bad elements
 in the party had from the outset been called
 a "handful," but the emphasis as markedly different
 from that in pronouncements during December and early
 January.
 42. The shift was also reflected in a wall newspaper
 observed some time later which reported that
 Chou En-lai had met with representatives of 23 "revolutionary"
 factions on 1 February and had urged a
 return to the policy of correcting erring party officials
 in a way which would not destroy their future
 usefulness. Chou reportedly warned that mistreatment
 of party cadres, particularly those at the basic level,
 might alienate "revolutionary forces" from the people.
 A broadcast from Lhasa on 9 February quoted the Red
 Flag editorial publicized by Peking on 31 January
 urging true "revolutionaries" to trust and use party
 leaders, even those who had committed errors, so long
 as they were not "antiparty." Those who indiscriminately
 labeled party leaders as "persons in authority
 who are taking the capitalist road" were denounced.
 43. A broadcast from the provincial capital of Inner
 Mongolia on 10 February denounced ultraleftists,
 who it said were "enthusiastic about internal war and
 advocate aimless fighting." A similar line was taken
 by a broadcast from Heilungkiang four days later
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