| Project National Glory | |||||||
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| Cihu, now the tombsite of Chiang Kai-shek, was designated the command post of Project National Glory. | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 國光計劃 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Project National Glory | ||||||
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Project National Glory or Project Guoguang (Chinese: 國光計劃) was a military attempt by the Kuomintang-led Republic of China to try to recapture mainland China held by the People's Republic of China (PRC). The missions began in 1965. After many failures, the project was dropped in July 1972.
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After the PRC's disastrous Great Leap Forward, the outbreak of Vietnam War and the prospect of China having a nuclear weapon, Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek launched planning for a counterattack to recover mainland China.
On April 1, 1961 the Project National Glory office was established by the Republic of China armed forces in Taipei County in the town of Sanxia. Army lieutenant general Zhu Yuancong took charge as director and officially launched the project to formulate a plan of operations for retaking Mainland China. Other military members at Xindian and Bitan established Project Juguan offices to discuss and work out an alliance with American troops to attack mainland China. Another office was established for counterintelligence operations, specifically to avoid the US side learning about Project National Glory.[1] In 1962, the People's Republic of China was carrying out the Great Leap Forward and failing. Therefore, the whole country was in poor condition and Republic of China President Chiang Kai-Shek was in a hurry and wished to take advantage of the golden opportunity to retake mainland China.[2][3] During this time, he started active ideological military education to prepare his troops for retaking mainland China.
In April 1964, Chiang ordered the construction of air-raid shelters and five military offices at Cihu (慈湖), which served as a secret command centre.[4] After the Project National Glory was established, it consisted of the following subsections: Frontal area of the enemy, Rear area special warfare, Surprise attack, Take advantage of counterattack, Come to aid against tyranny. The plan was formulated, fine-tuned and proposed to Chiang Kai-Shek 97 times.
On the American side, they actively opposed the plan to retake mainland China. Therefore, every week they checked the inventory of ROC amphibious landing vehicles. American troops advisory group members even flew over the Project National Glory camp on scouting missions which caused Chiang Kai-shek to become very displeased.[5]
On June 17, 1965 Chiang Kai-shek went to the military academy of land forces to convene with all mid level and higher officers to prepare launching the counterattack. Every military officer at the meeting had already prepared a last will and testament. During that time it was demanded that this plan be kept secret and that D-Day's date also be kept secret.
In that time, the Project National Glory was considered to be extremely top secret. According to Republic of China Navy commander in Chief Ye Changtong's recollection, at that time, one security official said to him, just now we had a briefing where we decided to announce our plan to retake mainland China in a day or two. Ye Changtong believed that this kind of military landing would fail and that the essence of the plan was flawed.[6]
On June 24, 1965 dozen of soldiers died during a training drill to simulate Communist attack on major naval bases in southern Taiwan near Zuoying.[7][8] During this simulated landing maneuver, five amphibious landing craft overturned in the heavy waves. Ten people died in the line of duty and were the first but not last deaths in Project National Glory.[9]
On August 6, 1965, the Zhangjiang naval warship would carry out "Tsunami Number 1" assignment and transport special forces to the vicinity of Eastern mainland Chinese coastal island of Dongshan to carry out an intelligence gathering operation. However, they met with disaster when a Communist torpedo boat ambushed and sunk them, killing 200 soldiers.
In November 1965, Chiang ordered two other naval vessels, the Shan Hai and the Lin Huai, to pick up wounded soldiers from Taiwan's offshore island Makung and Wuchiu. The vessels were attacked by 12 PRC ships, and the Lin Huai was sunk by two torpedoes, with some 90 soldiers killed.[7] After the Makung naval battle Chiang Kai-shek gradually gave up hope for Project National Glory.[10]
On July 7, 1972 Guoguang office was dissolved and merged into the Ministry of Defense.
In 1971, the United Nations expelled the Republic of China to accept the People's Republic of China as the legal representative of China in the United Nations.[11] The ROC shelved the project in 1972 as it no longer had international support to attack Mainland China. Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975.[11]
The confidential documents will go on show to the public at Cihu Presidential Burial Place in 2009.[8]