Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart, wrote James Baldwin, for his purity, by definition, is unassailable. This observation has been confirmed many times throughout history. However, China's Cultural Revolution offers perhaps the starkest illustration of just how dangerous the pure in heart can be. The ideological justification for the revolution was to purge the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the nation more broadly, of impure elements hidden in its midst: capitalists, counter-revolutionaries, and representatives of the bourgeoisie. To that end, Mao Zedong activated China's youth—unblemished and uncorrupted in heart and mind—to lead the struggle for purity. Christened the Red Guards, they were placed at the vanguard of a revolution that was, in truth, a cynical effort by Mao to reassert his waning power in the Party. Nevertheless, it set in motion a self-destructive force of almost unimaginable depravity. The Cultural Revolution commenced in spirit when Mao published a letter indicting a number of Party leaders on May 16, 1966. But it was a seemingly minor event nine days later …
