Operation Yellowjacket

Kevin L. Brassard

### Defenders

Chairman of the Party Central Committee Mao Zedong (KIA)Vice Chairman of the Party Central Committee Liu Shaoqi

Zhou Enlai

Deng Xiaoping, General Secretay of the Party Central Committee

Police chief Liao Bao

The **Assassination of Mao Zedong**(also known as **Operation Yellowjacket** by New Dawn operatives that participated in it)occurred in the spring of 1966. During a rally with his followers and participants in the Cultural Revolution, which helped elevate Mao Zedong to "god status", New Dawn operatives assassinated him, feeling disgusted towards Mao's policies and actions towards his people.

## Background

*For more information, see* Cultural Revolution

Mao Zedong had quite a cult following during the Cultural Revolution, so much so that it outraged the leadership of the international terrorist group New Dawn, who saw him as "Satan Incarnate." To that end, plans were made to expose Mao Zedong for who he really was: a mortal man with a god complex.  In the months leading to April 12, 1966, extensive planning and coordinating occurred between New Dawn's leadership. On November 3, 1962, a gathering of New Dawn members convened in a safehouse in Switzerland to discuss what action to take against Mao Zedong and his inner circle. Some members wanted to kidnap Mao Zedong and hold him for ransom. Other members wanted him publicly assassinated to send a "message" to the Chinese people. The ensuing debate raged on for months, until early summer of 1963, when the decision was made to assassinate Mao Zedong. In the summer of 1963, ten operatives volunteered to participate in the mission: Kevin L. Brassard & his girlfriend Gail I. Johnson, Betty B. Deering, a classmate of Kevin's from high school, Sharlene Brunk, a small town girl and a radical anti-Communist who hated Mao Zedong with a passion, John R. McDougall, another radical anti-Communist who harbored a personal grudge against Mao Zedong for the death of his father (who was a CIA agent spying for the West Roman government when a Chinese whisleblower exposed him, leading to his arrest and sentence to life in a gulag, where he died), Patrick R. Munoz, a man who believed Mao Zedong was a delusional madman, Patrick's girlfriend Janet T. Alston, and Janet's college classmates Margaret S. Peden and Anna C. Hartley. They spent months training fror the mission, and by April 12, 1966, the ten operatives were ready to end Mao Zedong's cult of personality-and (they hoped) the Revolution-with a bang.

## The Assassination

The assassination of Mao Zedong occurred on April 12, 1966. Assasinating Mao Zedong was a massive gamble for New Dawn. The assassination of Mao Zedong, New Dawn's leadership reasoned, would considerably weaken Communist China and shatter Communist illusions that Mao Zedong was an "enlightened god incarnate."  At 3:30 PM, during a rally in Beijing, China, Kevin L. Brassard and Gail I. Johnson were deployed to Tiananmen Square, where Mao Zedong was addressing the Chinese citizens. Armed with a sniper rifle, Kevin and Gail waited patiently for about four hours before Kevin took the shot, squarely hitting the world leader between the eyes and blowing his head open.  To cover their escape, colleagues Sharlene N. Brunk and Patrick R. Munoz, along with Betty B. Deering and Janet T. Alston, massacred the Red Guards and other participants in the crowd, while Kevin and Betty made a hasty escape in a getaway car, narrowly evading police officers dispatched at the scene of the massacre.

## Perpetrators

NOTE: The roles each of the perpetrators played during the assassination itself are in parentheses)

* Daniel A. McCarty (Handler of Kevin Brassard)
* Kevin L. Brassard & Gail I. Johnson (Main shooters)
* Betty B. Deering (Spotter for Kevin and Gail)
* Sharlene N. Brunk (Backup shooter for Kevin and Gail if they were either captured or failed to hit Mao)
* John R. McDougall (Backup shooter for Kevin and Gail if they were either captured or failed to hit Mao).
* Patrick R. Munoz (Backup shooter if Kevin and Gail were either compromised or failed to hit Mao)
* Janet T. Alston (Spotter for Patrick)
* Margaret S. Peden (Getaway driver for assassins' "bugout vehicle")
* Anna C. Hartley (backup getaway driver for assassins' "bugout vehicle").