Despite being a close associate and supporter of Mao Zedong for decades, Luo was targeted, purged, and severely beaten during the Cultural Revolution, which he opposed from the beginning.

Luo's early life was deliberately ignored in official Chinese records until the 1990s because his petty bourgeois background did not fit into the political environment until the end of the 20th century.

He was then put in charge of eliminating the faction loyal to Zhang Guotao, Mao Zedong's rival in the Fourth Front Army, shortly after his political defeat.

As such, he was responsible for consolidating the new system against its internal enemies; in 1950, at a conference in Beijing, he supported the establishment of a paramilitary force under his ministry, similar to the Soviet MVD.

However, his reluctance to follow Mao's idea of emphasizing political education in the army and his rifts with Lin Biao led to his dismissal in December 1965, although he remained a vice premier.