FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS PEKING

SMASH THE BIGU.S.-SOVIET

CONSPIRACY!

by Observer of Renmin Ribao(People's Daily)

(February 20, 1967)

FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESSPEKING 1967

Printed in the People's Republic of China

Quotation from Chairman Mao Tse-tung

"Lifting a rock only to drop it on one'sown feet" is a Chinese folk saying todescribe the behaviour of certain fools.The reactionaries in all countries are foolsof this kind. In the final analysis, theirpersecution of the revolutionary peopleonly serves to accelerate the people's rev­olutions on a broader and more intensescale.

- Speech at the Meeting of theSupreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.in Celebration of the 40th An­niversary of the Great OctoberSocialist Revolution (November6, 1957)

THE Vietnam situation is now crucial.Working hand in glove, imperialism,

modern revisionism and the reactionaries,with increasing arrogance, are exerting mili­tary and political pressure on the Vietnamesepeople more flagrantly than ever in an at­tempt to force them to their knees. A newbig conspiracy vainly aimed at strangling theVietnamese people's struggle to resist U.S.aggression and save their country is beingvigorously pushed ahead.

Of late, the chieftains of U.S. imperialismhave seized on the Spring Festival "truce" onthe Vietnam battlefield to advance their plotof "forcing peace talks through bombing".Johnson, Rusk and their like have clamouredin chorus that "our pressure [on the Viet­namese people] must be -and will be­sustained", that the Vietnamese people must"answer promptly by a corresponding andappropriate de-escalation", and that onlythus would the United States be "prepared

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to order" a cessation of the bombing of northVietnam. They went so far as to give ordersto the Vietnamese people that the south Viet­namese people's armed forces must "laydown their arms" and "must withdraw [fromthe south]".

While this was going on, Kosygin flew intoBritain. Upon his arrival in London, hemade a great fanfare and declared that if theUnited States would only "stop bombing theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam", the varioussides concerned would "come to the confer­ence table". After the conclusion of his talkswith Kosygin, British Prime Minister Wilsongleefully announced: "There is an initia­tive - a plan - which would bring peacetomorrow." The joint communique on theSoviet-British talks did not say a single wordabout the Vietnamese people's struggleagainst U.S. aggression and for national salva­tion, nor a single word about U.S. imperial­ism's crime of aggression in Vietnam; but,without distinguishing right from wrong, itcalled for "the earliest possible end of theVietnam war".

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Throughout the London talks bet veenKosygin and Wilson, Johnson exercisedremote control from the other side of theAtlantic and kept in close touch with them.The Soviet-British talks were actually atriple U.S.-Soviet-British intrigue to extin­guish the revolutionary flames in Vietnam andpromote the U.S. "peace talks" fraud.

These facts have once again proved thatthe Soviet revisionist ruling clique is a groupof shameless renegades betraying the Viet­namese revolution, the number one accom­plice in encouraging U.S. expansion of its ag­gression and the most sinister enemy of theVietnamese people's cause of resisting U.S.aggression and saving their country.

Bombing is the sole "magic weapon" usedby U.S. imperialism and the Soviet revisionistruling clique in trying to force capitulationon the Vietnamese people. All the noise theymake boils down to one sentence: if Vietnamaccepts the U.S. terms for "peace talks", theUnited States will halt its bombing of northVietnam temporarily; otherwise, the bomb­ing will go on.

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This is outright gangster logic, blackmailpure and simple!

Can it be that suspension of the U.S. bomb­ing of the north is the crux of the Vietnamquestion? Certainly not. The Vietnam ques­tion lies in the fact that the United Stateshas invaded south Vietnam with severalhundred thousand troops and engaged in abarbarous colonial war there. It was becauseof the defeats in the south that the U.S.aggressors began bornbing north Vietnamand extended the flames of war to the wholecountry. Therefore, the crux of the Vietnamquestion is not whether the United Statesbombs the north or not. It is that the U.S.aggressive forces must get out of Vietnamand U.S. aggression against the whole ofVietnam must be stopped so that the Viet­namese people can settle their own problemsby themselves. So long as the United Statescontinues its forcible occupation of southVietnam, it remains the aggressor, whetherit bombs the north, resumes bombing or sus­pends bombing or stops it "permanently".The U.S. aggressor, hanging on in the southas it does, has soared to the heights of

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shamelessness and impudence in seeking toforce Vietnam to surrender by using a fewbombs.

Aided and abetted by the Soviet revisionistruling clique, U.S. imperialism has becomemore and more insatiable and has raised itsprice on the question of suspension of bomb­ing. For some time the United States saidit would stop bombing if the Vietnamese sideonly gave a "hint" of agreeing to "peacetalks". Now it is brashly calling for the"principle of reciprocity". It can stop thebombing, it says, but the Vietnamese peoplemust make "concessions", that is, the peoplein south Vietnam must "de-escalate" the warwhile the people in the north must stop sup­porting their compatriots in the south.

What a "principle of reciprocity"! TheUnited States is the aggressor while the Viet­namese people are the victims of aggression."Reciprocity" is completely out of the ques­tion here. The Vietnamese people have notsent a single soldier to invade or occupy thesouth in the United States nor a single planeto bomb its north. It is the U.S. bandits whohave crossed the ocean to invade the land of

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the Vietnamese, killing, burning and bomb­ing indiscriminately. Indeed, if there is any"principle of reciprocity" to be applied, it isthat the U.S. bandits must get out of Vietnamlock, stock and barrel and all U.S. armedforces must be withdrawn from that country.

The so-called principle of reciprocity ad­vanced by U.S. imperialism is a gangster"principle": aggression is justified whileresistance is criminal. According to this "prin­ciple", the United States has the right tohang on in south Vietnam while the Viet­namese people have no right to kick the ag­gressor out. According to this "principle",the United States can carryon a brutal warof aggression in Vietnam while the Viet­namese people are not allowed to defendtheir own territory. According to this "prin­ciple", the United States can massacre thepeople in south Vietnam while the people inthe north are not allowed to support theirkith and kin. According to this "principle",the United States can cut Vietnam into twoand keep it permanently divided, while the31 million Vietnamese people are not allowedto reunify their fatherland. What outrageous

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logic! In this day and age, how can theUnited States be allowed to do as it pleaseswith the heroic Vietnamese people?

It should be especially pointed out that the"peace talks" moves by U.S. imperialism withthe help of the Soviet revisionist rulingclique are centred on one point: to try toforce north Vietnam to stop assisting thesouth Vietnamese people's heroic struggleand abandon its 14 million compatriots andhalf of the country in exchange for a cessa­tion of U.S. bombing of the north.

This manoeuvre of U.S. imperialism andSoviet revisionism is a big, diabolical con­spiracy, a monstrous and intolerable insult tothe entire people of Vietnam!

The Vietnamese nation is a single entity.The people in north and south Vietnam arekith and kin bound by flesh and blood. Toachieve the complete independence of Viet­nam and the reunification of the country isthe sacred national aspiration of the 31 mil­lion Vietnamese people for which they havevaliantly struggled for years at great sacrificeto themselves. No power on earth can force­fully separate the south and north Viet-

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namese people, force the Vietnamese peopleto give up their sacred national aspiration,force such heroic people to go down on theirknees before the U.S. aggressors. So long asthe U.S. aggressors remain on Vietnamesesoil, the south Vietnamese people will nevercease their struggle and the north Vietnamesepeople will have every right to render anyform of aid to the struggle of the people inthe south until every single U.S. aggressoris driven out of their land.

The loss of south Vietnam inevitablymeans the loss of north Vietnam. U.S. im­perialism's smug calculation is: first of all touse "peace talks" to bind north Vietnamhand and foot so that it can go all out to dowhat it likes in south Vietnam. And oncethis U.S. imperialist beast heals its wounds,it will some day spring upon north Vietnam.U.S. imperialism's principle of dealing withthe revolutionary people has always been:annihilate them without fail when it can,and annihilate them in the future if it can­not do so for the time being. This is theconclusion reached by the revolutionary peo-

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ple of all countries at the heavy cost of theirblood.

The truculence of the U.S. aggressors in noway indicates their strength. Precisely theopposite. In its war of aggression in Viet­nam, U.S. imperialism has proved very weakand in a very passive and difficult position.The Johnson Administration has to use thebombing of north Vietnam as blackmail topromote its "peace talks" fraud. Isn't thisvery fact proof that it is at the end of itsrope on the south Vietnam battlefield, thatit has suffered defeat there?

The difficulties faced by U.S. imperialismin its war of aggression in Vietnam are in­surmountably fatal. Fundamentally speaking,they are predetermined by the inj ustice, bar­barity and reactionary nature of the war ofaggression it has launched. U.S. imperialismsuffers from having a far-flung front, insuf­ficient troop strength, low morale, ineffectivecommand and difficult transport. Athome,the American people's movement against thewar of aggression in Vietnam has mountedto unprecedented heights while strife insidethe ruling clique has grown in intensity. In-

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ternationally, U.S. imperialism is isolated be­cause its unjust cause has little support.Nearly one-sixth of the total U.S. troopstrength has been thrown into the south Viet­nam theatre and is now encircled ring uponring by the south Vietnamese people. TheU.S. aggressor is a cornered beast in southVietnam today. The longer the war lasts,the greater, deeper and more insoluble willbe the difficulties confronting U.S. imperial­ism.

Chairman Mao teaches us:

The difficulties of the reactionaryforces are insurmountable because theyare forces on the verge of death andhave no future. Our difficulties can beovercome because we are new and risingforces and have a bright future.'

In this sacred national-liberation war theVietnamese people, too, will inevitably meetwith one difficulty or another. But these aredifficulties on their way forward towards

1 Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, ForeignLanguages Press, Peking, 1961, Vol. IV, p. 125.

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victory and definitely can be overcome. Thecharacteristics of the Vietnamese war ofresistance to U.S. aggression and for nationalsalvation decide the protracted nature of thewar. The Vietnamese people have all thefavourable conditions for fighting a pro­tracted war on their side, while what U.S.imperialism most fears is that the war willdrag on. So long as the Vietnamese peoplepin down the several hundred thousand U.S.aggressor troops by a protracted war anddevelop their all-nation war of resistance toU.S. aggression and for national salvation,they can certainly deal the U.S. aggressorsthe death blow and win final victory.

President Ho Chi Minh has said in hiscelebrated Appeal:

They may use thousands of aircraft forintensified attacks against north Vietnam.But never will they be able to break theiron will of the heroic Vietnamese peopleto fight against U.S. aggression, for na­tional salvation. . . . The war may last still5, 10, 20 years or longer. Hanoi, Haiphongand other cities, and enterprises may be

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destroyed, but the Vietnamese people willnot be intimidated! Nothing is more pre­cious than independence and freedom. Whenvictory day comes, our people will rebuildour country and endow it with bigger andmore beautiful constructions.

This expresses the firm position and heroicspirit of the 31 million Vietnamese peopleto defy sacrifice and persist in the war ofresistance.

The Chinese people, who are carrying outthe vigorous great proletarian culturalrevolution, are closely following the de­velopment of the Vietnamese situation, Weresolutely oppose the big conspiracy hatchedjointly by the U.S. imperialists and the Sovietrevisionists to stamp out the raging revolu­tionary fire in Vietnam. Armed with thethought of Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese peoplehave always adhered to the principles ofproletarian internationalism, have alwaysregarded the struggle of the Vietnamese peo­ple as their own and have always given thefraternal Vietnamese people all-out supportand assistance. The 700 million Chinese peo-

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ple stand on the side of the heroic Vietnamesepeople for ever, pledge their strong backingto the Vietnamese people, will never hesitateto make the greatest national sacrifice, andare determined to support the Vietnamesepeople to carry their war of resistance toU.S. aggression and for national salvationthrough to the end!

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