The Khrushchov revisionists have come to the rescue of U.S. imperialism just when it is most panic-stricken and helpless in its efforts to cope with people’s war. Working hand in glove with the U.S. imperialists, they are doing their utmost to spread all kinds of arguments against people’s war and, wherever they can, they are scheming to undermine it by overt or covert means.
The fundamental reason why the Khrushchov revisionists are opposed to people’s war is that they have no faith in the masses and are afraid of U.S. imperialism, of war and of revolution. Like all other opportunists, they are blind to the power of the masses and do not believe that the revolutionary people are capable of defeating imperialism. They submit to the nuclear blackmail of the U.S. imperialists and are afraid that, if the oppressed peoples and nations rise up to fight people’s wars of the people of socialist countries repulse U.S. imperialist aggression, U.S. imperialism will become incensed, they themselves will become involved and their fond dream of Soviet-U.S. co-operation to dominate the world will be spoiled.
Ever since Lenin led the great October Revolution to victory, the experience of innumerable revolutionary wars has borne out the truth that a revolutionary people who rise up with only their bare hands at the outset finally succeed in defeating the ruling classes who are armed to the teeth. The poorly armed have defeated the better armed. People’s armed forces, beginning with only primitive swords, spears, rifles and hand-grenades, have in the end defeated the imperialist forces armed with modern aeroplanes, tanks, heavy artillery and atom bombs. Guerrilla forces have ultimately defeated regular armies. “Amateurs” who were never trained in any military schools have eventually defeated “professionals” graduated from military academies. And so on and so forth. Things stubbornly develop in a way that runs counter to the assertions of the revisionists, and facts are slapping them in the face.
The Khrushchov revisionists insist that a nation without nuclear weapons is incapable of defeating an enemy with nuclear weapons, whatever methods of fighting it may adopt. This is tantamount to saying that anyone without nuclear weapons is destined to come to grief, destined to be bullied and annihilated, and must either capitulate to the enemy when confronted with his nuclear weapons or some under the “protection” of some other nuclear power and submit to its beck and call. Isn’t this the jungle law of survival par excellence? Isn’t this helping the imperialists in their nuclear blackmail? Isn’t this openly forbidding people to make revolution?
The Khrushchov revisionists assert that nuclear weapons and strategic rocket units are decisive while conventional forces are insignificant, and that a militia is just a heap of human flesh. For ridiculous reasons such as these, they oppose the mobilization of and reliance on the masses in socialist countries to get prepared to use people’s war against imperialist aggression. They have staked the whole future of their country on nuclear weapons and are engaged in a nuclear gamble with U.S. imperialism, with which they are trying to strike a political deal. Their theory of military strategy is the theory that nuclear weapons decide everything. Their line in army building is the bourgeois line which ignores the human factor and sees only the material factor and which regards technique as everything and politics as nothing.
The Khrushchov revisionists maintain that a single spark in any part of the world may touch off a world nuclear conflagration and bring destruction to mankind. If this were true, our planet would have been destroyed time and time again. There have been wars of national liberation throughout the twenty years since World War II. But has any single one of them developed into a world war? Isn’t it true that the U.S. imperialists’ plans for a world war have been upset precisely thanks to the wars in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? By contrast, those who have done their utmost to stamp out the “sparks“ of people’s war have in fact encouraged U.S. imperialism in its aggression and wars.
The Khrushchov revisionists claim that if their general line of “peaceful coexistence, peaceful transition and peaceful competition” is followed, the oppressed will be liberated and “a world without weapons, without armed forces and without wars” will come into being. But the inexorable fact is that imperialism and reaction headed by the United States are zealously priming their war machine and are daily engaged in sanguinary suppression of the revolutionary peoples and in the threat and use of armed force against independent forces. The kind of rubbish peddled by the Khrushchov revisionists has already taken a great toll of lives in a number of countries. Are these painful lessons, paid for in blood, still insufficient? The essence of the general line of the Khrushchov revisionists is nothing other than the demand that all the oppressed peoples and nations and all the countries which have won independence should lay down their arms and place themselves at the mercy of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys who are armed to the teeth.
“While magistrates are allowed to burn down houses, the common people are forbidden even to light lamps. ” Such is the way of the imperialists and reactionaries. Subscribing to this imperialist philosophy, the Khrushchov revisionists shout at the Chinese people standing in the forefront of the fight for world peace: “You are bellicose!” Gentlemen, your abuse adds to our credit. It is this very “bellicosity” of ours that helps to prevent imperialism from unleashing a world war. The people are “bellicose” because they have to defend themselves and because the imperialists and reactionaries force them to be so. It is also the imperialists and reactionaries who have taught the people the arts of war. We are simply using revolutionary “bellicosity” to cope with counter-revolutionary bellicosity. How can it be argued that the imperialists and their lackeys may kill people everywhere, while the people must not strike back in self-defence or help one another? What kind of logic is this? The Khrushchov revisionists regard the imperialists like Kennedy and Johnson as “sensible” and describe us together with all those who dare to carry out armed defence against imperialist aggression as “bellicose”. This has revealed the Khrushchov revisionists in their true colours as the accomplices of imperialist gangsters.
We know that war brings destruction, sacrifice and suffering on the people. But the destruction, sacrifice and suffering will be much greater if no resistance is offered to imperialist armed aggression and the people become willing slaves. The sacrifice of a small number of people in revolutionary wars is repaid by security for whole nations, whole countries and even the whole of mankind; temporary suffering is repaid by lasting of even perpetual peace and happiness. War can temper the people and push history forward. In this sense, war is a great school.
When discussing World War I, Lenin said,
The war has brought hunger to the most civilized countries, to those most culturally developed. On the other hand, the war, as a tremendous historical process, has accelerated social development to an unheard-of degree. 1
He added,
War has shaken up the masses, its untold horrors and suffering have awakened them. War has given history momentum and it is now flying with locomotive speed. 2
If the arguments of the Khrushchov revisionists are to be believed, would not that make Lenin the worst of all “bellicose elements”?
In diametrical opposition to the Khrushchov revisionists, the Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary people never take a gloomy view of war. Our attitude towards imperialist wars of aggression has always been clear-cut. First, we are against them, and secondly, and secondly, we are not afraid of them. We will destroy whoever attacks us. As for revolutionary wars waged by the oppressed nations and peoples, so far from opposing them, we invariably give them firm support and active aid. It has been so in the past, it remains so in the present and, when we grow in strength as time goes on, we will give them still more support and aid in the future. It is sheer day-dreaming for anyone to think that, since our revolution has been victorious, our national construction is forging ahead, our national wealth is increasing and our living conditions are improving, we too will lose our revolutionary fighting will, abandon the cause of world revolution and discard Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Of course, every revolution in a country stems from the demands of its own people. Only when the people in a country are awakened, mobilized, organized and armed can they overthrow the reactionary rule of imperialism and its lackeys through struggle; their role cannot be replaced or taken over by any people from outside. In this sense, revolution cannot be imported. But this does not exclude mutual sympathy and support on the part of revolutionary peoples in their struggles against the imperialists and their lackeys. Our support and aid to other revolutionary peoples serves precisely to help their self-reliant struggle.
The propaganda of the Khrushchov revisionists against people’s war and the publicity they give to defeatism and capitulationism tend to demoralize and spiritually disarm revolutionary people everywhere. These revisionists are doing what the U.S. imperialists are unable to do themselves and are rendering them great service. They have greatly - encouraged U.S. imperialism in its war adventures. They have completely betrayed the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory of war and have become betrayers of people’s war.
To win the struggle against U.S. imperialism and carry people’s wars to victory, the Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary people throughout the world must resolutely oppose Khrushchov revisionism.
Today, Khrushchov revisionism has a dwindling audience among the revolutionary people of the world. Wherever there is armed aggression and suppression by imperialism and its lackeys, there are bound to be people’s wars against aggression and oppression. It is certain that such wars will develop vigorously. This is an objective law independent of the will of either the U.S. imperialists or the Khrushchov revisionists. The revolutionary people of the world will sweep away everything that stands in the way of their advance. Khrushchov is finished. And the successors to Khrushchov revisionism will fare no better. The imperialists, the reactionaries and the Khrushchov revisionists, who have all set themselves against people’s war, will be swept like dust from the stage of history by the mighty broom of the revolutionary people.
Great changes have taken place in China and the world in the twenty years since the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, changes that have made the situation more favourable than ever for the revolutionary people of the world and more unfavourable than ever for imperialism and its lackeys.
When Japanese imperialism launched its war of aggression against China, the Chinese people had only a very small people’s army and a very small revolutionary base area, and they were up against the biggest military despot of the East. Yet even then, Comrade Mao Tsetung said that the Chinese people’s war could be won and that Japanese imperialism could be defeated. Today, the revolutionary base areas of the peoples of the world have grown to unprecedented proportions, their revolutionary movement is surging as never before, imperialism is weaker than ever, and U.S. imperialism, the chieftain of world imperialism, is suffering one defeat after another. We can say with even greater confidence that the people’s wars can be won and U.S. imperialism can be defeated in all countries.
The peoples of the world now have the lessons of the October Revolution, the Anti-Fascist War, the Chinese people’s War of Resistance and War of Liberation, the Korean people’s War of Resistance to U.S. Aggression, the Vietnamese people’s War of Liberation and their War of Resistance to U.S. Aggression, and the people’s revolutionary armed struggles in many other countries. Provided each people studies these lessons well and creatively integrates them with the concrete practice of revolution in their own country, there is no doubt that the revolutionary peoples of the world will stage still more powerful and splendid dramas in the theatre of people’s war in their countries and that they will wipe off the earth once and for all the common enemy of all the people’s, U.S. imperialism and its lackeys.
The struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S. aggression and for natural salvation is now the focus of the struggle of the people of the world against U.S. aggression. The determination of the Chinese people to support and aid the Vietnamese people in their struggle against U.S. aggression and for natural salvation is unshakable. No matter what U.S. imperialism may do to expand its war adventure, the Chinese people will do everything in their power to support the Vietnamese people until every single one of the U.S. aggressors is driven out of Vietnam.
The U.S. imperialists are now clamouring for another trial of strength with the Chinese people, for another large-scale ground war on the Asian mainland. If they insist on following in the footsteps of the Japanese fascists, well then, they may do so, if they please. The Chinese people definitely have ways of their own for coping with a U.S. imperialist war of aggression. Our methods are no secret. The most important one is still mobilization of the people, reliance on the people, making every one a soldier and waging a people’s war.
We want to tell the U.S. imperialists once again that the vast ocean of several hundred million Chinese people in arms will be more than enough to submerge your few million aggressor troops. If you dare to impose war on us, we shall gain freedom of action. It will then not be up to you to decide how the war will be fought. We shall fight in the ways most advantageous to us to destroy the enemy and wherever the enemy can be most easily destroyed. Since the Chinese people were able to destroy the Japanese aggressors twenty years ago, they are certainly still more capable finishing off the U.S. aggressors today. The naval and air superiority you boast about cannot intimidate the Chinese people, and neither can the atom bomb you brandish at us. If you want to send troops, go ahead, the more the better. The will annihilate as many as you can send, and can even give you receipts. The Chinese people are a great, valiant people. We have the courage to shoulder the heavy burden of combating U.S. imperialism and to contribute our share in the struggle for final victory over this most ferocious enemy of the people of the world.
It must be pointed out in all seriousness that after the victory of the War of Resistance Taiwan was returned to China. The occupation of Taiwan by U.S. imperialism is absolutely unjustified. Taiwan province is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The U.S. imperialists must get out of Taiwan. The Chinese people are determined to liberate Taiwan.
In commemorating the 20th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, we must also point out in all solemnity that the Japanese militarists fostered by U.S. imperialism will certainly receive still severer punishment if they ignore the firm opposition of the Japanese people and the people of Asia, again indulge in their pipe-dreams and resume their old road of aggression in Asia.
U.S. imperialism is preparing a world war. But can this save it from its doom? World War I was followed by the birth of the socialist Soviet Union. World War II was followed by the emergence of a series of socialist countries and many nationally independent countries. If the U.S. imperialists should insist on launching a third world war, it can be stated categorically that many more hundreds of millions of people will turn to socialism; the imperialists will then have little room left on the globe; and it is possible that the whole structure of imperialism will collapse.
We are optimistic about the future of the world. We are confident that the people will bring to an end the epoch of wars in human history. Comrade Mao Tse-tung pointed out long ago that war, this monster, “will be finally be eliminated by the progress of human society, and in the not too distant future too. But there is only one way to eliminate it, and that is to oppose war with war, to oppose counter-revolutionary war with revolutionary war. ” 3
All people’s suffering from U.S. imperialist aggression, oppression and plunder, unite! Hold aloft the just banner of people’s war and fight for the cause of world peace, national liberation, people’s democracy and socialism! Victory will certainly go to the people of the world!
Long live the victory of people’s war!
1. V.I. Lenin, “For Bread and Peace”, Collected Works, Eng. ed., Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964, Vol. XXVI, p. 386.
2. V.I. Lenin, “The Chief Task of Our Day”, Collected Works, Eng. ed., Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Vol. XXVII, p. 162.
3. Mao Tse-tung, “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War”, Selected Works, Eng. ed., FLP, Peking, 1965, Vol. I, p. 182.