[This issue of Peking Review is from massline.org. Massline.org has kindly given us permission to to place these documents on the MIA. We made only some formatting changes to make them congruent with our style sheets.]
[This letter is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #6,
Feb. 4, 1966, pp. 5-6, and is in response to a letter from
Ho Chi Minh which is printed in the same issue.]
U.S. aim is to turn southern Vietnam into its colony and military base and perpetuate the partition of Vietnam. So long as the United States does not give up its aim of occupying southern Vietnam, it will only be playing tricks to hoodwink people, no matter how many points it may put forward for a “peaceful settlement” of the Vietnam question.
If the Vietnam question is to be settled, the United States must act in accordance with the four-point stand of the Government of the D.R.V., stop its aggression against the whole of Vietnam, withdraw its own forces and those of its vassal countries from southern Vietnam, recognize the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation as the only genuine representative of the south Vietnamese people and let the Vietnamese people settle their own problems by themselves.
To whatever extent U.S. imperialism may expand its war and whatever may be the price we have to pay, the 650 million Chinese people will stand by the fraternal Vietnamese people in a joint struggle to thoroughly defeat the U.S. aggressors.
Peking, January 30, 1966
Comrade Ho Chi Minh,
President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
Hanoi.
Respected and Dear Comrade President,
I have received your letter of January 24 in which you strongly condemn the barbarous war of aggression waged by U.S. imperialism in Vietnam, thoroughly expose the peace plot of the Johnson Administration, reiterate the four-point stand of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam for a settlement of the Vietnam question and express the Vietnamese people’s determination to fight resolutely to the finish and never to submit to the U.S. imperialists’ threats. The Chinese Government and people firmly support the just stand of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam set forth in your letter.
U.S. imperialist aggression is the root cause of the present grave situation in Vietnam. It is clear to all that, according to the 1954 Geneva agreements, the Vietnam question should have already been settled. But the United States has thoroughly trampled underfoot the Geneva agreements under which it has assumed obligations. It has fostered its puppet regimes in southern Vietnam, obstructed the peaceful reunification of Vietnam, slaughtered or imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese patriots, and launched an inhuman “special war” against, the south Vietnamese people. As it failed to win the “special war,” it has sent over huge forces for direct aggression in southern Vietnam and employed its air force units to bomb the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Obviously, the aim of the United States is to turn southern Vietnam into its colony and military base and perpetuate the partition of Vietnam.
Recently, while escalating and intensifying its aggression against southern Vietnam, U.S. imperialism has suddenly assumed a posture of loving peace, “temporarily” stopped its bombing of northern Vietnam, put forward its 14 points for the “peaceful settlement” of the Vietnam question and sent a large number of officials to advertise everywhere the U.S. “sincere desire for peace.” However, empty talk about peace can in no way conceal the facts of aggression. The Johnson Administration has on many occasions proclaimed that the United States will never abandon its policy of aggression against Vietnam, and that it “will stay” in southern Vietnam. It is clear that so long as the United States does not give up its aim of seizing southern Vietnam for itself, it will only be playing tricks to hoodwink people and using different means to achieve this aim, no matter how many points it may put forward and what stuff it may put into its “basket of peace.”
If the Vietnam question is to be settled, the United States must truly abide by the Geneva agreements. The four-point stand for a settlement of the Vietnam question set forth by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is a concentrated expression of the essence of the Geneva agreements. If the U.S. Government really has any sincere desire for a peaceful settlement of the Vietnam question, it should act in accordance with this four-point stand, stop its aggression against the whole of Vietnam, withdraw all its own forces and those of its vassal countries from southern Vietnam, recognize the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation as the only genuine representative of the south Vietnamese people and let the Vietnamese people settle their own problems by themselves. But so far there has been no indication that the United States is ready to do so. On the contrary, it is continuing to send aggressive reinforcements to southern Vietnam, pursuing there the still more barbarous “scorched earth” policy of “burn all, destroy all, kill all,” and extending the flames of its war of aggression against Vietnam to Laos and Cambodia step by step. This shows that the United States does not really want a peaceful settlement of the Vietnam question but is using these “peace offensives” to cover up its designs of intensified expansion of its war of aggression.
Respected and Dear Comrade President! The great struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S. aggression and for national salvation is perfectly just. Your heroic deeds have inspired all revolutionary peoples, and your struggle has won the extensive sympathy and support of the peace-loving countries and people of the whole world. It is certainly not the Vietnamese people fighting for independence and freedom, but the U.S. imperialists persisting in policies of aggression and war, who are really isolated. The facts will prove that the farther U.S. imperialism goes along its path of war expansion, the nearer it will approach the day of its thorough defeat. China and Vietnam are neighbours closely related like the lips and the teeth; our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe. The Chinese people always unswervingly stand together with the Vietnamese people and wholeheartedly support and assist them in their just struggle. To whatever extent U.S. imperialism may expand its war and whatever may be the price we have to pay, we 650 million Chinese people will stand by the fraternal Vietnamese people in a joint struggle to thoroughly defeat the U.S. aggressors.
Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration.
(Signed) Liu Shao-chi
Chairman of the People’s Republic of China
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