Date: 1968
Source: "Quotation from Vice-Chairman Lin
Piao", in Huazhong Normal University Revolutionary Committee, "五.七" 汉英词语汇编 The May 7 Collection of Terms & Expressions (Chinese-English)
(Wuhan, 1968), pp. 203-230.
Transcription and Markup: Juan Fajardo, December 2019.
U.S. imperialism is trying hard to find a way out by launching a world war. We must take this seriously. The focal point of the present struggle lies in Vietnam. We have made every preparation. Not flinching from maximum national sacrifices, we are determined to give firm support to '-the fraternal Vietnamese people in carrying the war of resistance against U.S. aggression and for national salvation through, to the end
The Red Guards and other revolutionary organizations of the young people have been springing up like bamboo shoots after the spring rains. They take to the streets to sweep away the “four olds” (old ideas, culture, customs and habits -Ed.). The great cultural revolution has already touched on politics and on economics. The struggle (against and crushing of those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road), the criticism and repudiation (of the reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes) and the transformation (of education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base) in the schools have been extended to the whole of society. The revolutionary torrents of the masses are washing away all the sludge and filth left over from the old society, and are transforming the whole face of society in our country.
The Red Guards and other revolutionary organizations of the young people in the colleges and middle schools are the shook force fighting in the van in the great cultural revolution, and a powerful reserve force of the People’s Liberation Army.
We must act in accordance with Chairman Mao’s teachings: dare to struggle and dare to make revolution and be good at waging struggles and at making revolution. We must take Mao Tse-tung’s thought as our compass in the great proletarian cultural revolution and carry out the 16-point decision seriously, fully, thoroughly, and without reservation.
Led by Chairman Mao，and guided by the 16- point decision drawn up under his leadership, the great proletarian cultural revolution in our country is advancing triumphantly on a nationwide scale. The situation is very fine! It is getting finer every day.
The Red Guards and all revolutionary youth are good sons and daughters of the Chinese people. You must learn from the workers, peasants and soldiers. Learn from them their extremely firm revolutionary stand and their most thoroughgoing revolutionary spirit. Learn from them their high sense of organization and discipline and all their other fine qualities.
Our masses of workers, peasants and soldiers must follow Chairman Mao’s teachings and stand fast at their posts in production and combat stations. They must stand firmly on the side of the revolutionary students, support their revolutionary actions and give them powerful backing.
Like the workers, peasants and soldiers, be for ever loyal to Chairman Mao, to Mao Tse-tung’s thought, to the Party and to the people and temper yourselves in the great storm of the revolutionary struggle to become successors to the proletarian revolutionary cause.
The great proletarian cultural revolution is promoting the revolutionization of peopled minds and has thus become a powerful motive force for the development of socialist production in our country.
Our attitude towards imperialist wars of, aggression has always been clear-cut. First, we are against them, 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 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 daydreaming 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, wo too will lose our revolutionary fighting will, abandon the cause of world revolution and discard Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
U.S. imperialism is stronger, but also more vulnerable, than any imperialism of the pas. It sets itself against the people of the whole world, including the people of the United States. Its human, military, material and financial resources are far from sufficient for the realization of its ambition of dominating the whole world. U.S. imperialism has further weakened itself by occupying so many places in the world, over-reaching itself; stretching its fingers out wide and dispersing its strength, with its rear so far away and its supply lines so long. As Comrade Mao Tse-tung has said. “Wherever it commits aggression, it puts a new noose around its neck. It is besieged ring upon ring by the people of the whole world.”
Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s great merit lies in the fact that he has succeeded in integrating the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution and has enriched and developed Marxism-Leninism by his masterly generalization and summation the experience gained during the Chinese people’s protracted revolutionary struggle.
The liberation of the masses is accomplished by the masses themselves—this is a basic principle of Marxism-Leninism. Revolution or people's war in any country is the business of the masses in that country and should be carried out primarily by their own efforts, there is no other way.
Comrade Mao Tse-tung has provided a masterly summary of the strategy and tactics of people’s war: You fight in your way and we fight in ours; we fight when we can win and move away when wo can’t.
In other, words, you rely on modern weapons, and we rely on highly conscious revolutionary people； you give full play to your superiority we give full play to ours; you have your way of fighting and we have ours. When you want fight us, we don’t let you and you can’t find us. But when we want to fight you, we make sure that you can’t get away, and we hit you squarely on the chin and wipe you out.
When we are able to wipe you out, we do so with a vengeance； when we can’t, we see to it that you don’t wipe us out. It is opportunism if one won’t fight when one can win. It is adventurism if one insists on fighting when one can’t win. Fighting is the pivot of all our strategy and tactics. It is because of the necessity of fighting that wo admit the necessity of moving away. The sole purpose of moving away is to fight and bring about the final and complete destruction of the enemy. This strategy and these tactics can be applied only when one relies on the broad masses of the people, and such application brings the superiority of people’s war into full play. However superior he may be in technical equipment and whatever tricks he may, resort to, the enemy will find himself in the passive position of having to receive blows, and the initiative will always be in our hands.
The essence of Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s. theory of army building is that in building a people's army prominence must be given to politics, i.e., the army must first and foremost be built on a political basis. Politics is the commander, politics is the soul of everything. Political work is the lifeline of our army. True, a people’s army must pay attention to the constant improvement of its weapons and equipment and its military technique, but in its fighting it does not rely purely on weapons and technique, it relies mainly on politics, on the proletarian revolutionary consciousness and courage of the commanders and fighters, on the support and backing of the masses.
Owing to the application of Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s line on army building, there has prevailed in our army at all times a high level of proletarian political consciousness, an atmosphere of keenness to study the thought of Mao Tse-tung, an excellent morale, a solid unity and a deep hatred for the enemy, and thus a gigantic moral force has been brought into being. In battle it has feared neither hardships nor death, it has been able to charge or hold its ground as the conditions require. One man can play the role of several, dozens or even hundreds, and miracles can be performed.
In the last analysis, whether one dares to wage a tit-for-tat struggle against armed aggression and suppression by the imperialists and their lackeys, whether one dares to fight a people’s war against them, means whether ono dares to embark on revolution. This is the most effective touchstone for distinguishing genuine from fake revolutionaries and Marxist-Leninists.
Our army consisted of local forces as well as of regular forces; moreover, it energetically built and developed the militia, thus practising the system of combining the three military formations, i.e., the regular forces, the local forces and the militia.
Why can apparently weak new-born forces always triumph over the decadent forces, which, appear, so powerful? The reason is that truth is their side and that the masses are on their side, while the reactionary classes are always divorced from the masses and set themselves against the masses.
Comrade Mao Tso-Tung is a great statesman and military scientist, proficient at directing war in accordance with its laws. By the line and policies, the strategy and tactics he formulated for the people’s war, he led, the Chinese people in steering the ship of the people’s war past all hidden reefs to the shores of victory in most complicated and difficult conditions.
We will make vigorous efforts to establish proletarian authorities and the new ideas, new culture, new customs and new habits of the proletariat. In a word, we will work with great energy so that Mao Tse-tung’s thought achieves complete ascendancy. We will enable hundreds of millions of people to grasp Mao Tse-tung’s thought, ensure that it seizes all ideological positions, apply it in transforming the mental outlook of the whole of society, and enable Mao Tse-tung’s thought, this great spiritual force, to transform into a great material force!
The masses are the makers of history. Once they master Mao Tse-tung’s thought, they will become the wisest and the most courageous people, capable of exerting inexhaustible strength!
Our country is a big nation of 700 million people and it is necessary for the whole country to have unified thinking. Only when it is unified by Mao Tse-tung’s thought can there be unified action. Without unified thinking a big country of 700 million people will still be like loose sand. The thinking of the people of the entire country can be unified only with, the great power of Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
The current great cultural revolution is a tremendous event affecting the destiny and future of our Party, and our country!
With the brilliant leadership of Chairman Mao and having mastered Mao Tse-tung’s thought which is the keenest weapon, we will be invincible and all-conquering and will achieve complete victory in the great proletarian cultural revolution!
At present, the main battlefield of the fierce struggle between the people of the world on the one side and U.S. imperialism and its lackeys on the other as the vast area of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the world as a whole, this is the area where the people suffer worst from imperialist oppression and where imperialist rule is most vulnerable. Since World War II, revolutionary storms have been rising in this area, and today have become the most important force directly pounding U.S. imperialism. The contradiction between the revolutionary peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the imperialists headed by the United States is the principal contradiction in the contemporary world. The development of this contradiction is promoting the struggle of the people of the world against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys.
Comrade. Mao Tse-tung’s theory of and policies for peopled war have creatively enriched and developed Marxism-Leninism. The Chinese people’s victory in the anti-Japanese war was a victory for people’s war, for Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Mao Tse-tung.
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.
It was on the basis of the lessons derived from the people’s wars in China that Comrade Mao Tse-tung, using the simplest and the most vivid language, advanced the famous thesis that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
To rely on the peasants, build rural base areas and use the countryside to encircle, and finally capture the cities—such was the way to victory in the Chinese revolution.
“Without a people’s army the people have nothing.” This is the conclusion drawn by Comrade Mao Tse-tung from the Chinese people’s experience in their long years of revolutionary struggle, experience, that was bought in blood. This is a universal truth- of Marxism-Leninism.
It must be emphasized that Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s theory of the establishment of rural revolutionary base areas and the encirclement of the cities from the countryside is of outstanding and universal., practical importance for the present revolutionary struggles of all the oppressed nations and peoples, and particularly for the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations and peoples in Asia, Africa, and Latin America against imperialism and its lackeys.
With political power, the proletariat and the working people will have everything and without political power, they will lose everything. No matter how innumerable are the issues, we must never, forget political power. Forgetting political power means forgetting the fundamental viewpoint of Marxism. If we do so, we will become muddle headed fools and we will not be able to know how we are killed even when we forfeit our lives.
If the proletariat does not occupy the positions in literature and art, the bourgeoisie certainly will. This is inevitable. And it represents an extremely broad and deep socialist revolution in the realm of ideology. If things are not done properly, revisionism will prevail.
Comrade Mao -Tse-tung’s theory of people’s war has been proved by the long practice of the Chinese revolution to be in accord with the objective laws of such wars and to be invincible. It has not only been valid for China, it is a great contribution the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations and peoples throughout the world.
In the last analysis, the Marxist-Leninist theory of proletarian revolution is the theory of the seizure of state power by revolutionary violence, the theory countering war against the people by people's war. As Marx so aptly put it, “Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one."
Imperialism headed by the United States and modern revisionism with the leadership of the G.P.S.U. as its centre are colluding and actively plotting peace talk swindles for the purpose of stamping out the raging flames of the Vietnamese people's national revolutionary war against U.S. aggression, of the national revolutionary struggles in Asian, African and Latin American countries and of the world revolution.
This revolution is a great revolution, an entirely new and creative revolution, carried out after the seizure of political power by the proletariat. It is to overthrow through struggle the small handful of persons within the Party who have been in authority and have taken the capitalist road； to sweep away all ghosts and monsters in our society, and to break the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes and foster the new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat, with a view to further consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and developing the socialist system.
In the short space of 17 years, the Chinese people have completely changed the face of old China. This is a highly meritorious deed performed by the masses of the Chinese people under the leadership of Comrade Mao Tse-tung. We are convinced that all the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations of the world will take their own paths in the light of their own countries conditions and seize final victory as the Chinese people did.
Yung revolutionary fighters! Chairman Mao and the Party’s Central Committee warmly acclaim your proletarian revolutionary spirit of daring, to think, to speak, to act, to break through and to make revolution. You have done many good things. You have put forward many good proposals. We are greatly elated, and we warmly support you! Firmly oppose any attempt that is made to suppress you! Your revolutionary actions are very fine!
Students and Red Guard fighters! Always be loyal to the Party, to the people, to Chairman Mao and to Mao Tse-tung's thought. Work, hard to study and apply Chairman Mao’s works creatively; make big efforts to apply what you study. Serve, the people wholeheartedly, keep in close contact with the masses, be exemplary in carrying out the Party' s policies, safeguard the interests of the people, protect state property, and abide by the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention.
The people’s revolution under the guidance of Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the locomotive for the advance of history.
Hold aloft the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and win new merit in the great proletarian cultural revolution.
Sailing the seas depends on the helmsman.
Making revolution depends on Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
Long live Chairman Mao, great teacher, great leader, great supreme commander and great helmsman. A long life, and a long, long life to him!
The masses of workers, peasants and soldiers, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist
Party headed by Chairman Mao, have always been the main force of the revolution in our country. Today, they are the main force of the socialist revolution and socialist construction in our country and also the main force in the country's great proletarian cultural revolution.
Mao Tse-tung’s thought reflects the objective laws of the domestic and international class struggle； it reflects the fundamental interests of the proletariat, of the working people.
We must use Mao Tse-tung’s thought to unify the thinking of the whole Party and the thinking of the people of the whole country. We must hold high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and further unfold the mass movement for the creative study and application of Chairman Mao’s works throughout the country. We must turn the whole country into a great school of Mao Tse-tung’s thought.
We must never for a single instant forgot class struggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the primary place of politics, and never for a single instant forget to hold high the great rod banner of Mao Tse-tung’s- thought.
Mao Tse-tung’s thought is Marxism-Leninism, of the era in which imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is advancing to world-wide victory, it is a powerful ideological weapon for opposing imperialism and for opposing revisionism and dogmatism. Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the guiding principle for all the work of the Party, the army and the country.
The most fundamental task in our Party’s political and ideological work is at all times to hold high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, to arm the minds of the people throughout the country with it and to persist in using it to command every field of activity. '
Chairman Mao is the most outstanding leader of the proletariat in the present era and the greatest genius in the present era. Chairman Mao has the strongest faith in the masses. He pays the greatest attention to them. He gives the strongest support to the revolutionary movement of the masses. His heart is one with the hearts of the revolutionary masses!
Mao Tse-tung’s thought marks a completely new stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism. It is the Marxism-Leninism of the present era for remoulding the souls of the people. It is the most powerful ideological weapon of the proletariat.
The great proletarian cultural revolution initiated by Chairman Mao is a great creation in the communist movement, a great creation in the socialist revolution!
Ours is the epoch in which world capitalism and imperialism are heading for their doom and socialism and communism are marching to victory. Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s theory of people’s war is not only a product of the Chinese revolution, but has also the characteristics of our epoch. The new experience gained in the people’s revolutionary struggles in various countries since World War II has provided continuous evidence that Mao Tse-tung’s thought is a common asset of the revolutionary people of the whole world. This is the great international significance of thought of Mao Tse-tung.
Mao Tse-tung’s thought has been the guide to the victory of the Chinese revolution. It has integrated the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution and creatively developed Marxism-Leninism, thus adding now weapons to the arsenal of Marxism-Leninism.
The 17 years that have elapsed since the founding of the People’s Republic of China have been no ordinary years. They are years which have witnessed earth-shaking changes in China. They are years which have witnessed earthshaking changes in the world as well.
All our achievements and successes have been scored, under the wise leadership of Chairman Mao and represent the victory of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. We must use Mao Tse-tung’s thought to unify the thinking of the whole Party and the thinking of the people of the whole country.
The question now is not whether we do or do not study but whether we can truly grasp and apply what we study. To grasp and apply truly, we must combine study with reality. Only by linking it with reality can we understand it, fix it in our minds and apply it. Without linking it with reality, we cannot understand it, fix it in our minds and apply it.
The pen and gun—these are the two props on which one relies in the seizure of political power.
The great proletarian- cultural revolution is aimed precisely at eliminating bourgeois ideology, establishing proletarian ideology, remoulding people’s souls, revolutionizing their ideology, digging out the roots of revisionism, and consolidating and developing the socialist system.
Chairman Mao’s words are of the highest level of the highest authority and are most powerful. Every sentence of Chairman Mao’s is truth, and carries more weight 10,000 ordinary sentences.
We must get a still firmer grip on the study of Chairman Mao’s works and put it on a still more solid footing, we must bring about a new order of things and raise study to a new level. Every comrade must do his utmost truly to grasp Mao Tse-tung’s thought, truly master it.
Not only the fighters but also the cadres must, study the “three standing articles”. It is very easy to read the “three standing articles”. But to apply them truly is not so easy. We must study these three articles as maxims. These must be studied at all levels. We must apply what we study so as to revolutionize our thinking.
We should regard ourselves as a part of the strength of the revolution and at the same time constantly make ourselves a target of revolution. We should revolutionize ourselves in the revolution. Without doing this is impossible to make the revolution a success.
Chairman Mao’s line is one of letting the masses educate and emancipate themselves. It is the line of putting “daring” above everything else and of daring to trust the masses, daring to rely on them and daring to arouse them boldly. It is the application and a new development of the Party’s mass line in the great cultural revolution. It is the line of the great proletarian cultural revolution.