Maps of Europe

Maps of Asia

Maps of Africa

New Deal Posters

1

A poster from Roosevelt's New Deal. Roosevelt motivated the American people after the disastrous effects of the Great Depression. The radio and posters were the only mediums available to reach the general public.

Points to Ponder:
When looking at this poster, was this picture actually intended to give an accurate factual representation of what occurred, or was it intended to just give an impression of the truth? Remember, America was a segregated society in the 1930s.

Was this picture intended to persuade people to believe something? If so, what are they persuaded to believe in?

What propaganda techniques have been used in this poster?

What does the poster suggest about what was happening in the USA at the time? Is this poster an accurate reflection of what was happening at that time?

How does having the American flag in the background contribute towards the feeling of patriotism? Explain the effectiveness of the use of words "United we win"?

What is suggested by having both black and white represented on this poster?

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2

Another poster from the period of the New Deal in the USA in the 1930s.

Points to Ponder
Why was it necessary for the USA government to give free classes concerning jobs in the 1930s?

This poster suggests unemployment was a problem for men and women between the ages of 16 and 25 years of age. Was this the case in America in the 1930s? Explain.
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3

A poster promoting the CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps. This poster appeared in Illinois in 1941.

Points to Ponder
What was the purpose behind the Civilian Conservation Corps? Why did the CCC fall away in 1941?

How successful was the CCC?

How many people did the CCC employ at any given time between 1933-1941?

"Pay was low and was described by some as forced labour." Does this mean that the CCC was a failure?

Historical Writing

Different Schools Historiography

The Liberal School

- Historians who follow a liberal interpretation are opposed to racial discrimination and opposed to interference of the government in the lives of people and in business. They usually supported Capitalism.

The Nationalist School

-      Nationalist history often stresses the part played by women and men who are seen as heroes – people who follow. It is biased to one group/country over people over another.

The Revisionist School

-      ‘Revisionist’ indicates that there is something which needs to be revised, or changed. Their approach instead explains history of in economic terms. (Who is exploited? Who has the most to gain financially? etc. They see history as a clash between the classes (upper vs working class).

Historical Writing on the Cold War

The Orthodox View

The orthodox or traditional view was developed by Western historians in the late 1940s and early 1950s. They believed that the Soviet Union was primarily responsible for the outbreak and continuation of the Cold War.

The Soviet regime was seen as extremely antagonistic and threatening to the West.

The Revisionist View

This concept took the view that the US had started and sustained the Cold War.

The Post-Revisionist View

This view did not try to blame one or the other side for the Cold War. It argued that the Cold War was the product of mutual suspicions and over-reaction on both sides.

Cartoons

Cartoons

How to analyse a cartoon

It is possible to work out the message that a cartoon is conveying by looking at:

Step 1

·         The date of the cartoon

·         The caption, if there is one

·         The people and who they represent

·         Any symbols which may appear in the cartoon

·         The actual drawing its self

·         The people who created the cartoon

Step 2

·         You need to identify the cartoonist point of view in order to do this, you need to look at his/her use of humour

Step 3

It is useful to determine your own point of view in relation to the cartoon. When analysing cartoon you need to answer the following questions:

·         What event or issue that inspired the cartoon?

·         Are there any real people in the cartoon? Who is being portrayed in the cartoon?

·         Are there any symbols in the cartoons? What are they and what do they represent?

·         How has the cartoonist use humour to make his point visible in the eye of the reader?

·         Do you agree or disagree with the cartoonist opinion? Give reasons for your answers.

Attitude Vocabulary

Attitude

Positive Connotation

·         Respectful

·         Compassionate

·         Empathetic

·         Humorous

·         Independent

·         Modest

·         Proud

·         Reflective

·         Sentimental

·         Sympathetic

·         Worshipful

Neutral Connotation

·         Impartial

·         Objective

·         Unambiguous

Negative Connotation

·         Angry

·         Annoyed

·         Hopeless

·         Hostile

·         Sarcastic

·         Bitter

·         Condescending

·         Confused

·         Depressed

·         Disappointed

·         Disrespectful

·         Inflammatory

·         Mocking

·         Outraged

·         Pessimistic

·         Sly

Drawing Conclusions

·         Historical writing provides you with facts and information. But often you have to determine the meaning of events on your own. You need to combine the facts and information, along with your prior knowledge, to draw conclusions about the reading. In drawing conclusions, you analyse the reading and form opinions about its meaning.

Usefulness

Usefulness of sources

·         This is similar to asking about reliability, however a source may be biased and therefore unreliable in giving an accurate account of an event, but it will still be useful to a historian studying a specific period in history. Questions to think about are the same for reliability. If a source is, for example, biased, it may not be useful if you are trying to find out about an event; however, that same source might be useful in showing how people felt at the time.

·         A historical map might be useful because of the information on it; an election table is useful for giving the election results and showing which parties people supported, etc.

Primary and Secondary Sources

Different Kinds of Sources

There are three different kinds of sources which historians can use as evidence:

·         Written sources: some of these records may be handwritten, others may be printed.

·         Non-written sources: include the remains of people (bones) and the things people made and used, such as buildings, tools, weapons, ornaments and pottery- these are called artifacts. Visual sources­: paintings, drawings and photographs are also useful. Tapes, records, videos and films are modern non-written sources.

·         Oral sources: stories or remembrances about the past that are handed down by word of mouth.

Historical evidence can be further divided into primary sources and secondary sources:

·         Primary sources: come from the actual time the historian is studying. Examples are skulls, artifacts, buildings, accounts of events written at the time, photographs and most paintings.

·         Secondary sources: are made after the period the historian is studying.  Examples are published books, letters or interviews with people who witnessed historical events. Sometimes they are the writings and drawings of other historians who have selected and interpreted primary sources.

The role of the historian is to decide what sources to use, what questions to ask of them, and how to interpret the evidence from the sources. These decisions will inevitably be influenced by personal attitudes and opinions, but the honest historian will try to be as fair as possible in producing a reliable account.

Mao's Speech

People Of The World, Unite
And Defeat The U.S. Aggressors
And All Their Running Dogs

(6) Mao Zedong: Savior of North Korea

By Andrew Salmon On Oct. 11, 1950, a Scottish soldier, Second-lieutenant Owen Light, passed a group of skeletons standing in an entrenchment in tattered uniforms. All were facing north. This was the 38th parallel; the dead he was passing were a unit of South Korean soldiers, overrun on the first night of the Korea War, on June 25. But in the almost carnival atmosphere of the time, Light thought little of the grim tableau. The young officer was part of the United Nations Command, the U.S.-led force undertaking the first ― and only ― invasion the free world would ever mount into a communist state. Having defeated Kim Il-sung’s North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) in the south, victorious U.N. troops were now rolling across the pre-war frontier. There was negligible resistance from the broken NKPA. Cheering citizens turned out to greet the convoys of liberators driving through their villages. Every sign indicated that this nasty little war was almost over. In fact, U.N. Command was driving down the road to catastrophe. By December, Light’s unit ― the U.N. rearguard ― would be fleeing through devastated villages and burning forests, for in a shock reversal of fortune, free world forces had been routed on the cusp of victory. A new superpower had arisen ― a superpower whose actions had jerked North Korea back from the brink of extinction. The man who led that superpower ― and who masterminded its stunning military intervention ― was a peasant, a former librarian and a guerilla strategist who had never set foot on the Korean Peninsula.

May 23, 1970

[SOURCE: Peking Review (23 May, 1970).]

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A new upsurge in the struggle against U.S. imperialism is now emerging throughout the world. Ever since the Second World War, U.S. imperialism and its followers have been continuously launching wars of aggression and the people in various countries have been continuously waging revolutionary wars to defeat the aggressors. The danger of a new world war still exists, and the people of all countries must get prepared. But revolution is the main trend in the world today.

Unable to win in Vietnam and Laos, the U.S. aggressors treacherously engineered the reactionary coup d’etat by the Lon Nol Sirik Matak clique, brazenly dispatched their troops to invade Cambodia and resumed the bombing of North Vietnam, and this has aroused the furious resistance of the three Indo Chinese peoples. I warmly support the fighting spirit of Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State of Cambodia, in opposing U.S. imperialism and its lackeys. I warmly support the Joint Declaration of the Summit Conference of the Indo Chinese Peoples. I warmly support the establishment of the Royal Government of National Union under the Leadership of the National United Front of Kampuchea. Strengthening their unity, supporting each other and persevering in a protracted people’s war, the three Indo-Chinese peoples will certainly overcome all difficulties and win complete victory.

While massacring the people in other countries, U.S. imperialism is slaughtering the white and black people in its own country. Nixon’s fascist atrocities have kindled the raging flames of the revolutionary mass movement in the United States. The Chinese people firmly support the revolutionary struggle of the American people. I am convinced that the American people who are fighting valiantly will ultimately win victory and that the fascist rule in the United States will inevitably be defeated.

The Nixon government is beset with troubles internally and externally, with utter chaos at home and extreme isolation abroad. The mass movement of protest against U.S. aggression in Cambodia has swept the globe. Less than ten days after its establishment, the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia was recognized by nearly twenty countries. The situation is getting better and better in the war of resistance against U.S. aggression and for national salvation waged by the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The revolutionary armed struggles of the people of the South-east Asian countries, the struggles of the people of Korea, Japan and other Asian countries against the revival of Japanese militarism by the U.S. and Japanese reactionaries, the struggles of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples against the U.S.-Israeli aggressors, the national-liberation struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples, and the revolutionary struggles of the peoples of North America, Europe and Oceania are all developing vigorously. The Chinese people firmly support the people of the three Indo-Chinese countries and of other countries of the world in their revolutionary struggles against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys.

U.S. imperialism, which looks like a huge monster, is in essence a paper tiger, now in the throes of its deathbed struggle. In the world of today, who actually fears whom? It is not the Vietnamese people, the Laotian people, the Cambodian people, the Palestinian people, the Arab people or the people of other countries who fear U.S. imperialism; it is U.S. imperialism which fears the people of the world. It becomes panic-stricken at the mere rustle of leaves in the wind. Innumerable facts prove that a just cause enjoys abundant support while an unjust cause finds little support. A weak nation can defeat a strong, a small nation can defeat a big. The people of a small country can certainly defeat aggression by a big country, if only they dare to rise in struggle, dare to take up arms and grasp in their own hands the destiny of their country. This is a law of history.

People of the world, unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their running dogs!

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Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.
HTML revised 2004 by Marxists.org

THE CHINESE PEOPLE HAVE STOOD UP!

September 21, 1949

[Opening address at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.]

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Fellow Delegates,

The Political Consultative Conference so eagerly awaited by the whole nation is herewith inaugurated.

Our conference is composed of more than six hundred delegates, representing all the democratic parties and people's organizations of China, the People's Liberation Army, the various regions and nationalities of the country and the overseas Chinese. This shows that ours is a conference embodying the great unity of the people of the whole country.

It is because we have defeated the reactionary Kuomintang government backed by U.S. imperialism that this great unity of the whole people has been achieved. In a little more than three years the heroic Chinese People's Liberation Army, an army such as the world has seldom seen, crushed all the offensives launched by the several million troops of the U.S.-supported reactionary Kuomintang government and turned to the counter-offensive and the offensive. At present the field armies of the People's Liberation Army, several million strong, have pushed the war to areas near Taiwan, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Kweichow, Szechuan and Sinkiang, and the great majority of the Chinese people have won liberation. In a little more than three years the people of the whole country have closed their ranks, rallied to support the People's Liberation Army, fought the enemy and won basic victory. And it is on this foundation that the present People's Political Consultative Conference is convened.

Our conference is called the Political Consultative Conference because some three years ago we held a Political Consultative Conference with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang.[1] The results of that conference were sabotaged by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang and its accomplices; nevertheless the conference left an indelible impression on the people. It showed that nothing in the interest of the people could be accomplished together with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, the running dog of imperialism, and its accomplices. Even when resolutions were reluctantly adopted, it was of no avail, for as soon as the time was ripe, they tore them up and started a ruthless war against the people. The only gain from that conference was the profound lesson it taught the people that there is absolutely no room for compromise with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, the running dog of imperialism, and its accomplices -- overthrow these enemies or be oppressed and slaughtered by them, either one or the other, there is no other choice. In a little more than three years the Chinese people, led by the Chinese Communist Party, have quickly awakened and organized themselves into a nation-wide united front against imperialism, feudalism, bureaucrat-capitalism and their general representative, the reactionary Kuomintang government, supported the People's War of Liberation, basically defeated the reactionary Kuomintang government, overthrown the rule of imperialism in China and restored the Political Consultative Conference.

The present Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is convened on an entirely new foundation; it is representative of the people of the whole country and enjoys their trust and support. Therefore, the conference proclaims that it will exercise the functions and powers of a National People's Congress. In accordance with its agenda, the conference will enact the Organic Law of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Organic Law of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China and the Common Programme of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; it will elect the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Central People's Government Council of the People's Republic of China; it will adopt the national flag and national emblem of the People's Republic of China; and it will decide on the seat of the capital of the People's Republic of China and adopt the chronological system in use in most countries of the world.

Fellow Delegates, we are all convinced that our work will go down in the history of mankind, demonstrating that the Chinese people, comprising one quarter of humanity, have now stood up. The Chinese have always been a great, courageous and industrious nation; it is only in modern times that they have fallen behind. And that was due entirely to oppression and exploitation by foreign imperialism and domestic reactionary governments. For over a century our forefathers never stopped waging unyielding struggles against domestic and foreign oppressors, including the Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, our great forerunner in the Chinese revolution. Our forefathers enjoined us to carry out their unfulfilled will. And we have acted accordingly. We have closed our ranks and defeated both domestic and foreign oppressors through the People's War of Liberation and the great people's revolution, and now we are proclaiming the founding of the People's Republic of China. From now on our nation will belong to the community of the peace-loving and freedom-loving nations of the world and work courageously and industriously to foster its own civilization and well-being and at the same time to promote world peace and freedom. Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up. Our revolution has won the sympathy and acclaim of the people of all countries. We have friends all over the world.

Our revolutionary work is not completed, the People's War of Liberation and the people's revolutionary movement are still forging ahead and we must keep up our efforts. The imperialists and the domestic reactionaries will certainly not take their defeat lying down; they will fight to the last ditch. After there is peace and order throughout the country, they are sure to engage in sabotage and create disturbances by one means or another and every day and every minute they will try to stage a come-back. This is inevitable and beyond all doubt, and under no circumstances must we relax our vigilance.

Our state system, the people's democratic dictatorship, is a powerful weapon for safeguarding the fruits of victory of the people's revolution and for thwarting the plots of domestic and foreign enemies for restoration, and this weapon we must firmly grasp. Internationally, we must unite with all peace-loving and freedom-loving countries and peoples, and first of all with the Soviet Union and the New Democracies, so that we shall not stand alone in our struggle to safeguard these fruits of victory and to thwart the plots of domestic and foreign enemies for restoration. As long as we persist in the people's democratic dictatorship and unite with our foreign friends, we shall always be victorious.

The people's democratic dictatorship and solidarity with our foreign friends will enable us to accomplish our work of construction rapidly. We are already confronted with the task of nation-wide economic construction. We have very favourable conditions: a population of 475 million people and a territory of 9,600,000 square kilometres. There are indeed difficulties ahead, and a great many too. But we firmly believe that by heroic struggle the people of the country will surmount them all. The Chinese people have rich experience in overcoming difficulties. If our forefathers, and we also, could weather long years of extreme difficulty and defeat powerful domestic and foreign reactionaries, why can't we now, after victory, build a prosperous and flourishing country? As long as we keep to our style of plain living and hard struggle, as long as we stand united and as long as we persist in the people's democratic dictatorship and unite with our foreign friends, we shall be able to win speedy victory on the economic front.

An upsurge in economic construction is bound to be followed by an upsurge of construction in the cultural sphere. The era in which the Chinese people were regarded as uncivilized is now ended. We shall emerge in the world as a nation with an advanced culture.

Our national defence will be consolidated and no imperialists will ever again be allowed to invade our land. Our people's armed forces must be maintained and developed with the heroic and steeled People's Liberation Army as the foundation. We will have not only a powerful army but also a powerful air force and a powerful navy.

Let the domestic and foreign reactionaries tremble before us! Let them say we are no good at this and no good at that. By our own indomitable efforts we the Chinese people will unswervingly reach our goal.

The heroes of the people who laid down their lives in the People's War of Liberation and the people's revolution shall live for ever in our memory!

Hail the victory of the People's War of Liberation and the people's revolution!

Hail the founding of the People's Republic of China!

Hail the triumph of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference!

NOTES

1. "Smash Chiang Kai-shek's Offensive by a War of Self-Defence", Note 2, Selected Works of Mao Tsetung, Vol. IV.

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Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.
HTML revised 2004 by Marxists.org

Modern History Sourcebook:
Dean Acheson:
United States Position on China, August 1949

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Statement by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, August 5, 1949

The reasons for the failures of the Chinese National Government . . . do not stem from any inadequacy of American aid. Our military observers on the spot have reported that the Nationalist armies did not lose a single battle during the crucial year of 1948 through lack of arms or ammunition. The fact was that the decay which our observers had detected in Chungking early in the war had fatally sapped the powers of resistance of the Kuomintang. Its leaders had proved incapable of meeting the crisis confronting them, its troops bad lost the will to fight, and its Government bad lost popular support. The Communists, on the other hand, through a ruthless discipline and fanatical zeal, attempted to sell themselves as guardians and liberators of the people. The Nationalist armies did not have to be defeated; they disintegrated. History has proved again and again that a regime without faith in itself and an army without morale cannot survive the test of battle. . . .

The historic policy of the United States of friendship and aid toward the people of China was, however, maintained in both peace and war. Since V-J Day, the United States Government has authorized aid to Nationalist China in the form of grants and credits totaling approximately 2 billion dollars, an amount equivalent in value to more than 50 percent of the monetary expenditures of the Chinese Government and of proportionately greater magnitude in relation to the budget of that Government than the United States has provided to any nation of Western Europe since the end of the war. In addition to these grants and credits, the United States Government has sold the Chinese Government large quantities of military and civilian war surplus property with a total procurement cost of over I billion dollars, for which the agreed realization to the United States was 232 million dollars. A large proportion of the military supplies furnished the Chinese armies by the United States since V-J Day has, however, fallen into the hands of the Chinese Communists through the military ineptitude of the Nationalist leaders, their defections and surrenders, and the absence among their forces of the will to fight.

It has been urged that relatively small amounts of additional aid-military and economic-to the National Government would have enabled it to destroy communism in China. The most trustworthy military, economic, and politic al information available to our Government does not bear out this view.

A realistic appraisal of conditions in China, past and present, leads to the conclusion that the only alternative open to the United States was full-scale intervention in behalf of a Government which bad lost the confidence of its own troops and its own people. Such intervention would have required the expenditure of even greater sums than have been fruitlessly spent thus far, the command of Nationalist armies by American officers, and the probable participation of American armed forces-land, sea, and air-in the resulting war. Intervention of such a scope and magnitude would have been resented by the mass of the Chinese people, would have diametrically reversed our historic policy, and would have been condemned by the American people. . . .

The unfortunate but inescapable fact is that the ominous result of the civil war in China was beyond the control of the government of the United States. Nothing that this country did or could have done within the reasonable limits of its capabilities could have changed that result; nothing that was left undone by this country has contributed to it. It was the product of internal Chinese forces, forces which this country tried to influence but could not. A decision was arrived at within China, if only a decision by default.

And now it is abundantly clear that we must face the situation as it exists in fact. We will not help the Chinese or ourselves by basing our policy on wishful thinking. We continue to believe that, however tragic may be the immediate future of China and however ruthlessly a major portion of this great people may be exploited by a party in the interest of a foreign imperialism, ultimately the profound civilization and the democratic individualism of China will reassert themselves and she will throw off the foreign yoke. I consider that we should encourage all developments in China which now and in the future work toward this end.

Modern History Sourcebook:
Pravda:
Editorial: The Anti-Soviet Policy of Communist China, February 16, 1967

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During the past half century our party and our people have more than once had to withstand fierce attacks by hostile forces against the first socialist state in the history of mankind. If, however, we omit the periods of war, the periods of direct armed aggression against the Soviet Union, it can be said that never before has such a fierce campaign been svaged against it as the one launched by the present leaders of China....In their shameless violations of the existing standards and customs of international law the Chinese authorities go to lengths which even the most reactionary of imperialist governments have rarely permitted themselves....What are the organisers of the campaign of hatred against the Soviet Union trying to achieve?The facts show that the persons who are today directing the policy of China, are setting themselves the goal not only of bringing up the Chinese people in a spirit of enmity towards the U.S.S.R. but of worsening SovietChinese relations to the limit, and, in the last analysis, bringing those relations to the point of a complete break. . . .Another question arises in this connection: Why does the Mao Tse-tung group need this worsening of the position and what goals is it pursuing? The answer to this question should be sought in the entire nationalistic, greatpower policy of the present Chinese leadership....Nor can there be any doubt either about the fact that one of the direct reasons for the anti-Soviet policy and the anti-Soviet propaganda of the present Chinese leadership is a desire to divert the attention of the Chinese people from the privations and difficulties they are experiencing and from the many mistakes and failures in the domestic and foreign policy of China. Here we are actually confronted with the old and hackneyed method employed by all unprincipled politicians when facing bankruptcy....It was by no means accidental that they fired their first shots in the political war against the Soviet state and the C.P.S.U. shortly after the failure of the ill-starred policy of the "Great Leap" and the "people's communes." As the scale of the setbacks in domestic policy and the failure of the line in the foreign policy pursued by the C.P.C. leadership, which led the country to isolation, became increasingly clear, the intensity of the anti-Soviet campaign grew more and more. . . .In an atmosphere of tense struggle inside the party and among the people, Mao Tse-tung's group needed this slander precisely in the interests of the power struggle. Mao Tse-tung simply could not have remained in power without such slander, because the Soviet Union's successes in building communism and the successes in building socialism in other countries expose his apostasy and the bankruptcy of his political line.. The entire practice of the C.P.S.U. and the other Communist Parties which are consistently developing Lenimst standards in inner-party life, strengthening the principles of collective leadership and strictly adhering to democratic principles in the activities of all party organisations from top to bottom, naturally creates a danger to Mao Tse-tung and his power, for Mao Tse-tung's group has long been attacking its own party. The most elementary standards and principles of inner party life-the elective nature of party bodies, the responsibility of leaders to the party and party organisations, publicity in the discussion of the party line, etc.-bave been trampled underfoot in China. The cult of the personality of Mao Tse-tung has reached absurd lengths and has become actual idolatry ...The anti-Soviet campaign of the Chinese leaders is being waged in the most outrageous ways, with real hooliganism.However, the fact that it apparently assumes the character of an offensive should not deceive anyone. In reality, the actions of Mao Tse-tung's group are motivated not by their strength but by their weakness, by their fear of their own party and their own people. The most recent events show that the Peking leaders have sufficient grounds for that fear. The "cultural revolution " has brought to light the great degree of dissatisfaction that exists among the workers, peasants and in tell ectuals-dissatisf action which has spread even to the army and the youth on whom Mao Tse-tung's group is gambling. The events which began under the banner of the "cultural revolution" have actually developed into a fierce struggle by Mao Tse-tung and his followers to retain power, Their policy shows that for the sake of power they are ready to sacrifice everything - the interests of socialism, the interests of their people and the interests of the revolution....The main thing is, however, that already today Mao Tse-tung and his entourage, by their policy, are rendering invaluable services to the imperialists.This group has actually replaced the struggle against imperialism by a struggle against the Soviet Union and the otlier socialist countries, and against the communist movement. It is thereby weakening the front Of the anti-imperialist forces and worsening the entire political situation in Asia. All this is, in the first place, a stab in the back for the heroic Vietnamese people in their struggle against the American aggressors, Imperialist circles fully approve of this line of Mao Tse-tung's group. The Washington Post has said that officials in Washington believe that Mao is serving American interests and they are therefore even thinking of cultivating Maoism as a means of bringing pressure to bear on Moscow. The magazine United States News and World Report has directly stated in this connection that the United States is gambling oil Mao and that American officials tend to prefer a victory for Mao Tse-tung in his struggle to destroy more nioderate elements, because that would mean more trouble for Soviet Russia.Such is the reaction of imperialist Circles to Mao Tse-tung's policy, which is advertised in Peking propaganda as the very latest thing in "revolutionariness." Praise of this kind from the class enemy is yet another proof of the extent to which the domestic and foreign policy of Mao Tse-tung and his group is contrary to tbe interests of socialism, to the interests of the revolution, and plavs into the bands of imperialism, and in the first place, United States imperialism. . . .Having replaced the struggle against imperialism with a struggle against the Soviet Union, against the whole socialist community, and against the international communist and liberation movements, Mao Tse-tung's group is doing considerable harm to the cause of world socialism, including harm to the Chinese people and the cause of building socialism in China. The adventurist anti-Leninist policy of this group has in store for the Chinese people only a further worsening of economic difficulties, a lowering of living standards, a deterioration in the mteinational situation and the prospect of China becoming completely isolated from the socialist community. []

"FRIENDSHIP" OR AGGRESSION?

August 30, 1949

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Seeking to justify aggression, Dean Acheson harps on "friendship" and throws in lots of "principles".

Acheson says:

The interest of the people and the Government of the United States in China goes far back into our history. Despite the distance and broad differences in background which separate China and the United States, our friendship for that country has always been intensified by the religious, philanthropic and cultural ties which have united the two peoples, and has been attested by many acts of good will over a period of many years, including the use of the Boxer indemnity for the education of Chinese students, the abolition of extraterritoriality during the Second World War, and our extensive aid to China during and since the close of the War. The record shows that the United States has consistently maintained and still maintains those fundamental principles of our foreign policy toward China which include the doctrine of the Open Door, respect for the administrative and territorial integrity of China, and opposition to any foreign domination of China.

Acheson is telling a bare-faced lie when he describes aggression as "friendship".

The history of the aggression against China by U.S. imperialism, from 1840 when it helped the British in the Opium War to the time it was thrown out of China by the Chinese people, should be written into a concise textbook for the education of Chinese youth. The United States was one of the first countries to force China to cede extraterritoriality [1] -- witness the Treaty of Wanghia [2] of 1844, the first treaty ever signed between China and the United States, a treaty to which the White Paper refers. In this very treaty, the United States compelled China to accept American missionary activity, in addition to imposing such terms as the opening of five ports for trade. For a very long period, U.S. imperialism laid greater stress than other imperialist countries on activities in the sphere of spiritual aggression, extending from religious to "philanthropic" and cultural undertakings. According to certain statistics, the investments of U.S. missionary and "philanthropic" organizations in China totalled 41,900,000 U.S. dollars, and 14.7 per cent of the assets of the missionary organizations were in medical service, 38.2 per cent in education and 47.1 per cent in religious activities.[3] Many well-known educational institutions in China, such as Yenching University, Peking Union Medical College, the Huei Wen Academies, St. John's University, the University of Nanking, Soochow University, Hangchow Christian College, Hsiangya Medical School, West China Union University and Lingnan University, were established by Americans.[4] It was in this field that Leighton Stuart made a name for himself; that was how he became U.S. ambassador to China. Acheson and his like know what they are talking about, and there is a background for his statement that "our friendship for that country has always been intensified by the religious, philanthropic and cultural ties which have united the two peoples". It was all for the sake of "intensifying friendship", we are told, that the United States worked so hard and deliberately at running these undertakings for 105 years after the signing of the Treaty of 1844.

Participation in the Eight-Power Allied Expedition to defeat China in 1900, the extortion of the "Boxer indemnity" and the later use of this fund "for the education of Chinese students" for purposes of spiritual aggression -- this too counts as an expression of "friendship".

Despite the "abolition" of extraterritoriality, the culprit in the raping of Shen Chung was declared not guilty and released by the U.S. Navy Department on his return to the United States[5] -- this counts as another expression of "friendship".

"Aid to China during and since the close of the War", totalling over 4,500 million U.S. dollars according to the White Paper, but over 5,914 million U.S. dollars according to our computation, was given to help Chiang Kai-shek slaughter several million Chinese -- this counts as yet another expression of "friendship".

All the "friendship" shown to China by U.S. imperialism over the past 109 years (since 1840 when the United States collaborated with Britain in the Opium War), and especially the great act of "friendship" in helping Chiang Kai-shek slaughter several million Chinese in the last few years -- all this had one purpose, namely, it "consistently maintained and still maintains those fundamental principles of our foreign policy toward China which include the doctrine of the Open Door, respect for the administrative and territorial integrity of China, and opposition to any foreign domination of China".

Several million Chinese were killed for no other purpose than first, to maintain the Open Door, second, to respect the administrative and territorial integrity of China and, third, to oppose any foreign domination of China.

Today, the only doors still open to Acheson and his like are in small strips of land, such as Canton and Taiwan, and only in these places is the first of these sacred principles "still maintained". In other places, in Shanghai for instance, the door was open after liberation, but now some one is using U.S. warships and their big guns to enforce the far from sacred principle of the Blockaded Door.

Today, it is only in small strips of land, such as Canton and Taiwan, that thanks to Acheson's second sacred principle administrative and territorial "integrity" is "still maintained". All other places are out of luck, and administration and territory have fallen to pieces.

Today, it is only in places such as Canton and Taiwan that thanks to Acheson's third sacred principle all "foreign domination", including U.S. domination, has been successfully done away with through the "opposition" of Acheson and his like; therefore such places are still dominated by the Chinese. The rest of the land of China -- the mere mention makes one weep -- is all gone, all dominated by foreigners, and the Chinese there have one and all been turned into slaves. Up to this point in his writing, His Excellency Dean Acheson did not have time to indicate what country these foreigners came from, but it becomes clear as one reads on, so there is no need to ask.

Whether non-interference in China's domestic affairs also counts as a principle, Acheson didn't say; probably it does not. Such is the logic of the U.S. mandarins. Anyone who reads Acheson's Letter of Transmittal to the end will attest to its superior logic.

NOTES

1. "Extraterritoriality" here refers to consular jurisdiction. It was one of the special privileges for aggression which the imperialists wrested from China. Under the so-called consular jurisdiction, nationals of imperialist countries residing in China were not subject to the jurisdiction of Chinese law; when they committed crimes or became defendants in civil lawsuits, they could be tried only in their respective countries' consular courts in China, and the Chinese government could not intervene.

2. The "Treaty of Wanghia" was the first unequal treaty signed as a result of U.S. aggression against China. The United States, taking advantage of China's defeat in the Opium War, compelled the Ching Dynasty to sign this treaty, also called the "Sino-American Treaty on the Opening of Five Ports for Trade", in Wanghia Village near Macao in July 1844. Its thirty-four articles stipulated that whatever rights and privileges, including consular jurisdiction, were gained by Britain through the Treaty of Nanking and its annexes would also accrue to the United States.

3. See C. F. Remer, Foreign Investments in China, Chapter 15.

4. Yenching University was in Peiping; the Huei Wen Academies, in Peiping and Nanking; St. John's University, in Shanghai; Hsiangya Medical School (Yale in China), in Changsha; West China Union University, in Chengtu; and Lingnan University, in Canton.

5. William Pierson, a corporal, and other U.S. marines raped Shen Chung, a girl student of Peking University, in Peiping on December 24, 1946. This aroused the great indignation of the people throughout the country against the atrocities of the U.S. forces. In January 1947, brushing aside the people's protests, the Kuomintang government handed over the chief criminal, Pierson, to the Americans to be dealt with at their discretion. In August the U.S. Navy Department set this criminal free with a verdict of "not guilty".

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A New Storm Against Imperialism

April 16, 1968

[SOURCE: Peking Review, April 19, 1968, pp. 5-6.]

[“Statement by Comrade Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in Support of the Afro-American Struggle Against Violent Repression” (April 16, 1968)]

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Some days ago, Martin Luther King, the Afro-American clergyman, was suddenly assassinated by the U.S. imperialists. Martin Luther King was an exponent of nonviolence. Nevertheless, the U.S. imperialists did not on that account show any tolerance toward him, but used counter-revolutionary violence and killed him in cold blood. This has taught the broad masses of the Black people in the United States a profound lesson. It has touched off a new storm in their struggle against violent repression sweeping well over a hundred cities in the United States, a storm such as has never taken place before in the history of that country. It shows that an extremely powerful revolutionary force is latent in the more than twenty million Black Americans.

The storm of Afro-American struggle taking place within the United States is a striking manifestation of the comprehensive political and economic crisis now gripping U.S. imperialism. It is dealing a telling blow to U.S. imperialism, which is beset with difficulties at home and abroad.

The Afro-American struggle is not only a struggle waged by the exploited and oppressed Black people for freedom and emancipation, it is also a new clarion call to all the exploited and oppressed people of the United States to fight against the barbarous rule of the monopoly capitalist class. It is a tremendous aid and inspiration to the struggle of the people throughout the world against U.S. imperialism and to the struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialism. On behalf of the Chinese people, I hereby express resolute support for the just struggle of the Black people in the United States.

Racial discrimination in the United States is a product of the colonialist and imperialist system. The contradiction between the Black masses in the United States and the U.S. ruling circles is a class contradiction. Only by overthrowing the reactionary rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class and destroying the colonialist and imperialist system can the Black people in the United States win complete emancipation. The Black masses and the masses of white working people in the United States have common interests and common objectives to struggle for. Therefore, the Afro-American struggle is winning sympathy and support from increasing numbers of white working people and progessives in the United States. The struggle of the Black people in the United States is bound to merge with the American workers’ movement, and this will eventually end the criminal rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class.

In 1963, in the “Statement Supporting the Afro-Americans in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism,” I said that the “the evil system of colonialism and imperialism arose and throve with the enslavement of Negroes and the trade in Negroes, and it will surely come to its end with the complete emancipation of the Black people.” I still maintain this view.

At present, the world revolution has entered a great new era. The struggle of the Black people in the United States for emancipation is a component part of the general struggle of al the people of the world against U.S. imperialism, a component part of the contemporary world revolution. I call on the workers, peasants, and revolutionary intellectuals of all countries and all who are willing to fight against U.S. imperialism to take action and extend strong support to the struggle of the Black people in the United States! People of the whole world, unite still more closely and launch a sustained and vigorous offensive against our common enemy, U.S. imperialism, and its accomplices! It can be said with certainty that the complete collapse of colonialism, imperialism, and all systems of exploitation, and the complete emancipation of all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world are not far off.

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The Days Of The U.S. Aggressors
In Vietnam Are Numbered

December 19, 1967

[SOURCE: Peking Review, no. 52, 1967, p. 5.]

(Full text of comrade Mao’s message 19 December 1967 to President Nguyen Huu Tho of the National Liberation Front)

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On behalf of the Chinese people, I extend the warmest congratulations to the fighting people of southern Vietnam on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the founding of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front.

You are putting up a good fight! Under exceptionally difficult conditions, you have, by relying on your own strength, battered U.S. imperialism, the most ferocious imperialism in the world, so that its forces are in disorder and it has no way out. This is a great victory. The Chinese people salute you.

Your victory manifests once again that a nation, big or small, can defeat any enemy, however powerful provided only that it fully mobilizes its people, relies firmly on the people, and wages a people’s war. By their war against U.S. aggression and for national salvation under the wise and able leadership of the great leader President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese people have set a brilliant example for the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations the world over in their struggle for liberation.

The days of the U.S. aggressors in Vietnam are numbered. However, all reactionary forces on the verge of extinction invariably conduct desperate struggles. They are bound to resort to military adventure and political deception in all their forms in order to save themselves from extinction. And the revolutionary peoples are bound to meet with all kinds of difficulties before final victory. Nevertheless, all these difficulties can be surmounted, and no difficulty can ever obstruct the advance of the revolutionary people. Perseverance means victory. I am deeply convinced that, by persevering in protracted war, the Vietnamese people will certainly be able to drive the U.S. aggressors out of Vietnam.

We firmly support you. We are neighbouring countries as close as the lips and the teeth. Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe. The fraternal people of southern Vietnam and the entire fraternal Vietnamese people can rest assured that your struggle is our struggle. The 700 million Chinese people are the powerful rearguard of the Vietnamese people; the vast expanse of China’s territory is their reliable rear area. In the face of the solid fighting unity of our two peoples, all military adventures and political deceptions by U.S. imperialism will certainly fail.

Victory will definitely belong to the heroic Vietnamese people!

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