Anti Imperialists

"I am just an ordinary Communist who has worked for Chairman Mao as a secretary for many years. My work principally has concerned international problems. I am a sort of roving sentry in the field of culture and education. What I have been doing is to subscribe to some magazines and newspapers, to leaf through them, and to pick out materials which I think noteworthy, including positive and negative materials. I finally submit them to Chairman Mao for reference. Generally speaking, my work has been carried out in this way for many years."

"Moreover, I wish to remind our comrades of the importance of the cultural and educational front. As far as this problem is concerned, our past knowledge was insufficient. We placed all the questionable and not especially capable cadres in positions of the cultural and educational front, which does not include the millions of intelligentsia we have absorbed. Consequently, there was a proliferation of bourgeois and feudal materials. We weren't quite aware of the situation then, nor were we aware of its awesome effects."

"The establishment of troops in the cultural circles has this problem: the class element is relatively complicated. But, while a person cannot decide his own origin, his performance and attitude still count."

"For many years, Chairman Mao has repeatedly instructed us. We should unite with the absolute majority, with the more than 95 percent of the people of the whole country. After the editor's note of the September 5 issue, our comrades should think about this question. After distinguishing right from wrong, we should consolidate more than 95 percent of the working class. The working class also fights! Do not think that you do not fight! You have fought enough, and have worked out the great alliance and revolutionary three-in-one combination before you moved into the schools. Otherwise, you would still have to fight. Consolidate over 95 percent of the poor and lower-middle peasants; consolidate over 95 percent of armed forces—the P.L.A."

"I was Chairman Mao's dog. Whomever he told me to bite, I bit."

"Sex is engaging in the first rounds. What sustains interest in the long run is political power."

"When I realized that it was something I had to do, for the country, for myself, nothing I did when I was young, I don't continue to do now. I am still as enthusiastic as when I joined the resistance against the French. Of course, my enthusiasm now is for another purpose. Having been independent and unified, I hope the people will be happier and the society will be better."

"We resolutely defend the country's sovereignty, but advocate the settlement of territorial disputes by peaceful means."

"I have not made any mistakes. The path I'm on is absolutely right, there are just some things I could have done better to contribute to the common work."

"When I signed the Paris Agreement, I was extremely moved, thinking of my compatriots, comrades, friends in both the South and the North, thinking of those who have fallen and can no longer know. This momentous event brought tears to my eyes. That is probably the most profound memory in my diplomatic life."

"The military-political struggle on the battlefield creates a favorable environment for the diplomatic struggle, the international political-diplomatic struggle in coordination with the domestic political-military struggle, combines the strength of the strength of the nation with the strength of the times, increasing the fighting strength of our army and people."

"We had hope that the struggle on all the three fronts, the diplomatic front, the political front and the military front, would help us reach our goal."

"Hanoi Hannah was clearly one of the most prominent broadcasters we had in the history of the Voice of Vietnam and the country in general. She will be remembered for her legendary voice in broadcasts targeting American servicemen. Her influence on Vietnam’s success against the US was huge."

"Hannah often stirred up arguments among the P.O.W.s. There were nearly fist fights over the programs. Some guys wanted to hear them, while others tried to ignore them. Personally, I listened because I usually gleaned information, reading between the lines."

"Hannah comes on and she knows what guard unit was called in and what kind of weapons were used. That’s when it starts to hit home. We knew what kind of fire power and devastation that kind of weapon can do to people, and now those same weapons were turning on us, you know, our own military is killing our own people. We might as well have been Viet Cong. But Hannah picked up on it and talked about it."

"The signal was pretty good around Da Nang and we would tune in once or twice a week to hear her talk about the war, Hannah didn’t necessarily make sense; she used American English, but really didn’t speak our language in spite of hip expressions and hit tunes, even tunes banned on U.S. Army radio. The best thing going for her was that she was female and had a nice soft voice."

"We were trying to make the Americans understand that it was not right for them to be in Vietnam, that they were an aggressor, that this was a problem for the Vietnamese to sort out."

"I wanted to join the Voice of Vietnam because it was a good opportunity to help my country. I was not political. I was patriotic."

"I heard her every day. She’s a marvelous entertainer. I’m surprised she didn’t get to Hollywood."

"She struck me mainly as an intellectual. Certainly didn't remind me of a strident propagandist at all."

"When the bombs came on Hanoi, I did feel angry. To the Vietnamese, Hanoi is a sacred ground. But even then, when I spoke to the G.I.s I tried always to be calm. I never felt aggression toward Americans as a people. I never called them the enemy, only adversaries."

"We bought the music from progressive Americans who came to visit Hanoi. We also have our own music, but I think that the G.I.s like to listen to American music, it's more suitable to their ears."

"Let’s let bygones be bygones. Let’s move on and be friends. There will be many benefits if we can be friends together. There is no reason to be enemies."

"San Francisco has always been a dream. And the Golden Gate Bridge and Hollywood, I’d love to see them too."

"My goal was to tell G.I.s they shouldn’t participate in a war that wasn’t theirs. I tried to be friendly and convincing. I didn’t want to be shrill or aggressive. For instance, I referred to the Americans as the adversary. I never called them the enemy."

"We mentioned that G.I.s should go AWOL and suggested some frigging, or that is fragging. We advised them to do what they think proper against the war."

"I always preferred American movies to French films. The French talked too much. There was more action in American movies."

"Now for our talk. A Vietnam black G.I. who refuses to be a victim of racism is Billy Smith. It seems on the morning of March 15th a fragmentation grenade went off in an officer’s barracks in Bien Hoa killing two gung-ho lieutenants. Smith was illegally searched, arrested and put in Long Binh jail and brought home for trial. The evidence that showed him guilty was this: being black, poor and against the war and refusing to be a victim of racism."

"American G.I.s don't fight this unjust immoral and illegal war of Johnson's. Get out of Vietnam now and alive. This is the voice of Vietnam Broadcasting from Hanoi, capitol of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Our program for American G.I.s can be heard at 16:30 hours. Now here's Connie Francis singing "I Almost Lost My Mind"."

"Our program served for a cause, so we believed in that cause. So we continued to broadcast."

"Isn't it clear that the war makers are gambling with your lives, while pocketing huge profits?"

"Defect, G.I. It is a very good idea to leave a sinking ship. You know you cannot win this war."

"G.I., your government has abandoned you. They have ordered you to die. Don’t trust them. They lied to you, G.I.s, you know you cannot win this war."

"I thought it was time for me to do something to contribute to the revolution."

"My work was to make the G.I.s understand that it was not right for them to take part in this war. I talk to them about the traditions of the Vietnamese, to resist aggression. I want them to know the truth about this war and to do a little bit to demoralize them so that they will refuse to fight."

"The question is not to beg to the foreign capitalists but to manage and work out policies which are more beneficial to the domestic economy. I hope that in the future, Vietnam will look for every measure to make our international relations equal."

"It is not objectively necessary to establish a political mechanism of pluralism and multiparty government. Socialism is the only right decision."

"The reality has proven that in the struggle between the new and the old, progressive and the backward, and appropriate law, vitality often appears at the grassroots in the most difficult and complicated places."

"In the field of socialist revolution, party building work must be associated with the renovation and economic construction, cultural renovation and development. The strengthening of ideological and political work, organization and inspection work must be really associated with the productive labor movement, with striving for the implementation of economic and social plans."

"The comprehensive cooperation relationship and the help of the Soviet Union, other countries in the socialist community, as well as the two brothers Laos and Cambodia, create favorable conditions for us to strive to overcome difficulties in the future. But here, the decisive factor is still the strong efforts of our people."

"Unlike the leaders of Iraq or Argentina, Vietnamese leaders Ho Chi Minh and Le Duan made decisions cautiously and shrewdly, using force only after lengthy internal debate. Their approach paid off: the United States withdrew in 1973, and Vietnam was reunified in 1975. It was a stunning defeat for the democratic side, and Le Duan’s reward for the victory was a long career as ruler of a united Vietnam."

"We want to forget the past, forget that under several American Presidents we were engaged in a brutal war we did not start. We would like to see the U.S. embargo lifted and the two sides sit down and talk over the problems that are left from the war -- problems like both sides cooperating to find the remains of Americans missing in action. We want the Amerasians, all of them, to go to America, if the father wants his child. If the Vietnamese mother wants to go, she will be allowed to go. There is no interest, none, for either country to maintain a gap between us. Step by step, we should move to restore diplomatic relations. Let us put the war behind us and work for a peaceful future."

"We hail the new era in our nation's 4,000 year history - an era of brilliant prospects for the development of a peaceful, independent, reunified, democratic, prosperous and strong Vietnam, an era in which the labour in people have become the complete masters of their destiny and will pool their physical and mental efforts to build a plentiful and happy life for themselves and for thousands of generations to come."

"We hail our glorious fatherland from now on definitively rid of the slavery of foreign domination and the scourge of partition. We hail the beautiful land of Vietnam from Lạng Sơn to the Cape of Cà Mau, from now on completely in­dependent and free, and independent and free forever."

"We won against the US because our party had a correct and creative revolutionary line, and method. The revolutionary line is to raise the two banners of national independence and socialism. That is the source of all the strength of our revolution. That is also the truth, the power of the times. The revolutionary method is to apply an offensive strategy and know how to win step by step. With that line and method, our party and people have magnified the combined forces of our whole country and combined the forces of the Vietnamese revolution with the revolutionary forces of the new era, creating a powerful force. Synthesize the power of America and its minions on the battlefield to defeat them."

"Our party’s experiences and our revolutionary realities have demonstrated that whenever we firmly maintain a spirit of independence and self-reliance we are able to be creative in our development of policies and directions, and we achieve success."

"Today, with boundless joy, throughout the country our 45 million people are jubilantly celebrating the great victory we have won in the central offensive and uprising this Spring of 1975, in completely defeating the war of aggression and the neo-colonialist rule of US imperialism, liberating the whole of the southern half of our country so dear to our hearts, and gloriously ending the longest, most difficult and greatest patriotic war ever waged in the history of our peoples' struggle against foreign aggression."

"Indeed, if we compare the United States with us, the American empire is hundreds, even thousands of times stronger than us in terms of economy, quantity and quality of weapons and military equipment, when the war just started. But America is absolutely weaker than us in politics, culture, and at the same time inferior to us in science and military art."

"We faced difficulties created by the ravages of 40 years of war. Afterward, we made costly mistakes in our effort to rebuild the country. Now we know the mistakes and their price. We were too hasty, too simplistic, too subjective. We tried to build socialism without going through the necessary period of capitalist development. Today we are correcting those mistakes with a profound and thorough renovation. A policy has already begun that wipes out a centralized bureaucracy based on state subsidies that caused our people suffering."

"We want to broaden economic cooperation with all countries, socialist or capitalist, on the basis of mutual benefits and without political conditions. International trade is important to our future, especially with our neighbors and with Japan. Many private companies have already established economic ties with Viet Nam. We want to see those expand. I believe we are moving in the direction of the economic integration of Southeast Asia."