Heads Of State

"Southeast Asia remains a region of intensive struggle by peoples for the right to determine their destiny independently. Shots continue to be fired from the Chinese side of the border between Vietnam and China. Through their accomplices in this region, Beijing and Washington are stubbornly attempting to restore the old order in Laos and Kampuchea and to push their peoples off the path they have chosen. In spite of various obstacles put up by hostile forces, however, the peoples of Indochina are striding confidently along the road of progress and strengthening of national independence."

"The formation of the USSR was an event second in importance only to the October Revolution, ...It was of importance to world history, and it was the direct offspring of that revolution. As is well known, the Great October sounded the summons for all nations that were under the oppression of the tsarist autocracy to take part in the active struggle. After winning a historic victory over the exploiters, the peoples of the former Russian empire united, in accordance with voluntary principles, into a single multinational socialist state, that was created on principles of genuine equality and brotherhood."

"All our organizations should devote special attention to ensuring uninterrupted growth and development of agricultural production, normal growth in livestock herds and productivity, and increased farm crop yields. To achieve this we must work with a will to improve style, forms and methods of guiding the development of agricultural production on the part of party, government and agricultural agencies. One should intelligently utilize in this area party and government measures aimed at encouraging agricultural production. We know that since 1971 procurement prices on principal livestock products have been increased five times, in amounts from 5 to 230 percent."

"Our homeland is confidently developing along the path of building the material and technological foundation of socialism. Our economy is steadily growing, year by year. The aggregate social product, generated national income and social labor productivity growth figures for 1981 exceed the average annual growth figures for the preceding five years. The working people of our country, engaging in socialist competition in honor of the historic anniversaries of the party and people's revolution, have achieved concrete results in meeting the plan targets of the first year of the 7th Five-Year Plan. Our rural working people produced 9.1 million head of young livestock, which is 7 percent more than the figure for 1980."

"Our principal shortcoming is poor organization of party and government Verification. We must seek to ensure that each and every worker develops a reflex of an implacable attitude toward all negative elements which impede our forward movement. We must ensure that well organized verification becomes a continuously operating positive stimulus and companion in the work of party, government and public organizations at all levels. Monitoring and verification of execution is an indissoluble, unique component part and the heart of organizational work, the right hand of party, government and public organizations in performance of their principal functions. Well-organized monitoring and verification of execution should be utilized as a powerful means of day-by-day correction of discovered shortcomings and assurance of unity of word and deed. In order to achieve the stated goals the directives, decrees and tasks of our organizations should always be specific in indicating the person responsible for executing the goals and the timetable for their completion."

"Continuously improving the oversight mechanism, the party sets for itself the goal of ensuring a high degree of efficiency, organization and follow-through by cadres. Proceeding from this, it is Our obligation to develop in a systematic manner follow-through discipline in each and every official of party, government and public organizations, by steadily increasing demandingness and by better organization of political indoctrination work among labor forces."

"The forces of peace and progress are capable of pushing back and eliminating the threat of another world war. Today the struggle of peoples and all progressive forces throughout the world to avert the threat of war is assuming an unprecedented scale and depth. Millions of people of the most diverse orientation, belonging to various political, public, religious and other organizations, are taking part in this campaign. The peoples of Europe and people of good will throughout the world are becoming increasingly more deeply aware of their direct responsibility for resolving the most critical problem of the present day — holding nuclear war in check and defending the peace."

"The entire post-October history of the development of mankind is the history of the unbelievably difficult, but victorious procession of socialism. In the struggle against imperialism and every other form of reaction, the peoples of the earth constantly derived, and continue to derive, inspiration from the example of the Great October and its homeland, the Soviet Union, which marched, and continues to march, in the vanguard of that struggle. The active peace-loving policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, a policy based on principles of the friendship and mutual understanding of nations, of equal cooperation and the peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, is a decisive factor that guarantees lasting peace and the security of nations. Continuing the traditions that were laid down by the great Lenin, the Soviet state is fighting actively to bridle the arms race and to take effective steps in the area of disarmament so as to preclude once and for all from the life of mankind the threat of a nuclear catastrophe."

"Confronted by the increase in the aggressive strivings on the part of American imperialism, directed against the socialist community and the peaceful life of the peoples of various continents, the Soviet Union and the other countries of socialism were forced to take steps to reinforce their defensive might, as the chief means of bridling the imperialistic forces of aggression. This finds the understanding and support of all the peace-loving forces. The Soviet Union and its Armed Forces have repeatedly proven their adherence to the cause of peace and their faithfulness to their pledges to serve as allies of their friends. We view the concern shown by the Soviet leadership for the Soviet Armed Forces to be noble efforts for preserving the peace and guaranteeing the peaceful life of the peoples of all the continents. Everyone who treasures peace and calm on the earth looks hopefully and trustingly toward the Soviet Union, justly seeing in the first state of workers and peasants a might defender and an invincible bulwark of peace on our planet. And so today, on the eve of the glorious anniversary of the Great October, it is especially gratifying for us to note that the Soviet Union, undeviatingly following the behests of the great Lenin, holds high the banner of peace and progress, under which newer and newer nations from various continents on the earth are consolidating themselves."

"Comrades! The current upsurge in aggressiveness on the part of the most reactionary imperialist circles is due primarily to a radical change in the correlation of sociopolitical forces in the world arena and the progressive loss by monopoly capital of its international position. It is connected with further weakening of the foundations of world imperialism as a consequence of the deepening crisis phenomena in its citadel and reflects its attempts to overcome them by means of external political adventures and to dump all the consequences on the shoulders of peoples."

"It is a fundamental truth that laws do not cover all the aspects of life, and a Constitution does not create a democracy. Democratic institutions will prosper only when the spirit and will of the people supply the adequate precedent conditions. For democracy is a moral system which will develop gradually as the concept of Common Good will become, day after day, broader and more profound in the mind of the citizen as well as of the governing."

"Now for more than a century, abnormal political conditions have corrupted the sense of civic responsibility in many a mind. It behoves us now to restore the spirit of public service, the spirit of honor and national dignity, moral and intellectual honesty, the spirit of sacrifice, the sense of discipline, and personal responsibility, courtesy in human relations which is simply the expression of respect for others as for oneself."

"In fact, if the sense of civic duty derives its supreme justification from the ethical principles of the respect for the human person and for the common good, however, it thrives with vigor only in a political, administrative and economic climate which is alive and congenial. In addition to the institutions which allow him to take part in the direction of public affairs and draw the attention of his leaders to his legitimate grievances, the citizen must be able to rely on just laws, on an equitable apportionment of social duties, on a courteous and effective administration as well as on the impartiality of the courts."

"Even in a healthy environment, the sense of civic responsibility must further be nourished by a careful education of which the molding of character, the sense of personal responsibility and discipline, honesty and the devotion to work and to public service must be the constant object, in the school as in the family, in political and social organizations, as at all echelons of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government."

"Since the end of the last war, when Asia broke her chains, the conscience of the world has at last awakened to a profound and inevitable development: the birth of Asian independence. This realisation has brought about a condemnation in the most concrete terms of the old system of exploitation which governed, in the past, the relationship between East and West. In its place firm efforts are being made to establish a new formula of international cooperation… It is the battle for independence, the growing awareness of the colonial peoples that the origin of their poverty has been the systematic withholding of technical development, coupled with the growing nationalist and social sentiment, that have combined to bring about a profound transformation in the Asian state of mind and given to its masses an irresistible dynamism."

"The Republic of Vietnam, the youngest republic in Asia, soon will be two years old. Our Republic was born among great suffering. She is courageously facing up to economic competition with the Communists, despite heavy and difficult conditions, which become daily more complex. Vietnam nevertheless has good reason for confidence and hope. Her people are intelligent, have imagination and courage. They also draw strength from the moral and material aid they receive from the free world, particularly that given by the American people."

"My dear compatriots, democracy exists only where a concrete democratic experience exists. And democratic life is in short but the putting into practice, by all citizens and all the custodians of public power of the most perfect loyalty and of a mutual confidence which is thus total and justified."

"I was shocked by the death of Diem and Nhu. I'd met Diem with Justice Douglas many years ago. He was an extraordinary character. While he became increasingly difficult in the last months, nevertheless over a ten-year period he'd held his country together, maintained its independence under very adverse conditions. The way he was killed made it particularly abhorrent. The question now is whether the generals can stay together and build a stable government, or whether Saigon will begin... will turn on... public opinion in Saigon, the intellectuals, students, etcetera, will turn on this government as repressive and undemocratic in the not too distant future."

"We affirm that democracy is neither material happiness nor the supremacy of numbers. Democracy is essentially a permanent effort to find the right political means in order to assure to all citizens the right of free development and of maximum initiative, responsibility and spiritual life…"

"We affirm that the sole legitimate object of the state is to protect the fundamental rights of human beings to existence [and] to the free development of their intellectual, moral, and spiritual life."

"Thousands of our people would have sacrificed their lives for nothing if, in independence, we do not attain the unity of ourselves in order to defend/together, under the same banner, under the same command, against what the revolt of our brothers of the North have announced for months as the worst of misfortunes: oppression."

"The fight which we, non-communists, have to lead to-day, is above all a fight against disorder, indiscipline, selfishness, for the honour of a Vietnam that values its freedom, for the security and the well-being of millions of our fellow-countrymen who have suffered from the war, for that fraternity in the flesh between men of the same race and which is called Fatherland."

"The Asian people – long humiliated in their national aspirations, their human dignity injured – are no longer, as in the past, resigned and passive. They are impatient. They are eager to reduce their immense technical backwardness. They clamour for a rapid and immediate economic development, the only sound base for democratic political independence… It is in this debate – unfortunately influenced in many countries by the false but seductive promises of fascism and communism – that the efforts being made to safeguard liberal democracy through aid given by the industrial countries of the West, play a vital role. For the honour of humanity, the United States has made the most important contribution to this end…"

"We in America pray that those now still living in the enslaved part of your country may one day be united in peace under the free Republic of Viet-Nam. The achievements of the Vietnamese people will long remain a source of inspiration to free peoples everywhere. As Viet-Nam enters this new period of national reconstruction and rehabilitation, my fellow countrymen and I are proud to be sharing some of the tasks which engage you. May the Vietnamese people inspired by your dedicated leadership and the high principles of their democratic institutions, enjoy long years of prosperity in justice and in peace."

"In a simplistic and absolute world, people ask but two things – that we find a solution to global problems and, if we can't, that we at least make it so that they don't affect them."

"These principles and values upon which our societies stand are noble, but without a willingness to take a stand for it, even the most virtuous of ideas is just an idea. It becomes reality, and stays alive, only when accompanied by a readiness to act."

"We can write laws about how to become an Estonian citizen, but not how to become a part of the Estonian nation. If we were to attempt it, we would turn into a totalitarian society and destroy our freedoms in the name of preserving our customs."

"In the 19th century, the importance of a nation was based on natural resources and territory. In the 20th century primarily on military force. Today, the main resource of countries are our people. People, not merely as tools of production, but as individuals with their rights and freedoms, as well as unbounded imagination, ingenuity and entrepreneurship. Only truly free people are creative enough to thrive in 21st century. Only democracies can give such freedom to people. That is why democracy, human rights and the rights of the nations, are the most important tools for peace and prosperity."

"A freedom in retreat somewhere would make freedom less secure everywhere."

"We do not repeat our ironclad commitment to Article 5 in order to convince our Allies. We repeat it to convince others, so that they would not miscalculate."

"Since economic agents are often concerned with profit lines and not ethics, it can be the case that if something gets banned, another avenue is found to restore it."

"We deplore China's military actions which have raised tensions in the Taiwan Strait as well as its unfriendly action against partners in the South China Sea. Any disputes or contentious issues must be solved peacefully. Any potential armed conflict in the region would have negative consequences on the whole world."

"Whether Deng's example would now shake Gorbachev's authority remained to be seen. One European communist who hoped it might was Erich Honecker, the long-time hard-line ruler of East Germany. His most recent election, held in May, 1989, had produced an implausible 98.95 percent vote in favor of his government. After the Tiananmen massacre Honecker's secret police chief, Erich Mielke, commended the Chinese action to his subordinates as "resolute measures in suppression of . . . counterrevolutionary unrest." East German television repeatedly ran a Beijing-produced documentary praising "the heroic response of the Chinese army and police to the perfidious inhumanity of the student demonstrators." All of this seemed to suggest that Honecker had the German Democratic Republic under control—until the regime noticed that an unusually large number of its citizens were taking their summer vacations in Hungary. When the Hungarian authorities took down the barbed wire along the Austrian border, they had intended only to make it easier for their own citizens to get through. But the word spread, and soon thousands of East Germans were driving their tiny wheezing polluting Trabants through Czechoslovakia and Hungary to the border, abandoning them there, and walking across. Others crowded into the West German embassy in Budapest, demanding asylum. By September, there were 130,000 East Germans in Hungary and the government announced that, for "humanitarian" reasons, it would not try to stop their emigration to the West. Honecker and his associates were furious: "Hungary is betraying socialism," Mielke fumed. "We have to guard against being discouraged," another party official warned. "[B]ecause of developments in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Hungary . . . [m]ore and more people are asking how is socialism going to survive at all?" That was an excellent question, for soon some 3,000 East German asylum-seekers had climbed the fence surrounding West Germany's embassy in Prague and crammed themselves inside, with full television coverage."

"The GDR has paved its way with achievements serving to strengthen our people in the knowledge of their power and of the worth of all efforts to establish a new, humane, complete life. Socialism and peace are, and remain, key words for that which we have achieved up to now, as well as that which we will continue to accomplish. We tackle the task with vigor and confidence. In its fifth decade, the socialist workers’ and peasants’ state on German soil will continue to prove – through its actions for the good of its people and through its efforts for peace, security and international cooperation – that its founding in October of 1949 was a turning point in the history of the German people and of Europe."

"Frequently I have heard criticism and even accusations directed against me for my policy towards the countries of Eastern Europe. Some say that Gorbachev did not defend socialism in those countries, that he more or less 'betrayed his friends'. Others, on the contrary, accuse me for having been too patient with Ceaușescu, Honecker, Zhivkov and Husák, who had brought their states to the brink of catastrophe. I firmly reject these accusations. They derive from outdated notions about the nature of relations between our countries. We had no right to interfere in the affairs of our 'satellites', to defend and preserve some and punish and 'excommunicate' others without reckoning with the people's will."

"The people of East Germany, who had been so brutally repressed by Soviet tanks in 1953, were unwilling to see their Slav and Hungarian neighbours liberate themselves while they remained chained to the gruesomely unpopular regime of Erich Honecker. Once the Hungarian frontier was opened, many of them poured across it, en route to West Germany. The Iron Curtain thus had a huge hole in it, and the effect was to destabilize the East German government, long regarded as one of the most Stalinist and secure. While some East Germans fled, others began to demonstrate. The same day the Hungarian CP dissolved itself, mass marches began throughout East Germany, but especially in Berlin and Leipzig. Gorbachev, paying a long-arranged visit (7 October), was asked by an anxious Honecker to send in troops and tanks. He refused. He told the old Stalinist he must either enact reforms, quickly, or get out while he could. Publicly, Gorbachev said all the East European regimes were in danger unless they responded to what he called ‘the impulse’ of the times. Thus abandoned by his ally, Honecker resigned on 18 October, his colleagues having refused to authorize troops to open fire on the demonstrators. He was succeeded by ‘a brief and embarrassed phantom’ (to use Disraeli’s phrase) called Egon Krentz, who lasted exactly seven weeks."

"Forty years of the GDR mark a totally new chapter in the history of our people. At the same time, these forty years have impressed upon our consciousness the absolute necessity and also the preciousness of long-lasting peace. Never again shall war emanate from German soil; this declaration arises from a decisive lesson of the past. It has become our state policy. It has been the top priority behind all we have done up to now and all we will do in the future, so that the socialist GDR continues to thrive and the family of European peoples can live in safety and harmony. Our nation is reliably satisfying its responsibility at the center of the continent, at the division between the two major allied blocs."

"Life in our country and international events presently pose questions which demand clear answers from a firm position. Our position does not come from one of the scandal sheets of the FRG, nor from the radio or television there; it has not evolved out of dated doctrine, but rather from the creative application of Marxism-Leninism, from the interests of the working class and all factory workers. In a word, our position is a policy based on the highest principle, namely, to do everything possible for the well-being of the people and a future in peace. Accordingly, we do not stop at the achievements we have made. Upon attaining something dependable, we leave behind that which is outdated and restrictive; we are progressing on our course of unified economic and social policy. In this spirit, we will also continue to develop socialist democracy in its many forms. Our aim is for citizens to participate more and more actively and concretely in the activities of the state."

"The relentless, internationally coordinated slander campaign currently being led against the GDR aims to confuse the people and sow doubt regarding the strength and advantages of socialism. This can only serve to strengthen our resolve to continue in the future to do everything possible for a peaceful European house. The ability for states with different social orders to live and work together in such a house should be allowed to develop to the fullest."

"In solving these problems, we must never forget that the developments in this or that socialist land may take different courses. That is the result not only of different national conditions. The socialist society is still young. It is at the moment in the process of great transformations in the Soviet Union and other socialist nations. Despite all the gloomy predictions of people who understand nothing, absolutely nothing, about the laws governing human society, those who would happily bury socialism, I want to say clearly and firmly that the world is turning not in the direction of capitalism, but in the direction of socialism. That is unchangeable f"

"On the ruins left us by the Second World War developed everything that today surrounds us, what during the last forty years has been accomplished everywhere in the GDR, what each who visits us can see."

"Today, the GDR is an outpost of peace and socialism in Europe. We will never forget this fact; this keeps us, and should also keep our enemies, from misjudgment."

"The military and strategic balance must remain, with ever lower numbers of weapons. The limitation and reduction of armaments according to the principle of equality and equal security-that is our goal. The return to detente-that is our task."

"Regardless of some speculation in the West, we were confident that our people, on the basis of their own experiences, could reach no other decision. Our party, our government, will of course do everything in their power, in cooperation with the forces united in the National Front, to realize the election program of the National Front of the GDR in the interest of the prosperity of the people, in the interests of peace everywhere."

"With pride we see that our republic is among the ten major industrial nations of the world, a nation mastering the demands of the scientific-technological revolution. We have combined the advantages of socialism with those of modern technology, and consistent with the Schwedt Initiative, are day by day producing more with less labor. Here there is no unemployment. Here the scientific- technological revolution is carried out while maintaining full employment. The best of it all is that here one can buy something for one’s efforts, for one’s wages, and that the time will soon come in which a good apartment will be available for every young person who begins a family."

"Like the Soviet Union, which liberated us, and the People’s Republic of China, which is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding, the People’s Republic of Poland, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and other socialist countries, the GDR will also cross the threshold into the year 2000 with the certainty that socialism is the future. Socialism is a young society, and yet it exerts a great influence on international developments. It has brought about significant social change and will continue to do so. Its existence gives hope, not only to our people, but to all of humankind."

"Today peace is seriously threatened by the aggressive striving for supremacy of the United States and the growing armaments of NATO. First-strike weapons in Europe, above all in the FRG, have created a dangerous situation. There is nothing more important for us than to devote every energy to stopping a nuclear catastrophe. We want to create peace in the face of NATO’s weapons."

"35 years of the German Democratic Republic have been 35 years of hard struggle for peace and socialism. Our people, under the leadership of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, has truly done great things during these years. We are filled with joy that you, under the sign of the rising sun, display the same revolutionary spirit for the strengthening and defense of socialism."

"Before history we have accepted the responsibility of never again permitting war to begin on German soil. That is how we act. We do not want peace only for our and your generations. We want peace for your children and your children’s children. We want peace for all times, for ever!"

"It has been said, with good reason, that a revolution can take place peacefully or unpeacefully. Being Communists, we must be ready to consider both ways and, in certain moments, to act in accordance with the situation that was created, using various means. However, if the fate of the people's power is endangered, we will have no other choice but to have the organs of the popular power act decisively. We state this fact on the basis of our experience and of the conclusions we drew regarding the events in 1953. The same thing is apparent from the events in Hungary in 1956, and from the events in Czechoslovakia in 1968."