Brothers in Arms (143 page)

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Authors: Odd Arne Westad

Tags: #Political Science, #International Relations, #General, #test

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of the entirely nonexistent so-called "spirit of Camp David." All of this proved the error of the views of our comrades from the CPSU and the correctness of our views. . . .
In June 1960 in Bucharest, the leadership of the CPSU mounted a sudden attack on the CCP, disseminated the Informational Note of the CC of the CPSU which contains an all-around attack on the CCP, and organized a campaign by a whole group of fraternal panics against us. . . .
On July 16, 1960, the Soviet side unilaterally decided to withdraw between July 28 and September 1 over 1,300 Soviet specialists working in China. Over 900 specialists were recalled from [extended] business trips and contracts and agreements were broken. . . .
On August 25, 1962, the Soviet government informed China that it was ready to conclude an agreement with the USA on the prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In our view, you were pursuing an unseemly goal in coming to such an agreement, namely: to bind China by the hands and feet through an agreement with the USA.
After India started a major attack on the border regions of China in October 1962, the Soviet Union began to supply India with even larger quantities of military matériel, to do its utmost to give [India] an economic blood transfusion, to support [Jawaharlal] Nehru by political means, and to spur him on in the struggle against China.
Your position on the issues of the Indian-Chinese border conflict received praise from the United States. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State [Averell] Harriman, said: "I consider that the maintenance of relations that are as friendly as possible between India and Moscow serves its own interests well and also serves our interests well." Harriman made this statement on December 9, 1962. Further, on December 18, 1962, in conversation with a Japanese correspondent, Harriman also stated that the USA wanted to see the Soviet Union help India in the matter of supporting its defense capabilities.
On the issue of Chinese-Indian relations you went too far. With all [bad] intention, you spoke out together with [President John F.] Kennedy and Nehru against China. Where then did the spirit of proletarian internationalism, which existed under Lenin and Stalin, go?
In October 1962 there was a crisis in the region of the Caribbean Sea. During these events, we consider that you committed two errors: in shipping the missiles to Cuba you indulged in adventurism, and then, showing confusion in the face of nuclear blackmail from the USA, you capitulated.
People understandably ask why you began to ship missiles to Cuba. In this regard we have our own experience. Judging by our experience, your actions in this regard remind us in their character of your efforts to develop a long-wave radar station and a joint fleet in China. For Cuba's defense no missiles are necessary at all. And so, in shipping missiles to Cuba, did you want to help her or to ruin her? We have become suspicious that you, in shipping missiles to Cuba, were trying to place her under your control.

 

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You failed to consult with fraternal countries on such an important issue. You daily speak about the danger of thermonuclear war. But in the given case you rashly played with nuclear weapons.
You justify your actions by saying that you wanted to obtain some sort of "promise" from the USA, and you say that you truly received such a "promise." But what are the facts? The facts are that under threat from the United States you were obliged to remove your missiles. By all sorts of means you tried to convince Cuba to agree to so-called international inspection, which encroaches upon their sovereignty and constitutes interference in their internal affairs. Besides that, you also conduct propaganda among the peoples of the world, convincing them to believe in some sort of promise by Kennedy, and thereby you make American imperialism look good.
In his letters to Kennedy of October 27 and 28, 1962, Comrade Khrushchev wrote: "You are working toward the preservation of peace" and "I express my satisfaction and recognition of your manifestation of a sense of moderation and an understanding of the responsibility which now rests on you for the preservation of peace in the whole world."
But the question remains did the USA in the end give some sort of promise? Let us look at [U.S. Secretary of State Dean] Rusk's statement of January 11, 1963. Rusk stated: "To whatever extent President Kennedy took on obligations not to encroach on Cuba at the moment of the Cuban crisis, these obligations have not Come into force." He further said: "In general no such obligations exist. . . ."
At the congresses of these parties another strange phenomenon was observed: On the one hand at these congresses they attacked the CCP and completely removed the Albanian Workers' Party, and on the other hand, they forcibly dragged the Titoist clique in Yugoslavia into the ranks of the international Communist movement and tried to rehabilitate that clique. In addition, at the Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, there was noise, whistling, and stamping right at the time when our representative subjected Yugoslav revisionism to criticism on the basis of the Moscow Declaration by citing the Moscow Declaration verbatim.
What do the facts we have cited above, which took place after the Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU, testify to? These facts testify to the fact that comrades from the CPSU have taken further steps to create a split in the ranks of the international Communist movement and, moreover, have done so in an increasingly sharp, increasingly extreme form, in an increasingly organized [way], on an increasingly large scale, trying, come what may, to crush others.
I would like to note that using such methods is a habitual affair for you. You began using such methods as far back as the Bucharest Conference. During the bilateral meeting between the representatives of our two parties in 1960, I said that it was fortunate that Comrade Peng Zhen went to the Bucharest meeting; he weighs approximately 80 kilograms, and for that reason he endured; if I had gone, and I weigh only a bit over 50 kilograms, I could not have endured. After that it was just as well that Comrade Wu

 

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Xiuquan, who weighs more than 70 kilograms, went to the GDR, and was able to endure.
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Frankly speaking, such methods do not help matters. You cannot prove by such methods that you are in the right; you cannot prove that the truth is on your side. Quite the opposite; the use of such methods is an insult to the glorious Marxist-Leninist party.
Ponomarev: And Comrade Grishin weighs 70 kg. After all, this started before Bucharest, in Beijing. That was the start of and the reason for the Bucharest Conference.
Deng Xiaoping: I understand you.
Peng Zhen: Wait. You will have [your] time; you will be able to say as much as you want then. We are ready to hear you out. . . .
Deng Xiaoping: I have already taken five hours in my statement, and on that I end it. Are we going to continue the session today, or will we continue it tomorrow?
Suslov: We propose a break until the day after tomorrow, at 10
A.M.
We must acquaint ourselves with your statement.
Deng Xiaoping: We agree. Who will speak the day after tomorrow, you or we?
Suslov: By the order it will be our turn.
Andropov:
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By the principle: we, you, we, you.
Deng Xiaoping: That is Comrade Andropov's invention. . . .
JULY 10
[Suslov speaks for the delegation today.]
Again, as in 1960, you are putting in motion the practice, which has already been condemned by Communist parties, of personal attacks on Comrade N. S. Khrushchev. Such a practice in the past did not provoke anything but indignation in any true Communist, and will do the same now.
Comrade N. S. Khrushchev is our recognized leader. Reflecting the collective will of the CC CPSU, he has gained unlimited authority for himself in our party, in the country, in the whole world through his selfless devotion to Marxism-Leninism and through his truly titanic struggle to build communism in the USSR, to preserve peace in the whole world in defense of the interests of all working people. . . .
For obviously demagogic ends you are trying to connect the decisions of the Twentieth Congress with the well-known events in Poland and also with the counterrevolution-
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The Chinese leaders had complained that they were not given enough to eat during the meetings in Bucharest and Berlin. They also claimed that the Soviet plane that brought them back to Beijing had no food on board.
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Iurii Andropov, ambassador to Hungary, 1956, secretary of the CPSU CC, later head of the Committee for State Security, KGB.

 

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