Talk with Comrades Who Came to Pay New Year Greetings to the Central Military Commission’s Communications Bureau[1]

(February 13, 1945)

The Rescue Movement overestimated the enemy’s strength and underestimated our own, creating a state of extreme suspicion where every bush and tree looked like an enemy and spies seemed as numerous as hemp, harming many good comrades. Fortunately, it was a night drill, conducted not with real guns and bullets but with lime packets. In the darkness, it was hard to see clearly, and for a time we could not distinguish friend from foe, leaving a few lime packet marks on people’s bodies. When day broke and we looked, it turned out we had struck our own people—we had hit the wrong targets. At that point, we brushed off the lime, saluted you, and offered an apology: “Comrade, I struck you by mistake!” The responsibility for this error lies with the leadership, and it should be borne by the Central Committee, and mainly by me, because I was the one giving the orders. Comrades, here and now, I take off my hat and bow to those comrades who suffered unjust treatment, to apologize and make amends to everyone!

(At this point, Mao Zedong took off his hat and respectfully made a deep bow.) Now that I have taken off my hat, offered an apology, and made a bow, what should you, the comrades who suffered unjust treatment, do? You should return the courtesy, shouldn’t you? If you do not return the courtesy, I will have no choice but to keep holding my hat in my hand. (The comrades who had come to pay New Year greetings said in unison: “Please put your hat back on, Chairman.”)

In the course of the rectification and the examination of cadres, we have gained two lessons. One lesson is that we have achieved success,

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s talk on the movement to rescue the fallen during his meeting with comrades who came to pay New Year greetings to the Central Military Commission’s Communications Bureau.

and the other lesson is that we have made mistakes. Our Party has a rule: uphold the truth and correct mistakes, proceed from reality in everything, persist in whatever has been done right, and correct whatever has been done wrong. To all comrades who have been wrongly labelled, we must admit our mistakes and offer an apology. This is progress for us, progress for our entire Party. If the Chinese revolution is to win victory, we must adopt this attitude.