Comments and Additional Remarks on Peng Dehuai’s [1] Draft Report to the Joint Meeting of Senior Cadres of the Chinese and Korean Armies (January 19, 1951)

I. Comrade Dehuai: Your draft report for the joint meeting of senior cadres of the two armies has been received. The content of this report is very good; however, in order to avoid any tone suggesting that Chinese personnel are making decisions regarding North Korea’s policies and work, to prevent the possible leakage of military secrets (many facts and figures can be conveyed orally rather than put in writing), and to make the text more concise, we have made some minor revisions to your draft both in wording and in certain points. Please review it again in light of the situation, and first submit it to Premier Kim for his examination and approval.  Mao Zedong January 19 Based on the revised version as printed.

II. Under the leadership of Comrade Kim Il-sung, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean People’s Army have achieved great successes in the five years of struggle in Korea. They have resolutely opposed imperialism and feudalism, established a people’s government serving the people, built a brave People’s Army, and forged friendly relations with the Soviet Union, China, and other people’s states. Now they are engaged in heroic combat against the U.S. aggressor forces and the bandit army of Lee Syngman. Therefore, all Chinese volunteer soldiers in Korea must earnestly learn from their Korean comrades, wholeheartedly support the Korean people, the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Korean People’s Army, the Workers’ Party of Korea, and Comrade Kim Il-sung, the leader of the Korean people. The comrades of China and Korea should unite as closely as brothers, sharing weal and woe, depending on one another in life and death, and fighting to the end to defeat their common enemy. Chinese comrades must regard matters concerning Korea as their own; they should educate commanders and fighters to cherish every mountain, every stream, every blade of grass, and every tree in Korea, and to take not even a needle or thread from the Korean people—just as we do at home. This is the political foundation of victory. As long as we can act in this way, final victory will surely be ours. Printed according to Mao Zedong’s manuscript. Abbreviated and included in Volume V of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong.  Note [1]: Peng Dehuai was then Commander and Political Commissar of the Chinese People’s Volunteers.