Comrade Enlai:

Your letter of the night of the 18th has been received. It is excellent—we have gained the initiative. I was very pleased after reading it and will act accordingly. Please forward your letter and this reply of mine immediately to Comrades Wang Bingnan and Ye Fei, so they understand that this new policy and new strategy of ours are proactive, offensive, and well-founded.

To stand high and see far, and to sweep forward irresistibly as if splitting bamboo—this must be the necessary form of our diplomatic struggle.

Mao Zedong
4:00 a.m., September 19, 1958, in Hefei

Notes
〔1〕This is Mao Zedong's reply to Zhou Enlai on the issue of the struggle against the United States.
〔2〕Refers to Zhou Enlai's letter of the night of September 18, 1958, to Mao Zedong seeking instructions on issues concerning Sino-American talks and strategies in the coastal military struggle.