Editor’s Note from the Journal “Red Flag”

Comrade Foster, Honorary Chairman of the Communist Party USA, sent a letter to Comrade Mao Zedong on December 19, 1958. On January 17, 1959, Comrade Mao Zedong replied to Comrade Foster. The letter read as follows:

I am deeply grateful for your letter of December 19, 1958. From your passionate letter, I have come to see the soul of the great Communist Party of the United States, as well as the soul of the great American working class and the American people.

The Chinese people understand that U.S. imperialism has done much harm to China and to the entire world. It is only the ruling clique in the United States that is bad; the American people themselves are very good. Among the American people, although many are not yet fully awakened, the number of those who are truly evil is but a small minority. The vast majority are good people. The friendly relations between the Chinese and American peoples will ultimately break through the obstacles erected by Dulles and his like, and will develop ever more extensively.

Although the Communist Party of the United States is currently in a somewhat difficult position, your struggle is highly meaningful and will surely bear rich fruit in the future. There is an end to every night; the reactionary forces in the United States are now running into dead ends everywhere, which shows that their days are numbered. The present situation, where the enemy is strong and we are weak, is entirely temporary. It will inevitably change to the opposite.

Please allow me, on behalf of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people, to extend my heartfelt greetings to you—honored fighter and leader of the American working class—and to wish you a speedy recovery. Should circumstances permit, I warmly invite you to come to China for medical treatment and rest.