(April 16, 1964)

We must unite with the people, stand on the side of the people, and arm ourselves. Without arms, one day we will be overthrown. What is political power? It is mainly the army. Without an army, there is no political power. What is independence? Without an army, there is no independence. What is freedom? Without an army, there is no freedom; others will oppress you. What is equality? Without an army, who will talk equality with you?

When the enemy concentrates its forces, you disperse and go to places where the enemy’s strength is weak to carry out activities. You must be prepared to work for three to five years. When your strength has grown, if your policies are correct, you will be able to establish revolutionary base areas, unite the people, make fewer mistakes, fight fewer defeats, and win more victories. Of course, it is impossible not to make mistakes, and impossible not to fight defeats. If the policies are basically correct, your strength will grow in a few years. At that time, two situations may arise. One situation is that when your strength has grown, you may underestimate the enemy, easily commit the error of adventurism, and suffer some setbacks. If you suffer setbacks, that is a very

[I]
Sections 1 to 3 of this text are the main content of Mao Zedong’s conversation with Antoine, Special Envoy of Congo (Brazzaville), and Midididi, Member of the Political Bureau of the African Solidarity Party of Congo (Leopoldville), during their meeting.

good thing; you will then sum up experience and correct the shortcomings and mistakes in your policies. The other situation is that when your strength has grown, the imperialists and their lackeys will come to deceive you, inviting your people to serve as deputy prime ministers again; they will pull that same trick once more.

What I have said proceeds from our own experience. We have committed Right errors and also committed "Left" errors. When fighting Chiang Kai-shek, having built an army of three hundred thousand, we thought it was something extraordinary, attacked big cities, adopted inappropriate measures, and as a result suffered losses.

We summed up the experience of committing Right errors and "Left" errors, and afterwards things went somewhat better, and our policies suited the situation more closely. Because we committed errors, we fell from the peak, and our strength became very small. Later, we summed up experience and developed again. At that time, the Americans began to think highly of us, and so did Chiang Kai-shek, who invited us to negotiate. Premier Zhou and I both went, to Chiang Kai-shek’s place. The American ambassador came to our base area to escort us to the negotiations, wanting us to join the Kuomintang government. Chiang Kai-shek also spoke of "peaceful national reconstruction" and "cooperation between the two parties to jointly build the nation." There was an American Chief of Staff, a five-star general, Marshall [1], who stayed in China for a very long period, made resolutions for "peaceful national reconstruction" and "cooperation between the two parties," and demanded that we reorganize our 1.2 million troops into twelve divisions. In the end, it proved that all this of his was a sham. After Chiang Kai-shek had completed his preparations, he tore up all the negotiation resolutions. In the years after Japan’s surrender, we fought for three and a half years, drove Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, and the Americans also left.

We also fought the American army in Korea for three years. Do not fear any American army; its soldiers need to drink milk and eat biscuits when fighting. Our soldiers have no biscuits or milk; eating two or three meals a day is already extraordinary. If our soldiers can have one jin of flour, five qian of oil, and one jin of vegetables per day, that is a very good life; usually it is three qian of oil, sometimes even less than that.

[1]
Marshall, from December 1945 to August 1946, in his capacity as Special Envoy of the U.S. President, "mediated" the military conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in China, while supporting the Kuomintang government in launching civil war.

As a party that has already seized political power, you must also pay attention. Your own arms are insufficient; you must gradually expand them. Arms must be kept in the hands of reliable people. You must also be prepared for difficulties to arise. If the imperialists want to subvert you, what will you do? Will you just blame your own fate and weep bitterly? As long as there are people, you can find ways.

Being small does not matter. The main thing is to continue the struggle. Strength does not lie in the number of people; do not regard yourselves as small. You have eight hundred thousand people, a small country—others say so, but we cannot say so. France is precisely afraid of these small countries. Which is larger, Algeria or France? Was it not Algeria that defeated the French! Precisely because they persisted in armed struggle, fought for seven years, starting with only a few hundred, a few thousand people, and in the end had no more than tens of thousands of regular troops. France gradually increased its troops, and it was said that in the end it reached eight hundred thousand troops. At that time, we recognized the Provisional Government of Algeria. France did not recognize it; it insisted on fighting, and in the end, was it not the French who ran away? In the world today, the big fear the small, not the small fearing the big. As long as there is fighting spirit, unity, and the adoption of correct policies, they will be afraid.