Comments on the Draft Reply from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR [1] (July 11, 1965) Comrades Kang Sheng and Leng Xi [2]: I have read this document; it is very well written. Mao Zedong July 11

Based on the manuscript print. Notes [1] This draft reply, dated July 10, 1965, from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, refuted point by point the attacks and slanders contained in the letter of April 17, 1965, from the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which criticized China’s refusal to hold a trilateral summit meeting among Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union. The document pointed out: “We have carefully observed your various activities over the past several months concerning the Vietnamese question and conclude that, with regard to Vietnam, you are pursuing a policy of appeasement toward the United States, seeking to strike political deals with U.S. imperialism and thereby betraying the interests of the Vietnamese people’s liberation cause; at the same time, you are practicing great-power chauvinism toward fraternal countries, attempting to establish military control and to force us onto your chariot of U.S.-Soviet cooperation dominating the world. Your proposal of April 3 to convene a trilateral summit meeting among Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union constitutes an important step in implementing this very line.” The draft reply also rejected the Soviet side’s claim that differences should be set aside and joint action taken, stating: “What you call ‘joint action’ means simply that fraternal parties must obey your paternalistic commands—that fraternal parties and fraternal states are to be made into instruments for carrying out your policy of U.S.-Soviet cooperation ruling the world.” [2] Kang Sheng was then an alternate member of the CPC Central Political Bureau and a secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. Leng Xi was Wu Lengxi, who at that time served as President of the Xinhua News Agency and Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Daily.