(September 12, 1973)





　　[Georges Pompidou (1911–1974) served as Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968 and as President from 1969 until his death in 1974. He was the first French head of state to visit China and also the first head of a Western nation to do so.]






　　Chairman: (to Pompidou) I’m not very cultured; I don’t understand diplomacy.

　　Pompidou: But you know the Chinese people very well.

　　Chairman: I know a bit, though not completely. I’m getting old and have fallen into a certain kind of bureaucracy. (To Qi) Is that what you call “bureaucratism” too?

　　Qi: Yes, in English it’s “bureaucratism.”

　　Pompidou: Still, you’ve been involved in many activities in the past.

　　Chairman: Oh, I fought in wars for over twenty years, which pretty much drained my energy. I was originally a primary school teacher.

　　Pompidou: I was a teacher as well.

　　Premier: He used to teach at a secondary school.

　　Chairman: I’m a primary school teacher. Circumstances forced me into war. Well, if we had to fight, then we fought—twenty-some years straight. Later we even fought the Americans in Korea. We fought Chiang Kai-shek countless times and the Japanese for eight years. So it’s rather difficult for foreigners visiting China these days. The Chinese are good at guerrilla warfare. (Pompidou laughs)

　　Pompidou: I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of two great powers who claim to be peace-loving. I believe they now have every reason to be so.

　　Chairman: I don’t buy it.
There will inevitably come a time when war must be waged. (Pompidou raises his hands helplessly to the sky.) It’s better to put the emphasis on “fighting” first, and only then on “peace”—peace—otherwise we risk losing our vigilance.




Thanks to Ayana Sakura for collecting, transcribing, and proofreading.