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Message to
the Tricontinental
In the interval between
his disappearance from Cuba in the spring of 1965 and his death in Bolivia
in the fall of 1967, Guevara made one public statement. It was his message
"from somewhere in the world" to the Or- ganization of Solidarity
of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. It was made public in
Havana by the news service Prensa Latina on April 16, 1967. It is presented
here in full.
* * *
Now is the time of the furnaces,
and only light should be seen. - José Martí
Twenty-one years have already
elapsed since the end of the last world conflagration; numerous publications,
in every possible language, celebrate this event, symbolized by the defeat
of Japan. There is a climate of apparent optimism in many areas of the
different camps into which the world is divided.
Twenty-one years without a
world war, in these times of maximum confrontations, of violent clashes
and sudden changes, appears to be a very high figure. However, without
analyzing the practical results of this peace (poverty, degradation, increasingly
larger exploitation of enormous sectors of humanity) for which all of
us have stated that we are willing to fight, we would do well to inquire
if this peace is real.
It is not the purpose of these
notes to detail the different conflicts of a local character that have
been occurring since the surrender of Japan, neither do we intend to recount
the numerous and increasing instances of civilian strife which have taken
place during these years of apparent peace. It will be enough just to
name, as an example against undue optimism, the wars of Korea and Vietnam.
In the first one, after years
of savage warfare, the Northern part of the country was submerged in the
most terrible devastation known in the annals of modern warfare: riddled
with bombs; without factories, schools, or hospitals; with absolutely
no shelter for housing ten million inhabitants.
Under the discredited flag
of the United Nations, dozens of countries under the military leadership
of the United States participated in this war with the massive intervention
of U.S. soldiers and the use, as cannon fodder, of the South Korean population
that was enrolled. On the other side, the army and the people of Korea
and the volunteers from the People's Republic of China were furnished
with supplies and advice by the Soviet military apparatus. The U.S. tested
all sorts of weapons of destruction, excluding the thermonuclear type,
but including, on a limited scale, bacteriological and chemical warfare.
In Vietnam, the patriotic forces
of that country have carried on an almost uninterrupted war against three
imperialist powers: Japan, whose might suffered an almost vertical collapse
after the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; France, who recovered from
that defeated country its Indo-China colonies and ignored the promises
it had made in harder times; and the United States, in this last phase
of the struggle.
There were limited confrontations
in every continent, although in Our America, for a long time, there were
only incipient liberation struggles and military coups d'état until the
Cuban Revolution resounded the alert, signaling the importance of this
region. This action attracted the wrath of the imperialists, and Cuba
was finally obliged to defend its coasts, first in Playa Girón, and again
during the Missile Crisis.
This last incident could have
unleashed a war of incalculable proportions if a U.S.-Soviet clash had
occurred over the Cuban question.
But, evidently, the focal point
of all contradictions is at present the territory of the peninsula of
Indo-China and the adjacent areas. Laos and Vietnam are torn by a civil
war which has ceased being such by the entry into the conflict of U.S.
imperialism with all its might, thus transforming the whole zone into
a dangerous detonator ready at any moment to explode.
In Vietnam the confrontation
has assumed extremely acute characteristics. It is not our intention,
either, to chronicle this war. We shall simply remember and point out
some milestones.
In 1954, after the annihilating
defeat of Dien Bien Phu, an agreement was signed at Geneva dividing the
country into two separate zones; elections were to be held within a term
of 18 months to determine who should govern Vietnam and how the country
should be reunified. The U.S. did not sign this document and started maneuvering
to substitute the emperor, Bao Dai, who was a French puppet, for a man
more amenable to its purposes. This happened to be Ngo Dinh Diem, whose
tragic end-that of an orange squeezed dry by imperialism-is well known
by all.
During the months following
the agreement, optimism reigned supreme in the camp of the popular forces.
The last pockets of the anti-French resistance were dismantled in the
South of the country-and they awaited the fulfillment of the Geneva agreements.
But the patriots soon realized there would be no elections-unless the
United States felt itself capable of imposing its will in the polls, which
was practically impossible, even resorting to all its fraudulent methods.
Once again the fighting broke out in the South and gradually acquired
full intensity. At present the U.S. army has increased to over half a
million invaders while the puppet forces decrease in number and, above
all, have totally lost their combativeness.
Almost two years ago the United
States started bombing systematically the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
in yet another attempt to overcome the belligerence of the South and impose,
from a position of strength, a meeting at the conference table. At first,
the bombardments were more or less isolated occurrences and were adorned
with the mask of reprisals for alleged provocations from the North. Later
on, as they increased in intensity and regularity, they became one gigantic
attack carried out by the air force of the United States, day after day,
for the purpose of destroying all vestiges of civilization in the Northern
zone of the country. This is an episode of the infamously notorious "escalation."
The material aspirations of
the Yankee world have been fulfilled to a great extent, regardless of
the unflinching defense of the Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery, of
the numerous planes shot down (over 1,700), and of the socialist countries'
aid in war supplies.
There is a sad reality: Vietnam-a
nation representing the aspirations, the hopes of a whole world of forgotten
peoples-is tragically alone. This nation must endure the furious attacks
of U.S. technology, with practically no possibility of reprisals in the
South and only some of defense in the North-but always alone.
The solidarity of all progressive
forces of the world towards the people of Vietnam today is similar to
the bitter irony of the plebeians coaxing on the gladiators in the Roman
arena. It is not a matter of wishing success to the victim of aggression,
but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory.
When we analyze the lonely
situation of the Vietnamese people, we are overcome by anguish at this
illogical moment of humanity.
U.S. imperialism is guilty
of aggression-its crimes are enormous and cover the whole world. We already
know all that, gentlemen! But this guilt also applies to those who, when
the time came for a definition, hesitated to make Vietnam an inviolable
part of the socialist world, running, of course, the risks of a war on
a global scale-but also forcing a decision upon imperialism. And the guilt
also applies to those who maintain a war of abuse and snares-started quite
some time ago by the representatives of the two greatest powers of the
socialist camp.
We must ask ourselves, seeking
an honest answer: Is Vietnam isolated, or is it not? Is it not maintaining
a dangerous equilibrium between the two quarrelling powers?
And what great people these
are! What stoicism and courage! And what a lesson for the world is contained
in this struggle! Not for a long time shall we be able to know if President
Johnson ever seriously thought of bringing about some of the reforms needed
by his people-to iron out the barbed class contradictions that grow each
day with explosive power. The truth is that the improvements announced
under the pompous title of the "Great Society" have dropped
into the cesspool of Vietnam.
The largest of all imperialist
powers feels in its own guts the bleeding inflicted by a poor and underdeveloped
country; its fabulous economy feels the strain of the war effort. Murder
is ceasing to be the most convenient business for its monopolies. Defensive
weapons, and never in adequate number, are all these extraordinary soldiers
have-besides love for their homeland, their society, and unsurpassed courage.
But imperialism is bogging down in Vietnam, is unable to find a way out,
and desperately seeks one that will overcome with dignity this dangerous
situation in which it now finds itself. Furthermore, the Four Points put
forward by the North and the Five Points of the South now corner imperialism,
making the confrontation even more decisive.
Everything indicates that peace,
this unstable peace which bears that name for the sole reason that no
worldwide conflagration has taken place, is again in danger of being destroyed
by some irrevocable and unacceptable step taken by the United States.
What role shall we, the exploited
people of the world, play? The peoples of the three continents focus their
attention on Vietnam and learn their lesson. Since imperialists blackmail
humanity by threatening it with war, the wise reaction is not to fear
war. The general tactics of the people should be to launch a constant
and a firm attack in all fronts where the confrontation is taking place.
In those places where this
meager peace we have has been violated, which is our duty? To liberate
ourselves at any price.
The world panorama is of great
complexity. The struggle for liberation has not yet been undertaken by
some countries of ancient Europe, sufficiently developed to realize the
contradictions of capitalism, but weak to such a degree that they are
unable either to follow imperialism or even to start on its own road.
Their contradictions will reach an explosive stage during the forthcoming
years-but their problems and, consequently, their own solutions are differ-
ent from those of our dependent and economically underdeveloped countries.
The fundamental field of imperialist
exploitation comprises the three underdeveloped continents: America, Asia,
and Africa. Every country has also its own characteristics, but each continent,
as a whole, also presents a certain unity.
Our America is integrated by
a group of more or less homogeneous countries, and in most parts of its
territory U.S. monopolist capitals maintain an absolute supremacy. Puppet
governments or, in the best of cases, weak and fearful local rulers are
incapable of contradicting orders from their Yankee master. The United
States has nearly reached the climax of its political and economic domination;
it could hardly advance much more; any change in the situation could bring
about a setback. Their policy is to maintain that which has already been
conquered. The line of action, at the present time, is limited to the
brutal use of force with the purpose of thwarting the liberation movements,
no matter of what type they might happen to be.
The slogan "We will not
allow another Cuba" hides the possibility of perpetrating aggressions
without fear of reprisal, such as the one carried out against the Dominican
Republic or before that the massacre in Panama-and the clear warning stating
that Yankee troops are ready to intervene anywhere in America where the
ruling regime may be altered, thus endangering their interests. This policy
enjoys an almost absolute impunity: the OAS is a suitable mask, in spite
of its unpopularity; the inefficiency of the UN is ridiculous as well
as tragic; the armies of all American countries are ready to intervene
in order to smash their peoples. The International of Crime and Treason
has in fact been organized. On the other hand, the autochthonous bourgeoisies
have lost all their capacity to oppose imperialism-if they ever had it-and
they have become the last card in the pack. There are no other alternatives:
either a socialist revolution or a make-believe revolution.
Asia is a continent with many
different characteristics. The struggle for liberation waged against a
series of European colonial powers resulted in the establishment of more
or less progressive governments, whose ulterior evolution has brought
about, in some cases, the deepening of the primary objectives of national
liberation and in others, a setback towards the adoption of pro-imperialist
positions.
From the economic point of
view, the United States had very little to lose and much to gain from
Asia. These changes benefited its interests; the struggle for the overthrow
of other neocolonial powers and the penetration of new spheres of action
in the economic field is carried out sometimes directly, occasionally
through Japan.
But there are special political
conditions, particularly in Indo- China, which create in Asia certain
characteristics of capital importance and play a decisive role in the
entire U.S. military strategy.
The imperialists encircle China
through South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, South Vietnam, and Thailand, at least.
This dual situation, a strategic
interest as important as the military encirclement of the People's Republic
of China and the penetration of these great markets-which they do not
dominate yet-turns Asia into one of the most explosive points of the world
today, in spite of its apparent stability outside of the Vietnamese war
zone.
The Middle East, though it
geographically belongs to this continent, has its own contradictions and
is actively in ferment; it is impossible to foretell how far this cold
war between Israel, backed by the imperialists, and the progressive countries
of that zone will go. This is just another one of the volcanoes threatening
eruption in the world today.
Africa offers an almost virgin
territory to the neocolonial invasion. There have been changes which,
to some extent, forced neocolonial powers to give up their former absolute
prerogatives. But when these changes are carried out uninterruptedly,
colonialism continues in the form of neocolonialism with similar effects
as far as the economic situation is concerned.
The United States had no colonies
in this region but is now struggling to penetrate its partners' fiefs.
It can be said that following the strategic plans of U.S. imperialism,
Africa constitutes its long-range reservoir; its present investments,
though, are only important in the Union of South Africa, and its penetration
is beginning to be felt in the Congo, Nigeria, and other countries where
a violent rivalry with other imperialist powers is beginning to take place
(in a pacific manner up to the present time).
So far, it does not have there
great interests to defend except its pretended right to intervene in every
spot of the world where its monopolies detect huge profits or the existence
of large reserves of raw materials.
All this past history justifies
our concern regarding the possibilities of liberating the peoples within
a long or a short period of time.
If we stop to analyze Africa,
we shall observe that in the Portuguese colonies of Guinea, Mozambique,
and Angola the struggle is waged with relative intensity, with a concrete
success in the first one and with variable success in the other two. We
still witness in the Congo the dispute between Lumumba's successors and
the old accomplices of Tshombe, a dispute which at the present time seems
to favor the latter: those who have "pacified" a large area
of the country for their own benefit-though the war is still latent.
In Rhodesia we have a different
problem: British imperialism used every means within its reach to place
power in the hands of the white minority, who, at the present time, unlawfully
holds it. The conflict, from the British point of view, is absolutely
unofficial; this Western power, with its habitual diplomatic cleverness-also
called hypocrisy in the strict sense of the word-presents a facade of
displeasure before the measures adopted by the government of Ian Smith.
Its crafty attitude is supported by some Commonwealth countries that follow
it, but is attacked by a large group of countries belonging to Black Africa,
whether they are or not servile economic lackeys of British imperialism.
Should the rebellious efforts
of these patriots succeed and this movement receive the effective support
of neighboring African nations, the situation in Rhodesia may become extremely
explosive. But for the moment all these problems are being discussed in
harmless organizations such as the UN, the Commonwealth, and the OAU.
The social and political evolution
of Africa does not lead us to expect a continental revolution. The liberation
struggle against the Portuguese should end victoriously, but Portugal
does not mean anything in the imperialist field. The confrontations of
revolutionary importance are those which place at bay all the imperialist
apparatus; this does not mean, however, that we should stop fighting for
the liberation of the three Portuguese colonies and for the deepening
of their revolutions.
When the black masses of South
Africa or Rhodesia start their authentic revolutionary struggle, a new
era will dawn in Africa. Or when the impoverished masses of a nation rise
up to rescue their right to a decent life from the hands of the ruling
oligarchies.
Up to now, army putsches follow
one another; a group of officers succeeds another or substitutes a ruler
who no longer serves their caste interests or those of the powers who
covertly manage him-but there are no great popular upheavals. In the Congo
these characteristics appeared briefly, generated by the memory of Lumumba,
but they have been losing strength in the last few months.
In Asia, as we have seen, the
situation is explosive. The points of friction are not only Vietnam and
Laos, where there is fighting; such a point is also Cambodia, where at
any time a direct U.S. aggression may start, [as well as] Thailand, Malaya,
and, of course, Indonesia, where we cannot assume that the last word has
been said, regardless of the annihilation of the Communist Party in that
country when the reactionaries took over. And also, naturally, the Middle
East.
In Latin America the armed
struggle is going on in Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia; the
first uprisings are cropping up in Brazil. There are also some resistance
focuses which appear and then are extinguished. But almost all the countries
of this continent are ripe for a type of struggle that, in order to achieve
victory, cannot be content with anything less than establishing a government
of socialist tendencies.
In this continent practically
only one tongue is spoken (with the exception of Brazil, with whose people,
those who speak Spanish can easily make themselves understood, owing to
the great similarity of both languages). There is also such a great similarity
between the classes in these countries, that they have attained identification
among themselves of an international americano type, much more
complete than in the other continents. Language, habits, religion, a common
foreign master, unite them. The degree and the form of exploitation are
similar for both the exploiters and the men they exploit in the majority
of the countries of Our America. And rebellion is ripening swiftly in
it.
We may ask ourselves: How shall
this rebellion flourish? What type will it be? We have maintained for
quite some time now that, owing to the similarity of their characteristics,
the struggle in Our America will achieve, in due course, continental proportions.
It shall be the scene of many great battles fought for the liberation
of humanity.
Within the frame of this struggle
on a continental scale, the battles which are now taking place are only
episodes-but they have already furnished their martyrs, who will figure
in the history of Our America as having given their necessary quota of
blood in this last stage of the fight for the total freedom of man. These
names will include Com-andante Turcios Lima, Padre Camilo Torres, Comandante
Fabricio Ojeda, Comandantes Lobatón and Luis de la Puente Uceda, all outstanding
figures in the revolutionary movements of Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela,
and Peru.
But the active movement of
the people creates its new leaders: César Montes and Yon Sosa raise up
their flag in Guatemala; Fabio Vázquez and Marulanda in Colombia; Douglas
Bravo in the Western part of the country and Américo Martín in E1 Bachiller,
both directing their respective Venezuelan fronts.
New uprisings shall take place
in these and other countries of Our America, as it has already happened
in Bolivia, and they shall continue to grow in the midst of all the hardships
inherent to this dangerous profession of being modern revolutionaries.
Many shall perish, victims of their errors; others shall fall in the tough
battle that approaches; new fighters and new leaders shall appear in the
warmth of the revolutionary struggle. The people shall create their warriors
and leaders in the selective framework of the war itself-and Yankee agents
of repression shall increase. Today there are military aides in all the
countries where armed struggle is growing; the Peruvian army apparently
carried out a successful action against the revolutionaries in that country,
an army also trained and advised by the Yankees. But if the focuses of
war grow with sufficient political and military insight, they shall become
practically invincible and shall force the Yankees to send reinforcements.
In Peru itself many new figures, practically unknown, are now reorganizing
the guerrillas. Little by little, the obsolete weapons, which are sufficient
for the repression of small armed bands, will be exchanged for modern
armaments, and the U.S. military aides will be substituted by actual fighters
until, at a given moment, they are forced to send increasingly greater
numbers of regular troops to ensure the relative stability of a government
whose national puppet army is disintegrating before the impetuous attacks
of the guerrillas. It is the road of Vietnam; it is the road that should
be followed by the people; it is the road that will be followed in Our
America, with the advantage that the armed groups could create Coordinating
Councils to embarrass the repressive forces of Yankee imperialism and
accelerate the revolutionary triumph.
America, a forgotten continent
in the last liberation struggles, which is now beginning to make itself
heard through the Tricontinental in the voice of the vanguard of its peoples,
the Cuban Revolution, has before it a task of much greater relevance:
to create a second or a third Vietnam, or the second and third Vietnam
of the world.
We must bear in mind that imperialism
is a world system, the last stage of capitalism-and it must be defeated
in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be
the destruction of imperialism. Our share, the responsibility of the exploited
and underdeveloped of the world, is to eliminate the foundations of imperialism:
our oppressed nations, from where they extract capital, raw materials,
technicians, and cheap labor, and to which they export new capital-instruments
of domination-arms and all kinds of articles, thus submerging us in an
absolute dependence.
The fundamental element of
this strategic end shall be the real liberation of all people, a liberation
that will be brought about through armed struggle in most cases and which
shall be, in Our America, almost indefectibly, a Socialist Revolution.
While envisaging the destruction
of imperialism, it is necessary to identify its head, which is no other
than the United States of America.
We must carry out a general
task with the tactical purpose of getting the enemy out of its natural
environment, forcing him to fight in regions where his own life and habits
will clash with the existing reality. We must not underrate our adversary;
the U.S. soldier has technical capacity and is backed by weapons and resources
of such magnitude that render him frightful. He lacks the essential ideologic
motivation which his bitterest enemies of today-the Vietnamese soldiers-have
in the highest degree. We will only be able to overcome that army by undermining
their morale-and this is accomplished by defeating it and causing it repeated
sufferings.
But this brief outline of victories
carries within itself the immense sacrifice of the people, sacrifices
that should be demanded beginning today, in plain daylight, and which
perhaps may be less painful than those we would have to endure if we constantly
avoided battle in an attempt to have others pull our chestnuts out of
the fire.
It is probable, of course,
that the last liberated country shall accomplish this without an armed
struggle and the sufferings of a long and cruel war against the imperialists-this
they might avoid. But perhaps it will be impossible to avoid this struggle
or its effects in a global conflagration; the suffering would be the same,
or perhaps even greater. We cannot foresee the future, but we should never
give in to the defeatist temptation of being the vanguard of a nation
which yearns for freedom, but abhors the struggle it entails and awaits
its freedom as a crumb of victory.
It is absolutely just to avoid
all useless sacrifices. Therefore, it is so important to clear up the
real possibilities that dependent America may have of liberating itself
through pacific means. For us, the solution to this question is quite
clear: the present moment may or may not be the proper one for starting
the struggle, but we cannot harbor any illusions, and we have no right
to do so, that freedom can be obtained without fighting. And these battles
shall not be mere street fights with stones against tear-gas bombs, or
of pacific general strikes; neither shall it be the battle of a furious
people destroying in two or three days the repressive scaffolds of the
ruling oligarchies; the struggle shall be long, harsh, and its front shall
be in the guerrillas' refuge, in the cities, in the homes of the fighters-where
the repressive forces shall go seeking easy victims among their families-in
the massacred rural population, in the villages or cities destroyed by
the bombardments of the enemy.
They are pushing us into this
struggle; there is no alternative: we must prepare it and we must decide
to undertake it.
The beginnings will not be
easy; they shall be extremely difficult. All the oligarchies' powers of
repression, all their capacity for brutality and demagoguery will be placed
at the service of their cause. Our mission, in the first hour, shall be
to survive; later, we shall follow the perennial example of the guerrilla,
carrying out armed propaganda (in the Vietnamese sense, that is, the bullets
of propaganda, of the battles won or lost-but fought-against the enemy):
the great lesson of the invincibility of the guerrillas taking root in
the dispossessed masses; the galvanizing of the national spirit, the preparation
for harder tasks, for resisting even more violent repressions; hatred
as an element of the struggle, a relentless hatred of the enemy, impelling
us over and beyond the natural limitations that man is heir to and transforming
him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold killing machine. Our
soldiers must be thus; a people without hatred cannot vanquish a brutal
enemy.
We must carry the war into
every corner the enemy happens to carry it: to his home, to his centers
of entertainment; a total war. It is necessary to prevent him from having
a moment of peace, a quiet moment outside his barracks or even inside;
we must attack him wherever he may be, make him feel like a cornered beast
wherever he may move. Then his moral fiber shall begin to decline. He
will even become more beastly, but we shall notice how the signs of decadence
begin to appear.
And let us develop a true proletarian
internationalism; with international proletarian armies, the flag under
which we fight would be the sacred cause of redeeming humanity. To die
under the flag of Vietnam, of Venezuela, of Guatemala, of Laos, of Guinea,
of Colombia, of Bolivia, of Brazil-to name only a few scenes of today's
armed struggle-would be equally glorious and desirable for an American,
an Asian, an African, even a European.
Each spilt drop of blood, in
any country under whose flag one has not been born, is an experience passed
on to those who survive, to be added later to the liberation struggle
of his own country. And each nation liberated is a phase won in the battle
for the liberation of one's own country.
The time has come to settle
our discrepancies and place everything at the service of our struggle.
We all know great controversies
rend the world now fighting for freedom; no one can hide it. We also know
that they have reached such intensity and such bitterness that the possibility
of dialogue and reconciliation seems extremely difficult, if not impossible.
It is a useless task to search for ways and means to propitiate a dialogue
which the hostile parties avoid. However, the enemy is there; it strikes
every day and threatens us with new blows, and these blows will unite
us, today, tomorrow, or the day after. Whoever understands this first,
and prepares for this necessary union, shall have the people's gratitude.
Owing to the virulence and
the intransigence with which each cause is defended, we, the dispossessed,
cannot take sides for one form or the other of these discrepancies, even
though sometimes we coincide with the contentions of one party or the
other, or in a greater measure with those of one part more than with those
of the other. In time of war, the expression of current differences constitutes
a weakness, but at this stage it is an illusion to attempt to settle them
by means of words. History shall erode them or shall give them their true
meaning.
In our struggling world every
discrepancy regarding tactics, the methods of action for the attainment
of limited objectives, should be analyzed with due respect to another
man's opinions. Regarding our great strategic objective, the total destruction
of imperialism by armed struggle, we should be uncompromising.
Let us sum up our hopes for
victory: total destruction of imperialism by eliminating its firmest bulwark,
the oppression exercised by the United States of America. To carry out,
as a tactical method, the people's gradual liberation, one by one or in
groups: driving the enemy into a difficult fight away from its own territory,
dismantling all its sustenance bases, that is, its dependent territories.
This means a long war. And,
once more, we repeat it, a cruel war. Let no one fool himself at the outset
and let no one hesitate to start out for fear of the consequences it may
bring to his people. It is almost our sole hope for victory. We cannot
elude the call of this hour. Vietnam is pointing it out with its endless
lesson of heroism, its tragic and everyday lesson of struggle and death
for the attainment of final victory.
There, the imperialist soldiers
endure the discomforts of those who, used to enjoying the U.S. standard
of living, have to live in a hostile land with the insecurity of being
unable to move without being aware of walking on enemy territory-death
to those who dare take a step out of their fortified encampment, the permanent
hostility of the entire population. All this has internal repercussions
in the United States [and] propitiates the resurgence of an element which
is being minimized in spite of its vigor by all imperialist forces: class
struggle even within its own territory.
How close we could look into
a bright future should two, three, or many Vietnams flourish throughout
the world with their share of deaths and their immense tragedies, their
everyday heroism and their repeated blows against imperialism, impelled
to disperse its forces under the sudden attack and the increasing hatred
of all peoples of the world!
And if we were all capable
of uniting to make our blows stronger and infallible and so increase the
effectiveness of all kinds of support given to the struggling people-how
great and close would that future be!
If we, in a small point of
the world map, are able to fulfill our duty and place at the disposal
of this struggle whatever little of ourselves we are permitted to give:
our lives, our sacrifice; and if some day we have to breathe our last
breath on any land, already ours, sprinkled with our blood, let it be
known that we have measured the scope of our actions and that we only
consider ourselves elements in the great army of the proletariat but that
we are proud of having learned from the Cuban Revolution, and from its
maximum leader, the great lesson emanating from his attitude in this part
of the world: "What do the dangers or the sacrifices of a man or
of a nation matter, when the destiny of humanity is at stake?"
Our every action is a battle
cry against imperialism, and a battle hymn for the people's unity against
the great enemy of mankind: the United States of America. Wherever death
may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry,
may have reached some receptive ear, that another hand may be extended
to wield our weapons, and that other men be ready to intone our funeral
dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries
of war and victory.
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Published on: 2003-08-07 (10533 reads) [ Go Back ] |