Vol. 4, No. 11 April 15. 1966
SUPPORT THE CUBAN CALL FOR EFFECTIVE AID TO NORTH VIETNAM!
The Cuban delegation really stood out at the twenty-third congress of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. On the key issue facing the gathering -- what to do about strengthening aid to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Revolution -- the Cubans called for effective action.
"From a tactical point of view," said Armando Hart Davalos, the head of the delegation from Havana, "a military force should be created capable of stopping the bombardment of north Vietnam,
New York, N. Y. 10010. ya
of deactivating United States aircraft that are bombing Vietnamese territory." [See World Outlook April 8 for more details. ]
The proposals of the Cuban delegation met with a frosty reception, according to all reports. The following account, which we have translated from the April 1 issue of Le Drapeau Rouge, the official publication of the pro-Moscow Belgian Communist party, indicates the attitude of the Khrushchevists:
"After Zhivkov [First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist party] spoke, Comrace Hart took the floor in the name of the Cuban Communist party. His speech was received rather coldly by the audience, to such a degree that it was necessary -- certainly to give Comrade Armando Hart Davalos the feeling: — of not being isolated -- for Brezhnev himself to give the signal ~ several times for applause.
"Armando Hart began by expressing the gratitude of . the ‘Cuban people to the USSR for all it had done and was still doing in behalf of the Cuban Revolution. After rejecting Peking's accusations.-on the ‘little aid' given by the USSR to North Vietnam, he voiced an evident truth: unity is necessary in all. the problems of the struggle against imperialism but above all on the key point -- Vietnam. But he then generalized by proposing adventurous, irresponsible solutions: 'Let's assure the development of the revolution .in- every point of the world; let's bring forward the revolutionary violence of the masses,' and other expressions having only a verbal character because they do not at all take into account the internal situation in each country but tend to impose on the peoples, from cutside, a revolution which they might not yet want. These are pseudorevolu-. tionary phrases that move away from the revolution and even end up. by relegating to a secondary level the. number: one objective of the moment: to assure victory to the Vietnamese people and to save world peace. But this extremist language nevertheless did not prevent Comrade Hart from finally appealing for action to coordinate efforts in behalf of Vietnam 'so that the country becomes a cemetery for the American planes.'"
The distance separating the bureaucratic delegates at-this congress from the revolutionary outlook of an Armando Hart can be judged from the following small item included in the same report by Henri Laurent, the. Moscow correspondent of Le Drapeau Rouge:
‘"It is to be noted that the name of General de Gaulle was © applauded © two ‘times during the speech made by Waldeck Rochet. wo (Rochet is the head of the French Communist party. )
The truth of it is that the coldness displayed by the gathering to the Cuban proposals were more proper to renegades and traitors than to people in charge of running the country. The defense of the Soviet Union is very much involved in the aggression being carried out against the Vietnamese Revolution by American imperialism. The failure of the Soviet government to react adequately to the situation seriously weakens the world position of the Soviet Union and increases its vulnerability to possible attack. There is a
deadly -parallel ‘between the present attitude of the Brezhnev-Kosygin: team and Stalin's reaction to Hitler as the Nazi representative of - German imperialism began expanding across the European continent. Stalin signed a pact with the-German dictator:in the interests of "peace. " Brezhnev-Kosygin want a “peaceful coexistence” deal with... Johnson. 2 en,
The truth is that the Cuban delegation conducted itself in a restrained way and only suggested the absolute: minimum in ‘the way of sending aid to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. ere hoy
The Cuban propcsal is all the more realistic in view of the present disarray in the camp of Saigon. If Hanoi's position were now strerigthened ‘to the necessary degree, the dangerous war that has been escalating in Southeast Asia could be quickly extinguished through the revolutionary action of the | People. ‘This was what the Cubans» were