STRONG: What if the United States makes it clear that it will give Chiang Kai-shek no more help from now on? MAO: There is no sign yet that the U.S government and Chaing Kai-shek have ariy desire to stop the war within a short time.
STRONG: How long can the Communist Party keep on?
MAO: As far as our own desire is concerned, we don't want to fight even for a writer worked on Russia's Moscow News fight, we can fight to the finish STRONG: If the American people ask why the Communist Party is fighting, what should I reply?
MAO: Because Chaing Kai-shek is out to slaughter the Chinese people, and if the people want to survive they have to defend themselves. This the American people can understand.
STRONG: What do you think of the possibility of the United States starting a war against the Soviet Union?
MAO: There are two aspects to the propaganda about an anti-Soviet war. On the one hand, U.S. imperialism is indeed preparing a war against the Soviet Union; the cerent propaganda about an anti-Soviet war, as well as other anti-Soviet propaganda, is political preparation for such a war. On the other hand. this propaganda is a smoke-screen put up by the U.S. reactionaries to cover many actual contrad ictions between the U.S. reactionaries and the American people and the contradictions of U.S. imperialism with the other capitalist countries and with the colonial and semi-colonial countries...The United States and the Soviet Union are separated by a vast zone which includes many capitalist, colonial and semi-colonial countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. Before the U.S. reactionaries have subjugated these courtries, an attack on the Soviet Union is out of the question. I believe it won't be long before these countries come to realize who is really oppressing them, the Soviet Union or the United States. The day will come when the U.S. reactionaries find themselves opposed by the people of the whole world..
STRONG: That is very clear. But suppose the "United States uses the atom bomb? Suppose the United States bombs the Soviet Union from its bases in Iceland, Okinawa and China?
MAO: The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two new types of weapon. All reactionFACTS.... *** (WASHINGTON) There may be almost twice as many American deaths in Vietnam as the Department of Defence (D/D) claims. Former Senator Wayne Morse has charged that the D/D has two sets of statistics the real ones and those released to the public in its weekly "statistical summary". Morse first made the charge last August, claiming 70,000 rather than 30,000 Americans had been killed in Vietnam combat at that time An ex-marine, who was stationed in Marine H.Q. in Washington, told an October Vietnam Moratorium aud lence, "I realised that the Corps was, as a matter of policy, announcing death toll that was just about half of the number of deaths reported to our office-l talked to guys who were clerking at Army H.O and they said the same thing was going on in their office... The fact is, twice as many Americans have died in Vietnam as the military admits". Slightly more than 40,000 Americans have now been killed in Vietnam, according to the D/D. If Morse and the Marine are right the figure is actually closer to 80,000 AND FIGURES *** (SAIGON) A Vietnamese legislator has said that if government figures are to be believed there are no Communists left at all in South Vietnam. Deputy Ngyuyen Dac Dau told conference-called by opposition members criticize President Thieu's administrationthat according to the government th country had 200,000 Communists tw years ago. "But now the government says that more than 300,000 have been killed by the armed forces, an other 100,000 have defected under he open arms policy and 100,000 ar n jail", he said. "So where are th Communists now?" he asked.
KEEPING TABS
*** "The US Army employs nearly 1,000 plain clothes investigators "to watch" political protests of all kindsfrom Klan rallies in North Carolina t antiwar speeches at Harvard," former captain in Army Intelligence reorted in the January Issu Nashington Monthly. The article b Christopher H. Pyle, who worked for US Army Intelligence Command, outines some of this spy network, whic s distinct from the FBI Pyle noted that "The Army periodically publishes an eight-by-ter inch, glossy-cover paperback booklet know within intelligence circles as the "blacklist". An encyclopedia of people and organizations who might cause some trouble for the Army". number of revolutionary organizations in the US are known to be looking out for a copy. are being made between the war abroad and the conditions in the barrios at home.
It's an up-hill struggle because the army is, for many Chicanos, an escape from the poverty and social backwardness of the Chicano community. What's more, the Chicanos cling dearly to the notorious Spanish-American concept of Machismoaggressive masculinity. This machismo has led many Chicanos to believe that joiningup was a necessary proof of manhood and virility.
But now that the bodies are beginning to be shipped home, that idea is changing fast. The action on Feb 28th is to be followed by a day of nationwide activity on May 5th, and a conference to plan a Chicano Moratorium. Rosalio Munoz, one of the organisers, explained that the Chicanos aimed "to show solidarity with the Vietnamese who, after all, have the highest death-rate in Vietnam". He added