30. Allow me first to convey to the President the congratulations of the delegation of the People’s Republic of Albania on the occasion of his election to the Presidency of this session of the General Assembly.
31. For many years the General Assembly has been faced at each of its sessions with new acts of aggression perpetrated against freedom-loving peoples and countries by the imperialists and their accomplices as part of their policy of oppressing and subjugating the peoples.
32. In addition to the aggression perpetrated for many years by the American imperialists against the people of Viet-Nam, a new act of armed aggression was committed last year in the Middle East: the imperialist American-Israel aggression against the Arab countries, in which the new imperialists of the Soviet Union acted as the main accomplices.
33. A few weeks ago yet another act of armed aggression was committed against Czechoslovakia by the Soviet imperialists and their lackeys of the Warsaw Pact organization with the complicity of the American imperialists. Nowadays, when one of the two great Powers directly commits an act of criminal aggression, the other is its accomplice, and vice versa. The facts show that, in the schemes of the two great Powers, the unilateral occupation of given areas by each party should follow and offset that of the other after a certain interval.
34. The international situation is nevertheless developing in favour of the liberation of the peoples and of revolution. The imperialist world headed by American imperialism, and modern revisionism headed by the new imperialism of Soviet revisionism, are passing through a radical political, economic and military crisis. These two countries claim to be world super-Powers and attempt to intimidate the world and its peoples with their weapons, their economic strength and their intrigues. But they are rotten to the core, because the decisive force in the world is the peoples, and the peoples are against them. They have rebelled, they will rebel and will strike each day with greater violence against this handful of bloodthirsty pirates and arch-blackmailers. This is proved by the struggles for freedom waged on all continents: these do not and never will subside. Some of them seem stifled, but flare up again more violently than before. This is proved by the strikes and struggles of workers and peasants in all capitalist countries. It is confirmed by the assault of young people and students throughout the world, fearlessly and relentlessly attacking the rotten capitalist citadel on all sides in continuous waves. It is confirmed by the uprisings of the Negro revolutionaries within the citadel of American imperialism.
35. Revolution is forging ahead and no force can stop it. Neither the Glassboro talks and deals, nor any future meetings and deals between the imperialist and revisionist leaders, nor their secret or overt plans can improve their situation. Whatever they may wish or do, the tide will flow against them and in favour of the peoples and their freedom and true independence. The imperialists and revisionists can expect only further resounding and conclusive defeats.
36. You, gentlemen, you American imperialists and Soviet revisionists: you are well aware that the words of the representative of a small nation do not fall on deaf ears in this Assembly, and still less outside it, among the peoples of the world; because what we say here is said by hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people on all continents with whom we are irresistibly united against you.
37. Even here in this Assembly, gentlemen, you American imperialists and Soviet revisionists only appear to be in the majority, whereas we have the hearts of all democratic patriots who are devoted to the great cause of the people. We fight for living hearts; you may take the corpses.
38. The Secretary-General, U Thant, proposed in the introduction to his annual report [A/7201/Add.1] that the so-called Big Four should meet to settle the question of peace and other questions. Everyone, including the Secretary-General, is entitled to submit proposals. Nevertheless, we reject this inadequate proposal of his, made on the very eve of the opening of this session of the General Assembly.
39. We ask the Secretary-General: what has more value, the meeting of the General Assembly or the meeting of four of its members? Why has this Assembly met? Surely we are gathered here to consider and settle the major international issues; and surely this Assembly is capable of bringing to book two or three Powers which have flouted it and set at naught the rights of the peoples.
40. Why then, Mr. Secretary-General, did you deem it necessary to make your proposal before the opening of the General Assembly and so give the impression that everything depended on four and not on 125 members of the Organization? Do you not think that the activities of the two major Powers in the General Assembly, in the Security Council, in the corridors, at Camp David and at Glassboro are already doing enough harm to the Assembly and the peoples?
41. We should agree with you if you spoke frankly from this rostrum and told the Americans to leave Viet-Nam and the Soviets to leave Czechoslovakia; if you said to the Israel aggressors “Clear out of the occupied Arab territories!” and to the American and Soviet imperialists "Clear out of your aggressive land and naval bases in foreign countries!”
42. You may claim that it is unseemly.for diplomats to use such language. But, American and Soviet guns, planes and tanks do not speak diplomatic language. I am convinced of one thing: that our brothers the Burmese people, whom we love and respect, speak as we do on this matter.
43. We who are gathered here as the representatives of our States call ourselves the United Nations; but in fact we are divided, not united.
44. All of us here are entitled under the Charter to speak for as long as we wish, when we wish and how we wish. But this is only a seeming, since many democratic and patriotic representatives from various countries say one thing when their hearts say another. This is not their fault; it is not that they lack courage or strong democratic and anti-imperialist convictions; it is because they are under shameless pressure from the imperialists and revisionists.
45. The United States imperialists and the Soviet imperialist revisionists dominate the “United Nations”; they dominate its stage and corridors not only in this Hall but on every floor of this glass palace and wherever this Organization is active.
46. The representatives of the people and of the States speak here: they suggest and criticize; they condemn aggression against people and discuss problems vital to mankind. But the two imperialist Powers and their accomplices in crime lay down the law here and try, though vainly, to impose their barbarous laws outside the Organization, on the peoples of the world.
47. The General Assembly has heard the statement made by Dean Rusk, [A/PV.1677] the representative of blood-thirsty American imperialism — a statement which can deceive no one. He defends the subjugation of the peoples and the atrocious imperialist wars of plunder; his policy is based on blackmail and the threat of a third world war; he proposes only to join the Soviet revisionists in dividing the world into spheres of influence and preparing a third world war, to be waged along with the Soviet Union against the People’s Republic of China and other peace-loving sovereign peoples. To Czechoslovakia, he made only a perfunctory reference, to which Gromyko, the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union and his accomplice in these sinister machinations, did not even deign to reply.
48. But what did Gromyko say? His statement was described as “very moderate” by the imperialist American press, and as “conciliatory” by the world capitalist press. He too defended the imperialist policy of the Soviet revisionists, their aggression, their oppression and subjugation of peoples, the Soviet-American counter-revolutionary conspiracy, the sharing of spheres of influence, and world domination by the two Powers.
49. Of course they inevitably finished on the same note: they must strengthen their alliances and pacify their respective partners in NATO and the Warsaw Pact: They must create among their bands of accomplices the impression that the Soviet-American alliance is strong, lead them to believe that their safety depends entirely on greater submission to the United States of America and to the Soviet Union, and persuade them that their real danger is revolution, the national liberation struggles of the peoples, the peoples’ vast democratic masses, the mighty world proletariat and the glorious China of Mao Tse-tung with its 700 million inhabitants.
50. Gromyko, both before and after delivering his statement, met Rusk, talked with him and sat at table with him like a brother and a friend. What this counter-revolutionary in fact said to us here in this Assembly, with extreme effrontery, was more or less this: "Go ahead and make speeches in this Hall; we two, Rusk and I, make our decisions elsewhere”. But we in this Hall say to Rusk and Gromyko that very few put any trust in their words and that, although they may make their decisions elsewhere, the revolutionary peoples of the world will bring their plans to naught. The people will win, socialism will triumph, and imperialism and revisionism will be defeated and destroyed.
51. The imperialists and revisionists churn out their pompous phrases about peace, democracy, and a world free of weapons and wars. Our duty is to raise our voice high and make all honest people of the world understand that the American imperialists and the Soviet revisionists are preparing a third world war and to that end are waging and will continue to wage small-scale wars.
52. Peoples of the world, we must be on the alert! Either we must accept the heavy yoke of the new fascists, or we must prepare to struggle against them. The people of Albania have struggled for centuries against political and social servitude. They are armed, they are prepared to repel any aggression blow for blow, and they will overcome every aggressor.
53. Every nation is aware of its duty and knows how it must act in the face of this threatening situation. But we are convinced that the peoples will not let themselves be deceived by the imperialists and revisionists who, already armed to the teeth, go on arming themselves while they say: “Lay down your arms, for we will defend you.” In other words, “Become our slaves because we will defend your freedom, your independence and your sovereignty”. That means, put your head in the lion’s mouth.
54. Typical in this respect is the statement made by the representative of Czechoslovakia [A/PV.1682] — that talented, democratic and progressive country, martyred by new invaders who are despicably and crudely laying down the law, not only in Czechoslovakia but also here in this Hall. The Czechoslovak representative came to this rostrum and, concealing his true feelings, spoke the language of the invaders and tried to convince us that we should not speak of rights, freedom, independence, sovereignty and socialism in Czechoslovakia because they are the concern of the invader, Jakubovski. No! No one can close the mouths of us Albanians — neither Jakubovski, nor his cannon, nor his atomic weapons. And the Albanian people will strenuously defend their freedom and rights, and the rights of the peoples of the world, as long as a single Albanian still lives in it.
55. The two imperialist Powers, the United States of America and the revisionist Soviet Union, have not only allocated their spheres of interest in the world but have also co-ordinated their strategy and tactics. Both are frenziedly doing their utmost to seize world markets everywhere, to exploit the peoples of the world barbarously so as to make them economically dependent, to plunder them and make them sweat blood and water. This is the new colonialism.
56. All the so-called assistance and credit granted by these two Powers is political and means economic dependence. All resistance by the peoples or their national democratic leaders is repressed by weapons or by coups d'état incited by the new colonizers.
57. These machinations, compounded between the United States of America and the revisionist Soviet Union, are perpetrated not only as isolated attacks by each for itself but also in a co-ordinated continental! pattern. The blow at the great Arab revolutionary movement was organized jointly: the Israeli-Americans used force while the Soviets stood by.
58. The Soviet revisionists are also imperialists: they are opposed to the unity of the Arab peoples and their slogan is that of the imperialists — divide and rule. We love the Arab peoples; we are well acquainted with the Soviet revisionists and their schemes, and we, as well as the Arab leaders, know how these were threatened by Nikita Khrushchev in his time. May they never trust his disciples, for these, under the cloak of their so-called assistance, hide a dagger!
59. In Latin America the Soviet revisionists and their local henchmen advocate co-existence with the cliques in power, while the American imperialists strike with their weapons at the revolution which erupts everywhere. The one disarms, by ideology, the other strikes at the revolution with its armed forces.
60. In Viet-Nam, the Soviet revisionists preach shameful capitulation; the Americans bomb night and day and extend the war. The prime target of the Soviet-American pact is obviously the People’s Republic of China; for this great impregnable fortress, defending the liberty of peoples and their anti-imperialist struggles for liberty, is the main obstacle to the imperialists’ schemes.
61. The armed aggression committee last August in the name of the Warsaw Pact on the Czechoslovak people, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of Poland, the German Democratic Republic, the People’s Republic of Hungary and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, was an act of fascist banditry which best revealed in their true colours the Soviet revisionists who dominate the organization of the Pact. It is a consequence of the ideological and political degeneracy of the present Soviet leadership, which has transformed the Soviet Union into an aggressive imperialist State and of the all-embracing Soviet-American strategic counter-revolutionary plan to suppress the freedom of the peoples and to dominate the world. The aggression against Czechoslovakia proved quite conclusively that the Khrushchevian leadership, which practises great-Power chauvinism, is now resorting to force and armed aggression against those members of the Warsaw Pact which do not obey its dictates, in order to resolve disagreements with its partners in that Pact resulting from the bourgeois degeneracy of the revisionists.
62. The circumstances surrounding this act of aggression by the Soviet Union’s revisionists and the benevolent attitude of their main accomplices, the imperialists of the United States of America, have laid bare to the peoples of the world the co-operation which exists between these two conspiring Powers and their aggressive plans to allocate spheres of influence and dominate the world, and have shown that this act of aggression is only one link in the chain of the two Powers’ global strategy.
63. The aggression of the Soviet Union revisionists has revealed them as the adventurist renegades that they are. All the peoples of the world have expressed their profound rage and indignation and have vehemently condemned this barbarous and monstrous aggression, which tramples underfoot the fundamental principles of relations between States and endangers freedom and peace in Europe and throughout the world. This perfidious and monstrous attack against Czechoslovakia is a crushing humiliation for the Soviet Union, the birthplace of the great October Revolution, and for the Soviet people and their armed forces. No one can any longer have the slightest confidence in the Soviet Union and the clique of Khrushchevian renegades which governs it.
64. The Soviet aggressors’ attempts to justify their occupation of Czechoslovakia on the fallacious pretext of safeguarding Socialism in Czechoslovakia, or of protecting it from the danger of its rapprochement with Federal Germany and other western countries, and their other outworn nonsense of the type customarily used by aggressors, can in no way deceive the peoples of the world. These are fully aware that the Soviet revisionists have long since completely destroyed the principles of socialism in the Soviet Union and have turned it into a capitalist State; that they were the first to establish diplomatic and other relations with the Bonn Government; and that above all they are linked with the arch-imperialists, the United States of America, in a counter-revolutionary holy alliance to oppress and dominate the peoples of the world.
65. The invasion of Czechoslovakia has thus been a lesson both for the Czechoslovak people and for the peoples of other countries where the revisionists are in power, who can only expect the same fate. It has shown them quite clearly the dangerous deadlock into which the treacherous policy of the Khrushchevian leadership of the Soviet Union has led them, and their need to launch immediately a firm and tenacious struggle against the Soviet revisionists and their supporters, and against the American imperialists and the Soviet-American bloc. The August invasion was also a bitter lesson for the Arab peoples of the Middle East, and for the peoples of Asia (including Viet-Nam) Africa, Latin America and the whole world. Everyone is now fully aware that the American-Soviet bloc represents a grave threat and should be the first target of the peoples’ struggle and attack.
66. The Albanian people, its Party and its Government have vehemently condemned the brutal aggression committed against the Czechoslovak people. Our Party and our Government declared on the day after the invasion that the whole Albanian people fully supported their Czechoslovak brothers, and expresses our feelings on the firmest internationalist solidarity. We are convinced that the peace-loving Czechoslovak people will never tolerate the occupation of their fatherland or submit to the dictates of the Soviet
revisionist occupants. They will intensify their struggle in all its forms until they are completely liberated from the foreign occupants and their perfidious local henchmen. The Czechoslovak people will triumph over all the plans of their revisionist, imperialist and West-German revanchist enemies. They have the support of all freedom-loving revolutionary peoples, including the people of the Soviet Union and of the other countries taking part in this act of aggression.
67. It was in full accord with this policy of ours that the People’s Assembly of the People’s Republic of Albania decided on 14 September 1968 to denounce the Warsaw Pact, concluded on 13 May 1955 between eight Socialist States of Europe, including the People’s Republic of Albania. Since the adoption of that decision by its People’s Assembly, Albania has been exempt from all obligations deriving from the Pact.
68. The purpose of the Warsaw Pact was to guarantee the security of States Parties through their joint forces against any imperialist aggression, particularly by the North Atlantic bloc headed by the United States, and also to strengthen co-operation among socialist States in all fields on the basis of the lofty principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. So long as the Government of the Soviet Union and the governments of the other States members of the Warsaw Pact organization abide by the Pact’s objects and provisions, the People’s Republic of Albania was an active member, was steadfastly faithful to the Pact’s spirit and aims, and fulfilled all the obligations arising from its fundamental provisions.
69. However, as Comrade Mehmet Shehu, President of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Albania, made quite clear in the detailed statement he delivered to the People’s Assembly on 13 September 1968, the Soviet revisionists and their followers, pursuing the counter-revolutionary policy established at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, have gradually distorted the Warsaw Pact and eventually transformed it from a treaty of peace and defence against imperialist
aggression and West German revanchism into an aggressive treaty to be used by the Soviet Khrushchevian leadership against the Socialist countries themselves.
70. The Albanian Government, guided by the just Marxist-Leninist doctrine, has waged a firm struggle of principle against the subversive attempts of the revisionist leadership of the Soviet Union to transform the Pact into an instrument for imposing its chauvinistic great-Power will on the signatory countries and peoples. For. that reason the Moscow leaders, supported by their partisans in the other States members of the Pact Organization, have for a long time in fact excluded the People’s Republic of Albania.
71. The aggression against the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia has clearly confirmed the statement made long ago by the Workers’ Party and the Government of the People’s Republic of Albania that the Warsaw Pact has been turned into an instrument to be used by the revisionist, Soviet leadership to subjugate and attack the Socialist member countries. Just as the aggressive NATO bloc is an instrument of subjugation in the hands of the United States, so the Warsaw Pact has been converted into an aggressive instrument of subjugation to be used by the Soviet leadership.
72. The withdrawal of the People’s Republic of Albania from the Warsaw Pact organization was an act of great national and international significance. The denunciation of the Warsaw Pact has further strengthened the defensive policy of our socialist fatherland and has dealt a crushing blow at the chauvinistic great-Power aggressive policy of the Khrushchevian revisionists. By denouncing the Warsaw Pact we demonstrated yet again to the world our revolutionary peace- and freedom-loving policy. By that act we showed that the Albanian people, their Party and their Government refuse to recognize the spheres of influence of the two major imperialist and revisionist Powers and will in no circumstances be party to a coalition of aggression. We have thus discharged our internationalist duty to make our modest contribution to the peoples struggling for freedom and independence against imperialist and revisionist aggression.
73. Another consequence of the great Soviet-American conspiracy is the barbarous aggression perpetrated against the people of Viet-Nam for many years by the American imperialists. The Viet-Namese people have, through their heroic struggle, dealt a series of crushing blows at the Yankee aggressors, who have never been in such a critical situation as they are today. Despite the various kinds of military action undertaken by the United States Government, despite the intensification of the war in the South and of the bombings in the North, the American imperialists have become completely and hopelessly locked in an impasse in Viet-Nam. The United States Government, beset by unprecedented difficulties both at home and abroad, such as the total failure of its aggression in Viet-Nam, the dollar crisis, the heroic and unyielding struggle of the American Negroes and the tempestuous revolutionary struggle of the peoples on all continents, its isolation in the
world arena and so on, and ably assisted by the clique of Soviet revisionist renegades, is endeavouring to extricate itself from its messy war in Viet-Nam by means of treacherous “peace negotiations”. The Soviet revisionists are playing all their cards, are doing their utmost, to reward American imperialism for its tacit approval of their aggression in Czechoslovakia by trying to compel the people of Viet-Nam to capitulate to the aggressors. Soviet revisionist aggression against Czechoslovakia illustrates the danger of the great Soviet-American conspiracy and of the criminal attempts of the two Powers to divide the world into spheres of influence and to reward each other for their conquests at the expense of the peoples.
74. The acts of aggression committed in Viet-Nam, Czechoslovakia, in the Middle East and elsewhere are all links in the same chain. They are an integral part of the great counter-revolutionary imperialist conspiracy which was crystallized and refined at the notorious meeting between Johnson and Kosygin at Glassboro, held on the very day after Israel’s attack on the Arab States. Events since that meeting have confirmed our assessments and forecasts about the Soviet-American plot.
75. The American imperialists are obviously not renouncing any of their aggressive designs against Viet-Nam. The facts have shown that even the so-called limitation of the bombing of North Viet-Nam is only a trick. Since the adoption of that measure the bombing of North Viet-Nam, far from diminishing, has been still further intensified and has caused far greater destruction than in the past — in accordance with the American imperialists’ strategic plan to destroy North Viet-Nam.
76. There can be no doubt, and it is historically proven, that any concession to the diabolical American-Soviet manoeuvres and plans can only encourage aggression. Only through armed struggle will the Viet-Namese people triumph over the American aggressors. The heroic people of Viet-Nam have shown the whole world that no force, device or trickery can overcome their iron will to carry through their heroic struggle to final victory. All the freedom-loving peoples of the world support the Viet-Namese people. As in the past, the Albanian people and Government support their Viet-Namese brothers in their dedicated struggle against the American imperialist aggressors. We are convinced that no efforts the imperialists and their accomplices may employ, however desperate, will ever succeed in stopping the triumphant march of the heroic Viet-Namese people to final victory, the expulsion of the American aggressors, the liberation of their nation and the reunification of their country.
77. An intolerable situation has existed in the Middle East since the imperialist-Israel aggression of last June against the United Arab Republic, Syria and Jordan. Arab territories are still occupied by the troops of the fascist Tel Aviv Government, and the Arab peoples of those territories, their national pride gravely wounded, are still languishing under the yoke of the occupants. Meanwhile Israel is continuing its aggressive and provocative activities against the Arab countries and is shamelessly threatening and
blackmailing them with the support and at the instigation of the American imperialists. The freedom-loving peoples of the Middle East are living today in a situation of grave insecurity. Peaceful peoples and States of all continents are revolted by this state of affairs and are expressing their profound indignation against those mainly responsible for it — the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, these two Powers are trying to put into practice the plans hatched at Glassboro, by imposing on the Arab peoples the so-called political settlement which in fact is just another hoax, like the “peace negotiations”, “negotiations for better understanding", and the like, all of which are designed to trample on the higher interests of the Arab peoples, their independence and their territorial integrity, and to encourage the expansionist policy of the Israel
aggressors. The same is true of Security Council resolution 242 of 22 November 1967, which is merely another outcome of American-Soviet barter. All that the mission of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Gunnar Jarring, can do is to give Israel more time to consolidate its aggressive and expansionist policies.
78. At present the Soviets claim that they are aiding the Arab peoples with weapons with which to liberate their territories. This is bluff. The aim of the Soviet revisionists, in league with the American imperialists, is to curb the revolutionary spirit of the Arab peoples. The Soviet Union is no champion of the Arab peoples; it is acting as a watch-dog for the American imperialists’ interests in the Middle East and at the same time is trying to bring these countries under its own influence. When the Arab peoples decide to go ahead and regain their legitimate rights, they are certain to be opposed, not only by their old enemies, but also by the Soviet revisionists.
79. But all the criminal designs and diabolical manoeuvres, all the military and economic pressures designed to subjugate the Arab States and take advantage of their strategic position and their wealth, particularly of the oil in their region, are doomed to failure. The aggression of June 1967 and subsequent events have clearly shown the Arab peoples who their enemies are, and have taught them not to expect anything from the two great Powers but to rely mainly on their own strength and on their solidarity with other peoples. Today they realize more clearly than ever their vital need to unite in their struggle to win freedom and safeguard their independence. The just struggle waged by the Arab peoples against the Israel aggressors is developing and gaining ground. The armed struggle conducted by the partisans of the Palestinian people in the Arab territories occupied by Israel is growing apace and has the sympathy and support of all revolutionary peoples.
80. The Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Albania, in line with its policy of adherence to Marxist-Leninist principles and steadfastly faithful to the ties of traditional close friendship linking the Albanian people to their brothers the Arab peoples, has vehemently condemned the aggression of 5 June and has resolutely supported the just struggle of the Arab States and peoples for freedom and national independence. Developments since last year’s aggression have confirmed that the only settlement that is just and in keeping with the vital interests and legitimate rights of the Arab States and with peace and security in the Middle East is to put into effect the measures proposed in the draft resolution submitted by the People’s Republic of Albania on 26 June 1967. We adhere to our just position, and insist that it is the only possible solution for the situation which has arisen since Israel’s aggression. The whole Albanian people are following with great sympathy and interest the armed struggle of the people in the areas occupied by Israel, and is delighted at their success. We are firmly convinced that the United Arab Peoples, inspired by their great military tradition, will be able to extend and carry forward this just struggle until they have triumphed once and for all over imperialism and its tool Israel.
81. At this juncture we are bound to note that the policy of force and world hegemony pursued by the two major Powers is the direct cause of the present tense and dangerous situation in the Mediterranean, where their war fleets are deployed and operating. The peaceful and freedom-loving countries of that region are bound to be particularly concerned by the threatening and aggressive activities of those two fleets, especially now in view of the situation created by the aggressive attacks in the Middle East and Czechoslovakia. It is clear that the increase in the co-ordinated activity of the two Powers and the movements and concentrations of their troops and warships (for example, the recent concentration of Soviet troops in Bulgaria and the strengthening and manoeuvres of Soviet naval forces in the Mediterranean) are certainly not designed to defend peace, as these two Powers assure us, but rather to carry through their joint aggressive plans
against the freedom-loving peoples and countries of that region. Despite the differences which exist between the two Powers in the Mediterranean, the purpose of their fleets is the same: to threaten and destroy the freedom of the peoples of that region. If the Soviet fleet is really deployed in the Mediterranean to safeguard peace, then why last year, when it was really there, did it not prevent Israel from attacking the Arab States and occupying their territories? Would it, perchance, do so in future when the Soviet-
American alliance has further advanced its plot to destroy the freedom and independence of the peoples?
82. There can be no doubt that all the events in the Middle East result from the joint aggressive imperialist plans of the two Powers against the Arab States, and that their fleets in the Mediterranean are watch-dogs to ensure that these plans are carried out. The freedom-loving peoples of the Mediterranean region are now well acquainted with these bitter enemies. These peoples are vigilant and strong; they have full confidence in their own strength and will fight both the American imperialists and the Soviet revisionists, whose monstrous plans they surely will be able to wreck, crush and defeat.
83. The freedom and independence of the peoples and international peace and security are seriously endangered by the Soviet-American imperialist bloc, whose ultimate objective is world domination by the two great Powers. Beset by severe domestic and external problems which are constantly accumulating at a breathtaking rate, seriously threatened by a major economic and political crisis, and horrified by the world-wide movement for national and social liberation, these two Powers have increased their joint aggressive activities for the purpose of oppressing and subjugating the freedom-loving revolutionary peoples.
84. In particular, they are trying to secure “peace” in Europe and to consolidate their rear positions there, so that they can concentrate their attacks against Asia and particularly against the People’s Republic of China, the consistent and immovable champion of peoples fighting imperialist aggression, oppression and tyranny, and an insuperable obstacle to the attainment of those Powers’ counter-revolutionary plans for world domination. Along with their attempts to quash Asian national liberation movements, the American imperialists and Soviet revisionists have increased their efforts to encircle China strategically and prepare acts of military provocation and aggression against it. To that end they are strengthening their ties with the reactionary cliques and governments of the countries of Asia and the Far East, and are trying to draw them into military alliances and to set up more and stronger military bases, including nuclear bases, round the People’s Republic of China. At the same time the two Powers are co-ordinating their provocative actions against China and their plots to increase tension on its frontiers. In this connexion the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Chou En-lai, stated a few days ago on 30 September 1968:
“While intensifying their aggression and threats against Eastern Europe, Soviet social imperialists have also committed acts of armed provocation against China. In collusion with the United States imperialists, they are trying desperately to make an iron ring round China by deploying large numbers of troops along the Sino-Soviet and Sino-Mongolian frontiers, and at the same time are constantly inciting frontier tension by frequent violations of Chinese air space. This is, of course, not proof of their strength, but rather a sign of their moral bankruptcy, their domestic weakness and their fear.”
85. It should be noted here that the fraudulent Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, designed to force non-nuclear States to recognize the nuclear monopoly of the two great Powers and to make them “protected countries", is also an integral part of the Soviet-American military conspiracy against the People’s Republic of China. Indeed, the American imperialists and Soviet revisionists are hoping to use that Treaty not only to spread anti-Chinese propaganda but also to carry out their plan for encircling China strategically by offering a “nuclear umbrella” to certain countries neighbouring China, such as India, which they have taken in tow. Nor can we ignore that the deals now being concluded between the Soviet Union and the United States for the deployment of offensive and defensive strategic nuclear weapons are also directed primarily against the People’s Republic of China.
86. But can the imperialists and revisionists frighten the People’s Republic of China with all these efforts and aggressive plans? Will their counter-revolutionary and imperialist designs succeed against the People’s Republic of China? Certainly not, by no means. The People’s Republic of China is a powerful socialist State which has made remarkable progress in all fields of production, science, technology, and defence. China has shattered once and for all the imperialist-revisionist nuclear monopoly, a feat which has been enthusiastically welcomed by freedom-loving States and peoples as an important factor in international peace and security.
87. The triumph of the great Chinese proletarian cultural revolution, which was guided by Chairman Mao Tse-tung in person, was a victory of colossal historic significance not only for socialism and the revolution in China, but for all the revolutionary forces of the world and all progressive mankind. The resounding victory achieved by the establishment of revolutionary committees throughout China — except in the province of Taiwan, which is under American military occupation — marked the final triumph of the thoughts of Mao Tse-tung, the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of socialism over revisionism and imperialism, and the final defeat of the counter-revolutionary plot to seize the fortress from within and restore capitalism in China.
88. Although the imperialists and revisionists spread lies and slander about the People’s Republic of China both inside and outside the United Nations, the Republic’s international authority and prestige are greater than ever. The great proletarian cultural revolution has increased tenfold the revolutionary force and vitality of the Chinese people; it has given an entirely novel stimulus to the all-round development of the People’s Republic of China, which it has immeasurably strengthened. The great Chinese people, 700 million strong, are a colossal and invincible force, the impregnable fortress of socialism and the freedom of peoples. All the anti-Chinese plots and plans hatched by the American imperialists and Soviet revisionists are doomed to miserable failure; and if they dare to undertake a military adventure against China, it will certainly be their last. Ail freedom-loving peoples of the world are with mighty China, which they see as their powerful ally and the unfailing and consistent champion of their revolutionary struggle for freedom, independence and progress.
89. The further the American-Soviet bloc develops its counter-revolutionary imperialist plot, and the more it intensifies its criminal and aggressive activities against the peoples, the stronger will grow the hatred and indignation of all freedom-loving forces against it, and the more vigorously will be waged the revolutionary struggle for liberation from imperialist oppression and aggression. The peoples of the world are today more aware than ever of the threat represented by the alliance of the two great Powers; they are rushing in ever-increasing numbers into the struggle and fighting ever more resolutely to destroy the aggressive designs of that alliance against their freedom and independence.
90. It cannot be denied that world public opinion is becoming increasingly aware of the true nature of the American-Soviet bloc, which is steadily becoming isolated from all peaceful and freedom-loving peoples and countries. This can also be seen here in the United Nations. Despite the multifarious efforts of the two Powers, despite their diverse threats and pressures and their deceptive and demagogic manoeuvres, they have been completely unmasked and are now hated by the vast majority of Member States. It is common knowledge that the United States of America and the Soviet Union are now plotting against the peoples, against the small countries and the developing countries, and that their activities and acts of aggression merely carry out the plans they have hatched together as part of their global strategy for world domination. Their demagogy is now universally discredited. Even some of the countries which a few years ago were trying to contribute to, and for some time supported, an American-Soviet rapprochement, now clearly realize the danger of that alliance to themselves. In other words, the vast majority of Member States are fighting the ill-famed imperialist bloc either directly or indirectly and are trying to free themselves from its dictates, which are seriously detrimental to their national interests.
91. After all the two Powers’ plots and criminal dealings in different parts of the world, who can fail to perceive the true objectives of Soviet-American collusion? Who in future can believe the demagogy and fraudulent proposals of the imperialists and revisionists? How ridiculous are the proposals contained in the Soviet Government’s memorandum on disarmament [A/7134], submitted to the General Assembly immediately after that Government’s aggression against Czechoslovakia! No one can be deceived by these already obsolete proposals. That memorandum, in the present situation succeeding the aggression committed by the two Powers, is not only absurd but also disrespectful to States Members, an affront to their dignity, and shows that the revisionists are completely unscrupulous. Of course no one will be deceived by the Soviet aggressors’ memorandum on disarmament, which can do nothing to conceal their betrayal of the peoples or their atrocities.
92. As you know, the endless discussions on disarmament and the numerous proposals submitted in recent years by both the United States and the Soviet Union are nothing but misleading demagogy. The two Powers are hoping thus to put the peoples off guard and to gain time to pursue their arms race and their preparations for war. The proposals and debates on disarmament are only a bluff; so far they have merely camouflaged the co-operation between the two Powers against peace and the peoples’ freedom. The imperialists and the Soviet revisionists are using the United Nations and its organs as a means of legalizing their transactions and mutual agreements, such as the Moscow partial test-ban treaty of 1963 and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which are designed to strengthen their military alliance.
93. Recent experience in particular has shown that the United Nations has strayed completely from the fundamental purposes and principles of the Charter and has become a tool of the world-wide Soviet-American plot. It is well known that not only has the United Nations done nothing to solve such serious problems as colonialism and racial discrimination, but its activities in that field have damaged the interests of the peoples still languishing under colonial and racist subjugation, by awakening in them harmful illusions. Previous experience in the United Nations has shown peaceful peoples and countries the truth about the Organization. The peoples of the world now know that they can expect nothing from the United Nations so long as it remains an instrument of American imperialism and a market for transactions between the two great Powers in execution of their global strategy for world domination.
94. Reference is often made here to the universality of the United Nations. But has that principle ever been applied? Certainly not. No one can say otherwise, since precisely in deference to the American imperialists’ decree the greatest State in the world is still not represented in this Organization: great socialist China, which the peoples struggling against imperialist oppression and aggression see as their most powerful and reliable defender and the invincible champion of their freedom and independence. No one doubts today that without the People’s Republic of China none of the major international problems can be solved. It is common knowledge that the presence of China has today become a vital necessity for the United Nations, more than ever because of the imperialist collusion between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, which are doing their utmost to divert the efforts of the United Nations for the peoples’ liberation and for international co-operation and peace to the advancement of their own interests and their aggressive plans for world domination. We all know that when the People’s Republic of China, that powerful State with the largest population in the world, enters the United Nations, it will through its weight, its great importance and its enormous international authority
effectively influence the Organization’s work in accordance with the peoples’ cherished aspirations.
95. Nevertheless, although nineteen years have elapsed since the triumph of the people’s revolution in China, the legitimate rights of this great and powerful State have not yet been restored in the United Nations. Moreover, for nineteen consecutive years its place in the Organization has been occupied by the dregs of the renegade Chiang Kai-shek clique, bought by American imperialism and rejected by the Chinese people since their victorious revolution.
96. This is the grossest scandal for the United Nations, and the most flagrant and ignominious violation of its Charter. The vast majority of Member States oppose and condemn this shameful situation which has lasted for so many years; they are aware that it is not only an intolerable violation of the legitimate rights of the great Chinese nation, 700 million strong, and a clear obstacle to the return of the United Nations to the right way, but also an unprecedented blot which can never be erased from the annals of this
Organization. This odious situation persists, however, because it suits the aggressive policy of the American imperialists, who are imposing their will on some Member States.
97. China is a Member of the United Nations, a founder Member, and also a permanent member of the Security Council. No one can deny that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate representative of the great Chinese people and is alone entitled to enjoy the legitimate rights of China in this Organization. Everyone here knows full well that there is no justification for depriving the People’s Republic of China of its rights. The social system established by the revolutionary people of China is a matter which concerns them alone. No government, nor the United Nations, has a right to interfere in the domestic affairs of China.
98. It is thus more than clear that the time has come for Member States to understand that this situation can no longer be tolerated and cannot persist if they sincerely wish what accords with the interests of every peace-loving country: that the United Nations should be restored and set on the course which would justify its existence in accordance with the fundamental principles of the Charter.
99. The present international situation must make those Member States which are seriously concerned with freedom and peace aware of the urgent need to intensify their just struggle, unite their efforts and close their ranks into a firm front united against the American imperialists and Soviet revisionists and the policy which is dictated by their imperialist designs to the detriment of the peaceful and freedom-loving peoples of the world. This is urgently required today by the higher interests of international peace and security, which are seriously threatened by the aggressive policy of the American-Soviet coalition and by its attacks on independent and sovereign peoples and States. It is urgently demanded by the higher interest of the peoples who today are struggling against colonial and racist subjugation. It is unconditionally necessary to the vital interests of those States’ national security.
100. Only by a courageous and determined struggle can the small nations and all peace-loving States repulse the two Powers’ manoeuvres and multifarious pressures in the United Nations, destroy their harmful influence here, and enable the Organization to rectify the injustices, shortcomings and deviations that remain. Our countries, which form an overwhelming majority, can by a firm struggle put the two Powers in their. place and prevent the United Nations from being used as an instrument of their aggressive policy of hegemony. Through our joint struggle we can effectively serve the cause of liberty, peace and just international co-operation in accordance with the principles of non-interference in domestic affairs, mutual respect and the sovereign equality of States large and small.
101. The People’s Republic of Albania has consistently pursued a just foreign policy because it has always been guided by the true Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the Workers’ Party of Albania. Through its scrupulous adherence to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, the Government of the People’s Republic of Albania has stoutly defended the interests and aspirations of the Albanian people and has always followed a revolutionary foreign policy. It has made a correct scientific analysis of each major international event, accurately predicted the development of every situation, and maintained a resolute stand in defence of independence and national sovereignty, of socialism and revolution and of the struggle of the peoples for freedom, national independence and social progress. It has always defended the view that all sovereign States, both large and small, are equal, and that each makes its contribution to international life.
102. Our policy towards the Socialist countries and all revolutionary forces is one of fraternal and close friendship and co-operation based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Our relations with States having different political systems are based on the principles of the sovereign equality of States both large and small, of non-intervention in their domestic affairs, of respect for their sovereignty and of mutually-advantageous co-operation. Through this just policy based on principle the new People’s Republic of Albania has established and continues to develop with many States relations of sincere friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance; with other States it enjoys normal relations which are developing very satisfactorily in various fields.
103. The outstanding features of our policy towards all States, particularly our neighbours, have always been scrupulous respect for the rules of conduct between States, a firm resolve to maintain relations with those who sincerely abide by those rules, and a spirit of good-neighbourliness based on mutual respect, freedom, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The People’s Republic of Albania has loyally adhered to this policy and has harmed no one. On the other hand, it has often been subjected by its enemies to unjust and intolerable attacks and treatment. Many conspiracies and provocative acts have been directed against its independence. Political, military and economic pressure has been exerted and incited by the imperialists, the modern revisionists and their henchmen; but they have failed miserably in face of the revolutionary vigilance, the unshakable convictions, the iron will and the monolithic unity of the Albanian people, tempered by its struggle, intrepid, educated and led by its heroic Workers’ Party. The courageous decision by the People’s Republic of Albania to denounce the aggressive Warsaw Pact and thereby free itself from all obligations arising therefrom is further evidence of its vigilant revolutionary policy.
104. Under the just leadership of its Party and Government, the Albanian people have constantly and unreservedly supported the revolutionary struggle of the peoples to achieve national and social liberation and to defend and strengthen their independence and national sovereignty against the imperialists, the colonialists, the modern revisionists and their henchmen. Precisely in accordance with this policy of principle the Albanian people, its Party and its Government most resolutely condemned the monstrous aggression committed by the Soviet revisionists against Czechoslovakia.
105. Guided by its revolutionary policy of firmly safeguarding the freedom, independence and sovereignty of our Socialist fatherland, and in accordance with the internationalist doctrine of principle and of support for the freedom and independence of the peoples of the world, particularly of the Balkan peoples, the Government of the People’s Republic of Albania addressed to the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria on 21 September 1968 a note drawing its attention to the grave responsibility it was assuming by allowing the concentration on Bulgarian territory of large numbers of various arms of the Soviet Union’s forces. Acting in accordance with the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance concluded between the two countries in 1947, the Albanian Government called upon the Government of Bulgaria—
1. Not to consent to or participate in any activities directed by anyone against the People’s Republic of Albania;
2. To take immediate steps to ensure that the aggressive Soviet armed forces were withdrawn from its territory as soon as possible, thus eliminating completely, in the interest of peace in the Balkans and throughout the world, the aggressive base which it had allowed to be established on Bulgarian territory.
106. That action by the Albanian Government has particular significance in the present situation, since clearly the deployment of the armed forces of the Soviet revisionists in Bulgaria, following the aggression against Czechoslovakia, is directly linked to the execution of their aggressive plans for allocating spheres of influence in the Balkans and the rest of the world as part of the world-wide American-Soviet conspiracy.
107. In emphasizing that the attitude of the Bulgarian Government in this matter constitutes a flagrant violation of the 1947 Treaty between the two countries and seriously jeopardizes the peace and security of the Balkan peoples, including the Bulgarian people itself, as well as the cause of world peace, the Albanian Government states clearly and categorically that it will resolutely condemn all those who dare to commit acts of aggression against the freedom, independence and sovereignty of the peoples of the Balkans and of the world.
108. The Bulgarian Government lacked the courage to reply to the Albanian Government’s note, but tried through the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency to distort the truth by passing over the facts mentioned in our note. However, the concentration of Soviet military forces in Bulgaria cannot be denied. If the Bulgarian Government continues to allow the territory of Bulgaria to be used by Soviet revisionist forces as a base for aggression against the Balkan peoples, it will be assuming a grave responsibility which will also be condemned by the Bulgarian people themselves, to whom the Albanian people are linked by traditional ties of fraternal friendship.
109. Let all the imperialist and revisionist enemies and their puppets know well that no force in the world, no aggressive Power however great, can frighten the Albanian people, who, true to their military traditions toughened by their revolutionary struggle and guided by their heroic Party, have always had unshakable confidence in their own strength. The Albanian frontiers are inviolable and cannot be crossed, since they are defended by a valiant revolutionary and iron-willed people and by an heroic Party. If any aggression is committed against our fatherland, whether by the aggressive NATO bloc, the aggressive Warsaw Pact bloc, or by anyone else, then the whole Albanian people, large and small, including its old people and children, will fight so fiercely that the world will tremble, and will show the aggressors whom they are dealing with and that anyone who violates the sacred soil of our territory will not escape alive.
110. Moreover, our enemies must not forget that Albania does not stand alone, for it has friends — all the peoples of the world — and its great and steadfastly loyal friend, mighty invincible People’s China, the main counter-imperialist and counter-revisionist force in the world.
111. The telegram dated 17 September 1968 from Comrades Mao Tse-tung, Lin Piao and Chou En-lai to Comrades Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu reads as follows:
“The Chinese people 700 million strong, further strengthened and toughened in the great proletarian cultural revolution, will always and in all circumstances steadfastly support its brothers the Albanian people. If the American imperialists, the Soviet revisionists or their lackeys dare to touch a single hair of Albania, they can expect only total, shameful and inevitable defeat".
112. This message from Comrades Mao-Tse-tung, Lin Piao and Chou En-lai is further dramatic evidence of the internationalist ties of steel, based on the immortal principles of Marxism-Leninism, which exist between the most populous and a small socialist State. It is further evidence of the real meaning of the invincible fraternal solidarity forged in our common struggle. It shows the peoples of the whole world the importance of having a loyal friend like the great China of Mao Tse-tung, which stands like an invincible giant beside all revolutionary peoples.
113. This message from the leaders of the great Chinese people is a firm, serious and categorical warning to the imperialists, the revisionists and their henchmen that, if they dare to touch Albania, if they play with fire against Albania, they can expect certain death.
114. On 30 September 1968 the leader of the Albanian people, Comrade Enver Hoxha, said:
“Let no one think that Albania is a small country and that one can easily settle accounts with her. All attempts of the enemies, be they imperialists, revisionists or their satellites, to violate the integrity of the People’s Republic of Albania in the slightest will be drowned in the sea of the armed struggle of our people. Let our enemies take note of this, and our friends may rest assured that the Albanian people and their Party of Labour will fulfil their national and international duties with honour”.
115. This statement by our people’s beloved leader, Comrade Enver Hoxha, who for three decades has wisely guided the Albanian people from victory to victory on the path of revolution and socialism, is a clear warning to our enemies and a firm internationalist commitment to all friendly and freedom-loving people and countries.
116. In conclusion, I wish to express the conviction of the Albanian delegation that during the current session of the General Assembly we, the peaceful and freedom-loving peoples, who constitute the overwhelming majority here, will be increasing our united efforts and our common struggle against the aggressive American-Soviet imperialist bloc contribute effectively to the struggle of the peoples against imperialism and colonialism for freedom, peace and progress.