Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
August, 1963
[Source: Statements of Mao Tse-tung, Peking Foreign Languages Press, 1964]
U.S. imperialism has violated the agreements reached at the first Geneva Conference by obstructing the unification of Vietnam, conducting open armed aggression against southern Vietnam and engaging in so-called special warfare over many years. It has also violated the agreements of the second Geneva Conference by its flagrant intervention in Laos in an attempt to rekindle the civil war there. Apart from those who are deliberately deceiving the people or are utterly naive, no one will believe that a treaty can make U.S. imperialism lay down its butcher’s knife and suddenly become a Buddha, or even behave itself a little better.
The oppressed people and oppressed nations must not entrust their liberation to the “wisdom” of imperialism and its lackeys. Only by strengthening their unity and persevering in their struggle will they triumph. This is what the people of southern Vietnam have been doing.