毛泽东选集/抗美援朝的伟大胜利和今后的任务

#§Speech at the Twenty-fourth Session of the Central People's Government Council.

#§After three years we have won a great victory in the war to resist U.S.aggression and aid Korea.# It has now come to a halt.

# But we won mainly because ours was a people's war, the whole nation gave it support and the people of China and Korea fought shoulder to shoulder.

# Why was the truce possible?

#§First, militarily the U.S.aggressors were in an unfavourable position and were on the receiving end.

# If they had not accepted the truce, their whole battle line would have been broken through and Seoul would have fallen into the hands of the Korean people.

# This situation became evident in the summer of last year.

# Our soldiers and cadres are resourceful and brave and dare to look death in the face.

# In contrast the U.S.aggressor troops are afraid of death, and their officers are rather rigid, not very flexible.

# Their battle line is not solid and is anything but a bastion of iron.

#§The problems facing our side were first whether we could fight, then whether we could hold our lines, later whether we could ensure the flow of supplies, and finally whether we could foil the germ warfare.

# These four problems came one after the other and were all solved.

# This summer, we were already able to break through an enemy position with its front of twenty-one kilometres within an hour, fire several hundred thousand shells in a concentrated attack and penetrate the enemy area up to eighteen kilometres.

#§Second, politically the enemy had many insoluble internal contradictions, and the people the world over demanded peace.

#§Third, economically the enemy spent vast sums in the war of aggression against Korea, and his budgetary revenues and expenditures were not balanced.

#§All these causes combined to force the enemy to come to terms.

# The first was the primary cause, and in its absence a truce with the enemy would have been difficult.

# The U.S.imperialists are very arrogant; if at all possible, they always refuse to talk reason, and will do so after a fashion only when driven into a tight corner.

#§In the Korean war the enemy suffered 1,090,0 in killed and wounded.

# Nevertheless, our casualties were far fewer than anticipated and they became still fewer after tunnels were built.

# The Americans failed to undermine our positions; on the contrary, their units were always wiped out by us.

#§Just now you all mentioned the factor of leadership.# In my view, leadership is one factor, but the most important factor is the contribution of ideas by the masses.

# Our cadres and soldiers thought up all sorts of ways to fight the enemy.

# In the first month of the war our losses in trucks were tremendous.