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July 12, 1972

Zhou Enlai’s Talk with Le Duc Tho, Special Adviser at the Paris Talks, in Beijing

7 12 日下午 5 50 分,在人民大会堂会见越南劳动党中央政治局委员、出席关于越南问题的巴黎会议的越南政府代表团团长春水部长的特别顾问黎德寿时说,1945 年毛主席到重庆去同蒋介石谈判。他走时指示解放区要准备打仗,不要考虑毛主席的安危问题。当时我们解放区的许多同都不赞成毛主席去,怕蒋介石把毛主席抓起来。斯大林给我们打来一个电报,胡主席知道这件事。斯大林说你一定要去重庆谈判,不然中华民族就有毁灭的危险,他就是被美国的两颗原子弹吓住了。这个电报的署名不是用斯大林的名字。结果毛主席和我都去了。毛主席对我说,咱们准备坐牢,坐牢好读书。我们打电报给解放区说,如果蒋介石打你们,你们就好好地回击它。就在谈判时,我们在华北消灭它一个师,结果毛主席安全地回了延安。

At 5:50 p.m. on July 12, 1972, when meeting at the Great Hall of the People with Le Duc Tho,

member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Vietnam and special adviser to the head of the Vietnamese government delegation to the Paris Conference on Vietnam [Foreign] Minister Xuan Thay, [Zhou Enlai] said, in 1945 Chairman Mao went to Chongqing to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek. Before his departure, he asked the liberation areas to prepare for war and not to worry about his safety. At that time, many of our comrades in the liberation areas disapproved of Chairman Mao's trip because they were afraid that Chiang Kai-shek would imprison Chairman Mao. Stalin sent us a telegram, and Chairman Ho [Chi Minh] was aware of this matter. Stalin said that we must go to Chongqing to negotiate; otherwise the Chinese nation faced the danger of being destroyed. He was frightened by the two atomic bombs of the United States. The telegram was not signed with Stalin's name. In the end, both Chairman Mao and I went. Chairman Mao told me that we must be ready to be imprisoned and that imprisonment would give us time to read books. We cabled the liberation areas that if Chiang Kai-shek attacked you, you should resist him resolutely. While we were negotiating, our forces annihilated one division of Chiang Kai-shek's troops in North China. As a result, Chairman Mao returned to Yanan safely.


 

Excerpt in which Zhou Enlai recounts his and Mao Zedong’s trip to China in 1945


Document Information

Source

The Diplomatic History Research Office of the People's Republic of China Foreign Ministry, ed., Zhou Enlai waijiao huodong dashij, (Chronology of Zhou Enlai's Diplomatic Activities, 1949-1975) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 1993), 637. Translated by Qiang Zhai.

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Original Uploaded Date

2011-11-20

Type

Minutes of Conversation

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Record ID

111531