Some Thoughts about the October Revolution
Happy Thanksgiving
Enjoy reading this article.
Thay Lan
phamdinhlan (david)
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT
THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
(1917- 2017)
DAVID LAN PHAM, F.A.B.I.
It is not a
wish of ‘one hundred years of happiness’ to the married couple in the wedding
ceremony. It is about the one hundred-
year-old historic event on Earth: the Russian
October Revolution.
It is called the October Revolution
because it occurred on October 26, 1917 according to the Julian Calendar. It was November 07, 1917 in the Gregorian
Calendar. It was also called the
Russian Proletarian Revolution leading to the birth of the proletarian
dictatorship government in Russia. Lenin
was the soul of the revolution but he did not overthrow the last Czar of the
Romanov reigning Russia from 1613 to 1917.
Nicholas II, the last Czar, abdicated after the February Revolution,
which lasted from February 23 to February 27, 1917 (Julian Calendar) corresponding to March 08 and March 12, 1917
in the Gregorian Calendar. On March 15,
1917 (Gregorian Calendar) Czar Nicholas II resigned. Kerensky, Lenin’s fellow countryman, headed
the provisional government. His
government was ousted by the October Revolution led by Lenin.
With the October Revolution Russia was
the first country combining Marxism with Lenin’s thoughts. According to Communist terminology Russia was
the bastion of the Socialist World. The
founding of the Comintern in 1919 turned Russia into the leading country of
Communist ideology in the whole world.
The red flag with the picture of the yellow hammer and sickle was found
everywhere in the world including in the
Western Democratic countries. In 1922
the Soviet Union was born. Some 5.5
million square kilometers of lands from Ukraine, Islamic countries in Central
Asia, Caucasian countries , Baltic countries were annexed to Russia. Fifteen Soviet Republics in USSR (Soviet
Union) were: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Tajistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan. Outer Mongolia became a Communist country in
1921 in the Russian orbit. Russia became
a quiet Empire after the October Revolution without wasting a bullet. The Communist Parties had their clandestine activities in the colonies of the
Western Empires Excited by the then
favorable political conditions Lenin predicted China should turn red before
France. Lenin’s optimism came from the
presence of various socialist streams in France. The Communes of Paris, the first Communist
government, was born in 1871 when Karl Marx was still alive (First
International). Karl Marx predicted the
burial of Capitalism one hundred years after the birth of his Communist
Manifesto. Facing many difficulties and
crises during the period 1848- 1948 Capitalism showed its stably strong
existence. France had its short- lived
Communes of Paris and offered the Communist world the famous L’Internationale. The French seemed to be stuffed with
different kinds of Socialism: Saint
Simonism, Fourrier’s Socialism;
Anarchism of Bakunin. But dyeing
France red never happened. The French
preferred Catholic socialism to Marxism.
Their pockets are always on the right side. Jean Jacques Rousseau and Babeuf died in the
18th Century. Marx’ prediction was wrong
100%. That of Lenin was right 50%. China became a Communist country in
1949. Karl Marx and Lenin were
interested in the working class but their ideology was fruitful in Russia and
China, two agricultural countries in which most people were peasants, serfs,
who, lacking food, clothing, were pitilessly exploited by the rich landowners. Marx and Lenin’s knowledge of the farming
class and Asian production was poor.
Both of them were urbans and intellectuals with solid arguments. They were neither workers nor farmers. Lenin centered on the workers, serfs, needy
urbans i.e the proletarian force to grab power.
In 1918 Lenin was assassinated. Seriously injured he was in convalescence in
the suburban area of Moscow. Stalin took
care of the national affairs. Stalin was
a Georgian whose nickname mean ‘man of steel’.
In Lenin’s eyes Stalin was a tricky man. But he was a successful man of action. His education was humble but he was greedy of
fame, honor and power. As for Stalin, he
did not respect Lenin and his wife.
Stalin’s contributions to Russian greatness after the October Revolution
were undeniable.
After the end of WWII the number of
Communist countries increased. Poland,
East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania and
Yugoslavia became Communist countries.
Except for Yugoslavia, all the Eastern European countries were in the
Soviet orbit. They were forced to adopt Communist ideology to be
satellite states of the Soviet Union in accordance with the resolution of the
Conference of Yalta and Potsdam regarding the partition of spheres of influence
between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The case of Yugoslavia was
interesting. A Communist country
Yugoslavia was not in the orbit of the Soviet Union.
Josef Brot Titi (1892- 1980) was captured by the Czarist army from the start
of WWI. The eruption of the October
Revolution liberated him. He soon
adhered to the Bolsheviks. Married to a
Russian wife he was an agent of NKVD trained in Moscow to become an agent of
the Comintern like Ho Chi Minh. Tito was
a prestigious leader in Yugoslavia thanks to his resistance against the Germans
in WWII. In 1943 Stalin dissolved the
Comintern to please the American President.
In 1947 he founded the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau). Marshal Tito gave birth to TITOISM to oppose
Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union.
Yugoslavia remained a Communist country which was independent from
Stalin and the Soviet Union. Stalin
expelled Yugoslavia from the Cominform but he dared not use his military
strength to punish Tito. A small country
that was not populous could resist a a big and populous country unless its
leader was strongly supported by its people.
Tito was successful. The
Yugoslavians respected him. He resisted
two dictators: Hitler and Stalin. Needless to say dictatorship was always the
earmark of all the Communist regimes.
Tito himself was a dictator loved and respected by his people after his
death in 1980. In 1957 Khrushchev
dissolved the Cominform and tried to re-etablish friendly relations with Tito
but the latter kept on following his independent path of Communism until his
death.
Ho Chi Minh (1890- 1969)
founded the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam on September 2nd, 1945. It was the first Communist Republic in
Southeast Asia after the end of WWII. Ho
Chi Minh’s government was not recognized by any Power of the Big Five. Even Stalin did not pay interest in it. He neither helped this newly Communist
country in Southeast Asia nor supported its admission to UN. Stalin did not bring neither moral nor
material assistance to the government of resistance headed by Ho Chi Minh in
the first four years of resistance (1946- 1950).
1.
Stalin
paid less interest in Vietnam, a far away country in Southeast Asia, that was
strange to him religiously, culturally and economically. He turned his eyes to the Eastern European countries.
2.
France
and the Soviet Union signed the treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance in
1944 after France was liberated and General Charles de Gaulle headed the
Provisional Government of the French Republic.
3.
The
Chinese troops disarmed the Japanese in the Northern territory of the 16th
parallel. So did the British troops in
the Southern territory of the 16th parallel.
The 16th parallel hinted at the partition of Vietnam: a. Chinese influence (Kuomintang) in the
Northern half b. influence of a Western
country but not France in the Southern half.
In 1950
Moscow recognized Ho Chi Minh’s government of resistance as an act of
competition of influence on Vietnam with Beijing. Vietnam was divided after 08 years of
war. The 17th parallel became the
partition line.
a.
The
Northern half of the 17th parallel was the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
influenced by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
b.
The
Southern half of the the 17th parallel was the Republic of Vietnam influenced
by the United States.
In 1948 Stalin backed Kim Il Sung to
seize power in North Korea
In 1949 Chiang Kaishek’s troops were
defeated by Mao Zedong’s militants. The
world Communist community had one more Communist country which was the most
populous country in the world.
In 1959 Fidel Castro overthrew
Batista, the Cuban dictator, backed by the United States. Cuba became the first Communist country next
to the United States in Western Hemisphere.
In 1960 the National Front of
Liberation was born. The subversive war
began in South Vietnam before turning into the Vietnam war with the
participation of the American troops, and those of the Allies such as South
Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand fighting side by side with the South
Vietnamese troops. The North Vietnamese
Communist troops fought beside the militants from the National Front of
Liberation. After 15 years of bloodshed
the Republic of Vietnam collapsed.
Vietnam was united under the leadership of the Vietnam Communist Party
(1975). Cambodia and Laos turned red in
the same year.
Communism was attractive to the
African, Asian, South American countries, the non- aligned countries, the
former colonies of Western Empires. In
Central and South American countries leftist candidates had a lot of chance to
win the election. Indonesia is the most
populous country in the Islamic world.
Before 1965 members of its Communist Party ranked second after the
People’s Republic of China only. India,
the father of NEUTRALISM, was not really neutral. It had more friendly relations with the
Soviet Union than with the United States.
The speedy development and expansion
of Communism led to its fissure and division.
There are many factions in a political party. The Bolsheviks were divided into Stalinists and
Trotskyites. They fought and killed each
other. In 1927 Chiang Kaishek’s troops
oppressed the Chinese Communist Party.
Chen Duxui was arrested. Li
Dazhao was killed. Seizing this
opportunity Mao Zedong criticized the founders of Chinese Communist Party (Chen
Duxui, Li Da Zhao), who were respectful scholars. Their classicism and dogmatism prevented them
from having something different from what Lenin and Stalin did in Russia. Mao Zedong was temerarious to Sinicize
Marxism- Leninism to turn it into Maoism like his ancestors Sinicizing
Buddhism. He was successful in spite of
Stalin’s anger. The Soviet Union
represented Communist industrial countries (Soviet Union & Eastern Europe). Red China represented Communist agricultural
countries. Maoism was important in Asia, Africa and Latin
America except for Cuba.
All the Communist countries had the
same earmarks no matter they adopted Leninism, Stalinism or Maoism. They were characterized by: dictatorship; one ruling party; personality cult;
deprivation of freedom and human rights; corporal suppression aiming at the
enemies of the proletarians, reactionists, intellectuals, landlords, anti-
Communists, anti- Stalinists, anti- Maoists, farmers against the Communist
agrarian policy; famines due to the failure of the Communist land reform;
creation of gulags the Vietnamese Communists called ‘re-education camps’;
deaths in the land reform a la Communiste, in the gulags, in
prisons; regular threats from the Communist police etc.
Communism was considered a
materialistic doctrine. None of the
Communist countries was economically abundant.
Food shortage and basic human rights
absence characterized the
Communist regime.
The global Communist regimes cost more
than 100 million lives in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, North Vietnam,
Cuba and Eastern European countries.
Stalin (1879- 1953) was
General Secretary of the Party and Prime Minister. From 1922 to 1953 his hands were stained with
blood of 60 million lives due to bloody oppressions of the Kulags, famines (Russia,
Ukraine), deportation and forced labor in Siberia, Great Purge etc. Some 80% of the deportees in the Siberian gulags
died of cold, shortage of food and medicine while they were forced to
overwork. Sufferings, shame,
hopelessness were additional factors contributing to their death. The conflict of power between Stalin and
Trotsky cost many lives in the period 1927- 1939. Many Lenin’s comrades such as Kirov, Kamenev,
Zinoviev, who played important roles in the October Revolution, became Stalin’s
victims in the Great Purge. The terms
‘Trotskyite’, ‘reactionist’, ‘mad dog’ meant execution, corporal
suppression. In 1933 Ho Chi Minh (this
alias did not exist at that time) was about facing execution after Maurice
Thorez, the leader of the French Communist Party, accused him of being Trotskyite.
Stalin suspected him of working for the British Intelligence in Hong
Kong in exchange for his freedom. Ho Chi
Minh was not executed in the 1930’s Great Purge thanks to the Dimitrov’s protection. Dimitrov was the then General Secretary of
the Comintern and Advisor to Stalin.
Mao Zedong (1893- 1976) was
Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party after the Long March (1934- 1935) from
Jiangxi to Yenan War Zone in Shaanxi province.
He has kept the party leadership for 27 years since the birth of the
People’s Republic of China until his death.
From 1949 to 1959 he was Chairman of the Party and President of
China. Mao lost his presidential seat to
Liu Shaoqi due to the premature failure of the Great Leap Forward (Da Yuejin). Over 40 million Chinese died of
starvation. The Land Reform and the
Cultural Revolution stole life of 10 million victims including that of
President Liu Shaoqi, Marshal Peng Dehuai, Marshal He Long, who were insulted,
tortured and starved to death by the Red Guards. Dang Xiaoping, General Secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party, was humiliated.
He was sent to a rural tractor factory to change oil, a job he did in
France when working for Groupe Renault.
Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was imprisoned and tortured during the
Cultural Revolution . Xi Zhongxun had
intimate relations with Marshal Peng Dehuai, who criticized Mao’s luxurious
life and failure of the Da Yuejin (Great Leap Forward) in the Lushan Conference
in 1959. The death of Mao’s son in the
Korean war sped Mao’s anger at Marshal Peng De Huai. Mao Zedong danced on 50 million corpses which
were equivalent to the number of corpses Stalin danced on. North Korea, North Vietnam, Cuba and Eastern
European countries were responsible for 15 million victims.
The Kim of North Korea were
responsible for 5 or 7 million victims finding their death in the Land Reform,
the Korean War, terror and political purge, famines caused by the state
agrarian policy, drought , flood (1993- 2000).
Under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh,
Truong Chinh, Le Duan some 5 million Vietnamese were killed in the Land Reform
(1953 in the Viet Minh controlled areas; 1954- 1956 in North Vietnam), in the
two Vietnam Wars I (1946- 1954 and 1960- 1975).
In 1954 one million North
Vietnamese left North Vietnam for South Vietnam. From 1975 to 2000, 4 million Vietnamese left
Vietnam in search of freedom and raison de vivre in 80 countries in the
world. They were boat people or walking
people. Some of them were immigrants sponsored
by their relatives. Some were chosen by
the Communist government to go to the Socialist countries as workers. These people tried to stay there after the
collapse of the Communist regime (1989-1991).
Some ladies got married to the Chinese, Taiwanese, South Koreans,
Singaporeans. The foreigners including
the French and Americans praised the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Heroic Vietnam defeated French and American
Empires. Vietnam’s progress is 300%
compared with Vietnam in the past three decades. (300% of the negative number or O (Zero) is
negligible). Why did 4 million
Vietnamese including members of the Communist officials leave Vietnam?
Maoist Pol Pot killed 1/3 of the
Cambodian population i.e 2.5 million lives after three years in power only
(1975- 1978).
****
Russia knew exceptional progress in
the development of heavy industries after the October Revolution. In the past French Emperor Napoleon I looked
down on Czarist Russia. Russian
political life was swayed by the Germans.
Russia was successively defeated by Japan in 1904 in Manchuria and 1905
at Tsushima Strait. In 1914 it was
defeated by the German troops in Masurian Lakes and Tanneburg. Russia became an industrial country from a
poor agricultural one. Russian
industries ranked 2nd after implementing two five- year plans initiated by
Stalin. The first quinquennial plan
began in 1928. The Soviet Union became
one of the Big Five after WWII. It
headed the Communist Block to confront the United States in the Cold War (1949-
1991). The Soviet Union collapsed in
1991. The post- Communist governments
follow the traditional path of dictatorship from the Romanov and Communist leaders in the
apparently democratic institution. The
Russians adored Lenin. His mausoleum
stays proudly in the heart of Moscow. A
Russian oblast (province) was named after his last name Ulyanov. President Putin admires Stalin. The Soviet marching songs such as Katyusha,
Svyashchennaya Voina (Sacred War- sort of national anthem in reality), Den
Pobedy (Victory Day) were played in the Victory Day Ceremony in Moscow
after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Compared to American, Chinese, Japanese economy, that of Russia is far
from prosperous. But Russian military
potential is equal or superior to that of the United States. Russia is a worry for NATO and the European
Union. Putin shows himself a capable
leader. He had precious experience in
the field of intelligence, secret police, espionage when working in East
Germany. He has 18 years of experience
in the leadership art as Prime Minister and President of Russia. He is more brilliant than Xi Jinping and
Donald Trump. He gained respect from Xi
Jinping and Donald Trump. In 2013 Xi
Jinping paid his first visit to Russia as soon as he came into power. Putin and Xi Jinping made friends temporarily
in order to exhaust American finance, material resources and to demoralize the
Americans. Tho Russo- Chinese Alliance
had no treaty of Alliance. North Korea
and Iran are de facto their allies.
North Korea makes troubles in Northeast Asia. Iran does the same thing in the Middle East
(Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Persian Gulf).
Saudi Arabia and Israel, two American Allies in the Middle East, are threatened
by Iran. Turkey, the oldest Ally of the
US, turns to Russia. Its diplomatic
relations with Israel got strained while it sympathized with Hamas in
Gaza. President Putin is successful in
protecting the presidential seat for Bashar Assad in Syria. King Salma bin Abdelaziz of Saudi Arabia
travelled to Moscow to talk with Putin about Iran and the purchase of Russian
weapons. It was the first visit of the
king of Saudi Arabia to Russia. (October
5, 2017). It proves Saudi Arabia’s
belief in the US decreases. Putin’s role
is necessary to the settlement of the international affairs.
Mao Zedong (1893- 1976) was a
pedagogue and assistant librarian at the Beijing University. He thought of the glory, shame, and
vicissitudes of his country. Before Tito
he was Communist for the sake of his country, China. He was not trained by the Russians to serve
Russia and the Comintern (Third International) founded by Lenin. Mao’s level of education could not be
compared to that of Chen Duxui and Li Dazhao.
Mao knew Marxism through Li Dazhao, his boss at the Library of the
University of Beijing. Chen Duxui and Li
Dazhao were academics studying abroad.
They failed because because of their classicism and dogmatism. Mao was bold and practical. He did not accept Lenin and Stalin’s
direction blindly. Lenin and Stalin
counted on the working class and mobilized the masses to struggle in the
cities. They succeeded in 1917. 90% of Chinese were farmers living in the
rural areas. That is why the Chiang
Kasher troops repressed the Chinese Communists easily in 1927. The failure of the Chinese Communist Party in
1927 help Mao carry out his policy focusing on the farming class and using the
rural areas to build war zones and to blockade the cities economically. Four years after the 1927’ s repression Mao
Zedong founded the Soviet Republic of Jiangxi (1931). It was a political earthquake for the
Kuomintang government. Chiang Kaisher
tried his best to destroy the Soviet Republic of Jiangxi while the Japanese
gave birth to Manchukuo and planned to invade China. Mao left Jiangxi and led the Long March to
Shaanxi in North China. Mao Zedong’s
prestige was undeniable when warning of Japanese danger before the Marco Polo
Bridge incident (1937). The Chinese
Communist guerrillas made Japanese troops suffer heavy casualties during the
anti- Japanese resistance. To the
Chinese, WWII means the Sino- Japanese War (1937- 1945). Mao Zedong nurtured many ambitions after
defeating the Kuomintang (Guomindang).
His ambitions consisted of:
- unlimited power
- leadership in the Communist Block
- taking revenge of the White Empires
- re-establishing Chinese influence on
neighboring countries (Vietnam, Korea etc.)
- turning China into an Empire in our
time.
In 1950 Mao sent the Chinese People’s
Volunteer Army to the Korean peninsula to fight the US and United Nations
forces. China brought aid to Ho Chi
Minh’s government in the War Zone. It
invaded Tibet (1959), waged the border wars against India (1962) and the Soviet
Union in 1969. Under Mao’s leadership
China possessed A bombs and launched the artificial satellite. Chinese pride was soothed by the
technological progress and military exploits against the US, India,and the
Soviet Union although Mao Zedong danced on 50 million corpses.
Mao was a dictator. He was an ordinary one when killing almost
all of his comrades, who shared hardship and sufferings with him in Hunan,
Jiangxi, Yenan for fear that those people would steal his power. However, he spared Zhou Enlai and Deng
Xiaoping’s life. That shows he was good
at psychology, and aware of capability and enthusiasm from each
individual. Until 1949 Mao Zedong stayed
in China. His global view was narrow
compared to that of Zhou and Deng.
Zhou Enlai (1898- 1976) studied
in Japan and France. He learned
endurance from Han Xin, a native of Huaian like him. He was born into an educated and mandarin family. He faced severe challenges in his childhood
due his premature orphanage. Even his
adoptive mother died young. Zhou’s
helpless life explained his wise behavior in society. The international observers agreed Zhou Enlai
was a subtle diplomat. He died a few
months before Mao Zedong and was cremated.
An old plane spreading insecticide carried his ash and spread it into an
unknown place.
Deng Xiaoping (1904- 1997) studied
in France and was trained at the Sun Yatsen University in Moscow. China knows its rapid development due to Deng
Xiaoping’s Four Modernization based on the simple idea: No matter the cat is black or white unless it
can catch mice. We do not know why Mao
Zedong did not let the Red Guards kill Deng Xiaoping. He thought of China’s future? Using him to to serve his wife Jiang Qing,
who was planned to replace him as Chairman of the Party? Maybe both the reasons. In 1957 Khrushchev visited Beijing. Mao Zedong pointed at Deng Xiaoping and said:
“This dwarf’s political work will be greater than ours.” China and the United States were no more
enemies after President Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972. Deng Xiaoping approached the United States
closely. His plan was to send Chinese
students to the United States to learn American sciences and technology. Like Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping had cautious
diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
Jiang Qing and her henchmen in the Cultural Revolution were imprisoned
and faced trial. In two decades (1993-
2003 and 2003- 2013) Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao continued to carry out Deng’s work. After 30 years of renovation and
implementation of the free market economy the People’s Republic of China is
still a Communist country but it becomes an economic and military superpower in
the world.
Five years ago, when Xi Jinping
(1953- ) came into power we wrote an article entitled They Are Alike
to compare the new leader of China to Mao Zedong. This comparison gets more and more precise
after Xi Jinping led the State and the Chinese Communist Party in his first
five- year term. Under the anti-
corruption slogan Xi Jinping imprisoned those people who could replace
him. 1,530,000 members of the Chinese
Communist Party were disciplined. 278,000 member faced trials. 13,000 generals
and high ranking officers were dismissed on account of their corruption. Xi Jinping’s power is stable and well
consolidated. Inheriting the fruit of
Deng Xiaoping’s Four Modernization, Xi Jinping seemingly despised Deng Xiaoping
and his successors: Jiang Zemin and Hu
Jintao. He was proud to be the genuine
Communist. His father was deputy prime
minister participating in the Long March.
Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao did not have such a purely Communist record
like him. Jiang Zemin was labeled a descendant
of Wang Chingwei, a high ranking member of the Kuomintang, heading the pro-
Japanese puppet government during the Sino- Japanese War. Hu Jintao was a Komsomol to be admitted to
the Communist Party. He was a close
friend of Deng Xiaoping’s son. Hu Jintao
had good records through his brutal repressions on the Tibetans. Xi Jinping is leader of 1.5 billion people,
of a nation ranking second in economy and third in military potential in the
world. The United States and the United
Kingdom welcomed him solemnly (2015). In
April, 2017 President Donald Trump welcomed him at his Mar-a- Lago Estate in
Florida where his grand daughter sang a song in Mandarin. After the recent Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party Xi Jinping was deemed to be a Chinese Emperor. His successor ’s name was not mentioned. That means he will be leader of the party and
State in the other five- year terms. In
November, 2017 Xi Jinping gave President Donald Trump a warm and solemn welcome
in front of the Forbidden City which was served as the Imperial Palace during
the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368- 1911).
Respect? Transfer of global leadership from the United States to
China? Needless to say it was the
effective way of soothing President
Trump’s pride.
From 1992 on there were five (05)
Communist countries in the world: China,
Vietnam, North Korea, Laos and Cuba. The
latter is in the Western Hemisphere. It
is not influenced or controlled by Red China.
Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy.
Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, Laos are economically poor.
Countries Population GDP/ Per capita
Vietnam 95 million 6,900 dollars
North Korea 25 million 1,800 dollars
Cuba 11 million 12,000 dollars
Lao 07 million 6,000 dollars
North Korea
< Lao < Vietnam < Cuba
The absence of famine and shortage of
food in Vietnam was due to the free market economy. North Korea suffered intermittent famines because of flood, drought and the
failure of the collective farms. North
Korea has good teams of scientists an technocrats but Vietnam does not. It is said Vietnam has thousands of
engineers, scientists and Ph.D recipients.
Even Cuba , a small island, has a large number of physicians whose
speciality is higher than the Vietnamese MD’s.
In the past Olympic Games North Korea and Cuba received gold, silver and
copper medals while Vietnamese athletes returned home empty handed. Vietnam’s position in the world is very
humble.
The October Revolution is 100 years
old. It reminds me of my native
country. I wonder where the destination
of my native country is after building Socialism and following the path of
Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong in less than 75 years. I hope it evades its unstable and severe
situation summarized in the following prophecy- like verses:
How pitiful the Communists’ hardship
is!
Exposed to the torrid sun, soaked in
the rains
Duped by someone’s scheme, they dance
with the Death.
