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Directive on External Propaganda Work

Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung

Directive On External
Propaganda Work

June 1967

[SOURCE: Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, a Red Guard Publication.]

Some foreigners have offered suggestions on the external propaganda conducted by Peking Review and Hsin-hua News Agency. In the past, they did not proselytise the fact that Mao Tse-tung’s thought has developed Marxism, but now after the Great Cultural Revolution, they are doing it with fanfare and there is such boasting that it is hard to swallow. Why must one say some of the words by one’s self? We must be modest, especially toward outsiders. In being a little modest toward outsiders, naturally we must not lose our principles. In yesterday’s communiqué on the hydrogen bomb, I deleted Great Leader, Great Teacher, Great Commander-in-Chief, and Great Helmsman. I also deleted “boundless flame.” How could there be boundless flame in the world? There is always a “bound” and so I deleted it. I also deleted “10,000 per cent” from the phrase “mood of 10,000 percent joy and excitement.” It was not 10 percent, 100 percent, or 1,000 percent, but 10,000 percent! I didn’t even want to have one percent, and so I deleted it entirely.

Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung

Source: marxists.org — original. Shared freely for study.