Address by Mao Zedong to the Enlarged Meeting of the Central Military Commission (Excerpt)

In five years we can produce sixty million tons of steel [annually], closing in on the Soviet Union and overtaking Britain, Germany, France and Italy, all of them. In closing in on the Soviet Union, we are talking five years. In seven years we can overtake the Soviet Union, but not the United States. In ten years we will certainly overtake the United States. We need to make a navy. Comrade Xiao Jinguang, you want to make a bit of a navy, right? Then this will be possible. I want to make a bit of a navy too, and an air force. Comrade Liu Yalou, air force prospects will be good at that time. And then there is the atom bomb. The atom bomb is not really a big deal. Without it, some people say you count for nothing. Well then, good. We’ll make some. We’ll make some atom bombs, hydrogen bombs and inter-continental missiles. With ten years of effort, this is entirely possible.