Cable from the Chinese Embassy in Cuba, 'A Report on Fidel Castro’s Televised Address'

Foreign Ministry,

Tonight Castro delivered a televised nationwide speech and talked about the following issues:

1) Word by word, [Castro] read the published part of the memorandum of the conversation between Cuba and [UN Secretary-General] U Thant.

2) [He] reiterated the five points that Cuba insisted [on].

3) During the course of the Cuban crisis, Cuba and the Soviet Government had a disagreement. But this is not the right place for discussing it, for the situation could be exploited by [their] enemies. We are all Marxist-Leninists, and we could sit and talk between two parties and between two governments. We are not happy with particular facts and details. But we shall also bear in mind, especially at this moment, the generous aid from the Soviet Union. [Castro] demanded that people be disciplined.

4) [Castro] explained that the weaponry shipped away by the Soviet Union did not belong to Cuba.

5) [Castro] praised the fighting spirit demonstrated by [the Cuban] people during this period. The long-range missile in our minds could never be shipped away.

We hold that this speech was well written with a correct attitude. With close reference to the confusion in people’s minds, [the speech] delivered a powerful blow to imperialism and revisionism.

Embassy in Havana

1 November 1962