Cable from the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘The Vietnamese Attaché on the Meeting between the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister’s Meeting with the Vietnamese Ambassador’

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cable

Level: Extra Urgent / From the Moscow Desk / Received (65) No. 741

The Vietnamese Attaché on the Meeting between the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister and the Vietnamese Ambassador

To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs：

On the afternoon of the 13th [of March], Counselor CHEN Dong met with the Vietnamese Counselor Do Phat Quang to bid him farewell, also explaining to him the situation of the extreme violence suffered by our students, such as HUANG Zhaogeng, at the hands of Soviets. Do expressed that he places a large amount of importance on this information.

Do told us that the Soviet Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Firiubin met with the Vietnamese ambassador yesterday afternoon. When the ambassador asked that the Soviet side show concern for the injured Vietnamese students, Firiubin responded saying that the students currently in the hospital are suffering from another illness unrelated to being beaten during the protest on March 4th. He also said that they had taken photos of the Vietnamese students attacking police with slingshots, stones, bottles and would provide them for the Vietnamese embassy. He told the ambassador that the Chinese students also used these methods to attack the police. The ambassador said that Moscow has had protests before, but there was not bloodshed. Firiubin avoided answering, only insisting that foreign exchange students need to respect Soviet laws, that the Soviets have the responsibility of protecting foreign embassies.

Firiubin's attitude and the information he provided when speaking with the Vietnamese ambassador were the same as when I met with the embassy on the 12th. The Vietnamese ambassador pointed out to Firiubin that it had been said that the Vietnamese students were hoodlums. To this Firiubin responded saying that nobody had accused the Vietnamese students of being hoodlums, rather they had spoken only of the Chinese students. The Vietnamese ambassador then replied that aside from the Vietnamese students, there were students from countries all over Asia, Africa, and Latin America in that protest. To claim they were all hoodlums is baseless.

The Vietnamese counselor also reported that the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already told all of the embassies of Socialist countries their opinions on the events of March 4th and that before the Vietnamese ambassador went to speak with them, the ambassador from North Korea had already been.

[Chinese] Embassy in the Soviet Union

13 March 1965