Report from the Foreign Visitors Office of the Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee, 'The Two Major Parties of China and the Soviet Union Have Some Different Opinions, and Vietnam Faces Difficulties'

Top Secret (Destroy after use)

Briefing of Receiving Foreign Visitors during the National Day

Edited by the Foreign Visitors Office of the Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee   October 4th, 1961 

"The Two Major Parties of China and the Soviet Union Have Some Different Opinions, and Vietnam Faces Difficulties"

Deputy Minister of Culture of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Lê Kiêm visited Beijing in his way back from the Soviet Union and attended the state dinner and National Day ceremony. His showed some enthusiasm, but the conversation was limited to greetings and general issues.

Lê Kiêm had participated in Moscow International Film Festival and Zhang Zhixiang [Deputy Director of the Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee] asked if he had seen the Soviet movies “Clear Sky”. Kiêm gave a simple response without talking about his opinion on the film. Instead, he commented on Polish and Yugoslavian movies and criticized that their depiction of wars was too gloomy. When Comrade Zhang Zhixiang talked about his own ideas on the film, Kiêm commented that the shot on the train going through was not good. He then said that according to some Soviet comrades, the film was mainly for the cause of anti-personality cult and the hero was expelled from the party, rather than investigated. He then asked whether the hero was discharged by the party. Kiêm expressed that Vietnam decided not to show the film publicly, but held a reception. Then he inquired whether North Korea released the film and suggested that the Socialist countries can meet to discuss issues of art in order to avoid differences. Finally he said “because both the Chinese Communist Party and the Soviet Communist Party are large parties, we Vietnamese were left in a difficult situation when the two large parties had different views.” (Underlined in original text) Kiêm also raised the issue that DRV had not purchased any movies made by the Capitalist countries due to shortage of foreign currency, asking, “can China lend to DRV some movies bought by China from the Capitalist countries?”

[The following section is not declassified.]

This Briefing is sent to: CPC Central Committee, alternate member of the CPC Central Committee, alternate secretary, responsible person of the central departments, the Foreign Affairs Office of the State Council (5 copies), People's Daily , Xinhua News Agency , Broadcasting Bureau , each party unit within the foreign cultural bureaucracies, party unit of the Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee  and responsible person.