Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

By the same logic, Khrushchov describes China’s adherenceto correct principles on the Sino-Indian boundary questionand her counter-attack against the military onslaught of theIndian reactionaries, an act of self-defence by China when thesituation became intolerable, as “a violation of peaceful coexistence”.At times, Khrushchov also talks about struggle betweenthe two different social systems. But how does he see thisstruggle?He has said, “The inevitable struggle between the twosystems must be made to take the form exclusively of astruggle of ideas. . . .” 1Here the political struggle has disappeared!He has also said:The Leninist principle of peaceful coexistence of stateswith differing socio-economic and political systems doesnot mean just an absence of war, a temporary state of unstableceasefire. It presupposes the maintenance betweenthese states of friendly economic and political relations, itenvisages the establishment and development of variousforms of peaceful international co-operation. 2Here, struggle has disappeared altogether!Like a conjurer, Khrushchov plays one trick after another,first reducing major issues to minor ones, and then minor issuesto naught. He denies the basic antagonism between thesocialist and capitalist systems, he denies the fundamentalcontradiction between the socialist and the imperialist camps,and he denies the existence of international class struggle. Andso he transforms peaceful coexistence between the two systemsand the two camps into “all-round co-operation”.1N. S. Khrushchov, Report to the Session of the Supreme Soviet ofthe USSR, January 1960.2N. S. Khrushchov, “Answers to the Questions of the Austrian ProfessorHans Thirring”, Pravda, January 3, 1962.281