On January 28, 1979, Deng Xiaoping embarked on a journey to the United States as the supreme leader of the country. During this trip, Deng Xiaoping met with the then-US President carter , opening up a good situation for the future friendship between China and the United States and the international environment for reform and opening up.
At the time of parting, an old American woman in her seventies suddenly held this letter from Chairman Mao to her, saying that she wanted to see Deng Xiaoping. After the two met, the old American woman held Deng Xiaoping's hand excitedly and said to him: "Comrade Xiaoping, this is a letter that Chairman Mao asked me to give you 42 years ago. I have been looking for you for a full 42 years!"
(Deng Xiaoping and US President Carter)
So, who is the old lady who holds Chairman Mao's letter in her hand and is searching for Deng Xiaoping? In this letter that was 42 years late, what did Chairman Mao want to say to Deng Xiaoping?
Today, this episode tells you why Chairman Mao’s letter to Deng Xiaoping was 42 years late.
(Deng Xiaoping and Chairman Mao)
Holding a letter from Chairman Mao, the American old lady who has been searching for Deng Xiaoping for 42 years is named Helen Foster Snow , and is the ex-wife of Edgar Snow .
Friends who are familiar with Chairman Mao’s life may have a deep impression of this few foreign friends in Chairman Mao’s life: Edgar Snow was born in 1905 and is a famous journalist in the American press. 1934, he came to Yenjing University , located in Beiping to teach journalism courses. During the three years of teaching, he gradually developed deep feelings for this land in China.
(Edgar Snow)
At that time, Peiping was under the rule of the Kuomintang. The people of the Chinese people were living in poverty under the rule of the Chiang Dynasty. Edgar Snow witnessed it with his own eyes. In the National District newspaper, Edgar Snow accidentally learned about the Red Army in northern Shaanxi. Over time, he was full of curiosity about this mysterious team? Is this team really like Chiang Kai-shek said, a bunch of green forests gathered in the mountains? Or a pawn that was left at the mercy of the Soviet Union?
With a curious attitude towards this team, Edgar Snow, with the help of Soong Ching Ling , bypassed the Kuomintang's blockade. came to the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi in June 1936 and met many important generals of the Red Army, including Chairman Mao, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, Zuo Quan, Xu Haidong and Nie Rongzhen. Chairman Mao's optimistic revolutionary spirit and far-sighted strategic vision left a particularly deep impression on Edgar Snow.
Before leaving, he wanted to take a photo of Chairman Mao, but Chairman Mao's military cap was very damaged. In desperation, Snow took off his military cap and put it on Chairman Mao's head, leaving behind a classic photo of the middle-aged Chairman Mao era for later generations.
(photo taken by Snow for Chairman Mao)
After this trip to northern Shaanxi, Edgar Snow sorted out and compiled the interviews with Chairman Mao, Peng Dehuai and others during the trip, and planned to publish them. This is the later famous "Red Stars Shine in China", also known as " Traveling to the West ". The interviews in objectively and truly portray the style of the Red Army's revolutionary team, as well as the style of important leaders of our party such as Chairman Mao and Peng Dehuai, and have changed the stereotype of the people of the Kuomintang-controlled areas and other countries in the world, , and also made Edgar Snow himself the first Western reporter to interview the Red Army and Chairman Mao.
During the period of sorting and editing the manuscript about the interview with Chairman Mao, Edgar Snow's wife Helen Snow developed a strong interest in her husband's trip to Yan'an. After watching Snow’s interview with Chairman Mao, Helen Snow marveled at the fact that Chairman Mao was such an amazing man. So she decided that after her husband interviewed Chairman Mao in the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi, she wanted to go to Yan'an again to see with her own eyes what this great revolutionary looked like.
(Helen Snow)
Unfortunately, during this trip, a shocking event occurred, which affected her later itinerary -
The news that Chiang Kai-shek was under house arrest caused great touch to the top leaders of the Kuomintang. He Yingqin, who was far away in Nanjing, tried to seize power from Chiang Kai-shek. proclaimed himself the "Commander-in-Chief of the against the rebel army" and sent the Kuomintang Air Force to bomb the garrisons of Zhang and Yang in Shaanxi Province for several days, trying to destroy the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident. This also added a lot of danger to Helen Snow's visit to northern Shaanxi.
(Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng and Chiang Kai-shek in the Xi'an Incident)
Fortunately, with the mediation of our party's comrades Zhou Enlai, Bogu and other comrades, Chiang Kai-shek finally accepted the requirement of "stop the civil war and unite in resisting Japan". The anti-Japanese national united front was initially established, and the land of China avoided the danger of re-split. However, Chiang Kai-shek later betrayed his faith. After returning to Nanjing from Xi'an, he immediately imprisoned Zhang Xueliang, who was traveling with him, and increased the blockade in Xi'an, strictly prohibiting outsiders from interacting with the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi.
In this way, Helen Snow, who was stationed in Xi'an, was closely monitored by the Kuomintang. By chance, Snow fled from the inn to the outskirts of Xi'an. Under the guidance of local fellow villagers, Helen Snow learned about the Red Army's daily patrol location. There, Snow waited for the Red Army she had been looking for for a long time. After learning that Helen Snow was the wife of Edgar Snow who had been here to interview Chairman Mao, the enthusiastic Red Army immediately worked tirelessly to send Helen Snow to Yan'an.
(Helen Snow)
After meeting Chairman Mao, Helen Snow, like her husband, was impressed by Chairman Mao's personal charm and talent. Helen Snow, who cares about the situation of China's anti-Japanese war, couldn't wait to ask Chairman Mao a few questions about the future development of the current situation, presenting us a panoramic view of the situation in China's anti-Japanese war at that time -
After meeting Chairman Mao, Helen Snow said to Chairman Mao: " Chairman, what do you think China's anti-Japanese war will go?"
Chairman Mao replied: "Victory or failure, there are only these two endings."
(Chairman Mao during the War of Resistance Against Japan)
Then, Chairman Mao stood up and said: "In order to enable the Chinese people to win the War of Resistance Against Japan, I thought of ten programs. If the Nanjing government accepts the anti-Japanese program we proposed and unites, then the anti-Japanese cause will be It is possible to move towards victory, otherwise it will fail. "
Helen Snow saw Chairman Mao's solemn and serious expression and asked curiously: "What are the ten principles of the Chairman?" "
" 1. Overthrow Japanese imperialism; 2. Implement the national military mobilization; 3. Implement the national people's mobilization; 4. Reform political institutions; 5. Anti-Japanese aggression diplomatic policy; six, implement wartime economy; seven, improve people's lives; eight, resist Japanese slavery education; nine, punish traitors and traitors; ten, establish an anti-Japanese national united front."
(Ten Anti-Japanese Programs proposed by Chairman Mao)
Hellen Snow recorded all the programs proposed by Chairman Mao one by one. When our party's ties with the outside world were cut off and radio equipment was damaged, the crystallization of these ideological wisdom of Chairman Mao could be made public today in the form of historical materials, and Helen Snow made an indelible contribution.
In addition, Helen Snow's trip to Yan'an also made up for the regrets of Edgar Snow's last trip to Yan'an. For example, Helen Snow met Zhou Enlai, Zhang Wentian and others who Edgar Snow did not meet last time. When Helen Snow first arrived in Yan'an, Red Army Commander Zhu De personally held a banquet to entertain Helen .During his interactions with Zhu De, Helen Snow admired this humble and loyal commander very much. On her leave, she took a photo with Commander Zhu De, which Helen Snow kept for her whole life.
(Zhu De and Helen Snow)
On July 7, 1937, Japan launched the " Lugou Bridge Incident ", and the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out in full swing. At this time, Helen Snow, who was in the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi, volunteered to Chairman Mao, saying that he was willing to go to the front line of the Anti-Japanese War and be a battlefield reporter for the Eighth Route Army. However, considering the dangerous situation on the front line, the Chairman politely declined this strange woman who was not afraid of heaven or earth.
However, Helen Snow was not discouraged and applied to the Chairman again and again. In desperation, the Chairman had to send Helen Snow a "introduction letter" to Helen Snow, asking Helen Snow to go to the 129th Division to report to Deng Xiaoping. The letter reads: "Comrade Xiaoping: Mrs. Snow goes forward with the troops and reports to the outside world as a war reporter. Please assist and care in work and life."
(Helen Snow and Xu Haidong)
However, in the "He Mei Agreement" before the War of Resistance Against Japan, acquiesced to the fact that North China is unprepared, causing the Japanese army to march straight to Henan and Shandong . Seeing that the situation of China's war of resistance has taken a sharp turn for the worse, Western countries have begun to urge their citizens to evacuate China as soon as possible. Just as Helen Snow was about to set off to find the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, her husband Edgar Snow sent her a letter, which read:
"You can return to the motherland from Qingdao , but you must set off immediately, otherwise you will not be able to return this year!"
In desperation, Helen Snow had to arrive in Qingdao with the "introduction letter" written by Chairman Mao, and returned to the United States after several twists and turns. Although it is foreign to the Chinese people, the Snows are always concerned about China's anti-Japanese cause. During his time in the United States, Edgar Snow's "Red Stars Shine China" and Helen Snow's "Continuing the West" were both published, which aroused a warm response in the United States. The American people who sympathize with China's anti-Japanese cause began to call on the Roosevelt and the authorities to support China's anti-Japanese actions. On December 7, 1941, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War broke out, and the United States, who participated in the war, officially began its plan to aid China's anti-Japanese war.
("Red Stars Shine China")
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, affected by the situation in the Cold War , the United States McCarthyism was prevalent. The Snow couple, who have always supported the Chinese people and sympathized with socialism, were subjected to various persecutions in the United States. Many of their interview records about China cannot be published in the United States. As a result, the Snows faced the dilemma of unemployment and poverty in their later years, but Helen Snow was a strange woman who "don't want to bow her back for a few dollars of rice". She said: "My typewriter and pen are not for publishers, but for the American people and the Chinese people."
In 1972, the then-US President Nixon visited China, marking the normalization of relations between China and the United States, and the persecution of the Snows was gradually eliminated by the US authorities. Unfortunately, Edgar Snow died of illness in 1972, and Chairman Mao died of illness in 1976. Edgar Snow failed to visit China again after the normalization of Sino-US relations, and Helen Snow did not have time to see Chairman Mao’s last side.
(Edgar Snow and Chairman Mao)
In January 1979, Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States gave Helen Snow the opportunity to make up for his regrets. At this time, she was already an old man over 70 years old. After seeing Deng Xiaoping who also experienced the ups and downs, Helen Snow was mixed with emotion, and held Deng Xiaoping's hand excitedly and said to him: "Comrade Xiaoping, Chairman Mao asked me to hand this letter to you 42 years ago. Today I finally saw you!"
After the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, Helen Snow's related interviews about China were published in the United States one after another, which aroused a huge response from the United States. She used her narrative and delicate pen to show the glorious side of Chairman Mao, a great man in history, to the people of the world.In her later years, she was even elected as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize twice. In 1997, Snow passed away safely in his sleep at the age of 90. British The Economist magazine published her obituary and made the following evaluation of her life:
"Mrs. Snow spent her whole life studying China, and she concluded that socialism showed a bright future for China, because what led Chinese socialism was the most noble moral qualities in China's century-old history."
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-