The Cuban Missile Crisis, Songun and the DPRK
As it is now 50 years since the US imperialists manufactured the so-called "Cuban missile crisis creating a very tense situation internationally by the use of threat and blackmail. It is deeply relevant to compare and contrast the 1962 Cuban missile crisis with the DPRK nuclear issue and the DPRK's confrontation
with US imperialism (the war without gunshots) and drew appropriate lessons from it. The purpose of this article to dwell on the drama of the Cuban missile crisis or Caribbean crisis and reproduce a verbatim history of it as others have done this already. Rather to compare the Soviet revisionist leadership's handling (or mishandling ) of the Cuban missile crisis with the so-called "nuclear issue " of the DPRK and how this was handled by the Songun revolutionary leadership of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il which is now continued by respected Marshal Kim Jong Un.
On the 22nd of October 1962 the US imperialists announced that their spy satellites had detected long -range missiles being transported into the Republic of Cuba by the Soviet Union. The US imperialist chieftain Kennedy blustered and threatened the Soviet Union and Cuba. The US announced a blockade of Cuba There was talk of both the invasion of Cuba by the US and a nuclear strike against the USSR. It should be mentioned in passing here that the DPRK under the leadership of the great leader President Kim Il Sung provided internationalist support for Cuba during its hour of need, gave political and military assistance, while sending food and tractors as well as a group of authoritative technicians.. The DPRK also publicly supported the 5 -point demands of Premier Fidel Castro which included the US withdrawal from Guantanamo.
It did not take very long for the modern revisionist Khruschov leadership of the CPSU and USSR to give into the nuclear blackmail of US imperialism. On the 28th of October 1962 only 6 days Khruschov announced ""the Soviet government, in addition to previously issued instructions on the cessation of further work at the building sites for the weapons, has issued a new order on the dismantling of the weapons which you describe as 'offensive' and their crating and return to the Soviet Union."
This was an abject surrender to US imperialism. It sent out the message that the socialist camp could be bullied and pushed around by US imperialism . The climbdown in the Cuban Missile crisis put the USSR on the road of slow and gradual self-destruction .Moreover it represented the betrayal of the Cuban revolution . It was an example of a sordid deal between two great powers at the expense of a small country.
At the time the military strength of the USSR had been considerable . It had roughly the same number of nuclear warheads and had armed forces of about 3 million plus those of its Warsaw Pact allies. There is no logical military reason to give into the US.
The DPRK was a much smaller country than the USSR , its population was about one twentieth of that of the USSR , its armed forces where greatly outnumbered by those of the US imperialists. The DPRK under the wise leadership of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung maintained a strong militant anti-imperialist stance and independent stance, always upholding the slogan of the KPA "let us wipe out the US imperialist aggressors sworn enemy of the Korean people" . This was quite unlike the USSR which under the baton of the bungling revisionist coward advocated peaceful co-existence with US imperialism and at the same time abandoned class struggle against internal enemies of socialism by declaring a a "state of the whole people" abandoning the dictatorship of the proletariat. Under the banner of Juche the DPRK maintained independence . Though the USSR was a great power its leadership were not only seized with fear of US imperialism but Khruschov and later Gorbachov worshipped US imperialism. Visiting the DPRK in 1993 a DPRK professor told me a story about Khruschov's flunkeyism towards US imperialism. Khruschov visiting the USA got mesmerised by the sight of some maize growing so begged Kennedy to give him some maize seeds. Kennedy was happy to oblige. The maize seeds were duly planted in the USSR but instead of a bumper harvest there was massive crop failure because the seeds were the wrong kind for Russian soil.
The DPRK maintaining stalwart independence under the banner of Juche won confrontations with US imperialism during the "Pueblo" incident in 1968, the EC121 incident in 1969 and the Panmunjom incident in 1976.
The US imperialists planned several times to use nuclear weapons against the DPRK and brought into south Korea a 1000 nuclear weapons. The US imperialists created the so -called nuclear issue against the DPRK to bring pressure to bear on it. US warmonger Bush branded the socialist DPRK as part of an "axis of evil " , "an outpost of tyranny " and listed the DPRK as a target of pre-emptive nuclear attack. The DPRK under the wise leadership of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il the sun of Songun decided to have access to a nuclear deterrent. It carried out a scientific test on the 9th of October 2006 and a second one on the 25th of May 2009. These shook US imperialism to its foundations . The DPRK not only defied the US imperialists but also certain sold -out big powers who did not want the DPRK to have its own independent nuclear deterrent. Rather than give into US imperialism in a matter of a mere 6 days the DPRK has retained its nuclear deterrent and has been a proud socialist nuclear power of Juche for 6 years . On the 25th of May 2009 the DPRK conducted its second nuclear test successfully. What a contrast this is to sold-outSoviet revisionism ! Thus is the proud fruit of the Songun politics and Songun idea first elaborated by the great leader President Kim Il Sung and applied and developed in depth by the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il the eternal chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission.
On the 23 November 2010 the south Korean puppets whose strings were pulled by the American imperialists fired into the territorial waters of the DPRK. The response of the DPRK was swift and decisive. Yongphyong the base of the south Korean puppets was blasted by the DPRK's artillery leaving it with columns of smoke rising . Dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un commanded the operation himself. It was a great victory over the south Korean puppets who complained to their American bosses and cried for retaliation but there were powerless to do anything and the US did not retaliate on their behalf. The image of the south Korean puppets was even poorer than before. They reminded one of a silly naughty child throwing stones at their neighbours house , only to get slapped hard around the head by the angry neighbour only to run crying to the parent(the US imperialists ) shouting "mummy, daddy the neighbour hit me on the head" , only to find that the parents could do anything to help.
How was the DPRK which has a population of one twentieth of the US, an area a fraction of the size of the US and armed forces much smaller that those of the US able to withstand US imperialist pressure and blackmail when others such the old USSR were not able to do so. The answer is first of all, it was down to the Juche idea created by the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung achieves Juche it can defeat a powerful enemy. Juche meant that the DPRK maintain a rugged and unyielding independence. Secondly, the single hearted unity of the masses, party and leader which is more powerful than an atomic. Thirdly, the miliant anti-imperialist revolutionary spirit ; the KPA of the DPRK is the only armed force in the world to uphold the slogan "Let us annihilate the US imperialist aggressors sworn enemy of the Korean people " , the recent statement of the DPRK NDC reiterated this. The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung made sure the DPRK rejected the line of unprincipled compromise with US imperialism saying
"Just as the brutish nature of a wolf cannot change, so the aggressive nature of imperialism can never change. Catch a wolf cub and raise it; the beast will still do harm to people and flee into the mountains when it grows up. If the aggressive nature of imperialism changed, it would mean that imperialism had already ceased to exist. So long as imperialism remains, its aggressive nature will remain. We should categorically reject the allegation of the revisionists that the aggressive nature of imperialism has changed."
The great leader comrade Kim Jong Il continued with this line declaring "Expect No Change from me " . Thirdly, the Songun revolutionary line of giving priority to the army as the lifeline of the revolution underpinned the line of Juche and independence. Lastly but most importantly it was because of the outstanding quality of the leadership of the DPRK . A great leader produces a a great ideology and great nation . The three great leaders of Mt Paektu , President Kim Il Sung, eternal Chairman Kim Jong Il and dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un have all led the DPRK into becoming a might socialist power capable of facing down US imperialism and being a nation that can say what it likes and likes what it says.
Dermot Hudson
ASSPUK
JISGE