Distinguished visitors that have joined us tonight,

Teachers,

Comrades:

The Revolution enters its third year today.

Fortunately, Cubans will be able to count the years of the Revolution based on the calendar; happily, the Revolution came to power on a 1st of January. This third year is the “Year of Education”. (APPLAUSE)

To those who two years ago saw the end of a period of struggle and with it the beginning of a period of work, it is truly exciting to gather here tonight with 10,000 teachers (APPLAUSE) and await the start of the “Year of Education” with them. And to await it here, of all places, which, for many years, was the base of the force that preserved injustice and crime; precisely here at the Ministry of Education, which back then was not seen as a building of education by our people, but as a building of oppression.

This building used to be the “Pentagon” of tyranny (SHOUTS FROM THE AUDIENCE); this camp was the base camp of tyranny. The people always hoped and dreamed of someday turning this camp into a great school—our people have had many dreams and have seen them come true—, and this was a dream of all of us.

No place is more representative and symbolic for awaiting the start of the “Year of Education” than this camp, which has been transformed into the Ministry of Education, an educational campus (APPLAUSE) and the residence of many university students (APPLAUSE). It will also become a great center of educational research.

Few works of the Revolution are as exciting as this one. Few are as extraordinarily spiritual as this one, because without this work, which is the cornerstone, the rest could not be built. We have changed camps into schools; that means oppression has been changed into education; force has been changed into persuasion and reason; there are pencils where there used to be bayonets, and books where there used to be military treaties. Forty thousand children are now studying in former boot camps, and all of the great military fortresses of the country have already been turned into schools (APPLAUSE).

But, was this enough to feel fully satisfied? No. When the Revolution came to power, there were 22,000 teachers, and nearly one million children without schools or teachers. Today our country has 33,000 teachers (APPLAUSE); this means that in just two years, the Revolution increased by 30 % the number of teachers the nation had managed to muster in the course of 50 years; I stand corrected, in the course of 58 years. Not a single area of Cuba is without teachers today.

We cried for teachers so many times! And it has been so easy to give teachers to our people. But it has been difficult to solve the problem in the mountains so we summoned the people to ask for volunteers to teach in the farthest corners of the country. Students massively volunteered to help, and now there is a teacher in each of the remotest areas of the nation. (APPLAUSE) Our homeland is the first American country that is able to fully meet its school needs. This has been accomplished in two years of the Revolution.

There is an international agency which has focused on studying this problem in Latin America and seeking solutions—it is a United Nations agency—and it claimed that it was possible to design a program to solve the problem within several years, within more than 10 years. It also contemplated the possibility—the ambition rather than the possibility—of satisfying all the school needs of Latin American peoples by 1970. And we say this is a possibility, or simply an ambition that we have fulfilled in only two years; this means we have saved eight years in the implementation of what was seen as a complex program for the solution of education problems in the continent. Solving these problems in the whole American continent, and doing it before 1970, in only two years like us, will depend on having another revolution in the whole American continent that is capable of doing the work we have done here (APPLAUSE).

Today, on the 1st of January, when we are beginning the third year of the Cuban Revolution, the “Year of Education”, we ask those submissive rules who break with us and wish to exile us from this continent: When are they going to send teachers to their people? When are they going to send teachers, for example in Peru, to the remotest corners in the mountains?

Today, we’d like to ask one single question of those who have broken with our country at the orders of the Yankee Pentagon (SHOUTS OF “Out!”). We could ask them a thousand questions but today we’ll only ask them one—only one question will do: In what year will the stale aristocracy that exploits that country, will the military and politicking gang that exploits that country, meet all educational needs? They should say when, we do not want to hear their reasons for breaking with us. They should answer: When are they going to do for the Peruvian people what we have done for the Cuban people? Because in Peru there are also millions of children with no teachers, because in Peru they are also waiting for the day when governors will announce their people, after only two years, what we have announced tonight. We can also assert here today it would be absolutely impossible for servile, exploitative and traitorous rulers, for any exploitative oligarchy, to solve this problem or any other problem in two years or in 100 years because 150 years have gone by since the last battles waged by Bolivar to start the liberation of America, and in those 150 years, exploitative oligarchies, politicking gangs and bloodthirsty military lobbies have not been able to do what the Cuban revolution has done in two years. (APPLAUSE)

Let them break with us. It does not matter! The people will ask them for an explanation some day! (APPLAUSE) Let them break with us. It does not matter! Sooner or later the people will achieve in two years what privilege and exploitation have not been able to do in 150 years.

And we are only speaking of education. Are we content after having sent teachers to every corner of our country? No. We had hundreds of thousands of illiterate adults, who were not supposed to benefit from education like children, but the Revolutionary Government, with the people’s support, set itself a more ambitious goal: total eradication of illiteracy in only one year (APPLAUSE).

Why do we intend to eradicate illiteracy in only one year? Because the Revolution works hastily. The Revolution works fast, and it moves forward fast. That is why one year will be enough; only revolutions are capable of undertaking such tasks. Thus, when we have attained the goal of eradicating illiteracy in only one year, at the beginning of the fourth year of the Revolution we can proclaim that the Cuban Revolution has done in one year what privileged classes and exploitative oligarchies have not achieved in America in 150 years. (APPLAUSE)

We have set ourselves that goal and we will achieve it. We are certain that we will achieve it. We are certain that we will announce to the world that in our country there is not one single illiterate person left. (APPLAUSE) And we will count on you for that, we will count on teachers in the first place and on the whole population. If the efforts that we have already made to organize this campaign are not sufficient, we shall mobilize more resources and make greater efforts. If the number of teachers and people that are already engaged in the literacy campaign is not enough, then we shall move forward the end of the school year and mobilize all students from the sixth grade onwards. (APPLAUSE) Just as we have formed and mobilized the militias, from May to 31 December we shall set up an army of educators and send them to every corner of the country, so that, if necessary, there will be a teacher per each illiterate person! (APPLAUSE) We are also printing 2 million primers.

Therefore, we are certain that the Revolution will also achieve this goal, as it will fulfill any other objective. That is what we intended to discuss tonight, that is why we are gathered this evening, that was our purpose: to talk about education, literacy, teachers, books and pencils. That is why we are gathered here tonight, and the Revolution only works for such aims; such projects are the only goals of the Revolution, such projects are our only “blame”.

We wanted to celebrate this anniversary in the company of 1,000 distinguished representatives from all over the world, (APPLAUSE) as well as 10,000 teachers, and to commemorate the liberation of our country with the big parade on 2 January. However, we will not be able to fulfill our wish to speak of education today, to speak only of education, as it is necessary to address other topics.

We have arranged this meeting and banquet at a moment of great tension and danger. What a contrast we have tonight!; what a contrast between two major efforts of our homeland, two major national aims: there is a contrast between this banquet of teachers, and the mobilization of the militias and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (APPLAUSE), as we have been pushed to deploy our forces to defend national integrity.

So, at the moment, just in the capital and its surroundings, there are tens of thousands of armed men waiting in the trenches! (APPLAUSE) On Alert! (SHOUTS OF "We shall overcome!" “We shall overcome!”) Tens of thousands of men are on guard in strategic positions so our homeland does not run the risk of a surprise attack, of suffering a treacherous blow from the imperialism, because there is a great difference between an assault, between an attack that surprises fighters at their home and an attack that happens while they are in their trenches; it is like the difference between one and 100, 1 and 1,000 or one and infinity, it marks the difference between the success and failure of a felonious endeavor. We do not want history to reproach us for having been caught by surprise amidst such grave threats.

Therefore, as soon as we were sure of the danger, we mobilized all the strength of the people all over Cuba. (APPLAUSE) And as proof that the peoples who fight for their liberation can never be reckless, as proof that the peoples fighting for a great and just aspiration cannot build up hopes, when the atmosphere seemed the calmest, when the scenario looked the most peaceful, we were actually closest to danger. The present danger arises from the law that exploiters want to impose on the world, from the law they have imposed throughout history: the use of force and power to subjugate peoples—especially if they are small—the use of force and power to maintain exploitation in our country and all over America.

The resentment of imperialists is so deep, their hatred for our just Revolution so great, that they refuse to resign themselves to the idea of not delivering their criminal blow to our country, especially at the end of a presidential term in the United States, and there will be a change of administration. The current administration has led the United States to the biggest setbacks, has led the United States down the wrong path and has earned the country the antipathy of the vast majority of the world; this antipathy is not felt for the American people, but they have sadly witnessed how their nation has been led close to the greatest dangers that threaten human kind, and gradually closer to the tremendous risks of war. The government’s policy has been increasingly rapacious, aggressive and clumsy; suffice it to say that one of the top officers of the Nazi army is nowadays one of the main chiefs of the NATO army, suffice it to say that Nazi officers who invaded more than a dozen European nations are today military chiefs of NATO and are sponsored by imperialism, which has thus abjectly betrayed the hundreds of thousands of U.S. men who died fighting fascism and Nazism. (APPLAUSE)

Suffice it to say just this, suffice it to ask only one question because to expose evil causes, just one question will suffice; so we might just ask the U.S. Government: What has become of the principles in the name of which so many Americans died fighting those very same Nazi officers who today are placed by the U.S. Government at the head not only of German soldiers but also U.S. soldiers? (APPLAUSE) We could also ask the French Government: What has become of France's dignity since the government has agreed to the presence of Nazi officers, who once invaded France, killed millions of French and brutally oppressed them for years, that felt like centuries? Those very same officials are establishing military bases on French soil today.

One question alone is enough for the peoples to understand and the evil causes to be unmasked. A thousand questions could be asked to unmask them not just once but a thousand times. Evil causes have no possible defense, and that is why they resort to aggression and the use of force. That applies to us: the evil cause of imperialism, the evil cause of this imperialist administration drives it to use its last days in office to plan a coward and criminal attack against our country.

Many have asked themselves the same question: if Eisenhower during his last days in power and before transferring it to the next administration, in other words, if imperialism before the change of administration, will decide to clear us out of the way and take advantage of the circumstances to present the faits accomplis so that the new administration can transfer responsibility to the administration that is about to leave office.

In late December we received information from a very reliable source that the CIA, headed by Allen Dulles (SHOUTS OF: “Out!”), had hatched a plan to provoke our country, had hatched a plan to create a fictitious incident, to pave the way for an incident on our territory or near our shores—listen carefully: an incident on our territory or near our shores—to concoct an incident, to propitiate it, and in any case to carry forward a plan that consisted in taking advantage of the provoked incident to justify a military intervention of imperialist forces in Cuba.

The report and the details worried us so much that the Revolutionary Government decided to send Foreign Minister Rául Roa urgently (APPLAUSE) to the United Nations to denounce the plan and warn world public opinion that during the last 18 days of the current U.S. administration, it had been decided to create the provocative incident and execute the aggression.

After the Revolutionary Government obtained that information, there were new clues, new signs that the plan was practically being set in motion. They had contrived the provocative incident, but they thought they needed to pave the way first in Latin America and seek the collaboration of certain Latin American governments, and in order to create the necessary conditions, they could not speak of a future incident, but had to tell the Latin American governments something to prepare them, and lead them to take certain actions against us. As they could not tell them an incident would take place, specially an incident that they had planned, but they had to tell them something else, without scruples of any kind they resorted to an absurd lie, which was a shameless mockery of the puppet Latin American regimes; they do not even tell these governments the truth and tried to create the necessary conditions even by using lies. After paving the way and obtaining the consent of these governments, they could contrive the incident and execute the aggression.

But what happened? We got ahead of them, we caught them “red-handed” and have been able to discover their plan and their intentions, and cut them in.

What was the first sign we received apart from the reliable information we had learned a few days before? It was a cable from Uruguay received yesterday, which unquestionably showed that something serious was brewing, and read as follows:

“Montevideo 30. The U.S. government has informed Latin American governments that it will make a military intervention in Cuba ‘to stop the installation of 17 Russian missile launching pads in the island’, said today the evening paper El Diario.

“According to the newspaper, the Uruguayan Government has been officially informed of Washington’s decision through a report sent by the US and personally delivered by Uruguayan ambassador to Washington and the OAS Carlos Clulow, who recently arrived on leave.

“The paper says the confidential report is thought to have been made known to the other Latin American governments, so that no one is surprised—so that no one is surprised—by U.S. reaction to Cuba.

“According to the information published by the evening paper, ‘the report communicates the construction of launching pads has ceased for the moment’, but ‘US intervention will take place if construction is resumed’.

“The report sent by the US to all Latin American governments accuses Cuba of ‘promoting’ all the popular unrest movements that are taking place throughout America.”

On the same day it was announced, without any questioning or complaint, that the Peruvian Government was breaking relations with the Cuban Government. We had already been informed by another source of the reports the United States had sent to these governments, but until yesterday there was only one cable reproducing the information published in a newspaper, there was only a cable from Prensa Latina, which is not at the service of imperialism, issuing the warning (APPLAUSE).

However, today another cable was received—not from Prensa Latina, but from AP—which states:

“Today the Uruguayan Foreign Minister Homero Martínez Montero refused to confirm or deny reports attributed to the Uruguayan ambassador in Washington which indicated that ‘the Soviet Union is installing guided missile bases in Cuba’.

“Ambassador Carlos Clulow had a private meeting yesterday with the National Government Council.

“The morning papers quoted a highly reliable source that claimed Clulow had learned in Washington that nuclear missiles, aimed at the United States, were being set up in Cuba.

“The source indicated that the council was visibly alarmed by the report. It was said that Clulow obtained the information from circles whose honesty was beyond suspicion.”

There was also another cable that read:

“Foreign Minister Martínez Montero...” —that is to say, the Uruguayan Foreign Minister—“acknowledged that Clulow had submitted a lengthy report to the Executive Council. The Council—he added—had agreed that the report was confidential. I do not think I can say more under such circumstances.”

This means that the Uruguayan Foreign Minister officially stated that the report of the Uruguayan Ambassador to the OAS was confidential and that under those circumstances he could not declare anything else. However, what he did not say was said by newspapers because the information sent from Washington had obviously caused “a stir” among the nine members of the Uruguayan Government Council and naturally the newspapers linked with those political officials and leaders disclosed the content of the information.

The AP cable continues as follows:

“The usually well informed El País—says AP—claims that Cuba is receiving materials to build launching pads for missiles with atomic warheads.

“The newspaper added, ‘Being so close to the big US cities, these missiles pose a maximum risk; if these facts are confirmed, the admirable calm displayed by the United States Government will vanish; actions to counter such aggressive plans will be taken immediately.’

“The Catholic newspaper El Bien Público—continues saying the AP cable—quoted authoritative sources, which specifically said that Clulow accused the Russians of establishing missile bases for the purpose of eventually launching an armed aggression against the United States.”

This cable from AP contained versions from all newspapers on the content of the report sent by Washington. The content of the report sent by the Uruguayan government and shared with the other governments is simply that 17 launch pads for atomic missiles are being built in Cuba. And of course the conclusion is that if launch pads for atomic missiles are being built, “actions to counter such aggressive plans will be taken immediately”.

That means that after hatching the plan of aggression based on a provoked incident—and we have taken all possible measures to avoid the slightest friction that could help the provocation plan—while they decide on the action to be taken and the CIA plans it, they start paving the way with Latin American governments and try to obtain their prior consent, but they cannot speak of an incident to them as they could ask how they know that an incident will occur. So what do they tell them? They resort to the most truculent, absurd and ridiculous invention, they unscrupulously make up a big lie—it is a colossal hoax—and they very gravely inform governments and send ambassadors from Washington to Uruguay and urgently summon the government council to deliver the big news that launch pads were being built in Cuba and consequently, in reaction to our aggression plans, the United States Government had decided to intervene in Cuba.

So with this type of lie and by surprising these governments, which are actually predisposed to being taken by surprise, with this bombshell, they naturally get the same they got from Peru, the same they will possibly get from Uruguay and the same they will get from a great part of Latin American governments: their approval for intervention in Cuba, so that, as this cable reads “no one is surprised by U.S. reaction to Cuba”.

These facts were far too obvious and, together with the reports that had already been obtained by the Revolutionary Government, they gave a very clear indication that the plan was already in motion since all of a sudden, on a 30th or 31st of December—when officials normally do not have meetings; when they usually go on vacation; when usually no new measures are taken—the Councils of Ministers surprisingly convene urgent meetings and adopt breakup agreements. These are extraordinary events when they take place precisely on the last days of December, precisely when we had received news of the provocation and aggression plans that would be executed on the early days of January.

What has been the Revolutionary Government’s reaction? First of all, sending our Foreign Minister to the UN so that he would warn world public opinion; secondly, alerting our people and at the same time, instructing the immediately mobilization of revolutionary forces so that in any case none of our fighters would be taken by surprise at home. We are aware that the imperialist government has greatly misjudged the situation and this type of error has led certain governments to take disastrous actions not just once, but many times. We are sure that they have made an error of assessment, we are sure that the imperialists believe that intervention in Cuba will be a weekend affair. The imperialists most certainly believe that their work in Cuba will be a matter of hours and that they will present the world with the faits accomplis. We are certain that these plans are being based on a serious misjudgment.

What have we done then? We have revealed the imperialist plan to the world, we have warned the world about the danger our country has faced during the last 18 days of the current imperialist administration. At the same time, we have prepared our people, we have mobilized the people and taken steps that could contribute to convince the imperialists that intervention will not be like a military excursion, that it will not be a weekend affair (APPLAUSE), to persuade the imperialists that they are wrong.

We are making great efforts to prevent the aggression, which involves obstructing the aggression; it entails taking all possible measures to persuade them that they are making a huge error of assessment and if they want to invade us, it will be impossible to invade us and crush resistance in just a few hours; they would never be able to crush resistance because as long as there is a decent man or woman left in this country (APPLAUSE), there will be resistance; they must be persuaded that it would take more than a few thousand paratroops and ships to seize the capital of the Republic of Cuba, (SHOUTS OF “Never!”), or the capital of Oriente (SHOUTS OF “Never!”), or the main cities of Cuba. In order to attack the positions defending the capital, they would have to use many more troops than they have estimated. In order to attack us they would have to assemble large numbers of effectives and they would have a tougher time trying to set foot on the territories around our capital, they would have a tougher time trying to do that than they did when they landed in Normandy or Okinawa. (APPLAUSE)

This is one of the things we have done: make aggression difficult. We have worked hard on it and that is why our capital and the main sites in our city can feel well-defended now and our citizens can trust the scores of men who are now at their posts. (APPLAUSE)

We are obliged to defend what we have achieved with our last ounce of energy. (APPLAUSE) They wish to destroy the work of the Revolution and its example. Thus, the people that have assembled their teachers here, the same people that in only two years have guaranteed a teacher to every child in our country, the same people who are awaiting the coming year with a wonderful plan to eradicate illiteracy, the same people who have gathered to bring light to all of their children, this people who make plans for the future, are also faced with enemies who make their own plans; while we work to produce light, they try to plunge us into darkness, slavery and backwardness.

These are the stark contrasts that compel us to mobilize all of our forces in order to achieve our goals and never give up on any of our projects. Not even under such circumstances have we canceled this gathering; not even under such circumstances did we refrain from welcoming the “Year of Education”; not even under such circumstances was this meeting of 10,000 teachers prevented. There are tens of thousands of men at their posts so that every project of the Revolution—and this is just one of the many projects of the Revolution— can be pushed forward. We will carry on with every project and our enemies will not be able to stop us because every man who is calmly waiting for attack at his post feels deep down that he is there for a reason. That man carries his homeland in his heart and his mind; the work of his homeland is a reflection of his dreams and all of the dreams we ever had.

Such men will always be superior to those who are irrational, have an empty heart and mind, carry nothing but murderous weapons, carry nothing but the banner of crime and people’s exploitation, carry nothing but the banner of those that threaten the progress of humankind, carry nothing but the banner of those that want to revive Nazism, carry nothing but the banner of those that jeopardize global peace, carry the banner of evil, crime, nonsense and injustice (APPLAUSE). These men will have to face those who carry the banner of reason, whose heart and mind are filled with noble reasons to fight, those that carry the banner of good and therefore, will know how to die at their posts; they will have more courage than their attackers because they are also on their soil! Yes, they are on their motherland! (APPLAUSE) They will know how to die defending this piece of land, and will become one with it, with the soil of their motherland. To die defending one's country, to die raising a just banner against those who attack us, for no good reason and driven only by ignoble and repugnant ambition, that will always be a great glory for every Cuban!; and a great glory for the motherland!; and a great humiliation and defeat for the attackers! (APPLAUSE)

We responsibly denounce these plans here; we categorically refute the criminal lie they have made up to deceive you and make Latin American governments play their game because we have never spoken of “launching pads” or missiles!; the only thing we know about is the Yankee missile that fell on our soil! (APPLAUSE)

It should be noted that those who are paying the terrorists, those who want to shower our soil with explosives, flammable material and shrapnel, those who have not even bothered to remove the mark from the explosives used by the troops they send here, those who have provided these troops with the bases from which they have attacked us many times, those who almost every week paradrop weapons or try to bring them by sea, those who have been attacking us continuously, jeopardizing our security and invading our territory, those who have also encircled a nation with atomic bases, those who have shamelessly built atomic bases aimed at the Soviet Union in many other nations all around the world, those who have encircled a whole nation with atomic bases, are also the same who now invent that there are launching pads in a neighboring country in order to justify aggression. They are doing the same they did to the Soviet Union; they make up a lie that turns out to be true for many countries.

What would have happened to the world if the Soviet Union had followed the same line of thought? What would have happened if the Soviet Union had reacted differently when the imperialists set up an atomic base on its borders, way closer than our launch pads, or when they established dozens of atomic bases; what would have happened if the Soviet Union had wondered, “In the face of this obvious aggression, we will invade these countries”? The Soviet Union had to watch the imperialists surround its territory with the bases. If they had reasoned like the imperialists, the world would have been drawn into a terrible conflict, the same conflict the world seeks to avoid, the conflict that all honest governments want to avoid, that all peoples want to avoid. The only ones interested in not avoiding that conflict are those whose world is crumbling, those whose empire is collapsing, those who find themselves condemned by the unappealable verdict of history, those who experience an inexorable decline and play at war, and rub the edges of war. But people do not want war, honest governments do not want war, and we do not want war. What we want is to use all our energy on projects like the one that has brought us together tonight (APPLAUSE); we want to live in peace and we proclaim our wish to the whole world, with the same conviction that we proclaim to the world that: In the event of an aggression, Cubans will fight to their last drop of blood! (APPLAUSE)

In view of the imminence of danger, what has been our people’s reaction? It can be seen here and it could be seen today. We have seen tens of thousands of men marching to their posts with a smile on their faces, with the emotion of those that defend a just cause; tens of thousands of youths marching to their posts with their antitank, antiaircraft and mortar batteries (APPLAUSE); and the Revolutionary Army taking up positions, calmly, unmoved, with its specialized columns, its heavy tanks and its artillery. Even if they announce that the “powerful marines” are coming, nobody here will be panic-stricken, we’d rather be rolling on the floor laughing! (APPLAUSE and LAUGHTER) We will be waiting for them calmly.

Our people have already determined their destiny and shall fulfill it; our people remain undisturbed, unfrightened, they do not give up on their joy and keep laughing; they have not given up on their usual excitement which is now greater as the new year also marks a new anniversary of the Revolution. Production will not cease. On 3 January, after the big parade—the parade which the people will attend to prove they are not afraid—, when the factories and workplaces open, it will be necessary to fill the post of tens of thousands of men who are in the trenches; and will stay in the trenches until 18 January, as long as the danger of a criminal and treacherous blow remains! (APPLAUSE) We shall take the post of these men so that no service is brought to a halt!, so that no workplace lags behind. Women, too, will take their place at work, they will take the place of men who are at their posts, and will do what these men cannot do. Let us prove once again what the Revolution is capable of and let us determine that no service or factory will be halted; let us set ourselves the goal of filling the vacancies to show what the people can do and what the Revolution can do! These measures we have been forced to take out of duty and out of our sense of responsibility should not disturb or hamper our other efforts, we must be capable of making progress in every field.

Our people can do anything; our people are capable of the most extraordinary feats, and the current facts prove it. What our people needed was just an opportunity, what our people needed was the Revolution. That is the attitude of revolutionary peoples, and revolutionary individuals.

Two years ago, in the face of the danger posed by those who moved forward holding the banner of a just cause, by those who moved forward for a good reason, the servants of imperialism gathered right here to escape cowardly; in the face of the danger posed by those who marched forward fighting for a just cause, they gathered to take flight. We and the people, bearing the banner of a just cause, have not gathered here today to take flight from those who, without justification, want to deprive us from the right to live in peace, make progress, and fulfill our destiny. (APPLAUSE) Those who are right never run away!; those who are right know how to die! What we have done is gather here to say:

Motherland or death!

We shall overcome!

(OVATION)

STENOGRAPHIC VERSION FROM THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE