Chairman
"If one is to have a revolutionary view of and attitude towards a war, one should have a correct understanding of the character of the war and the influence it exerts on social development."
Human history has seen many different theories of war, all of which can be classified largely into two categories: one is the reactionary war theory of the exploiting class which rationalizes aggressive wars against other nations and the other is the revolutionary war theory which reflects the struggle of the popular masses for national liberation and class emancipation.
One of the unvarying focuses of the many theories of war is the character of war. It is because people have different views of and attitudes towards a war according to its character.
Thinking that it is essential to be well aware of military affairs in order to carry out revolution, Chairman
On Sep. 10, 1962, while he was conducting revolutionary activities at
First of all, he gave a clear definition on the character of war.
Saying that it is necessary to understand what a war is and who conducts it before everything else in order to have a correct understanding of the character of a war, Chairman clarified that war is an organized armed struggle waged by a class, a nation or a state to meet its demands by relying on special means of violence.
He said that different classes, nations or states could be opposed to each other over their own interests and those conflicting social groups seek to realize their interests and demands against each other in this or that way, sometimes resulting in a war.
At that time, one of the students argued that the war of justice and the revolutionary war were just the same, while another asserted that they were different concepts. Chairman listened carefully to their arguments and said that the two types of war are related to each other but there is a difference to a certain degree.
He added that wars can be classified into those of justice and injustice and those of revolution and counterrevolution, that the righteous wars include those to defend the country from foreign aggression, to win national independence, and to free the working masses from class oppression and subjugation and that revolutionary wars belong to the category of righteous wars.
Chairman went on to say that all revolutionary wars are righteous, but not all the righteous wars are revolutionary; and the wars to defend one's country from foreign aggressors are righteous, but not all of them are revolutionary wars. The Imjin Patriotic War fought in our country against the Japanese aggressors and the war fought by Russia against Napoleon's aggression are the examples of a righteous war, but they were not revolutionary wars.
This was a precious instruction that clarified the correlation between the revolutionary wars and the righteous wars.
Next, Chairman also clarified the influence a war exerts on social development and the principled attitude towards a war.
He said; righteous and revolutionary wars work positively for social development, while wars of injustice and counterrevolution hinder the social development; for this reason, revolutionaries support the former and oppose the latter, and they do not want war, but are not afraid of it either, and the attitude of opposing all kinds of wars in general is an expression of bourgeois pacifism and revisionism.
Then he emphasized that we should adhere to a principled attitude towards various wars being waged on the earth with a correct understanding of their character.
Indeed, Chairman
