Acting in accordance with its militant strategic pronouncements, Communist China took the lead throughout 1960 in extending public support and encouragement to the revolutionary drive in South Vietnam. Spelling out their "completely identical views on all current major international questions, " Chou En- lai and Pham Van Dong in May 1960 characterized their two country as "the closest comrades-in-arms of the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America...firmly supporting the struggles
in these areas for national independence and democratic freedoms."
The Chinese premier was more specific in a 2 September speech when he singled out the revolution in South Vietnam as "an important part of the stormy struggle of people of the whole world against the U.S . imperialists" and declared: "The Chinese people have supported in the past, do support at present, and will support in the future the struggle of the Vietnamese people.