Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE 
December 21, 1939 
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Comrade Norman Bethune,[1] a member of the Communist Party of Canada, was 
around fifty when he was sent by the Communist Parties of Canada and the United 
States to China; he made light of travelling thousands of miles to help us in 
our War of Resistance Against Japan. He arrived in Yenan in the spring of last 
year, went to work in the Wutai Mountains, and to our great sorrow died a 
martyr at his post. What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner 
selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people's liberation as his own? It is 
the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every 
Chinese Communist must learn. Leninism teaches that the world revolution can 
only succeed if the proletariat of the capitalist countries supports the 
struggle for liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and if the 
proletariat of the colonies and semi-colonies supports that of the proletariat 
of the capitalist countries.[2] Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into
 practice. We Chinese Communists must also follow this line in our practice. We 
must unite with the proletariat of all the capitalist countries, with the 
proletariat of Japan, Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and all other 
capitalist countries, for this is the only way to overthrow imperialism, to 
liberate our nation and people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of 
the world. This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we 
oppose both narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism. 
Comrade Bethune's spirit, his utter devotion to others without any thought of 
self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility in his work and his great 
warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the people. Every Communist must 
learn from him. There are not a few people who are irresponsible in their work, 
preferring the light and shirking the heavy, passing the burdensome tasks on to 
others and choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of 
themselves before others. When they make some small contribution, they swell 
with pride and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel no 
warmth towards comrades and the people but are cold, indifferent and apathetic. 
In truth such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted as 
devoted Communists. No one who returned from the front failed to express 
admiration for Bethune whenever his name was mentioned, and none remained 
unmoved by his spirit. In the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area, no
 soldier or civilian was unmoved who had been treated by Dr. Bethune or had 
seen how he worked. Every Communist must learn this true communist spirit from 
Comrade Bethune. 
Comrade Bethune was a doctor, the art of healing was his profession and he was 
constantly perfecting his skill, which stood very high in the Eighth Route 
Army's medical service. His example is an excellent lesson for those people who 
wish to change their work the moment they see something different and for those 
who despise technical work as of no consequence or as promising no future. 
Comrade Bethune and I met only once. Afterwards he wrote me many letters. But I 
was busy, and I wrote him only one letter and do not even know if he ever 
received it. I am deeply grieved over his death. Now we are all commemorating 
him, which shows how profoundly his spirit inspires everyone. We must all learn 
the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be 
very useful to the people. A man's ability may be great or small, but if he has 
this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and 
above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people. NOTES 
1. The distinguished surgeon Norman Bethune was a member of the Canadian 
Communist Party. In 1936 when the German and Italian fascist bandits invaded 
Spain, he went to the front and worked for the anti-fascist Spanish people. In 
order to help the Chinese people in their War of Resistance Against Japan, he 
came to China at the head of a medical team and arrived in Yenan in the spring 
of 1938. Soon after he went to the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area. Imbued with 
ardent internationalism and the great communist spirit, he served the army and 
the people of the Liberated Areas for nearly two years. He contracted blood 
poisoning while operating on wounded soldiers and died in Tanghsien, Hopei, on 
November 12, 1939 
2. See J. V. Stalin, "The Foundations of Leninism", Problems of Leninism, Eng. 
ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1954, pp. 70-79. 

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Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project. 
HTML revised 2004 by Marxists.org

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Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung



                
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