World Freedom Day is a glorious occasion symbolizing the triumph of freedom over slavery. It has become a torch of hope for the freedom-seeking people shut behind the Iron Curtain and a luminous sign of the free world's continued dedication to the cause of freedom. Our sense of responsibility in the struggle for world peace and human freedom is heightened when we recall the brave deeds of the more than 22,000 prisoners of war, once soldiers of the Chinese and Korean Communist armies, who won their freedom en masse January 23, 1954, in the war area of Korea. Our sense of responsibility is further enhanced as we face the present world of disorder caused in large part by the iniquitous Chinese Communists.
World events have shown that the confrontation between slavery under Communism and freedom under democracy can never be eased or eliminated through negotiation. On the contrary, appeasement, compromise and neutrality will only fuel Communist flames, lead to world chaos and bring greater calamity to mankind. On the other hand, the current world situation has led people everywhere to awaken to the menace of Communism and has aroused the courage of people behind the Iron Curtain in opposing slavery and seeking freedom. Consequently, the rapid development of the World Freedom Day movement is a natural force rising with the tides of the times.
Externally, the Maoist Communists seek to intensify world disorder. Internally they seek to destroy Chinese history and culture in an all-out campaign of condemning Confucius and praising the despotic Ch'in Shih-huang (the first emperor of Ch'in). These outrageous actions have exposed their wicked character that is causing untold suffering to the peoples of the world. Our progress and accomplishments of democratic construction on Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu - our bastion for national recovery have brought prosperity and happiness to this citadel of freedom. They also have made this bastion of ours a beacon of hope for our mainland compatriots in their struggle for freedom. We firmly believe that the glaring contrast between benevolence and despotism will give the sons and daughters of China greater confidence in our eventual triumph over Communism. This will also enable the peoples of the world to distinguish between the virtuous and the vicious, right and wrong, friend and foe.
From now on, we should work harder to reach our fixed goal of national recovery and world salvation through the defeat of Communism. We should adhere to the historically correct course of overcoming slavery with freedom and vanquishing despotism with benevolence. We should unite our patriotic freedom fighters at home with those abroad and behind the enemy's lines. We should further unite the world's forces of freedom and justice. On the one hand, we must fortify our common front against the Maoists and, on the other, expand the activities of the world anti-Communist fronts. In so doing we shall amplify the spirit of the Chinese and Korean anti-Communist freedom fighters. We shall also rally the forces of today's freedom fighters and turn them into an engulfing tide for the removal of the sources of world disorder. Then we can jointly create a new era of freedom, equality and fraternity based on Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People.