As usual, the Russian and Chinese Communists chose not to run the show. Instead, they left their stooges, principally Indians and Egyptians, to do it for them. From the beginning to the end, however, there was not the slightest doubt as to the identity of the real masterminds.
With practice, the Communists have further improved upon their technique. Unlike the Bandung Conference of April, 1955, which was attended by government delegations from 29 countries, the “Little Bandung” was a meeting of “people’s representatives” who went to Cairo to voice their “solidarity.”The preparatory office at Cairo sent invitations to both Communist and non-Communist organizations in various countries. If the non-Communist organizations should decline the invitations, the Communist ones were always ready to go. And in the case of Communist countries, where all organizations are necessarily under the control of the Communists, it would be the height of folly to expect delegations therefrom to express any views other than the Communist ones. Thus, the “Little Bandung” was assured of unanimity of views even before it was called to order.
If there should still be some doubt regarding the real nature of the so-called Afro-Asian “solidarity” conference at Cairo, a comparison of its agenda with that at Bandung in 1955 ought to be enough to dispel it. At the Bandung Conference, which was jointly sponsored by the five Colombo powers, namely, India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, and Ceylon, the major items were the elimination of colonialism, independence and self-determination for all peoples, and membership for all nations in the United Nations. The conference also supported human rights, disarmament, and prohibition of nuclear weapons.
Spokesmen of various delegations at Cairo indicated that this time the discussions would revolve around such issues as the support of the freedom movement in Africa, denunciation of military pacts, suspension of nuclear tests, and disarmament. It should not come as a surprise, if the conference should endorse Mr. Nehru's “magic” formula for the suspension of nuclear tests, and advocate the holding of a world disarmament conference. (The Russians have asked for a special session of the 82-nation U. N. General Assembly.)
It may be recalled that it was at Bandung that the Chinese Communists peddled the so-called Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. They certainly would not want to push the sales at Cairo. Though a few countries like Burma and the Laos already have had a taste of these “principles of peaceful coexistence,” others, especially those in Africa, could still become prospective buyers.
Keynoting Russia’s propaganda line at the “solidarity” show was the economic report read on the second day of the conference, when the Soviet delegate announced: “We are ready to help you as a brother helps a brother. Tell us what you need and we will help you and send, to the best of our capabilities, the money needed in the form of loans or aid.” Of course, he did not forget to add that Russia offers aid without any conditions while aid from the West “always results in a loss of independence, interference, and an end to peaceful coexistence.” To unsophisticated nations who have only recently emerged from under colonial rule and are trying hard to raise the standard of living of their people, the Russian offer of unconditional economic aid may seem like a godsend.
However, not all Afro-Asian nations have been taken in. The fact that countries such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Philippines, South Vietnam,’ South Korea, and Pakistan (not counting Free China) boycotted the Cairo conference shows that their leaders knew that it was nothing but a puppet show produced and directed in Moscow and Peiping for the gullible. Chinese in Taiwan branded the conference as an attempt on the part of the Russian and Chinese Communists “to exploit the historic or present contradictions of Western colonialism in the Afro-Asian world and to fan the flame of its national aspirations for independence and freedom into emotional hatred against the West.”
The South Vietnamese correctly believed that the Cairo conference would result in nothing but further Communist infiltration in areas already plagued by Communist propaganda and subversive schemes. To be more specific, the conference was seen in Saigon as “a Communist attempt to counter the Baghdad Pact and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.”
One of the most clear-cut statements against the “Little Bandung” came from Manila, where Mr. F. M. Serrano, Foreign Affairs Secretary of the Philippines, emphatically declared on December 22 that his country would definitely not participate in the Cairo conference. Mr. Serrano made this unequivocal statement after several Indian and Egyptian legislators had arrived in Manila on a persuasion mission, and he minced no words when he said: “No amount of pleadings with the Philippine government or the Filipino people should convince the Philippine government to send delegates to the Cairo conference.”
As the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League pointed out in its statement, the “Little Bandung” was designed to spread the poison of neutralism over a wider area in Asia and Africa, to expand Communist infiltration in places not already bored through by Red agents, and to scuttle the system of collective security as represented by the Baghdad Pact and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
At Cairo, the international Communists merely continued their earlier efforts to arouse nationalistic sentiments in Asia and Africa against the West, not so much to help the indigenous peoples acquire political independence and a higher standard of living, as to pave the ground for Moscow to supplant the Western nations as a new colonial power in these two areas. It is as simple as that.