Extensive account of CSSR-Chinese relations, including controversy surrounding the Cultural Revolution and Chinese extremism, anti-Soviet proclivities within the Chinese leadership, and the Chinese hydrogen bomb test on June 17th.

Overview of the 1989 “Vltava” exercise in Czechoslovakia, during which the Czechoslovak People’s Army carried out a simulated military exercise.

The memorandum includes topics discussed between CPCz Secretary Vladimír Koucký and Cuban government official Carlos Rafael Rodríguez. Rodríguez lists points of misunderstanding between Cuba and other socialist countries. Discussion topics include Chinese publications in Cuba, Cuba's unique approach to socialist revolution, the proposed nuclear-free zone in Latin America, and building socialism under various conditions (e.g. Islam's role in Algeria), among others. Rodríguez encourages more communication among socialist nations to prevent misunderstanding.

In this conversation between Khrushchev and Novotny, Khrushchev used exceptionally candid language to defend his handling of the superpower confrontation, what he described as “six days which shook the world.” While well aware that many fellow communists (including the Chinese and Cubans) regarded his agreement under pressure from US President John F. Kennedy to remove the missiles as a surrender to the imperialists, Khrushchev stoutly defended his action as not only a necessary measure to avoid a catastrophic nuclear war, but actually a victory. Khrushchev bluntly criticized Fidel Castro for failing to comprehend the true nature of war in the thermonuclear age and, that at the height of the crisis, he had suggested in a letter to Khrushchev that the Soviets should be the first to use nuclear weapons, striking the United States should it attack Cuba, even though this would lead promptly to a global war.