Basically every great achievement for the proletarians of the world seemed impossible right up until it was possible and then, in retrospect, it is very easy to lapse into complacency and assume that it was inevitable all along.
Vietnam took on the fucking United States and won.
The Bolsheviks took on the aristocracy and the capitalists of the world and won.
We must guard against cynicism foreclosing on the opportunities that may be presented to us in the present and in the future. If the Viet Minh allowed this to happen, Vietnam would still be a colony. If the Bolsheviks allowed this to happen, Russia would still be a Tsardom.
Here's a quote from Mike Davis in an interview to chew on:
‘Hope’ is not a scientific category. Nor is it a necessary obligation... I manifestly do believe that we have arrived at a ‘final conflict’ that will decide the survival of a large part of poor humanity over the next half century. Against this future we must fight like the Red Army in the rubble of Stalingrad. Fight with hope, fight without hope, but fight absolutely.