A bold distortion of Ho Chi Minh’s thought

Distortion and denial of Ho Chi Minh’s thought represent one of the allegations that hostile forces are seeking to disseminate with a view to undermining and altering the ideological base of the Communist Party of Vietnam and advancing towards abolishing the Party’s leading role and socialist regime in our country. Recognition and struggle against such allegations, therefore, are urgent tasks today.

Recently, the hostile forces have repeatedly made groundless arguments, including: “Ho Chi Minh introduced exotic thoughts into Vietnam,” “Ho Chi Minh approached Marxism-Leninism by means of Confucianism” etc., and believed that “Ho Chi Minh’s thought was theoretic and dogmatic.” Those allegations constitute a bold distortion since they deliberately ignore the scientific methodology in evaluating and appraising someone’s thought and some class’s ideology. It is a common knowledge that a thought or ideology is considered revolutionary and scientific when and only when it originates from and reflects correctly realties, guides realities, and promotes their development. That is Ho Chi Minh’s thought.

In theoretical aspect, Ho Chi Minh’s thought is founded on the basis of selectively inheriting traditional ideology and values of Vietnamese peoples, commensurate with our history in the late 19^th century and early 20^thcentury. Furthermore, it has been open to and applied creatively human cultural quintessence of both the East and the West, most notably Marxism-Leninism. It can be asserted that the world view and methodology of Ho Chi Minh’s thought are Marxism and Leninism with dialectical materialism and historical materialism as the core. Given this world view and methodology, as well as his keen intelligence, independent and creative thinking, Ho Chi Minh acquired and transformed positive and advanced elements of national tradition and human race to form his own ideology. That is a system of comprehensive and profound points of view on fundamental issues of the Vietnamese revolution, most notably ideology about national liberation, emancipation of the working classes and human, and so on. That thought deals with not only theoretical mentality, but also that relates to actions to settle realities of Vietnamese revolution.

Our national history since the invasion of the French colonialists has revealed that many struggles against foreign aggressors were launched by Vietnamese people. These movements which were characterized by various ideologies, including feudalism (Can Vuong Movement), democratic petty bourgeoisie (movements led by Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh), and the peasantry (movements led by Hoang Hoa Tham, Nguyen Trung Truc), etc., were all unsuccessful. Until the idea and way to save the country of Nguyen Ai Quoc (one of Ho Chi Minh’s aliases) had been established on the standpoint of the working class and defined that “the only way to save the country and liberate its peoples was by means of proletarian revolution” with the core content as “national independence being aligned with socialism,” did the crisis concerning guidelines for national salvation end and opened a new chapter in Vietnamese history. Under the leadership of Vietnamese Communist Party, and the ideological base provided by Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Vietnamese revolution has repeatedly won landslide victory in the struggle for national salvation and the renewal process, bringing about a more prosperous and happy life for our people. Thus, Ho Chi Minh’s thought cannot be a “borrowing,” introduction of exotic thoughts,” “by means of Confucianism,” or “theoretic and dogmatic.” In essence, those allegations represent fabrication to deny and undermine the revolutionary and scientific nature of Ho Chi Minh’s thought.

Moreover, Ho Chi Minh’s thought and the Vietnamese revolution have blended together perfectly throughout the process of leading revolution. The Party’s policies are based on Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought. Ho Chi Minh’s thought has enlightened our Party’s guidelines and viewpoints. That was clearly demonstrated through the preparation for the development of the Political Party Platform of operation of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh directly drafted “the Party’s Brief Political Platform,” “the Party’s Succinct Tactics,” “the Party’s Brief Programme,” “the Concise Regulations of the Communist Party of Vietnam,” and so on. Those documents became our Party’s first Political Platform, in which “the policies on bourgeois democratic revolution and agrarian revolution to advance towards communism” and national independence in close alignment with socialism constituted central arguments in Ho Chi Minh’s thought and the goals of the Vietnamese revolution. When our Party has become a ruling party, Ho Chi Minh paid special attention to Party building. He regarded it as a matter of law, which decided the survival of the Party and socialist regime in our country. Ho Chi Minh used to call for making our Party a real “pedigree” of our peoples, ethical and civilized; continually renovating to make our Party strong and capable of leading the Vietnamese revolution. That reflected both realities and predictability.

Ho Chi Minh’s system of standpoints and thoughts about the goals, path and methods to engage in a revolutionary struggle for national salvation and building a new society in our country has not only set positions for building a true revolutionary party but also laid the foundations for the Party’s guidelines and standpoints. Among these standpoints, “national emancipation by means of proletarian revolution” is of decisive importance for the destiny of our country, the only correct path of our peoples and was applied in a scientific manner on the basis of theory and practice of revolutions in Vietnam and the world. Regarding assembling of revolutionary forces, Ho Chi Minh affirmed that the working class and the peasantry formed the root of the revolution while students, merchants and small landowners represented companions of the revolution; and to forge a revolutionary force, there was a need to combine national unity with international unity. Ho Chi Minh also clearly identified imperialists, colonialists and their henchmen as enemies of our peoples. That is totally commensurate with conditions and situations in Vietnam at that time. In the struggle against U.S. imperialism, Ho Chi Minh set the strategic direction and resolution for the Vietnamese revolution, namely to “fight to chase out the Americans, fight to overthrow the puppets,” and realities proved his correctness.

In addition, realities have demonstrated convincingly that “Ho Chi Minh’s thought has never been simply deductive, theoretic and dogmatic.” In other words Ho Chi Minh’s thought is a result of realities, and has been proved right by the Vietnamese revolution. Ho Chi Minh was educated in “patriotism and compassion for people” by his family, homeland and country at an early age. On his 30-year journey across approximately 40 countries in every continent to find the way to save the country, Ho Chi Minh used to “enrich his knowledge” by means of self-study and drawing upon realities of revolutions in the world to “help his own fellow-citizens” to liberate the country. Under the Party’s leadership, based on Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the whole people and armed forces have launched a revolutionary war and fulfilled the goals of national liberation, unification and advancing towards socialism nationwide. Continuing to apply Ho Chi Minh’s thought to the renewal process, our country has recorded significant historical achievements in the process of building socialism and defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. Recognizing Ho Chi Minh’s value and influence on the Vietnamese revolution, the Politburo (12th Tenure) issued the Directive 05-CT/TW on “promoting the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality and style.” It demonstrates convincingly that Ho Chi Minh’s thought cannot be “theoretical.” It is the theory that originates from realities, is validated by experience and comes back in support of realities.

Based on the above-mentioned theory and realities, once again we can affirm that the allegations that “Ho Chi Minh’s thought is theoretical and dogmatic” are hostile forces and reactionaries’ bold distortion with a view to denying the revolutionary and scientific nature of Ho Chi Minh’s thought. By doing so, they also seek to abolish the ideological foundation of the Communist Party of Vietnam; undermine the image of Ho Chi Minh in the eyes of our people and international friends; and make officials, party members and people doubtful about Ho Chi Minh’s thought. Consequently, we must be more vigilant than ever and resolutely struggle to reject the “garbage,” reactionary and non-scientific allegations, which contributes to protecting the everlasting, scientific and revolutionary values of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, our Party’s ideological foundation today. This is a permanent and vital task of the whole Party, people, armed forces, organizations, and forces.

To fulfill that mission, our consistent policy is to continue to assert that Ho Chi Minh’s thought represents a deep, inclusive, scientific, and revolutionary system of viewpoints; an indispensable part of the working class’s ideology – Marxism-Leninism; “our Party and peoples’ valuable spiritual assets everlastingly guiding our people’s revolutionary cause to triumph.” Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen research, propaganda and education of the revolutionary and scientific essence of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, and actively make it an indispensable aspect in the spiritual life of our people and the whole society. The most practical action is to ensure that each official, party member and the masses continue to promote the studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality and style. That act must be performed continually and becomes a profound, enduring and extensive cultural need of the whole Party, people and armed forces. That is also the most practical and effective measure to reject the hostile forces’ incorrect allegations, which aim to deny Ho Chi Minh’s thought and our Party’s ideological foundation.