Unarmed struggle for the Homeland defence in the new situation

 Unarmed struggle for the Homeland protection has been seen as the main method of national defence struggle in the new situation by our Party. This is a new development of the ideology on the Homeland defence and an important theoretical and practical issue that should be further studied.

Nonviolent struggle is a type of national defence struggle in the political, economic, cultural, social, diplomatic, defence-security areas (non-military and nonviolent measures); it is the responsibility of all people, sectors, authorities and localities under the Party’s leadership and the State’s management, with the aim of creating the combined strength, proactively preventing and effectively dealing with traditional and non-traditional security threats, maintaining peace and stability, and firmly protecting the Socialist Vietnamese Homeland. Since the 9^th National Party Congress, our Party has placed strong emphasis on unarmed struggle as one of the most important solutions for the Homeland defence.

At present, objects of nonviolent struggle for the Homeland protection are diverse and very complex. We could divide them into external and internal groups. The external group includes hostile, reactionary, aggressive forces with strategies to threaten the survival of socialism and our Party’s leadership and violate our country’s independence, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, benefits, and stability. The internal group consists of reactionaries, political opportunists, and those who commit degeneracy, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.” All people and the entire political system are responsible for unarmed struggle in each field, period and situation, with forces of each ministry and sector playing the core role.

Over the years, under the Party’s leadership and the State’s management, we have proactively, actively carried out nonviolent struggle so as to realise the strategy for defending the Homeland from afar by peaceful means and we have gained significant results directly raising the country’s potential, synergy, status and prestige in the international arena, making contributions to foiling all plots and acts of sabotage by the hostile forces, firmly protecting national independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity, maintaining political security and social order and safety. However, in the process, there have been weaknesses in the contents and measures of nonviolent struggle while coordination for unarmed struggle in several fields and situations have yet to be synchronous or effective.

Furthermore, the situation in the region and the world is now complex and unpredictable. Meanwhile, national defence situations, traditional and non-traditional security challenges, many complicated arising issues, the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and their plots to promote “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within via the increasingly cunning, brazen artifices are imposing new demanding requirements on our people’s Homeland construction and protection. In order to firmly safeguard the Homeland from afar, it is important to remain steadfastness in both cooperation and struggle, closely combine unarmed struggle with armed struggle, and stabilise the domestic situation as a solid foundation for defeating all schemes and artifices by the “external” hostile forces, with a focus on several main areas as follows.

In the politico-ideological area

Emphasis must be placed on fighting to defend the Party’s ideological foundation, political platform and guidelines, resolutely preventing the degradation in political ideology, ethics and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within, and ensuring that Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology will always play a leading role in our society. This is an intense front and a protracted, severe struggle. Greater importance should be attached to enhancing the work of Party building and rectification, making our Party politically, morally, ideologically, and organisationally strong, building a socialist rule of law State of the people, by the people, for the people, and maintaining the Party’s leadership over the State and the whole society. In the current situation, it is essential to both build and protect the Party, prevent the risk of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within, build and consolidate a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds,” especially cement the people’s faith in the Party and the State, strengthen the national great unity block, remain steadfastness in the goal of national independence and socialism, and resolutely fight against bureaucracy, corruption, wastefulness, group interests, manifestations of undermined ideal and faith, and a lack of vigilance as well. Great value should be attached to intensifying the fight in the ideological, theoretical field to thwart the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy. It is necessary to fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints and information as well as distortions of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy. Due attention should be paid to unmasking the hostile forces’ conspiracy to take advantage of the issues on democracy, human rights, ethnicity and religion as well as our weaknesses in socio-economic management to incite discontent within the society and undermine the national great unity block. To make our struggle effective, we should well conduct the work of propagation and ideological orientation, maintain close coordination between sectors and forces, promote the synergy on the ideological front, enhance theoretical researches to raise the sharpness and persuasiveness of our struggle, and maintain the Party’s political and ideological foundation within our society.

In the economic field

Economic development is a central task while national strength build-up plays a decisive role in the Homeland protection. Against the backdrop of wide and deep globalisation and international integration, we should be flexible in identifying our economic partners. However, it is also vital to defend the Party’s guidelines on economic reform, build an independent, self-reliant economy, proactively integrate into the world economy, maintain socialist orientation, protect the national benefits and avoid being economically dependent upon other countries. While well managing the relationship between economic reform and political reform, we should focus on renewing our economic system synchronously, developing a socialist-oriented market economy, adopting measures for improving the State economic sector’s competitiveness and leading role, and closely controlling other economic sectors’ trade and investment, particularly foreign-invested projects in the key areas.

Besides, significance should be attached to closely combining economic development with defence-security consolidation right in socio-economic and cultural development plans/projects, especially in the remote, isolated areas and the areas mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities. We should pursue a policy on sustainable economic development, align economic growth with cultural development, ensure social progress and equality, protect the environment, and fight against the absolutisation of economic benefits, the ideology on economic development at any rate, and weaknesses in combining economic development with defence-security consolidation. In addition, great weight should be added to proactively, correctly anticipating the situation and taking measures for preventing finance, credit, banking, energy, food, and cyber insecurity so that the hostile forces could destabilise our political security. More important, we should proactively integrate into the world economy, raise the country’s economic competitiveness and product value, and more deeply take part in the global production and trade chain. Moreover, we should be active in negotiating, signing and realising bilateral and multilateral trade agreements in order to effectuate the interweaving of economic interests with other countries, particularly the large, developed ones and maintain a peaceful, cooperative environment as the basis for the Homeland defence.

In the diplomatic domain

As Vietnam is more deeply and widely integrating into the world, external affairs play a role of special importance in creating, maintaining, and consolidating a favourable international environment for defending our Homeland by peaceful means. To meet the requirements set by the Homeland protection in the new situation, we should continue enhancing the diplomatic work in all areas under the foreign policy of “independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development.” Importance should be attached to expanding our relations with other countries and partners, building and consolidating the strategic trust with major powers, neighbours and traditional friends, and raising Vietnam’s status and role in multilateral mechanisms, particularly within the ASEAN and the United Nations so as to exploit external resources, improve the effectiveness of economic, defence-security, cultural and social integration, make more friends and less enemies, take advantage of the international community’s support, isolate aggressive and hostile elements, and create the strength for the Homeland defence. Against the complex developments of the current situation, the external work must take a step ahead and cleverly settle the issues on partners and opponents. We should well manage our relations with major powers and increase the interweaving of benefits. Additionally, we should closely combine cooperation with struggle via dialogues, resolutely, persistently handle disputes and differences under the international law, while remaining steadfast in our strategic goal and flexible in our strategies and considering the protection of national independence, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity and benefits as our prime goal.

In the defence-security realm

In peacetime, together with maintaining readiness for successfully settling defence-security situations, nonviolent struggle plays a role of utmost importance. While making the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security “revolutionary, regular, seasoned, and gradually modern,” we should synchronously adopt measures for raising the effectiveness of state management of national defence and security and closely combining economy, culture, society and diplomacy with defence and security and vice versa. Emphasis should be placed on building defence-security potential, especially the all-people national defence and the posture of all-people national defence associated with the posture of people’s security in all areas, renewing and improving defence and security education for all groups of learners. Promoting its core role in defending the Homeland, the People’s Army should proactively cooperate with other forces in performing its function as “an army ready for work,” building strong political bases and a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds,” studying and correctly anticipating situations relating to national defence and security in order to opportunely give advice to our Party and State on proper strategies. More importantly, it is essential to more deeply and widely integrate into the world in the defence-security area, actively, responsibly take part in defence-security international forums and mechanisms and the United Nations peacekeeping so as to maintain the strategic balance and strengthen trust with other countries. Last but not least, we should promote the work of external information about Vietnam’s “four no’s” policy¹ and enhance measures for diplomatic and legal struggle to gain the international community’s support for our country’s legitimate benefits, particularly in the East Sea. Doing so will enable us to prevent the risks of war and conflict from afar, quickly detect and eliminate detriments to the Homeland protection.