President Ho Chi Minh's Testament is an invaluable asset that has oriented all moves of our Party and people on the path of struggle to construct a prosperous, democratic, equal, and civilized country. All actions aiming to distort the content and values ​​of the Testament must be resolutely rejected. This is the political responsibility of the entire Party, people, and the Army.

The closer it gets to the 50^th anniversary of implementation of President Ho Chi Minh’s Testament (1969 - 2019), the more the hostile forces are stepping up their sabotage. They are, in the name of scientific research, history discussion and exploration of new perspectives, and approaches, and pretending to praise, essentially misinterpreting the Testament to sabotage the Vietnamese Party and revolution. They claim that the Testament only has "personal" rather than practical guiding values ​​for the nation; "is not really as valuable as propagandized" by the Party and State of Vietnam; "does not properly reflect the thought of Marxism-Leninism”. They also blatantly state that, in the Testament, President Ho Chi Minh "gave up the path to socialism", but the Vietnamese Communist Party still persists in this path which is "contrary to the President Ho Chi Minh’s Testament", or the Vietnam Communist Party currently says they are studying and following Ho Chi Minh's thought and ethics but actually they are going counter the spirit of the Testament, etc. Their purpose is to distort the thought, depose Ho Chi Minh idol, and weaken the Party's ideological foundation. Proactively combating against and rejecting misinterpretation of the Testament in a effective manner, therefore, is to contribute to protecting and developing Marxism – Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought - the basis of ideas and guidelines for all activities of our Party, State and people in building and defending the Fatherland. To do that, we need to focus on the following measures:

1. Continue to clarify the great values, theoretical meaning, and profound practicalities of the Testament. The Testament is an invaluable historical document, demonstrating President Ho Chi Minh’s intellectual height, his wholehearted mind for the people and the country, his profound vision of the strategic issues of the revolution, and his strategic direction for the Vietnamese revolution, especially at the turning-point time. In the Testament, He not only instructed the whole Party, the entire people, and the Army about strategic must-do, but also foretold the sure victory of the resistance war against the U.S to save our nation, thereby encouraging the spirit of determination-to-win to build “an increasingly prosperous and beautiful country” and make worthy contribution to peace and progress of mankind. Therefore, we need to continue to clarify the scientific and revolutionary nature and the great values of Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought. It is also necessary to explicitly assert that His thought is not "delusive" or "illusive," because the theoretical and practical values ​​of the scientific and revolutionary views in His thought have been tested and proved to be absolutely correct and really an ideological foundation of our Party and people by historical practice of the Vietnamese revolution.

2. Continue to affirm the great achievements of the Vietnamese revolution in the light of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought, and the efforts of our Party and people in implementing His Testament for the past half century. In fact, we have gradually progressed in this direction and gained a clear results. In the coming time, however, it is still necessary to further confirm the achievements gained in all aspects of social life as a result of following His Testament; and the significant and encouraging achievements of the renovation in building and defending the Fatherland under the leadership of the Party. The achievements are attributed to our Party and people’s loyalty, determination, and creative application of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought to revolutionary practices and the observance of His instructions in the Testament. Our limitations and shortcomings in the process of national construction and development are real, but the Party has identified the issues, resolutely fixed, and struggled to overcome them.

3. Constantly promote the strength of the great unity of the nation and strive for breakthroughs to make the country  a sustainable industrialized one. The decisive weapons to counter the wrong and distorted views include the Party and State’s sound leadership and direction for  undertaking its policies, and laws; effective combat against bureaucracy, corruption, and negative effects; overcoming of internal weaknesses, shortcomings, and degradation of political thought, ethics, lifestyle, and manifestations of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation"; and continuous improvement of the material and spiritual life of the people. This is the issue that President Ho Chi Minh emphasized in the Testament: "The Party needs to have a good plan for economic and cultural development  in order to constantly improve the life of the people”. All people must be able to enjoy a prosperous, free, and happy life and have conditions for comprehensive development. Policies and procedures suitable to the people must be implemented. We must "do our best" to do things that benefit and "try our best to avoid" things that are harmful to the people. We must also take care and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people as well as promote people's ownership. In all cases, efforts should be made to ensure the fulfillment of social objectives, such as creating jobs, improving people's living standards, reducing the poverty rate, and ensuring social security.

The activeness in combating against and rejecting the distortion and misinterpretation of President Ho Chi Minh's Testament requires that we must actively resolve well the problems relating to the Party that President Ho Chi Minh foresaw in his Testament. These are the problems of undemocracy, disunity, the issue of the ruling party, the issue of revolutionary ethics, the purity of the Party, and the responsibility of each officials and party member, etc. Accordingly, it is necessary to continue to promote Party building and rectification to keep pace with missions, consider this as a key task, and strictly comply with the spirit of a key task that our Party has repeatedly emphasized. Imbued with His instruction: “In the Party, exercising broad, regular, and serious self-criticism and criticism is the best way to strengthen and develop the Party's solidarity and unity. Comrades must show respect to each other". Every Party member and cell must try their best to fulfill the tasks assigned by the Party" to wholeheartedly serve the Fatherland, the revolution, and people". We must "keep our Party pure, deserving the leaders and servants of the people”. Every party member and cadre must be imbued with revolutionary ethics and really industrious, thrifty, integrated, and righteous and preserve the unity and conformity in the Party as "preserving the pupils of their eyes".

4. Implement appropriate contents and solutions, and combat to reject all distortions and misinterpretations of President Ho Chi Minh's Testament. At present, we need to recognize and consider the issue of improving the quality and effectiveness of the combat against misleading and hostile interpretation in a more actual, thorough, realistic, and appropriate manner. It is necessary to strictly comply with the motto of "more friends and less enemies" which President Ho Chi Minh instructed in the struggle, and have  the right strategy for each specific object in the struggle. The important thing is to know how to combat and reject suitably to each object, each misinterpretation, and on each media. At the same time, we must firmly grasp the contents, intentions, plots, intrigues, and impacts of the distortions and master specific circumstances, contexts, and forces of those allegations. Then, we should employ correct theories, arguments, and methods of combat and improve the quality of all combating and rejecting articles to expose the unscientific, non-historical, political reactionary, wrong, hostile, and dangerous nature of the wrong and misleading allegations of President Ho Chi Minh thought in general and His Testament in particular. Combating against the distortion and misinterpretation of President Ho Chi Minh thought and Testament is not only to counter but also, more importantly to directly serve specific political and ideological requirements at the time of writing to defend the values ​​of His thought and Testament.

Over the past 50 years, President Ho Chi Minh's divine Testament has always been a source of encouragement for the Party, the entire people, and the Army to promote the spirit of patriotism, solidarity, and great unity for the whole nation to overcome all difficulties and challenges and win glorious victories, bringing the whole country into the new era of industrialization, modernization, and international integration. This fact has rejected the wrong and misleading allegations of President Ho Chi Minh's Testament.

Assoc. Proff. Nguyen Manh Huong, PhD and Colonel Nguyen Trong Trien, MA