In their attempts to sabotage our revolution, hostile and reactionary forces have spared no stratagem, focusing particularly on the younger generation as a primary target. This insidious tactic aims to promote “evolution” in order to “transform” one of the core generations of our country. Thus, it is essential to heighten vigilance, steadfastly combat, and protect the future generation of our nation.
Young generations in Vietnam, consisting of youth and young citizens, represent a vast and pioneering force in the country’s construction, innovation, and development. However, they are also the target of hostile and reactionary forces, who conduct extremely sophisticated and malicious “peaceful evolution” activities to convert this generation towards a counter-revolutionary path, eroding their faith in the Party, and gradually diminishing and eradicating the leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam, with the ultimate goal of abolishing socialism and steering our country towards capitalism. To achieve the objective of making the Youth Union members and the youth “disengaged and indifferent to the Party,” hostile forces fully exploit the characteristics of the young who are in an age of exploration and dynamism, eager to learn but with little political awareness, life experience, impulsiveness, lacking in resilience, etc., to penetrate and create a “void” in political awareness, doubts, wavering convictions, goals, ideals, moral degradation, and lifestyle changes and gradually leading to “self-transformation.”
1. In the field of politics and ideology, hostile forces have launched various sophisticated tactics to dilute and eliminate revolutionary and positive elements in the mindset of the young, injecting them with non-socialist ideologies. They believe that the shortest and most effective way to achieve this goal is through “peaceful evolution” in the field of education, creating a young generation “disinterested in history” and “unwilling to study politics,” leading to a loss of foundational knowledge and devoid of revolutionary ideals, detached from the nation’s traditional and beautiful values, and the goals and path towards socialism. They intensify their approach to the youth through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to organise “underground” activities, propaganda, and incitement to sabotage. Particularly, in the trend of international integration, studying abroad is a path many young people choose to “broaden their horizons” and eagerly learn, absorbing human knowledge. Yet, this is also fertile ground and an opportunity for hostile and reactionary forces to carry out propaganda activities, persuasion, incitement, and temptation of the young generation. The content of their propaganda and sabotage still revolves around denying the ideological foundation of the Party, slandering, denigrating Party leaders, distorting the renovation process in our country, accusing Vietnam of lacking democracy, violating human rights; praising and glorifying the “democratic, free” capitalist model, etc. These tactics are not new, but through sophisticated schemes, hostile and reactionary forces gradually lure the young generation onto the wrong path. Once “the prey” has taken the bait, they vigorously promote them as “progressive,” capable of “social critique,”… causing them to become engrossed in the “delirium” of pluralism, multiparty, democracy, and human rights, adopting attitudes of scrutiny and opposition to the viewpoints, policies, and laws of the Party and State, the revolutionary cause of our people, etc. The inevitable consequence is leading to “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.”
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| Promoting the role of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union in party building (Photo: thanhnienviet.vn) |
2. Hostile and reactionary forces employ numerous sophisticated methods to degrade the morals and lifestyles of the younger generation, laying the groundwork for a decline in political ideology. As a form of “cultural invasion,” using various tactics and through multiple channels, they vigorously propagate and introduce depraved cultural products into Vietnam, injected selfish, pragmatic lifestyles, and glorified distorted foreign cultures, leading many young people to degenerate, gradually adopt lifestyles that are at odds with the nation’s beautiful traditional culture, prefer pleasure, pursue materialism, and undervalue spiritual values. And, when the morals, lifestyles, personality, and spiritual foundation of the younger generation deteriorate, it creates the ideal conditions for the wrong arguments, seduction tactics, bribery, incitement, and even coercion by hostile forces to easily penetrate, accelerating the “self-transformation” process more rapidly and dangerously.
3. Hostile and reactionary forces fully exploit the cyber space to disrupt public opinion, directly impacting the perceptions and positions of the younger generation. They continuously flood the Internet with false information, distorting the nature of objects and phenomena and obstructing young people’s access to official, truthful information. More insidiously, they embed false, negative, distorted, reactionary details in articles, books, and newspapers, making it difficult for even those with good political awareness and resilience to recognise. Currently, many young people spend hours daily “surfing the Internet,” reading news, watching videos, sharing, commenting, etc., without caring about distinguishing between real and fake information, etc. Amidst the chaos of correct and incorrect, real and fake, good and bad information, many teenagers and young adults feel lost and directionless, unable to control their perception, emotions, and behaviour, manipulated and led by “crowd syndrome”, leading to misconceptions and errors in some actions and behaviours.
In his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh once advised: “Youth are the future masters of our country. The prosperity or decline and strength or weakness of our country is partly in the hands of the youth.” Our Party has also stated, “Youth are the pillars of the country, the future masters of the nation, and the pioneering force in building and protecting the Fatherland.” Therefore, raising awareness, recognising, and fighting to defeat the schemes and tactics of hostile and reactionary forces aiming to transform the younger generation and, simultaneously ensuring that the younger generation is always capable of “resisting” the ploys of hostile forces in this “maze,” is an important, ongoing task for all levels and sectors today, requiring synchronised, decisive, urgent short-term and fundamental long-term solutions.
Implementing Resolution No.35-NQ/TW, dated 22 October 2018, by the Politburo (12th Tenure) on “Strengthening the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation and combating against wrong and hostile viewpoints in the new situation,” all levels and sectors, especially levels of the Youth Union, need to intensify propaganda and education work and resolutely fight to expose the sabotage schemes and tactics of the hostile forces. official, scientific information should be provided timely so that young people correctly understand the nature of the issues, continuously enhancing vigilance, recognising the schemes and tactics of hostile forces aimed only at exploiting young people to sabotage Vietnam’s revolution, not for the development of youth, and understanding the task of combating “peaceful evolution” as a regular activity in all fields.
Based on raising awareness about the position and role of the younger generation in the Fatherland construction and protection effort, all levels and sectors should strengthen leadership and direction for youth work; concentrate resources, mechanisms, and policies to create the best conditions for the younger generation to study, develop comprehensively, start up, and contribute to the country; and strengthen leadership and direction for educational work, ensuring educational and training activities, especially international cooperation activities, align with the Party’s viewpoints and the State’s policies and laws. Schools should actively innovate teaching and examination methods for social sciences and humanities in general, and history in particular, making the subjects closer and more accessible to youth, contributing to helping students understand their roots, cultivate patriotism, national pride, and self-esteem, increase political and spiritual strength, to truly become a driving force helping youth successfully fulfill the responsibility of building and protecting the Fatherland.
It is required to actively innovate and enhance the quality of political and ideological education to deeply imbue Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought, truly making them the ideological foundation and guiding star in social life. Through theory and practice, especially the achievements of the country’s renovation under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the younger generation can see that the path to socialism is correct, in line with the development trend of the era, and has been bringing a better life to the people of Vietnam. Currently, the people of Vietnam enjoy a wealthy, free, and happy life, with continually improving standards. In 2023, the GDP per capita was about 4,300 USD. Vietnam had escaped from low-income group since 2008 and is set to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 (around 7,500 USD). This is a vivid proof refuting all distortions about socialism, the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party, about democracy, human rights, etc., in Vietnam. The third Political Essay Contest on protecting the Party’s ideological foundation in 2023, with 301,365 entries, including the active and awarded participation of young author groups, is a vivid testament affirming the vibrant vitality and the trust of people from all walks of life, including the younger generation, in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, and the Party’s policies and leadership.
During the process, it is crucial to focus on educating and training young people through practical activities and patriotic emulation movements and effectively combining education from schools with families and society. For effectiveness, beyond the involvement of all levels and forces, it is necessary to care for building strong Youth Union organisations at all levels, fully leveraging their core role in the youth movement. Youth Union levels need to constantly and proactively grasp and accurately forecast the ideological situation of union members and youth; are truly close to the youth to listen to and understanding them to constantly innovate and enhance the quality of activities. Simultaneously, it is necessary to strengthen synchronised solutions with high determination, decisiveness, and persistence in tightly and effectively managing the Internet and social media, building a Party-oriented, cultural, and healthy cyberspace environment.
Alongside, each young person needs to enhance their spirits of learning, training, knowing how to “sift the dross and select the essence” in receiving information, embracing the new, enhancing the ability to “self-resist,” and always standing firm on the Party’s ideological foundation, the nation’s beautiful traditions with thousands of years of nation-building and defence, to become useful for the country, for society, realise the aspiration to build a powerful country, and fulfill the responsibility of “standing shoulder to shoulder with the powers of the five continents” as entrusted by President Ho Chi Minh and our people.
NGUYEN DUC THINH