On 22^nd October, 2018, the Politburo (12^th tenure) issued Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW on promoting the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation, rebutting false and hostile viewpoints in the new situation. In order to clarify this matter and affirm the soundness of the Party’s ideological foundation, National Defence Journal would like to introduce an article entitled “It is impossible to distort the Party’s ideological foundation” authored by Nguyen Phu Hung.

I. The scientific and revolutionary nature of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought

According to Article 4, the 2013 Constitution, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) “acts upon the Marxist- Leninist doctrine and Ho Chi Minh thought”. Yet, hostile forces stop at nothing to criticize and refute the Marxist- Leninist doctrine and Ho Chi Minh thought. Therefore, protecting the Party’s ideological base, clarifying the scientific and revolutionary nature of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought is a fundamental matter of great urgency today.

The realties have proven that any political party is guided by an ideology, and without the latter, the former is just a heterogeneous organization, as affirmed by the great leader Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh “If the Party wishes to be strong, then it has to take an ism as its core to which its members must seriously adhere. The Party without an ism is just like a person without wit and a train without a compass”. Hence, our Party always affirms that Marxism-Leninism is the lodestar for its revolutionary actions stipulated in the work entitled Revolutionary Path by Nguyen Ai Quoc and Political Platform passed in the October 1930 Party Central Committee ever since.

Karl Marx

Due to its scientific and revolutionary nature, Marxism-Leninism has always been subjected to frantic sabotage activities by hostile forces ever since its birth. Regardless of that, conscientious human beings all the world over still confirm the scientific and revolutionary nature of the Marxism-Leninism, as stated on a Switzerland-based weekly newspaper named “Liberation” (the voice of thousands of revolutionary soldiers in Latin-American countries) on 7^th July, 1995 that “Marxism has been scientifically analyzed and basically been  valid social theory in current global situations”, and that “socialism is a merely sensible answer to contemporary society’s problems within the framework of capitalism”. The international Marxist Conference in Paris (France) from 27^th to 30^th September, 1995 on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of Marxism attended by 500 representatives from nearly 100 academies, Marxist magazines, and 30 universities of 22 nations across the world stated that “Karl Marx’s ideology remains significant in the contemporary world. His face is still a symbol of negating the dominant order”. According to a poll conducted by Germany Magazine of Spiegel, over 50% of Germany people said that Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism remains valuable today; over 56% said that “socialism is ideologically good, but practically bad”. Billionaire Investor G. Soros ever wrote that “Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels carefully analyzed a system of capitalism 150 years ago”. According to the New Yorker Magazine, modern economists have been “following in Karl Marx’s footsteps without their knowledge” in the process of dealing with arising problems because, according to the American Magazine of Newsweek, Karl Marx “dissected the profiteering system better than anyone else as though he rose up from his gravestone”.

The realities have revealed that no matter where it is in the East or the West, it is capitalism that has been applying Marxism- Leninism to adjust itself to its existence, making some people mistakenly think that capitalism is a “model” that nations need to “adopt”. Far from it, what Karl Marx analyzed about capitalism remains valuable, as evidenced by the result of the vote on the thinker of the second millennium released by the Cambridge University (UK) in 1999 with Karl Marx winning the first place followed by Albert Einstein. In 2011, Yale University, a US prestigious university, chose to publish a headline-grabbing book entitled “Why Marx was right” by Professor Terry Eagleton from Lancaster University, UK. Since he took issue with the prejudice that “Marxism was dead and done with”, he selected 10 of the most common objections to Marxism to analyse and provide evidence to refute. Right from the book’s preface, he stated “Marxism, for long the most theoretically rich, politically uncompromising critique of capitalism”. This bears out Karl Marx’s undeniable role in mankind’s history.

Some argue that the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe makes Marxism-Leninism outdated; therefore, the Communist Party of Vietnam can not be always steadfast in those outdated theories (!). Let us echo the result of the poll conducted by Germany Magazine of Spiegel with over 56% of respondents saying that “socialism is ideologically good, but practically bad”. Accordingly, they do not negate the theories of Marxism-Leninism; instead, they criticize those who apply those theories in a mechanical and dogmatic fashion, which led to the fall of the Soviet Union and socialist countries in Eastern Europe. Still, the achievements recorded by Soviet Communism are irrefutable. In response to the fall of the Soviet Union, A. Dinoviep, who proclaimed himself not to be the follower of Marxism- Leninism and opposed the Soviet Union and then was taken prisoner before living in exile in the US, said that “the achievements of the Soviet Communism times initiated by V.I. Lenin have penetrated into humankind’s flesh and blood. The proletariat revolution and its ensuing legacy have saved mankind from the most fearful backwardness and decline and degeneracy”.

In Vietnam, to date, no one else has ever travelled abroad, learned from and absorbed the quintessence of mankind’s culture as much as Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh. With innate talents and personal hands-on experiences, he affirmed that “there are many theories and isms now, but the firmest, most genuine and revolutionary one is Leninism”. Therefore, he had ceaselessly researched and creatively applied Marxism-Leninism to the realities of Vietnamese revolution. His thought has become the Party and the peoples’ spiritually precious asset. Therefore, since the 7^th National Party Congress, the Party has stated that “it acts upon Marxism- Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought”. The 9^th National Party Congress further clarified that statement “Ho Chi Minh thought is a system of comprehensive and profound viewpoints on the fundamentals of Vietnamese revolution and the outcome of creatively developing and applying Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam’s specific conditions and of inheriting and upholding Vietnamese peoples’ fine traditions, etc. It guided our revolutionary struggle to victory and served as the Party and the peoples’ spiritually invaluable asset”. In reality, the Communist Party of Vietnam is the product of combining Marxism-Leninism with workers’ movements and patriotic movements, and Ho Chi Minh epitomizes the combination of national independence and socialism.

Yet, some maintain that Ho Chi Minh “follows nationalism and does not select the path to socialism”, and “is a nationalist, not a Marxist”. Accordingly, they concentrate on negating the theoretical and realistic and scientific values of Ho Chi Minh’s thought and his great contributions to his country and international revolutionary movements. Also, other arguments uphold and absolutize Ho Chi Minh’s thought, and negate the role played by Marxism-Leninism in Vietnamese revolution.

The above downplaying and absolutization of the role of Ho Chi Minh’s thought is aimed at creating a contradiction between Ho Chi Minh’s thought and Marxism-Leninism, resulting in negating the latter and thus rebutting the Party’s ideological base.

The realities have shown that due to being steadfast in Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought, our Party has drawn up sound leadership guidelines, leading Vietnamese revolution to victory. We defeated the French colonialists and the American imperialists and have scored great achievements in the cause of national renovation and Homeland construction and protection and international integration, enhancing Vietnamese status in the international arena. Under the leadership of CPV, every guideline and policy is designed to better guarantee human rights, thereby enabling Vietnam to record some remarkable accomplishments in this field, as evidenced by the passage of the 2013 Constitution with the second Chapter designed exclusively for “Human rights and citizens’ rights and obligations”. For years, Vietnam has maintained high economic growth rates standing at over 6%, leading to a continuous increase in GDP per capita recorded at 2,590 USD in 2018, topping the group of developing countries with low average income. The income of poor households increased from 15% to 20% in the 2014-2108 period; in late 2018, the average rate of poor households nationwide stood at 5.35% (a year-on-year decrease by 1.35%); the rate of multidimensional poverty dropped to 7.69% in 2017 from 9.88% in 2015. As of late 2017, 99.4% of the total nationwide communes and 97,8% of the total hamlets were connected to national electricity grid; 99.7% of the total communes had elementary schools and kindergartens; all 63 provinces and centrally-controlled cities completed the target of preschool and elementary education generalization; 99.5% of the total nationwide communes had medical stations, etc. In terms of gender equality, the rate of female business managers accounted for 31.6%; the rate of female National Assembly deputies in the 2016-2021 tenure reached 26.72%, higher than the global average rate of 23.6%. The guarantee of political and civil rights has scored many achievements, including the rights to equality before the law. In 2018, 64 million Vietnamese people, equivalent to 65.98% of the Vietnamese population, had access to the Internet. 95% of the total population enjoys increasingly diverse belief and religious lives with hundreds of annual belief and religious festivals. Therefore, Vietnam has won rave reviews from the international press and media, namely “Vietnam’s marvels”, “Vietnam- a rising star on the international economic map”, etc. As regards the reasons behind Vietnamese great achievements, international experts and scholars unanimously agreed that political stability is an important factor for Vietnam to attract global businessmen and investors. This results from the Party’s leadership under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought.

Those aforementioned arguments bear out the scientific and revolutionary nature and the role of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought in Vietnamese revolution. It requires continued research into and application of those theoretical principles, thereby confirming their soundness in practice. (To be continued)

Nguyen Phu Hung