Struggling against the hostile forces’ arguments distorting and denying Ho Chi Minh’s thought on the CPV contributes to safeguarding not only the revolutionary and scientific nature of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, but also the Party’s ideological foundation.

Ho Chi Minh’s thought on the CPV is an extremely important part in his total ideology, which includes the viewpoints on the necessity to have a revolutionary party to lead the cause of national salvation in Vietnam; the rules of founding the CPV; the leading party; party building and rectification, building the contingent of cadres, party member, etc. This has been the direct ideological foundation, the “lodestar” throughout the process of building, leading and growing of our Party for nearly 95 years – a pivotal factor deciding the victory of Vietnamese revolution. However, with their evil plans to sabotage the Party’s ideological foundation, deny and abolish the Party’s leading role on our revolution, the hostile forces have been making arguments distorting and denying the values of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on the CPV. Therefore, it is necessary and essential to recognise and struggle against these distorted arguments in order to safeguard the Party’s ideological foundation in the present situation.

First and foremost, regarding the establishment of the CPV. For years, the hostile forces have tried to accuse Ho Chi Minh’s establishment of the CPV of “being guilty” to the nation and people”; they calumniate that “it is Ho Chi Minh’s establishing the CPV that pushes the Vietnamese people into hard conditions, hunger, poverty, destituteness”, etc. This is the clear calumniation and fabrication to sully and deny the great merit of Ho Chi Minh to the establishment of the CPV, and the cause of national salvation of our people. Actually, with the profound patriotism and the utmost desire for saving the country and the people from the domination and exploitation by the French colonialists and henchmen, Ho Chi Minh tramped about through thick and thin in search of the way to save the country. He came to Marxism-Leninism as “the historic appointment” and found the correct way to save the country i.e. liberating the nation with the proletarian revolution. He affirmed that “it is a must for the Vietnamese revolution to follow the Russian October Revolution in 1917” to achieve the real and complete national independence; the well-off, independent and happy life for the people. To carry out this correct way, he asked himself a question: “What does the revolution really need?”, and answered that “It firstly needs a revolutionary party to mobilise and organise the people from the inside, and connect with dominated nations and the proletarians everywhere”. It meant that he had clearly realised the necessity and the leading position and role of the Party to the revolution of national liberation in Vietnam. Concurrently, this party had to be the true revolutionary party, which was built on the basis of the strong attachment with the people classes, had no other purposes except the struggle for the nation’s interests, was recognised by the people for the cause of liberating the working people from the domination and exploitation by the French colonialists and henchmen. From this scientific and revolutionary thought, he proactively made the all-round preparation of ideology, politics, organisation and cadres for the birth of the Party. The reality has shown that the birth of the CPV on 03 February 1930 was an important turning point in the history of Vietnamese revolution, ending the crisis period of country-saving way and leading class; under the Party’s leadership, our people, from the position of slaves, became the citizens of an independent country, mastering their own destiny, and enjoying a prosperous, independent and happy life. The aforementioned scientific proofs, the real life and the cause of revolutionary activities for the country and people of President Ho Chi Minh completely refuted the hostile forces’ distorted arguments which had accused “Ho Chi Minh’s establishment of the CPV of “being guilty” to the nation and people”!

The congress establishing the Communist Party of Vietnam on 3 February 1930 in Hong Kong (China)

Secondly, regarding the rule of founding the CPV. The hostile forces have intensely fabricated and distorted that “Ho Chi Minh’s introducing the patriotism to the rule of establishing the CPV is contrary to the Marxist - Leninist viewpoints on the communist party”. They have even shown their knowledge to allege that “patriotism loses the Party’s working-class nature”, etc. In reality, these are arguments to oppose Marxism-Leninism to Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, deny Ho Chi Minh’s thought on the position and roles of the “patriotism” factor for the birth, existence and development of the CPV. These arguments are completely unreasonable, having no scientific and practical foundation. Indeed, based on the full understanding of the Marxist - Leninist principles on building the working class’s new party, Ho Chi Minh affirmed that Marxism-Leninism was an essential factor deciding the birth of the CPV, hence, “to have a solid Party needs a doctrine as the core which everyone must understand and follow”. At the same time, he deeply analysed the conditions and situation of our country in the late 19^th and early 20^th century as a colonial and semi - feudal society, where the Vietnamese working class had just been born with limited members, the working class’s struggles had been necessarily connected with the patriotic movements. Therefore, Marxism-Leninism associated with the movements of workers appeared to be the “necessary” condition for the birth of the Party. In order that the Party could exist, develop and maintain its pioneering role in leading the Vietnamese revolution, it was necessary to obtain the “sufficient” condition – the Vietnamese patriotic movement. The Vietnamese patriotic movement, which was born before the worker movement, has been guided by the patriotism and the national spirit, been with the nation, and the largest movement bringing together the classes to struggle against the colonialists and imperialists. In such a situation, if the worker movement had not attached and become the key part of the patriotic movement, it could not have led and collected the large forces. That Ho Chi Minh correctly evaluated the position and roles, and brought the patriotic movement as an indispensable part for the birth of the CPV was totally appropriate with the conditions and situation of our country. Moreover, he affirmed that “the Party is the vanguard of the working class, and also the vanguard of the nation”. This meant that the CPV represented both the classes’ interests and the nation’s interests, and the CPV did not have its own interests. As a matter of fact, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology is not “opposed to Marxist - Leninist viewpoints”; at the same time, it does not “deteriorate the working-class nature of our Party”. This was the results of Ho Chi Minh’s creatively applying Marxism–Leninism on the rule of establishing the communist party in a colonial and semi–feudal country. The reality of Vietnamese revolution has proven that the CPV, since its establishment, has led and mobilised the entire Vietnamese nation to conduct the August Revolution in 1945 to victory, establishing the first worker-peasant state in Southeast Asia, led the entire people to victory in the resistance wars against French colonialists and American imperialists, liberated and united the country, taking the country to socialism; successfully led the cause of renovation, gaining great achievements. “Our country has never had the opportunities, potentials, position and international prestige as today”. This has refuted all arguments that the hostile forces widely spread and distorted.

Thirdly, regarding the working-class nature of the CPV. From Ho Chi Minh’s creative viewpoints i.e. “The Vietnam Labour Party is the party of working class and working people, so it is the party of Vietnamese nation”, the hostile forces argue that “Ho Chi Minh is not a communist, but a nationalist”, “a half communist”, etc. In fact, Ho Chi Minh’s method of approaching the Party did not lose the working-class nature of the Party, but further supplemented and developed the Marxist-Leninist viewpoint on the communist party in a colonial country like Vietnam where the mission of liberating the nation had been put on top as the party was not only for the working class and working people but also for the whole nation. At first, Ho Chi Minh researched, acquired and applied Marxism-Leninism in the revolutionary spirit and scientific method, correctly and successfully solved the close relationship among the Party, classes and nation. In the process of establishment, education and training of our Party, Ho Chi Minh always affirmed that the CPV was the vanguard force of the working class because only the Vietnamese working class was the most progressive class, which had absolutely revolutionary spirit and capability of leading the revolution on liberating the Vietnamese nation in the way of proletarian revolution to the complete victory. Concurrently, through the CPV, he clearly saw the massive strength of the great national unity bloc to the leading role of the working class. According to Ho Chi Minh, the revolution was not the cause of one or two people but the whole people, the Party did not have its own interests, its interests were unanimous to the ones of class, the whole people and nation. Hence, Ho Chi Minh affirmed that the viewpoint on the CPV being the vanguard of the working class, working people and the entire nation was creative and appropriate with the revolutionary situation of Vietnam. This viewpoint has not deteriorated the working-class nature of the Party, adversely, it has made the working-class nature more consolidated and strengthened, making the working class strongly attached with the people and the whole nation, helping our Party bring in itself the unity between the class and the nation. It is this feature that has made our Party drastically attract classes of people and the whole nation to the struggle for the national liberation; made them believe in the Party, protect the Party, and create the solid foundation for the Party to lead the cause of Vietnamese revolution to victory. And this reality has made the distorted arguments that “Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist”, “a half communist” ill-founded and ridiculous.

Denying and distorting the scientific and revolutionary nature of Ho Chi Minh’s thought on the Communist Party of Vietnam, more comprehensively, the denying and distortion leading to abolishing the leadership by the Party over the Vietnamese revolution are dangerous and reactionary actions, which require us to be lucid to realise and firmly struggle against them.

Senior Colonel, Assoc. Prof. NGUYEN SY HOA, Colonel, MA. DUONG DINH CAN