Editorial Note: The promotion of the “depoliticization” of the Vietnam People’s Army is the hostile forces’ dangerous and wicked plot. In order to lay bare the absurdity of this idea, the National Defence Journal introduces the article by Nguyen Ngoc Hoi
Identify the versions and the nature of the idea to depoliticize the military
During the process of collecting people's opinions on the Amendment Draft of the 1992 Constitution, though most people showed their desire to build an increasingly robust socialist law-governed State of Vietnam, there have been some opposite opinions, including the idea to depoliticize the military with a variety of versions, such as: “the military must be neutralized politically”, “the armed forces must be loyal to the Fatherland and the people, but not to any organizations”, and, in particular, as for Vietnam, “the armed forces must not be loyal to the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), etc.
The argument of “depoliticization of the military” has been used for a long time by opposition parties in the multi-party system countries to limit the armed forces to “engage” in political rivalry of parties and factions. In an article titled “The Revolution and the Army” in the “New Life” newspaper on 16th October, 1905, V.I. Lenin pointed out: “the words of the dictatorships’ servants on the neutrality of the armed forces, the necessity to keep the armed forces out of politics, etc., were untruthful, and that these words would not be supported by the soldiers”.
In the last decades of the 21st century, realizing that the ways to sabotage the socialism by conducting aggressive wars was not effective, the imperialism has accelerated sabotage by “Peaceful evolution” strategy. One of their plots was to disseminate the slogan “the military must be neutralized politically” in one communist party-led socialist countries, aimed at “depoliticizing” the revolutionary armed forces, which by nature targeted at separating the armed forces from the leadership of the communist party, neutralizing the role of the armed forces-the violent tool of the Party and State in the cause of building and safeguarding the socialist Fatherland. They were successful in using this plot in the Soviet Union. During the time M. Gorbachev held the position of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the leaders of the Party, State and the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union quit the rule of building the armed forces on politics of Marxism-Leninism. It was their grievious error that they abolished the leadership of the communist party over the armed forces and made the Soviet Armed Forces ‘depoliticized”. During the period of 1987-1989, approximately 50% of military strategic officers and 30% general officers were sent out of the armed forces; more than 100 strategic and operational political leaders were dismissed due to the reason of “not supporting the glasnost”. In March 1990, an unusual Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopted the decision to quit the leadership of the communist party over the State and society. Article 6 of the Constitution of the Soviet Union adopted political pluralism and polyarchy. After having been elected as the President of Russian Federation, on 20 July, 1991, B. Yeltsin approved the decree of “depoliticization” and declared the prohibition of parties’ activities in the State offices at all levels. Before the day Gorbachev declared on his own to disband the Party Central Committee, on 23 August, 1991, Saposnikov, Minister of Defence had also declare to quit the Communist party of the Soviet Union and forced communist party member soldiers to return their party membership cards. These activities were aimed at the “depoliticization”, making the Soviet Armed Forces lose their political direction and combat capability and become unable to protect the Socialist Fatherland. Though at that time the Soviet Armed Forces had 3.9 million-strong active forces, equipped with modern weapons and equipment. This is a critical reason leading to the disintegration of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
As for Vietnam, recognizing that at present, the Communist Party of Vietnam exercises its tight control over the military and police, therefore it is impossible to abolish the leadership of the Party over the State and society, as well as the Socialism, therefore, our revolution’s hostile forces frenziedly embarked on the mask “the armed forces must maintain neutrality politically”. They hope that once the armed forces were obscured by this slogan, the military and police staff were vacillated and lost their political direction, it would create a “golden opportunity” for them to set out to overthrow the CPV and the socialist regime in Vietnam planned in the scenario “victory without war”! In 2013, exploiting the opportunity when the Standing Committee of the National Assembly conducted a collection of people's opinions on the Amendment Draft of the 1992 Constitution, the anti-socialist forces regarded as a unique opportunity to publicly show their request of “depoliticization” of the military. It was a pity that a number of people were political confused and were not vigilant, tricked by the hostile forces’ wicked plot to side with them, repeat wrong arguments, and they were not vigilant to ask themselves: Why was the idea of “depoliticization of the armed forces” enthusiastically applauded and supported by VOA, BBC, RFI, etc., and the country’s betrayers and overseas deep hatred people? Being criticized that this idea was the manifestation of “ideological and political degeneration”, people who supported this idea hastily glossed that they only requested the armed forces to be neutralized politically and they did not request the military’s “depoliticization”? This sophism could not delude public opinion, since by nature the request that "the armed forces had to maintain neutrality politically” was a formula and a version of the idea of “depoliticizing the armed forces”. “Political neutrality” means “to stand between political forces”, or “to stand outside politics” or “not to engage in politics”, etc., while the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) has been built toward the orientation of “revolutionary, regular, seasoned, and gradually modernized”, regarding sound political building as foundation to build the VPA comprehensively powerful. Moreover, the VPA itself is a political force and is placed under the absolute, direct and all-round leadership of the CPV, which means it does not “stand outside politics”, therefore, the request that “the armed forces must maintain neutrality politically”, by nature, is no more the demand to “depoliticize” the armed forces.
In order to carry out the plot of “depoliticizing” the military, hostile forces have used variety of methods, both theoretically, ideologically and practically.
In theoretical and ideological field, they try to argue that the military is a tool of the State, therefore, it should be submitted to the State, and should not be submitted to any parties; or the armed forces’ activities are to protect the national territorial integrity and to serve the people, hence, they must only be loyal to the Fatherland and the people and must not be loyal to any organizations, etc. In a moment of hearing, some people may mistake unreasonable argument for reasonable one, particularly for credulous and trustful people who have little been in revolutionary struggle practice. They do not recognize that this plot is aimed at changing the political standpoint of the revolutionary armed forces into the standpoint of the opportunists and capitalists.
In practices, supporters of the idea of “depoliticizing the armed forces” demand that “the military and police must be neutralized politically”, id est, once a political turbulence occurs, the military and police should take no actions and stand between. For one communist party-led socialist countries like Vietnam, they demand that “the communist party exercises the leadership over the military” rule should be abolished; lower and then abolish the party and political work, as well as political organs and staff, especially the system of commissars and junior commissars in the military-one of the typical characters of the armed forces of socialist countries to guarantee the leadership of the communist party over the military. They also distort political events in the history which the military participate in, exaggerate the shortcomings of some military and police units or the soldiers and policemen when they are on duty, stain private lives of some generals and heroes of the People’s Armed Forces, etc. Through these actions, they want the military and police lose prestige among people, lower the position of the military and police in the society, etc., hence, neutralize the role of the military and police in the struggle to defend the revolutionary government.
Regarding Vietnam, the hostile forces’ consistent goal is to abolish revolutionary achievements and direct the way of development of the country to the capitalist orbit. In the past years, hostile forces conducted many campaigns for the political pluralism and opposition multi-party system, and to this end, aimed at abolishing the CPV’s leadership over the VPA. They openly demanded to abolish the stipulation of the leadership of the CPV over the State and society, “abolish the stipulation of the armed forces’ loyalty to the CPV” which was affirmed in the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Exploiting our people’s sentiments toward beloved President Ho Chi Minh, they tried to ignore historical context of the event (26 May, 1946) when President Ho Chi Minh conferred Tran Quoc Tuan Army School the flag embroidered with “Loyal to the country, pious to the people” words to distort Ho Chi Minh’s consistent ideology of the role of the leadership of the CPV over the VPA through the argument “Ho Chi Minh had never said the military had to be loyal to the Party”! The goal of these plots is to promote “self-evolution” and “self-change” in the VPA, thus making the VPA stand aloof revolutionary goal and ideal and the leadership of the Party, degenerate politically, and move toward to neutralize the role of the VPA which is a firm foundation of the Party, State and the people in the cause of safeguarding the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. These tricks are quite subtle and wicked, but wrong both theoretically and practically and must be unmasked and rejected.
Nguyen Ngoc Hoi