The 13^th National Congress of the Party is an important political event of the country. Before the event, reactionary forces are trying to sabotage in order to incite and distract social life about the Party's line on cadres work. Therefore, ideological orientation for cadres and soldiers of the Army before the 13^th Congress of the Party is a meaningful work, making an important contribution to the success of the Congress.

Overview of a Party plenum (An illustrative photo)

Social opinion, like all other social phenomena, always arises and exists in the movement, change and development of the society. Recognising the importance of social public opinion, hostile forces take advantage of social networks, internet connections, domestic and foreign forces and means to promote “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, and formulate opposition within the Party, cause distrust which will undermine internal solidarity and finally  the collapse of the Party. Therefore, ideological orientation for cadres and soldiers becomes more important than ever as it creates a unity of awareness, attitudes and actions of cadres and soldiers in the entire army. To that end, it is necessary to focus on implementing the following solutions:

First, regularly providing complete, accurate, timely, correct information on the Party's point of view and line relevant to the actual situation of the Army. This is the measure of primary importance, so leaders and commanders at all levels need to firmly grasp the scientific basis of the formation and development of public opinion; closely associate with the practical situation to determine the suitable content and measures. In particular, importance should be attached to providing adequate information, knowledge and scientific arguments to guide and lead the soldiers' awareness. During the process of providing information, it is necessary to pay attention to the characteristics of troops (age, gender, status…); sources of legitimate, malicious and false information, etc.

This requires that the leading cadres at all levels provide official information of the Party, State, the Army in full to make cadres and soldiers clearly recognise adverse and negative information and public opinion to take effective measures to prevent bad impacts on the life and activities of troops. The amount of information provided to officers and soldiers should be sufficient and timely, especially when new situations or events arise. This requires leaders and commanders at all levels to publicise the information and exercise democracy in all aspects of the unit. Information provided to cadres and soldiers must be oriented and in light of the lines and views of the Party, close to the requirements and tasks of the Army.

Second, increasing political education, ideological management, and raising the awareness of cadres and soldiers. Good implementation of this measure is an important basis to ensure that cadres and soldiers have extensive knowledge and scientific reasoning, helping them to distinguish the right from the wrong and make an objective and sound judgment of the facts and phenomena happening in practice, thereby quickly reaching a unity in awareness and thought, and forming positive opinion. At the same time, through education cadres and soldiers are fostered in political qualifications, ideology, living experience to form political steadfastness in considering and behaving with external issues in society. Therefore, education should ensure the correct political and ideological orientation; be carried out by diversified forms and measures; closely follow the progress, actively update the results of Party Congresses at all levels towards the 13^th National Congress of the Party. Focusing on propaganda to highlight the meaning, importance, theme and motto of the Congress; the system of documents submitted to the Congress and election regulations in the Party. In addition, it is necessary to uphold the responsibilities of all levels of Party committees and party organisations in leadership and promotion of cadres and soldiers’ participation in discussing the views, goals, guidelines and directions of the Party; key tasks, the task of party building and rectification, fighting against corruption, wastefulness, and negativeness with high spirit and responsibility.

Third, promoting the role of cadres at all levels in directing and controlling public opinion. The formation and development of collective public opinion of soldiers obey the objective law with the influence of subjective factors. Therefore, it is essential to promote the role of the human factor and to promote the activeness of some factors in the collective, especially the role of leaders, commanders, party organisations, mass organisations, informal groups and leaders with positive mindset. In order to promote the role of this force well, the party committees and commanders at all levels need to focus on fostering the necessary competencies, build their prestige and the ability to interact with soldiers to form positive public opinion, alleviate the fake rumors, really deserve the core force, playing the key role in directing and controlling collective public opinion of soldiers.

Fourth, improving the “immunity” of cadres and soldiers in combination with fighting against wrong views and ideas, contributing to protecting the Party's ideological ground. Improving the “immunity” of cadres and soldiers to false rumors about events and phenomena in practice is very necessary, especially during the progress of party congresses at all levels towards the 13^th National Congress of the Party. Taking advantage of this important event, the hostile forces intensify their sabotage against us in a comprehensive manner with very sophisticated and cunning schemes and tricks, making some officers and soldiers misunderstand about the Party's undertakings, lines and views, the military's duties, the Party building work. Therefore, the party committees, leaders, political commissars at all levels need to pay attention to improving the theoretical level of cadres and soldiers and make them deeply understand Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh's thought, the Party's lines and the State's policies to create necessary “resistance” to the negative effects of the wrong public opinion, thereby, helping them identify and distinguish fake news and harmful news, creating a strong “immunity” so that they can receive, evaluate and process information by themselves in accordance with the lines and views of the Party, State, and Army.

Moreover, all levels, especially the specialised forces, should actively fight and refute fake information and wrong views denying the Party's Platform, the Party's Charter, the Constitution and the laws of the State. One of the important tasks to ensure that the public opinion of the military's collective develop in a positive direction is that leaders and commanders at all levels grasp and well implement Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW, dated October 22, 2018 of the Politburo (12^th tenure) on “Strengthening the protection of the Party's ideological foundation, fighting against wrong and hostile views in the new situation”; Directive No. 823-CT/QUTW, dated September 10, 2017 of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission on “Strengthening leadership, direction over the prevention and control of  peaceful evolution in ideological and cultural field in the Military”. Thereby, cadres and soldiers will have strong “resistance”, not listen and follow the negative and adverse information; There should be a close connection between “construction” and “prevention”. “Construction” should be fundamental while “prevention” should be fierce and effective. In construction, it is necessary to proactively communicate, promptly orientate thoughts, and promote the observance of the regulations on speech; encourage cadres and soldiers to actively apply information technology, Internet systems, social networks to expand the target audience, the scope of propaganda to create positive effects in society. In “prevention”, it is necessary to be proactive, sensitive and promote the synergy of organisations, forces and means, especially the core forces in units, press agencies; deploy technical measures to improve effectiveness in combating wrong and hostile views.

Good implementation of the above measures will help cadres and soldiers in the whole Army have an overview of the current social situation, and is an important condition for leaders and commanders at all levels to have timely and effective measures for orienting the thought of troops, especially when the 13^th National Congress of the Party is coming near.

Senior Colonel, Doctor TA QUANG DAM, Political Academy, Ministry of National Defence