80 years ago, the Outline on Vietnamese Culture came into being and clearly stated the Party’s fundamental viewpoints in the building of a revolutionary culture to perform the mission of “illuminating the path for the nation”. Those viewpoints have deeply permeated the revolutionary movements of the entire country in general and the process of construction, combat, and development of the Army and Vietnamese people in particular, which contributes to forming and developing the military culture in the Ho Chi Minh era.

The contents of the Outline on Vietnamese Culture (hereafter referred to as the Outline on Culture) clearly reflect the three overarching principles of the revolutionary culture including (1) Opposing all influences of slavery and colonialism and making Vietnamese culture develop independently; (2) Opposing any action that alienates culture from the masses or becomes distant from the masses; (3) Opposing anything unscientific and retrogressive in culture. In particular, our Party also underlined the three principles of the cultural movement in Vietnam during that period, consisting of nationalisation, popularisation, and scientification. This means that it is a must to build a culture which is deeply rooted in national identity (nationalisation), universal and popular (popularisation), and constantly strive to eliminate outdated, conservative and reactionary ideas; aiming for new, democratic, progressive, easy-to-learn, easy-to-grasp and absorb the quintessence of human culture (scientification). Through the Outline on Culture, our Party has affirmed the pivotal position, role and power of culture; considered it as an ideological and spiritual foundation for the people and artists to follow the Party’s revolutionary path.

From the Outline on Culture to military culture

Having been illuminated by the Outline on Culture, since its early days, our Army has paid much attention to the building of a force to fight for national independence and liberation as well as the building of a force with cultural identity. The past 80 years have witnessed that under the guidance of the Outline on Culture, the establishment and development of the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” have become a distinctive feature in building a revolutionary force that originates from the people, fights for the people, results in the resounding victory of our Army. The implementation of the Outline on Culture in building the Vietnam People’s Army and developing the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” is portrayed in several fundamental issues as follows.

First, thoroughly grasping the “Methods of raising issues” of the Outline on Culture, which considers “Culture is one of the three fronts” and "Only with the leadership over cultural movements can the Party influence public opinion and the Party's propagation be effective", in the guidelines on building the Army, our Party and Uncle Ho viewed politics as the root, since “without politics, military is like a tree without roots, useless and even harmful". Hence, “The name: Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army meant that politics is valued over military. It is a Propaganda Army”. The directive on establishing Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army also reflects the ideology of three-category armed forces and the whole-people resistance war, which is the succession of Vietnamese people’s tradition and cultural values in the very first revolutionary force.

Second, by exposing “the tricks of fascism to shackle and destroy Vietnam’s culture” and presenting fundamental viewpoints on constructing a new culture – a culture of socialism, the Outline on Culture gave great inspiration to patriotic artists and intellectuals. A generation of intellectuals and artists who were at a standstill for many years under the semi-feudal and semi-colonial regime found the path to the revolution. Many of them were deeply imbued with the principle that "The cultural revolution in Vietnam must depend on the revolution for national liberation to develop". They promptly joined the resistance war and became "Uncle Ho's Soldiers", who held guns while composing and performing to support for "the resistance war and national construction" under the leadership of the Party.

Third, in the Ho Chi Minh era, since the foundation of the Vietnamese People’s Army on December 22^nd, 1944, fundamental principles in the building of a new culture that the Outline of Culture pointed out have been deeply imbued so that the military culture was formed and supplemented new values to implement the Party’s goals and ideology for the happiness of the people. These values include patriotism, aspiration for peace a spirit of humanity, and humanitarianism in military activities; unique military art and guidelines on people's war and the whole-people national defence; the lofty qualities of the "Uncle Ho's Soldiers", etc. The values fully reflect the national character, popularisation, and scientific nature of the revolutionary culture; simultaneously, they also demonstrate the essence and glorious tradition of our Army - a new type of army of the Vietnamese working class which originates from the people, fights for the people, and possesses absolute loyalty to the Party, the Fatherland, and the People.

According to the implementation of the guidance of the Outline on Culture and the Party’s viewpoints on building progressive Vietnamese Culture with a deep national identity, the building of military culture in the revolution for national liberation and the cause of national construction and defence has witnessed remarkable development and achievements. Particularly, implementing Directive  No. 143/CT issued on May 12^th, 1992 by the General Political Department on implementing the Campaign for “Building a fine, wholesome and diverse cultural environment in the Army units”, over the past 80 years, the construction of a cultural environment has been placed a high value and become a regular task in building a politically strong Army to bring into play the lofty qualities of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” and create synergy and driving force to accomplish all assigned tasks. All units throughout the Army have constructed a system of cultural institutions such as cultural houses, Ho Chi Minh rooms, museums, libraries, etc., thereby fully reflecting aspects of military culture in each unit as well as a worthwhile place for the soldiers to enjoy spiritual and cultural values, and they also become the subject creating those cultural values. Cadre, personnel, and soldiers are the backbone of the cultural institutions at the grassroots level, while also becoming the main force in propagating, encouraging, and educating politics, ideology, and cultural activities within the unit. In addition, units have effectively grasped, concretised, and implemented the Campaign to Promote traditions and devote talents to deserve “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” title, which manifests the creativity and new methods of the Army in studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts, ethics, and manners. The training and building of a large quantity of Military art troupes have been attached great importance to in various artistic fields, which contributes to building a culture of "Uncle Ho's Soldiers" and progressive Vietnamese culture with a deep national identity. Numerous artists in the Army have been awarded the title of People’s Artist, and Meritorious Artist. The General Political Department also regularly organises camps and campaigns for composition and invests in major works on revolutionary war and soldiers. As a result, many valuable works have been created in almost all fields: literature, music, theatre, painting, cinema, etc., which supplement Vietnamese literature and enrich the spiritual cultural life in the military.

Bringing into play the values of military culture in the new situation

Acquiring the instructions of the Cultural Outline and the viewpoints of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh on developing the values of military culture in the new context is an objective demand to construct a politically strong Army in the current stage. Accordingly, it is required to concentrate on implementing the following fundamental directions.

First, propagation and education work must be intensified to preserve and bring into play the traditional values of the VPA which are determination to fight and win, cleverness, courage, perseverance, indomitability, “loyalty to the Party, readiness to fight and sacrifice for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, and for socialism. Accomplish any tasks, surmount any difficulties, and defeat any enemies”. It is important to promote the values of the military culture of our forefathers in the current period such as "all people fight against enemies" developed into the whole-people national defence policy; flexibly apply the factors of "position, power, opportunity, and strategy" to confront fierce enemies, the thoughts of "winning enemies’ hearts and minds", having more friends and fewer enemies, and preserving a peaceful and stable environment for the development of the country, etc.

Second, it is necessary to continue the implementation of building a cultural environment in the Army; bright, green, clean, and beautiful landscapes; and improve soldiers’ material and spiritual lives. The focus must be put on the building of good and standardised cultural relationships in social life such as the relationship between superiors and subordinates, comrades, the blood and flesh bond between the Army and the people, and the friendship, understanding and trust with the armies and people of neighbouring countries.

Third, importance must be attached to renewing thinking and actions in the leadership and guidance of party committees and presiding cadres at all levels in implementing the Campaign to promote tradition and devote talents to deserve the “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” title in the new period. Particularly, the focus must be placed on maintaining and bringing into play the lofty qualities of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” with new contents that fit the current development. Simultaneously, it is necessary to magnetise talents and train high-quality human resources to meet the high demands of modernising the Army in the forthcoming years, especially the high-quality human resources for forces given priority to modernity.

Fourth, it is a must to continue the investment in building, renovating, and improving the operation of cultural institutions in the Army to diversify the material and spiritual life of cadres and soldiers throughout the Army. Artists and intellectuals in the Army must be given great attention with sufficient quantity and high quality. At the same time, there should be mechanisms to encourage this component to maximise their creativity and enthusiasm in researching and clarifying the theoretical and practical issues of building and developing Vietnam's military culture in the new situation. Importance must be attached to actively creating and performing high-quality literary and artistic works that fully reflect the life of cadres and soldiers and the cause of constructing and safeguarding the Socialist Fatherland.

Colonel, Dr. NGUYEN MINH CUONG, Political College