Political culture is a crucial factor in shaping the qualities and capabilities of future military officers. Thus, researching and implementing solutions for cultivating this factor among cadets in military schools is a matter of urgency today.

Political culture encompasses “the values and noble ideals that people strive for in political activities, reflected in the understanding of politics, the organisation of power systems, and political actions in accordance with certain social value standards”. Therefore, political culture is considered instrumental in enhancing awareness, moral qualities, and professional competence among cadres, party members in general, and cadets within military schools in particular, according to training objectives and requirements. Fully aware of this, all-level party committees and commanders in military schools have recently introduced various guidelines and measures to cultivate political culture among cadets. They have focused on nurturing a system of ethical standards and political perspectives. Most cadets have a correct understanding of political culture; they actively acquire political knowledge, diligently cultivate and improve their political qualities in line with training objectives and requirements. However, in reality, some cadets’ political awareness, ethical standards, stance, and viewpoints have not met the requirements; in some cases, there has been degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, directly affecting training outcomes and task performance.

Political culture among young officers is formed and developed throughout their own self-improvement process (photo: Ha Quoc Thai/ tapchicongsan.org.vn)

Currently, the task of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modern Army, with a strong focus on political consolidation as a foundation, has imposed stricter requirements on the development of “standards in leadership and management culture” among military cadres. Moreover, the negative impacts of the market economy, together with hostile forces’ sabotage plots on ideological and cultural fronts, have strongly affected cadets’ political ideology, morality, and lifestyle. This requires military schools to research and carry out innovative countermeasures, thereby contributing to building and developing cadets’ character and political behaviour according to value standards, as well as enhancing future officers’ political culture.

Experience has shown that the outcome of cultivating political culture among cadets is primarily determined by a sense of awareness and responsibility among party committees, leaders, commanders at teaching faculties and cadet management units. This is a fundamental element in ensuring that the cultivation process aligns with correct directions, scientific principles, and educational and training outcome standards. Therefore, alongside raising awareness about the role, significance, goals, and requirements of this important task through the dissemination of resolutions and reviews, military schools need to focus on making significant changes in responsibilities of party committees and commanders at teaching faculties and cadet management units. The objectives, targets, requirements, and content of this task should be included in annual thematic leadership resolutions on education and training work and be actualised in leadership, direction, and implementation. Additionally, enhancing cooperation between agencies, teaching faculties, and cadet management units in assessing all aspects of cadets will help determine cultural, political, and spiritual activities to be conducted, creating the most favourable environment for cadets to enhance political culture and transforming their awareness and ideology into action. Moreover, fostering the exemplary spirit of political culture among commanders and cadet management officers, who directly guide cadets through their studies and training, contributes to the effective realisation of the motto: “Military schools’ training quality means units’ combat readiness”.

Improving the quality of political education for cadets is a key issue, enabling cadets to develop political qualities and the ability to effectively address practical issues in their units after graduation. Therefore, it is necessary that party committees, key cadres at all levels, and teaching staff focus on enhancing cadets’ awareness of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Party’s lines, and the Army’s missions through various training forms, such as political briefings, knowledge competitions, discussions and so on. These activities provide a core foundation for cadets’ political culture. Particular attention should be paid to educating cadets on Ho Chi Minh’s thought, ethics, and lifestyle, especially his scientific working methods and lifestyle, to enhance their political theory, professional competence, revolutionary ethics, political culture, and personal dignity. Closely combining education with research and assessing cadets’ political culture level will enable opportune adjustments to meet training requirements. At the same time, it is important to supervise and correct misperceptions and misbehaviours within units. Furthermore, it should be emphasised that military schools equip cadets with specialised, cultural, and political knowledge, thereby making them aware of revolutionary goals and ideals and steadfast in the working-class stance and national interests, and solidifying their worldview and scientific methodology. Agencies, teaching faculties, and cadet management units must actively study and understand the training subjects to concentrate on renovating the content, programs, forms, and methods of political education. This ensures the provision of necessary knowledge, while creating favourable conditions for cadets to develop their political culture.

During education and training at military schools, cadets gradually absorb and internalise cultural values, knowledge, emotions, beliefs, willpower, and behaviours to resolve political relations through their living, learning, and working environments. Therefore, it is essential that military schools build a healthy political culture environment. To this end, party committees and commanders at all levels need to effectively address cultural relations and construct political culture institutions, creating an integrated whole that directly impacts cadets’ political culture. Military agencies and units should actively build a pure, healthy, and humane military educational environment, providing favourable conditions for cadets to study and train. This includes fostering good political relationships between commanders and leaders, between superiors and subordinates, and between lecturers and cadets, based on solidarity and camaraderie. These efforts help preserve the qualities of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. During the process of establishing standard political relations, it is important to continue to renovate methods and working styles under the motto “Superiors set inspiring examples, subordinates actively follow”, and resolutely fight bureaucracy, lack of democracy, authoritarianism, and "achievement disease".

Fostering political culture among cadets in military schools is a continuous task, inseparable from building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong units. Military schools should focus on building politically strong units, innovating political culture education, and enhancing discipline management. To achieve high effectiveness, it is essential to thoroughly grasp the viewpoint of building a healthy educational environment, decisively combat "achievement disease", and strictly prevent negative manifestations in education and training. Emphasising exemplary behaviour in cultural interactions by cadres and party members within agencies, teaching faculties, and cadet management units is crucial. Each cadre and instructor should be a role model, embodying the positive values of political culture, helping cadets develop their character, working methods, and political culture to meet training objectives. It is necessary to closely combine “building” and “combating” under the principle: “…effective building supports effective combating, and effective combating reinforces effective building”, with “building” as the primary focus. Building strong collectives of cadets that serve as role models for political culture will create unified and synergistic strength in developing cadets’ character.

In practice, political culture cultivation activities for cadets are effective only when each cadet continuously pursue self-cultivation and self-training. This is a decisive factor requiring long-term and complex efforts. Therefore, military schools need to adopt solutions in order to promote positive and proactive self-cultivation of political culture among cadets. To this end, party committees, leaders, and commanders at all levels must regularly pay attention to and create favourable conditions for cadets’ self-study and self-improvement. Supervising and evaluating cadets’ implementation of self-study plans is essential to opportunely addressing arising issues. Teaching faculties should actively renovate teaching methods to promote cadets’ self-awareness, proactivity, and creativity. Cadet management units should organise extracurricular activities to help cadets practise and develop their political culture. Each cadet must create a self-study plan, identify content and methods of studying political culture, and actively assess their awareness and behaviour in accordance with established political culture standards, while striving to develop their ethical qualities, lifestyle, and working methods in line with military schools’ outcome standards.

Fostering political culture among cadets in military schools is a fundamental and long-term task. This article proposes some basic solutions that academies and schools can study and apply to enhance political culture among cadets, meeting the requirements of building the Army in the new situation.

Sr. Col. NGUYEN VAN KY, PhD

Military Academy of Logistics