Monday, July 22, 2019, 05:56 (GMT+7)
Continue to improve the orientation for protecting the Socialist Fatherland of Vietnam

Editor’s note: For the past 30 years, especially since 2011, implementing the orientation of protecting the country in accordance with the Creed for National Construction in the transition period to socialism of the Party, our country has harvested important achievements. In the face of the requirements for protecting the Fatherland in the new situation, it is essential to inherit, develop, and continue to improve the orientation for protecting the Socialist Fatherland of Vietnam. From this issue, the National Defense Journal would like to introduce the article "Continue to Improve the Orientation for protecting the Socialist Fatherland of Vietnam" by Prof. PhD. Vu Van Hien, Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical  Council.

I. Orientation for protecting the Fatherland - awareness development and achievements

1. Orientation for Fatherland protection

Regarding the orientation for protecting the Fatherland, the Creed for National Construction in the transition period to socialism of the Party (supplemented and developed in 2011) determines that "The objectives and tasks of national defense and security are to firmly protect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland; to protect the Party, the State, the people, and the socialist regime; maintain peace and political stability and assure the national security and social order and safety; and proactively prevent and defeat all conspiracies and destructive actions of hostile forces on the revolutionary cause of our people”. On the basis of clearly defining the orientations, objectives, and tasks of national defense and security, the 2011 Creed also clearly concretizes its contents, including: (1) Clearly defining the responsibilities and forces for implementing the national defense orientation as "… a crucial and regular task of the Party, the State, and the entire people, in which the People's Army and the People's Public Security are the core forces. Building the all-people defense posture closely associated with a solid people's security posture. Developing the military policies and art of people's warfare and the theory and science of the people's security. Actively strengthening international cooperation on national defense and security". (2) Specifying the elements and ways of implementation to enhance the national defense and security strength: "The stability and sustainable development of all aspects of socio-economic life is a solid foundation of national defense and  security. Socio-economic development is coupled with strengthening national defense and security. Closely combining economy with national defense and security and national defense and security with economy in each strategy, plan, and policy on socio-economic development and in each locality". (3) Regarding force construction and strengthening the power to protect the Fatherland, the Creed points out that "Building formal, elite, and gradually modern revolutionary People's Army and People's Public Security  to be  absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, the Party, the State, and the people and believed and loved by the people. Building the People's Army with reasonable regular complement, high combating capacity, strong reserve force, and broad militia. Building comprehensively strong People’s Public Security, ... ”. At the same time, the Party and State take care of improving the revolutionary qualities and political and professional qualifications for the officials and soldiers in the armed forces; ensure the material and spiritual life suitable with the nature of operation of the People's Army and the People's Public Security in new conditions. Building national defense and public security industries to ensure that the armed forces are equipped with gradually modern technologies. (4) The Creed clearly defines the leadership of the Party and the State's management of the armed forces: "Enhancing the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party and the unified central management of the State over the People's Army and the People's Police and the cause of national defense and security".

2. Development of the orientation

The current orientation for protection of the Fatherland shows that the Party's perception has been renewed and improved. In the 1991 Creed, the orientation for the mission of protection of the Fatherland was comprehensively determined by the Party as "to firmly protect the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland and protect the socialist regime, political stability, order, social security, and the people's mastery to defeat conspiracies and actions of imperial and reactionary forces to sabotage the revolutionary cause of the people”. In the 8th Party Central Resolution (the 9th Tenure) and then the 8th Party Central Resolution (the 11th Tenure), however, the orientation for protection of the Fatherland was more fully and comprehensively perceived. The Party determined that protecting the Fatherland was not only to firmly protect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the country but also to protect the Party, the State, the people, the cause of Doi Moi, industrialization and modernization of the country, national and ethnic interests, and culture and to maintain political stability and peaceful environment to build and develop the country toward  the socialist orientation. At the 11th Congress, the Party supplemented the issue of "safeguarding sovereignty over sea and islands" and "responding to non-traditional security threats" to the tasks of protection of the Fatherland, while emphasizing the "active security." The 12th Congress of the Party has raised its awareness, considering the task of protection of the Fatherland as "to actively combat to defeat all conspiracies and destructive activities of hostile forces; to prevent and deny wrong information and arguments and repel all kinds of crimes and social evils; to be prepared to respond to traditional and non-traditional security threats; and to ensure security, information safety, and network security ”.

While the Creed advocates to "combine the national defense and security with the economy", the Resolution of the 12th Party Congress emphasizes that: "closely combine the national defense and security with foreign affairs and strengthen international cooperation on national defense and security”. Building the "people's heart and mind posture" to create a solid foundation for building the entire people's national defense and people's security. "Having plans to prevent the risks of war and conflict soon and from afar; proactively preventing and early detecting and eliminating unfavorable factors, especially internal factors that can cause mutations”.

The Party's awareness of strength and forces to perform the task of protection of the Fatherland becomes increasingly clearer. It is the power of the great unity bloc of the nation, the synergy of the country in politics, ideology, economy, society, national defense, security, and foreign affairs, and the power of the entire political system under the leadership of the Party and the management of the State, among which the armed forces are the core. In order to strengthen the armed forces to well perform the task of protecting the Fatherland, the Party advocates to: "Build the revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modern People's Army and People's Public Security, with priority put on the modernization of a number of services, arms, and forces; be politically strong, improving the quality of combat strength, and absolute loyal to the Fatherland, the Party, the State, and the people".

In the process of innovation, facing complicated developments of the situation, especially disputes over the sovereignty of the sea, islands, and borders and the new destructive tricks of hostile forces, the Party's awareness of the task of protecting the Fatherland is increasingly developing, in-depth, comprehensive, and synchronous, especially in terms of content and implementation methods. Clearly defining specific tasks of the whole Party, the entire people, all branches, domains, armed forces, and localities and units is considered as regular activities. The Party points out that it is necessary to build strong forces to ready to fight against hostile forces in all situations, including infringement of territorial sovereignty, sea, islands, borders, disturbance, political protests, armed riots, overthrowing, and separatism; regularly fight against ideologies and actions that are contrary to the Party's lines and views; and prevent and combat the "peaceful evolution" and destructive arguments of hostile forces.

Notably, awareness of partner and rivalry is a new and breakthrough thinking. The 8th Party Central Resolution (the 11th  tenure) clearly states that: in order to promote advantages and limit challenges, it is necessary to have a new and unified view on partner and rivalry. Those who respect independence and sovereignty and are willing to establish and expand friendly relations, equal cooperation, and mutual benefits with Vietnam are partners, while any forces that have a conspiracy and acts against our country's goal in the cause of national construction and protection are rivalries. This is the development and breakthrough in thinking of the Party with a dialectical perspective which changes from the friend-enemy thinking to the partner-rivalry one based on the country and national interests and a clear view of interweaving and transforming between objects and partners. The Party considers partners as the basis for establishing extensive international relations and fights against the objects and object aspects of partners.

Besides, the orientation also continues to concretize the Party’s leadership and the State's management over the armed forces to maintain and enhance the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party and the centralized and unified management of the State over the People's Army and the People's Public Security. Concurrently, guidelines and solutions are specified to create a synergy for the armed forces to perform and fulfill the task of protecting of the Fatherland in the new situation.

3. Achievements

As oriented in the Creed, the core of Fatherland protection is the close association between the protection of national sovereignty and territorial integrity with the protection of the Party, the State, the people, and the socialist regime and protection of the country and national interests. The essence of Fatherland protection is now to protect the Fatherland during the transition period to socialism and to defend the social regime in the construction and perfection process that has achieved relatively solid foundations, but there are still several weaknesses that are not easy to solve and overcome immediately. Performing the task of Fatherland protection in the past years, our country has achieved outstanding achievements as follows:

Firstly, under the leadership of the Party and the direction and organization of implementation of the State, the whole Party, the entire people, and the entire armed forces have overcome many difficulties and challenges to firmly protect the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the country; maintained political security, social order, and safety; defeated all conspiracies, sabotage of hostile forces and maintain peace, stability, and development; at the same time, created a favorable international environment; strengthened external relations and expanded and deepened international integration; and finally improved Vietnam's status and power.

Secondly, consolidating, innovating, and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the political system. Ideological and theoretical work has been focused and strengthened, contributing to solving difficulties and obstacles posed by practice; resolutely fighting against wrong and hostile views; maintaining the battleground of the Party's thought and protecting and developing Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh's thought, national cultural traditions and identity; and maintaining the leadership role of the Party and protecting the Fatherland, the people, the State, and the socialist regime.

Thirdly, overcoming many difficulties and challenges and basically maintaining macroeconomic stability; curbing inflation and increasing the scale of the economy. Social security and welfare are paid attention and the people's life is basically stable.

Fourthly, the synergy of the country and national defense and security potential are strengthened. The entire-people defense posture and the people's security posture are steadily strengthened. Foreign relations are expanded and deepened contributing to creating a new position and power of the country to perform the task of protecting of the Fatherland.

Finally, the general quality and combat strength of the People's Army and the People's Public Security are enhanced to meet the requirements of the task of strengthening national defense and security and protecting the Fatherland in the new situation. The People’s Army and the People’s Public Security are built in the direction of revolution, regularity, elite, and gradual modernity. Particularly, a number of services and arms of the Army and forces the Public Security are built elite and advanced straight to modernity. The material and spiritual life of the armed forces officials and soldiers is significantly improved. The People's Army and the People's Public Security continue to maintain and promote the high quality of the revolutionary armed forces with high internal unity, closely associating with the people, having patriotism and love of socialism and international sense to overcome difficulties and complete all assigned tasks.

Prof., Vu Van Hien PhD., Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council

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