Political and ideological education is an important part of ideological work and a fundamental activity of party and political work, serving as a determinant to building a politically strong Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) as the basis for raising its synergy and combat power. Political and ideological education within the Military contributes to building revolutionary soldiers’ qualities, equipping troops with scientific world view, logical methodology, and faith in communism, improving cadres and soldiers’ political zeal and sense of responsibility, encouraging troops’ self-improvement under Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, promoting the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers,” resolutely fighting against individualism, preventing and repelling degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” amongst cadres and soldiers, opportunely orientating troops’ ideology against sensitive, complex issues, making party organisations pure and strong, building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units, and effectively combating hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy.

Head of the General Political Department, Gen. Luong Cuong addressing the conference to review party and political work of 2021 and introduce tasks of 2022 (photo: qdnd.vn)

In 2021, under leadership and direction by the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Ministry of National Defence (MND), and the General Political Department (GPD), this important work was synchronously, closely, effectively carried out across the VPA. All-level party committees, commissars, commanders, and political offices focused their leadership and direction on comprehensively performing this work, while adopting appropriate measures to opportunely deal with ideological issues. Military units proactively renewed contents, forms, and methods of education in accordance with reality, actively invested in facilities and equipment, concentrated on grasping and managing ideological developments within themselves, and strictly maintained steps of ideological work. They well promoted the role of organisations, forces, and means in political and ideological education and cooperated with local authorities and military families in educating and managing their cadres and soldiers. As a result, the majority of cadres and soldiers were fully aware of tasks of the VPA and their units, showed their political zeal, sense of responsibility, creativity, and unity, readily undertook and successfully fulfilled all assigned missions, particularly dangerous, difficult ones, resolutely criticised and fought against wrong viewpoints, opportunism, individualism, corruption, wastefulness, and negative practices. Political and ideological education made direct contributions to defending the Party’s ideological foundation within the Military, bringing into play the revolutionary nature and tradition of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers,” and ensuring that the VPA would always be an absolutely loyal, reliable political and fighting force of our Party, State, and People. Many units across the Military, such as the Navy, Military Region 5, Army Corps 3, Military Region 7, Political Officer College, and Signal Corps employed effective, creative models and approaches for political and ideological education. Besides, models, such as “one article of law on a daily basis, one law-related question on a weekly basis,” “legal and psychological consultant team for troops,” and “party members provide assistance for the masses” together with good rapporteur contests, good political lecturer contests, and Olympic contests on social sciences and humanities greatly contributed to bettering the quality of political and ideological education. It should be noted that during the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, military units well performed their function, considered COVID-19 prevention and control as their combat mission in peacetime, and played a vanguard role in helping the people to curb the pandemic, thereby bolstering the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period.

However, over the years, there have been weaknesses in political and ideological education across the Military that should be settled. More specifically, several party committees, commissars, and commanders have yet to be fully aware of the importance of this work; they have assigned this work to political offices and political cadres only; they have yet to formulate guidelines and measures effective enough to carry out this work. Regular education has yet to be synchronous, while due attention has yet to be paid to individual education. Moreover, ideological management has yet to be proactive or flexible. Some offices and units have yet to grasp their troops’ ideological issues and developments, particularly at sensitive, complex moments; their settlement of ideological issues has yet to be resolute or timely, thus leading to a number of serious violations of discipline or law.

In 2022, the entire VPA will continue realising resolutions of the 13th National Party Congress, the 11th Military Party Congress, and all-level party congresses. The situation in the world and the region will be still complex and unpredictable. COVID-19 pandemic will have new variants. Our country will be faced with negative impacts made by the dark side of the market economy, international integration, and the 4th industrial revolution. The hostile forces will step up sabotage against our Party, State, and VPA via their “peaceful evolution” strategy, particularly in political and ideological fields, encourage “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within, and strive to “depoliticise” our Military with their increasingly cunning artifices. The VPA’s force adjustments and the re-arrangement of military enterprises will directly impact on the awareness, ideology, and sentiment of a section of cadres, soldiers, and defence workers. Therefore, political and ideological education across the Military must continue to be renewed and improved. The consistent goal of this work is to maintain the Party’s ideological foundation within the VPA, build and promote the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” - revolutionary soldiers, and ensure that in any circumstance, cadres and soldiers of the Military will always show their political zeal, remain their absolute loyalty to the Party, the Homeland, and the People, and readily undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned missions. To that end, offices and units within the Military shall focus on implementing several main tasks and measures of political and ideological education in 2022 as follows.

First, continue enhancing all-level party committees, commissars, commanders, and political offices’ leadership and direction and promoting synergy in political and ideological education. All-level party committees and organisations shall put the improved effectiveness of political and ideological education at the forefront of their leadership and direction. They shall grasp resolutions, directives, and conclusions by the Party, the CMC, and the MND, the GPD’s Political Education Regulation, higher echelons’ plans and guiding documents as well as the targets and requirements of political and ideological education to design appropriate guidelines and measures of leadership over this work. Leadership over political and ideological education must be included in all-level party committees and organisations’ regular resolutions and all-level commissars and commanders’ work plans, while due attention should be paid to avoiding assigning this work to political offices and political cadres only. It is important to improve all-level functional and political offices’ capacity to advise the CMC, the MND, the GPD, and all-level party committees, commissars, and commanders on performing the work of political and ideological education within military units. Consideration should be given to enhancing inspections to detect and settle units’ difficulties and weaknesses in political and ideological education. All-level political offices shall opportunely give advice to their party committees and commands on contents, programmes, duration, and plans of political and ideological education, while helping commanders to inspect units’ implementation of political and ideological education plans across the Military. They shall provide specific and scientific instructions for units and well carry out reviews to draw lessons, reward typical examples, and manage the quality of their units’ political education. The outcome of political education must be seen as a criterion for assessing the quality of cadres, party members, and party organisations and it is vital to opportunely reward collectives and individuals with remarkable achievements in units’ political and ideological education.

In addition to leadership and direction, units’ party committees and key cadres shall promote the role of mass organisations, forces, and means, raise the effectiveness of grass-roots level cultural institutions’ operation, and build a healthy cultural - educational environment. Political and ideological education must be closely combined with discipline management, military standard order building, and Regulation on Democracy at Grass-Roots Level. Besides, due regard should be paid to ensuring troops’ material and mental life and creating synergy for organising political and ideological education and improving the quality of this work at military units.

Second, keep renewing contents, forms, and methods of political and ideological education for troops under the Project on “renewing political education at military units in the new period.” Programmes of political and ideological education must be comprehensive, relevant to the educational background of each group of troops, focalised, and highly feasible. Emphasis should be placed on rendering cadres and soldiers fully aware of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the Party’s guidelines, the State’s laws and policies, especially the Resolutions of the 13th National Party Congress and the 11th Military Party Congress, our Party’s viewpoints on military-defence task, new points relating to the Homeland protection mentioned in the National Defence Strategy and the Military Strategy of Vietnam, and our revolution’s partners and opponents set by the Homeland Protection Strategy. Due attention should be paid to educating troops on national history and tradition, political qualities, ethics, and lifestyle. Great weight should be added to reviewing and developing political and ideological education programmes in accordance with tasks of the VPA and units. Priority should be given to including the building of political zeal, ethics, lifestyle, and law-abiding awareness as well as cultural and social knowledge, and life skills in political and ideological education programmes. Great value should be attached to providing information to orientate troops’ ideology against sensitive, complex issues and proactively fighting against wrong viewpoints, ideological deviations, plots of “depoliticising” our VPA, “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation,” with a view to firmly protecting the Party’s ideological foundation within the Military. At the same time, it is important to proactively design topics of education for new, urgent missions, such as COVID-19 prevention and control, participation in the United Nations peacekeeping, natural disaster and epidemic prevention and control, and search and rescue.

Commissars, commanders, and political offices shall grasp, renew, and apply forms and methods of political and ideological education in practice, while aligning political and ideological education with military training, military standard order building, discipline management, and task performance. Significance should be attached to maintaining and well organising activities, such as visit, movie watching, and study on the intranet. Offices and units across the Military shall frequently renew contents, forms, and methods of political and ideological meetings, news briefings, newspaper reading, television watching, Political and Cultural Day, Legal Study Day, and cultural and artistic contests to better attract the participation of troops. Moreover, they should consider properly, effectively employing new forms of education, such as online meeting and study on the Internet.

Offices and units shall focus their leadership and direction on building and maintaining political lecturer teams under the GPD’s Political Education Regulation. Due attention should be paid to actively organising refresher courses for political lecturers, closely approving political lectures, and holding good political lecturer contests and conferences to draw lessons on management and teaching so as to raise the quality of political education. Offices and units shall combine teaching with the sharing of experience, align education with self-education, and encourage learners’ proactiveness and creativity as the main solution. They shall further effectively exploit visual aids and information technology in political and ideological education, strictly adhere to the motto of “substantive teaching, substantive learning, and substantive evaluation,” hold more dialogues, and increase interaction between teachers and learners. They shall continue renewing forms and methods of examination, such as written assignment, oral test, and multiple choice test in order to correctly assess troops’ political awareness. Additionally, they shall stringently maintain regulations on examination and evaluation to ensure objectivity and accuracy and prevent merit-driven practice, while opportunely drawing lessons, multiplying typical examples, and overcoming weaknesses in political and ideological education.

Third, increase the quality and effectiveness of grasping, assessing, classifying, and settling ideological issues at grass-roots level units. Offices and units shall focus their leadership and direction on taking steps of ideological management, grasping, analysing, and evaluating troops’ ideological developments to opportunely, effectively deal with ideological issues, guarantee cadres and soldiers’ ideological steadfastness, and bring into play all organisations, forces, and troops’ self-consciousness, proactiveness, and creativity in performing tasks. They shall strictly maintain regulations on management of troop ideology via reports, meetings, and feedback, well carry out the work of internal political protection, closely manage troop profiles, and combine ideological management with troop management. Great weight should be added to stringently implementing regulations on study and work and raising troops’ law-abiding awareness. When a violation of law or discipline occurs within a unit, it is necessary to opportunely deliver reports to higher echelons, identify responsibility of that unit’s leadership and command, strictly handle that violation, and draw lessons on ideological management and settlement.

Regulation on Democracy at Grass-Roots Level should be well executed so that commanders of offices and units will grasp troops’ ideology, deal with ideological issues, and satisfy cadres and soldiers’ legitimate needs. Great value should be attached to closely combining ideological management with policy work and emulation and commendation work, building and multiplying typical examples, raising the quality of cultural environment building, and ensuring troops’ cultural and mental life.

Fourth, unceasingly enhance the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle in line with the Campaign titled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period and the fight against “peaceful evolution,” “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation” in ideological and cultural fields as well as wrong, hostile viewpoints in cyberspace. Offices and units shall seriously, effectively execute the 13th Politburo’s Conclusion 01-KL/TW, dated May 18th, 2021 on continuing studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, the 13th Party Central Committee’s Regulation 37-QĐ/TW, dated October 25th, 2021 on party members’ don’ts, the Campaign titled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period, and the 13th Party Central Committee’s Conclusion 21-KL/TW, dated October 25th, 2021 on further building and rectifying the Party and the political system, resolutely preventing, repelling, and handling degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” amongst cadres and party members, and the CMC’s Resolution on bringing into play the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” and combating individualism in the new situation.

Offices and units shall regularly supplement and perfect the system of criteria for self-improvement in accordance with the task requirements of each group of troops. The results of studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s moral example must be seen as a criterion for evaluating the task performance of organisations, cadres, party members, and union members. It is essential to promote the role of Steering Board 35 and Force 47 within offices and units in the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints in cyberspace. Due attention should be paid to disseminating good deeds by collectives and individuals, particularly in COVID-19, natural disaster, and fire prevention and control and search and rescue as well as taking down and neutralising the hostile forces’ videos and articles against our Party, State, and VPA.

Fifth, organise refresher courses to raise responsibility and capacity of cadres in charge of political and ideological education at military units. There is a fact that cadres’ qualities and capabilities play a decisive role in the quality of political and ideological education. At grass-roots level units, the work of political and ideological education is carried out mainly by political cadres. Most of them have been basically trained, but a number of them lack hands-on experience. Thus, selecting cadres in charge of political education is of utmost importance. Grounded on reviews of the quality of their cadres in charge of political and ideological education and their results of political and ideological education, units across the VPA shall focus on improving those cadres’ qualities, professional competence, and skills in carrying out this work. There should be regulations on decentralising leadership and direction over the training of those cadres. Besides, it is necessary to strengthen responsibility and authority of commissars, political offices, and political lecturer teams in the training of managerial cadres and in teaching work. Offices and units shall regularly organise good political lecturer contests at all levels, require superiors to train inferiors, and encourage cadres to actively self-study and keep perfecting their pedagogical competence. At the same time, importance should be attached to improving political lecturers’ skills in employing modern teaching methods and applying information technology.

Sixth, invest in facilities and maintain regulations on examination and re-examination in political and ideological education. To raise the quality of political and ideological education, it is necessary to make more investments in modern facilities and technical equipment. In addition to logistics and technical support provided by higher echelons, offices and units shall promote their internal strength, preserve and effectively employ their allocated equipment and funding, and maximise their existing facilities. Grounded on each office and unit’s practical condition, great value should be attached to applying scientific - technological advances to political and ideological education and exploiting cultural houses, libraries, traditional education houses, Ho Chi Minh halls, and local historical sites to convey cultural values to troops. Consideration should be given to stringently executing regulations on inspecting, re-examining, and reporting the results of political and ideological education of 2022 within offices and units, opportunely detecting creative, effective approaches by collectives and individuals, and drawing lessons for the entire VPA.

Focuses of political and ideological education within the Military in 2022 are also major tasks that offices and units shall seriously, effectively implement. Based on the achievements in political and ideological education across the Military in 2021, offices and units shall bring into play synergy created by organisations and forces to keep improving the quality and effectiveness of this important work as the basis for building a politically strong VPA in the new situation.

Lt. Gen. TRINH VAN QUYET, Member of the Party Central Committee

Member of the CMC, Deputy Head of the VPA’s GPD