Thoroughly grasping and implementing the superiors’ resolutions, directives, and guidelines on the fight against the “peaceful evolution”, Brigade 603 has deployed the “3-proactive” model to counter wrong and hostile views in cyberspace and initially earned practical outcomes. However, this model needs to be further researched, supplemented, and developed to improve the effectiveness of the struggle at the Unit.

Exercise on settling situations on social networks

Fighting against wrong and hostile views, prevent the “peaceful evolution”, and protect the ideological foundation of the Party is an important task in the current period. Being aware of that, over the past years, Signal Brigade 603 Party Committee and commanders (Military Region 3) have always paid attention to leading, directing, thoroughly observing, and organising the serious and effective implementation of Resolution No.35-NQ/TW issued on October 25^th, 2018 by the Politburo (12^th Tenure) on “Strengthening the protection of the ideological foundation of the Party and  fighting against wrong and hostile views in the new situation”; Directive No.47/CT-CT issued on January 8^th, 2016 by the General Political Department on organising forces to fight against wrong and hostile views, political opportunists in cyberspace within the Army, etc. From the implementation practice, there have been many new and creative ways, among which the “3-proactive” model has brought practical effects. Thanks to this model, the Brigade has regularly consolidated, strengthened, and developed the fighting forces in both breadth and depth towards “elite, compactness, sharpness, flexibility, and effectiveness”; built and maintained pages and groups that operate regularly and continuously; and promoted the synergy to struggle in an active, focused, and unified manner and initially handle effectively specific situations in practice. As a result, the awareness and sense of responsibility of cadres, Party members, and the masses on the task of fighting against the “peaceful evolution” and the vigilance, “resistance”, and “immunity” to malicious information of cadres and soldiers have been enhanced, that has contributed to maintaining the ideological battleground of the Party and building a clean and strong Brigade Party Committee and a comprehensively strong, “exemplary and typical” Brigade.

However, this is still a growing process. Moreover, hostile forces, reactionaries, and political opportunists often “transform their shapes” through very sophisticated countermeasures and methods. Therefore, in our opinion, this model requires further research, supplementation, and development to promote its effectiveness in the coming time.

Firstly, to be proactive in forces.  To fight against wrong and hostile views, orient public opinion, and unify awareness and action for cadres, soldiers, and people is not a new task, but difficult and sensitive. Thus, without proactive in building forces which are strong enough with enthusiasm and courage, the struggle will not achieve results from the beginning. In fact, the fighting forces are basically all part-time. Although the number of news and articles published is high, they are mainly from mainstream newspapers and broadcasting stations. Meanwhile, the number of articles written by the Unit's forces are still small, and the fighting contents are not deep, convincing, and widely spread. The reasons are partly due to the cadres and Party members’ lack of skills in writing articles, the “worry” and even “fear” of relating to sensitive issues, the desire to be “safe”, etc. To overcome this problem, leaders and commanders at all levels should continue promoting the communication and strict implementation of Directive No.47. In particular, importance should be attached to upholding the responsibility of each force for this important task and always considering it as a key political task to focus the regular and close leadership and direction. Along with that, it is possible to actively select, build, and expand the core force that consists of cadres who have stable political bravery, basic level of reasoning, comprehensive knowledge in different fields, good political vision, ability to think and detect problems, quick and sharp reasoning, capability of approaching and proficiently using information technology applications, communication skills, and high sense of responsibility in performing tasks. The core force should have a reasonable structure, be always under the direct and comprehensive leadership of the Party committees and organisations and the management and administration of commanders at all levels, and always promote its capacity and initiative to ensure the timely, substantive, and effective struggle. Based on actual operating results, members can be adjusted and added to maintain the quality stability. To improve the fighting capacity of all forces, an important solution is to regularly organise training and fostering courses on the skills and ability to identify and process malicious information, use technology means, etc. Particularly, it is recommended to actively organise exercises to fight against wrong and hostile views in cyberspace with the participation of decentralised forces to handling different hypothetical situations to be close to reality. Thereby, it is not only to improve the capacity in leadership and direction but also to spread, replicate, and mobilise multiple forces in the Unit to organise the struggle against wrong and hostile views.

Second, to be proactive in contents and methods. In the face of the strong development of social networking platforms, explosion of intertwined good and bad information, and sophistication in posting sabotage news articles of hostile forces, the proactive determination of propagation contents, objects, issues, and methods to promptly orient public opinion, ensure “fitness”, and not be passive or unexpected... is the key factor. To achieve that, by strictly grasping the superiors’ directives, regulations, and guidelines and based on the actual situation and assigned tasks, the Party committees and commanders at all levels should promptly formulate and promulgate instructions for forces and components participating in the struggle in cyberspace to clearly state methods of collecting materials and contents; specific forms of struggle; methods of writing news, articles, comments, shares,... as a basis for cadres, Party members, and the masses to implement. As the cadres and Party members ability to write news and articles and direct struggles is still limited, it is necessary to focus on well implementing the key motto of “taking the beauty to fight the beast” by actively exploiting and sharing outstanding contents and new issues concerning the undertakings and  guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State, glorious traditions, political tasks, and activities of deep social and humanistic meaning of the Army, Military Region, and Unit (doing mass mobilisation work, helping people prevent and combat natural disasters, epidemics,...); good people and good deeds; conspiracies and counter-tricks of hostile forces, etc. In fact, this is the main struggle activity in the Unit. Although it is indirect, it has brought a certain effect. In addition, based on the tasks of the core force, each member needs to actively follow the superiors’ orientation and information, regularly “adhere to the Internet” to promptly “screen” and detect problems and actively advise and propose content, methods and, directly organise the struggle through writing articles and  comments to fight and report the malicious information,... to ensure timely orientation of awareness and thoughts of cadres, soldiers, and people, especially in the face of “hot” issues that attract the public attention and create stability and unity in the Unit.

Thirdly, to be proactively in ensuring secrecy and safety. This is both a requirement and a goal in cyberspace struggle. In fact, there have been many agencies, units, cadres, and Party members who have been negligent and subjective, disregarded, and simplified the information security when using the Internet and social networks. Many images and video clips related to military activities have been leaked, and laveraged by hostile forces. Therefore, to resolve the conflict between the requirements of active, responsive, and timely struggle and ensuring absolute safety, it is necessary for the Party committees and commanders of agencies and units to regularly communicate cadres, Party members, and the masses, especially the core forces, to firmly grasp and strictly comply with regulations on the protection of state and military secrets; use of the Internet and social networks; information security assurance and cyber warfare activities; speaking and provision of information to the press; use of voice and video recording equipment in the Army; and documents related to the task of combating wrong and hostile views. In addition, all levels should regularly inspect the implementation of regulations and decentralisation and empowering in accessing and processing confidential documents and strictly maintain the reporting regime to promptly correct and handle cases of violations and risks of violations. This is a very important issue that needs to be thoroughly and seriously implemented to make it impossible for hostile forces to take advantage of.

Finally, to promote the leadership and direction of the Party committees and commanders at all levels and responsibilities of cadres and Party members. This is a factor that decides the effectiveness and enhance the “combat power” in the fight in cyberspace. However, to maintain regular, continuous, and strict leadership and direction, it is required that commissars and commanders at each level and each unit must determine the correct position and role of this task. All manifestations of disregard, neglect, and considering it as a “side issue” and “leaving entirely” for the agencies and core forces will be difficult to bring practical effects and easily lead to “virtual” achievements, not substantive, and even deflected and counterproductive activities. Along with education and building of the spirit and political responsibility of cadres and Party members, especially the core forces, it is necessary to have an appropriate assurance mechanism that is commensurate with the position, role, and nature of the task to create strong resources and motivation in the fight against wrong and hostile views. The core issue is to create conditions in terms of time, means, and funding and attach political responsibilities and interests (linking the results of the performance of the struggle with the assessment and classification of cadres and Party members, promotion, appointment, reward, discipline...) for the participating forces to encourage the spirit of “fighting” and daring to think, speak, and fight among cadres, Party members, and the masses.

The achievements and the problems posed by the “3-proactive” model in cyberspace struggle over the past time are important, and they are the basis for Brigade 603 to continue studying, supplementing, improving, and promote to constantly improve the effectiveness of the fight against “peaceful evolution”. Other agencies and units may refer to and apply in a flexible manner in accordance with practice.

 Senior Colonel NGUYEN VAN TU, Commissar of the Brigade