The Politburo issued Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW on further implementation of Directive No. 05-CT/TW, dated 15 May 2016, of the Politburo (12^th tenure) on “Speeding up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle” with the aim to contribute significantly to make the Party strong in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel on 18 May 2021. To turn the study and imitation of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle into self-consciousness and regular action of party committees and organisations, cadres, party members, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers requires the Military Party Committee and entire military to grasp and strictly carry out this Conclusion.

Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle are invaluable assets of our Party and people and firm spiritual foundation of social life. Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought serve as the ideological foundation and lodestar of the Party and Vietnamese revolution, the basis for our Party to work out revolution guidelines. Thus, our Party has issued many important documents to lead and direct the study and imitation of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle. These documents have been improved in each party congress. After 5 years’ implementation, the Politburo’s Directive No. 05 has been put into practice intensively and extensively, had an enormous pervasive power, and become self-consciousness and responsibility of collectives and individuals, making practical contribution to Party building and political system, increased quality of cadres and party members, prevention and response to degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle as well as manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party. It also enhances the struggle against wrongdoings, corruption, and wastefulness in the entire Party and political system and strengthens people’s confidence in the Party, State, and regime.

Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van Duc, Director of the Department of Propagation and Training, reports the review of 5 years implementing Directive No.05 in the Military

On perceiving Directive No. 05 of the Politburo, the Central Military Commission’s Standing Committee promulgated Directive No. 87-CT/QUTW of 8 July 2016 on “promoting the studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle in the Military Party Committee and entire military”. The General Political Department unveiled Plan No. 1585/KH-CT of 1 September 2016 to instruct the implementation of Directive No. 87 and proposed including contents of Directive No. 05 in resolutions leading the realisation of military, national defence missions and building of the Military Party Committee. Party organisations from grassroots level to party committees under direct leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) devised plans and specified contents, methods, criteria, and commitments of cadres, party members, and the masses; aligned implementation of Directive No. 05 with realisation of Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee on Party building, the campaign “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier,” and the Determination to Win Emulation Movement, ensuring unity, synchronicity, depth, and in line with functions and missions of departments and units.

In the coming years, the world and region continue to witness rapid, complex, unforeseeable developments, which have huge influence on reform, national construction and defence. Although position and strength, overall power, international prestige of our country and people’s confidence have been enhanced, our country still faces many difficulties and challenges. Shortcomings and weaknesses, corruption, wastefulness, degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation” in part of cadres and party members have seen complex developments. Hostile forces speed up doing deliberate damage to our Party, State, and regime by subtle, cunning means. The building of Viet Nam People’s Army (VPA), strengthening of national defence, protection of the Homeland, prevention and response to natural disasters, epidemics, pandemics, and nontraditional security place increasingly high demands, requiring the entire Party and people in general, the Military Party Committee and whole military in particular to continue to strictly implement Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW of the Politburo (13^th tenure), notably the following fundamental solutions.

First, it is necessary to raise awareness of cadres, party members, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers about the significance of further stepping up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle. Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle have been the source of great power since our Party came into being and led the revolution. This enables the entire Party, people, and military to bring into internal strength to overcome difficulties and challenges, successfully completing goals and missions of the revolution. Currently, to deserve to be the vanguard and faithful representative of the working class, labouring people and the entire nation requires the Party to renew its way of thinking and improve political steadfastness, intelligence, ethics, governing capacity and methods to be qualified for leading the cause of reform, national construction and defence. Consequently, further implementation of Directive No. 05 plays a vital role in the building of our Party and a socialist, law-governed State of the people, by the people, and for the people. As far as the military is concerned, further implementation of Directive No. 05 provides foundation for building a strong military in politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and cadres, leveraging qualities of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers,” and playing the core role in strengthening national defence, safeguarding the Homeland, and carrying out its combat mission in peacetime. Therefore, party committees and organisations, leading cadres, and commanders at all levels must successfully conduct propaganda and education in order to make party members, cadres, and soldiers deeply grasp theoretical and practical values of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle as well as the need to continue implementation of Directive No. 05 in the new situation; align propaganda and education with ideological work, correcting improper thought and responsibility during execution.

An illustrative photo

Second, tapping into leading role to improve quality and effectiveness of studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle. Party committee and leading cadres at all levels need to take major responsibility for carrying out Directive No. 05 in accordance with practical requirements; exercise resolute, comprehensive leadership; identify breakthroughs and deal with weaknesses; develop new, creative ways to turn the study and imitation of Uncle Ho into daily, regular, self-conscious actions of cadres and soldiers. Additionally, they must connect implementation of Directive No. 05 with comprehension and realisation of Resolution of the 13^th Party Congress, Resolution of the 11^th Military Party Congress, and resolutions of party congresses at all levels; step up the Determination to Win Emulation Movement and the campaign of Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” in the new era, ensuring that Directive No. 05 is brought into life in a practical, effective manner. The perception and implementation of Directive No. 05 in the military must be aligned with deeply grasping an important article by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong named “Some theoretical and practical issues regarding socialism and the path to socialism in Viet Nam” in order to foster common understanding and confidence in socialism and the path to socialism chosen by our Party, Uncle Ho, and people.

The entire military is to successfully conduct political education and ideological guidance in the face of pressing matters in society; cultivate a healthy military cultural environment suitable for cadres and soldiers to absorb the good, clear away the bad, and try their best to imitate qualities of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers.” It is important to identify, train, and multiply prominent collectives and individuals, creative, effective methods while speeding up inspecting and supervising the implementation of Directive No. 05 in order to deter, early detect, and timely deal with violations of law and discipline, ensuring that the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle are carried out in a serious, effective, substantive manner.

Third, making programs and plans to implement Directive No. 05 in accordance with political missions of the military in general and departments and units in particular. In the forthcoming time, the military is to be entrusted with onerous tasks in the context of intertwined advantages and disadvantages of situations in the world and country. The military is streamlining its organisation and staffing to strive for becoming an adept, compact, and strong force by 2025, which lays firm foundation for building a revolutionary, regular, highly skilled, modernised VPA by 2030. It has to carry out training, war games, combat readiness, unit building while addressing consequences caused by natural disasters, pandemics, nontraditional security challenges, and so on. The VPA is requested to take initiative in researching and well perceiving situations in order to advise the Party and State on strategic matters pertaining to military, national defence, protection of the Homeland, defence diplomacy, prevention of conflict and war from afar. Departments and units must exercise constant vigilance and maintain fighting spirit without being surprised in any situation. To accomplish assigned tasks requires party committees and organisations to ceaselessly enhance leadership and combat power; promote management efficiency of commanders as well as willpower, self-reliance, resilience of cadres and soldiers. Therefore, the implementation of Directive No. 05 must be connected with political missions of departments and units through proper contents and methods with a view to bringing about firm changes in awareness and responsibility for execution. On the basis of practical situation, departments and units continue to concretise Directive No. 05 into plans and criteria close to their functions and mission, ensuring that Ho Chi Minh’s thought is always a great source of power encouraging cadres and soldiers to complete their missions of combat training and readiness, promoting good order and discipline. On perceiving the standpoint of “respecting the people, staying close to the people, believing in the people, understanding the people, learning from the people, rely on the people, and assuming responsibility to the people,” the entire military successfully conducts mass mobilisation, participates in helping people in economic, cultural, social development, hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and building of a strong political system at the grassroots level. To concretise the study and imitation of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle into missions of departments and units requires cadres and soldiers to have willpower, determination to overcome difficulty and hardship, dare to make the ultimate sacrifice, and be ready to undertake their combat mission in peacetime. They must also be the vanguard and one of the key forces in helping people in the fight against natural disasters, pandemics, search and rescue in the spirit of “fighting the epidemic like fighting against the enemy” and “where there are difficulties and challenges, there are soldiers.”

Fourth, bringing into play the exemplary role and responsibility of cadres and party members, especially the leading ones. On grasping and seriously realising Conclusion No. 55-QD/TW, dated 19 December 2016, of the Politburo (12^th tenure) on “Some urgent tasks to strengthen the role of cadres and party members in setting examples” and the Party’s Regulation No. 08-Qdi/TW, dated 25 October 2018, on “Responsibility to set examples of cadres and party members, first and foremost members of the Politburo, members of the Secretariat Committee, members of the Party Central Committee,” cadres and party members in the military must be in the vanguard of studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle. The higher positions the cadres hold, the more exemplary they are, both in words and deeds. They must remain steadfast in ideology, adopt right standpoints, dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, devote themselves wholeheartedly to their work, and take care of their juniors. Cadres and party members in the military must regularly study and train to cultivate their revolutionary morality, proper dignity, and lifestyle. In addition, they are requested to have a scientific, democratic leadership style and cultural lifestyle in order to be truly the people who can unite, arouse, and tap into collective intelligence; strictly comply with the principle of democratic centralism, objectiveness, comprehensiveness, fairness, transparency without partiality, factionalism, and so forth.

Fifth, actively opposing wrong viewpoints, which distort Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle. Hostile, reactionary forces are speeding up their deliberate damage to our Party, State, regime, and military. They concentrate on undermining the Party’s ideological, theoretical foundation; distorting Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle by extremely malicious means; defame or sanctify Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle. All these things aim to deny President Ho Chi Minh’s dedication to Vietnamese revolution, thus causing skepticism and vacillation about success of the Politburo’s Directive No. 05.

To struggle against plots to distort Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle requires the Military Party Committee and entire military to further grasp and strictly implement Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW, dated 22 October 2018, of the Politburo on “promoting protection of the Party’s ideological foundation, struggle against wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situations”; innovate and enhance quality and effectiveness of researching, developing, and apply Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought to social life in a creative manner. Practical summation and theoretical development must be speeded up with the aim of affirming the soundness, revolutionism, and scientism of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, lifestyle as well as the militant spirit, persuasiveness, and effectiveness in rejecting wrong, hostile viewpoints to safeguard the Party’s ideological foundation in the military. There also needs to bring into play the key role of cyber task force, media, news agencies, and associations of arts and culture in composing and spreading good work about Ho Chi Minh, revolutionary war with the aim to engrave his image in the hearts and minds of Vietnamese people and international friends and make Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle become firm spiritual foundation in the military and social life.

On leveraging outcomes gained after 5 years’ implementation of the Politburo’s Directive No. 05 (12^th tenure), given the utmost effort and resolution of party committees and organisations, cadres, party members, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, in the coming time, the study and imitation of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle in the Military Party Committee and entire military will produce more results, have far-reaching influence, contribute to the building of a pure, strong, representative Military Party Committee. This ensures that the military will be always a faithful political force and sharp means of violence to safeguard the Homeland, Party, State, and people, capable of “accomplishing any missions, overcoming any difficulties, triumphing over any enemies.”

General Luong Cuong, Member of the Politburo and the Central Military Commission’s Standing Committee, Chief of the General Political Department, Viet Nam People’s Army