Combating wrong, hostile viewpoints nowadays is a difficult, complex struggle, and it is responsibility of the entire Party, people, and Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), including military youths. Thus, party committees and commands of offices and units across the Military should focus their leadership and direction on encouraging all-level youth unions to take part in this task with high responsibility, good skills, and creative, proper, practically effective methods.

As part of the whole country’s youth, young military staff members constitute a large force with great potential, the Party’s powerful reserve force, and the successor force of military cadres. They have been undertaking difficult tasks for the Homeland construction and protection. They have always played a vanguard role on all fronts to bring into play and spread the noble virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period. It should be noted that during COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control, military youths together with forces across the entire VPA have provided great, reliable support for the Party, the State, and the people, thereby deserving to be members of an army of the people and for the people.

However, due to limitations in their knowledge and life experience, military youths are easily enticed and incited; they are easily pessimistic or discouraged by failures. Besides, the dark side of market mechanisms and modern mass media, particularly social networks and the Internet greatly impacts on military youths’ awareness, ideology, sentiment, and action. Due to those above-mentioned characteristics, hostile forces always keep an eye on military youths as the targets of their sabotage strategy aimed at “depoliticising” our VPA. As a result of the hostile forces’ extremely cunning artifices, revolutionary ideal of a section of young military staff members has faded away; some of them have even committed “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.” More seriously, a number of military young cadres and soldiers have violated the State’s law and the VPA’s discipline, negatively impacting on the noble virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers,” creating opportunities for the hostile forces’ distortion and sabotage.

Those above-mentioned issues not only impact on task performance of military units, but also directly threaten the country’s future. Hence, it is necessary to promote the roles of party committees, commands, and mass organisations, including military youths in defending the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints nowadays. To that end, offices and units across the VPA should synchronously implement several basic measures as follows.

Actively conduct the work of propagation and education to render the youth fully aware of the defence of the Party’s ideological foundation and the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints. All-level party committees and commands should focus on directing youth unions to step up and diversify the work of propagation and education to improve the youth’s political awareness and “immunity” against bad information and wrong, hostile viewpoints. Emphasis should be placed on grasping and introducing directives and resolutions by the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence (MND), and the General Political Department (GPD) as well as directions and guiding documents by all-level Steering Boards 35 on protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints. It is necessary to grasp and well execute the 11^th Secretariat’s Directive 42-CT/TW, dated March 24^th, 2015 on enhancing the Party’s leadership over education of revolutionary ideal, ethics, and cultural lifestyle for the youth in the period of 2015-2030. Due attention should be paid to creatively disseminating legal normative documents by the State, the MND, and the GPD, especially on the management and use of telephone and Internet services and social networks within the Military, such as the Cyber Security Law of 2018, the Statutes on managing, supplying, and using Internet services within the Military accompanied by the MND’s Circular 110/2014/TT-BQP, dated August 22^nd , 2014, the GPD’s Directive 1492/CT-BV, dated September 17^th, 2013 on management of social networks across the Military, and the MND’s Circular 202/2016/TT-BQP, dated December 12^th, 2016 on information safety within the Military. Doing so will help raise awareness and responsibility of young military staff members for defending the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints, particularly on the Internet and social networks. Military youths shall not post or share unproven information; they shall not disseminate information and images that are untruthful, or disturbing, or contrary to the country’s customs, or discredit organisations and individuals; they shall not take part in commenting on or sharing information that goes against the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws and policies; they shall not spread rumours or fabrications to boost the ratings of their social media accounts.

Military youth team winning second prize in the knowledge contest on the 13th National Party Congress Resolution (photo: qdnd.vn)

Improve the youth’s knowledge and skills to safeguard the Party’s ideological foundation and fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints. This measure is of importance to raising the effectiveness of protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints – an extremely difficult, complex task for the whole country’s young people in general, the Military’s young staff members in particular. Therefore, offices and units across the VPA should educate the youth on the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the Party’s guidelines, and the State’s laws and policies so that they could have scientific methodology and remain steadfast in the Party’s ideological foundation. At the same time, offices and units within the Military should continue executing the Military Youth Committee’s Guidance 824/HD-TN, dated September 25^th, 2018 on the military youth’s fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints on the Internet and social networks. They should frequently organise refresher courses to improve the youth’s knowledge and skills in recognising and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints in cyberspace as the hostile forces’ main sabotage environment nowadays. Besides, they should frequently exchange their methods and experience in recognising and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints. Due attention should be paid to actively applying social networks, such as blog, Facebook, Zalo, and YouTube, developing online forums, sharing positive news, images, comments, and articles, and interacting with social media accounts to organise the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints in cyberspace.

All-level youth unions should regularly well orientate the youth’s political ideology. Currently, the majority of young people use the Internet and social networks. A part from positive information, the youth easily encounter the hostile forces’ wrong information and distortions. However, not everybody can remain steadfastness in revolutionary ideal or have insight into the nature of the hostile forces’ information; therefore, a number of young people are easily enticed and incited. For that reason, all-level youth unions should proactively grasp and provide information about the hostile forces’ sabotage activities, while stepping up the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle to improve the youth’s qualities and revolutionary morality. At the same time, all-level youth unions should regularly grasp the ideological situation of cadres, the youth, and local citizens to formulate measures of propagation, education, ideological orientation against the hostile forces’ enticement and opportunely educate young people with the signs of ideological deviation, “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation.”

Bring into play the youth’s proactiveness, creativity, and responsibility in the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation and the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints. Military youths are now capable of accessing information technology. Thus, all-level youth unions should encourage young military staff members to comprehensively improve their knowledge and theoretical thinking in order to make contributions to fighting against the hostile forces’ extremely cunning artifices. Moreover, offices and units should enhance the operation of “Young Theoretical Clubs” under Guidance 508/HD-TN, dated May 31^st, 2019 by the Military Youth Committee and encourage cadres, youth union members, and young people to actively implement the Campaign entitled “a piece of good news on a daily basis, a beautiful story on a weekly basis” on social networks under Guidance 868/HD-TN, dated October 9^th, 2018 by the Military Youth Committee. At the same time, emphasis should be placed on closely combining “building” with “fighting” and fostering the building of a fine cultural environment and the healthy participation in social networks to keep bringing into play the youth’s proactiveness, creativity, responsibility, and knowledge against the “matrix of information” and increase young people’s “immunity” against the hostile force’s plots and artifices.

Additionally, all-level youth unions should proactively advise their units’ party committees and commands on ensuring sufficient materials and means and organising refresher courses to draw lessons and improve skills of cadres, youth union members, and young people as the core force in fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints. Simultaneously, significance should be attached to exchanging valuable experience, multiplying effective, creative models and approaches, opportunely commending and rewarding youth unions, cadres, youth union members, and young people with achievements in combating wrong, hostile viewpoints, and handling weaknesses and wrongdoings.

Defending the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints represent a task of paramount importance nowadays. It is also responsibility of the entire Party, people, and VPA, including the youth as future masters of the country. To successfully perform that mission, all-level youth unions within the Military should actively adopt creative, flexible measures in accordance with the particularities of each office and unit so as to draw the youth’s attention and promote the youth’s enthusiasm and responsibility in the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation and the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation.

Col. TRAN VIET NANG, Head of the Military Youth Committee