Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on utilisation of talents is a system of viewpoints on detecting, attracting, training, cultivating, utilising, and honouring talents. Amid the requirements of building an adept, compact, strong Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) towards modernity, attracting, training, and utilising talents according to the President’s ideology represent an objective demand and a matter of strategic importance and urgency.

When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh regarded human factor as the most important issue; according to the President, talents play a crucial role, act as an incentive for national development, and should be detected and utilised for our Party and nation’s revolutionary cause.

President Ho Chi Minh and Prof. Tran Dai Nghia (file photo/hochiminh.vn)

Ho Chi Minh’s view on utilising talents derives from his ideology on respecting the people, trusting the people, and heightening the people’s role as masters of the country; it is also the continuity and development of the national tradition of seeking out talents. According to the President, in addition to selection, detection, and training, a very important issue is that all-level leaders and managers must know how to employ and utilise talents properly; otherwise, talents will be “stunted”. This is the key to bringing into play talents in the revolutionary cause. Hence, this work must be conducted regularly, continuously “like a gardener cultivating precious plants. We must utilise talents, cadres, and every single person who is useful our common work”. Utilising talents is to know how to employ them according to their forte: “we use great talents for great jobs, we assign minor talents to small tasks, whoever has the capacity for a certain job, we immediately give them that job. Knowing how to use people in this way, we will have no worry about a lack of cadres”. Employing talents must be in accordance with their capabilities and strengths; do not “use a carpenter for blacksmithing”; if we use talents unreasonably, our work will not progress, those talents will be stunted, and it will be detrimental to the Party. To utilise talents, according to President Ho Chi Minh, we should well address several following issues.

First, it is necessary to make sound evaluations of personnel and their task performance. This work must be carried out regularly as “every time we reassess talents, on the one hand, we find new talents, and on the other hand, corrupt individuals are exposed”. According to our Party, cadre evaluation is the most important step of personnel work. In those evaluations, task performance must be the main yardstick and the basis for taking other steps of personnel work, such as appointment, training, cultivation, and rotation.

Second, it is important to resolutely combat narrow-mindedness, division, and factionalism within the Party and the Party’s personnel work. According to President Ho Chi Minh, “narrow-mindedness” is one of the reasons why talents are not utilised. Together with selfishness, localism, factionalism, and division, it is a formidable opponent that sabotages the Party from within. President Ho Chi Minh believed: “Due to narrow-mindedness, we do not know how to utilise talents, and we try to embrace everything. Embracing everything will surely lead to the failure to accomplish tasks”; meanwhile, factionalism and division “cause a decrease in the number of talents for the Party and prevents the Party from sufficiently implementing its policies”. Therefore, we must endeavour to fight and wipe out those diseases.

Third, in order to utilise talents, there should be sound leadership. Bureaucracy, arrogance, a lack of democracy, and authoritarianism among cadres constitute a reason for the loss of talents. To utilise talents, we must respect their personalities. Ho Chi Minh pointed out: “our leadership methods are not good enough, and bureaucracy is still strong; therefore, some talents are not promoted. To avoid a waste of talents, we must rectify our leadership methods”.

While offering profound, scientific, revolutionary viewpoints, President Ho Chi Minh set an example in the utilisation of talents for the country and in the cultivation of revolutionary generations for the future. In his Testament, he still earnestly reminded us: “The cultivation of future revolutionary generations is of great importance and necessity”. Creatively applying the President’s ideology on utilising talents, our Party has always paid due attention to training, cultivating, building, and utilising this contingent, considering them one of the deciding factors in the success of the revolution and the cause of Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland construction and protection.

Currently, the entire VPA is stepping up the execution of the Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress on “building revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security, with several services, corps, and forces moving straight to modernity. By 2025, we basically build adept, compact, strong Army and Public Security as solid prerequisites for the building of revolutionary, regular, elite, modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security”. Thus, attracting, training, and utilising talents according to Ho Chi Minh’s ideology represent a matter of objective necessity, strategic importance, and urgency, a key, breakthrough step, and a deciding factor in the building of an adept, compact, strong VPA towards modernity. To that end, it is necessary to focus on several main measures as follows.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and students of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City (photo: VNA)

First, offices and units should continue to seriously execute the Project entitled “policy to attract and utilise talents for the VPA towards 2030, with a vision towards 2050”; they should proactively search, detect, and attract talents. This is a both long-term and urgent matter in the building of a comprehensively strong VPA. Amid the requirements of an adept, compact, strong VPA towards modernity, intellectuals in general and talents in particular hold an increasingly important position and role. Currently, the utilisation of talents within the VPA should be included in the master strategy for human resource development and the master strategy for national development. Thus, all-level leaders and commanders should be fully aware of the role of human factor and the importance of promoting human factor in the building of an adept, compact, strong VPA towards modernity. It is essential to continue to undertake researches and issue specific regulations on criteria, conditions, and methods of searching, detecting, attracting, training, and developing talents within the VPA to meet the task requirements in the new era.

Second, all-level party committees and party organisations should focus on building and effectively implementing strategies for high-quality human resource development via feasible projects for personnel planning and training. The quality of military scientists should be raised towards international standards and in accord with Vietnam’s realities. It is vital to build, cultivate, and properly use a pool of campaign-level and strategic-level leaders and commanders with great capability and pure morality as a core force in the building of the VPA. Besides, it is necessary to continue to raise the quality and effectiveness of using scientific and technological experts in order to develop a leading force in military specialities and fields; great value should be attached to consulting this contingent, with a view to encouraging their active, proactive, creative role; it is important to instil patriotism, national pride, and revolutionary will into them. At the same time, there should be policies to attract and encourage Vietnamese intellectuals and talents, who are studying and living abroad, to return and work for the VPA.

Third, it is essential to be imbued with President Ho Chi Minh’s teachings: “we must be clever at using cadres”. Party committees and commands at all levels should cleverly deploy talents to useful jobs in accordance with their forte and create a favourable condition for talents to bring into play their strengths and devote themselves to the Military. Moreover, procedures and criteria for appointment of cadres should be renewed to allow talented and moral individuals to hold important positions and promote their capacity. Leaders and commanders at all levels should spread inspirations and build enthusiasm and a strong sense of responsibility among talents via various methods, bring them to practical activities in different environments so that they can improve themselves and bring into play their strengths, create a democratic, open atmosphere during activities, foster technical infrastructures and invest in modern equipment for talents to study, acquire, and apply advances of the 4^th industrial revolution to training, combat, and scientific research realities. At the same time, there should be policies to encourage talents to research and invent software, weapons, and technical equipment for training and combat operations.

Fourth, it is important to follow Uncle Ho’s teachings: “we must help cadres in the right way”. A part from honouring talents, offices and units should continue to complete and effectively implement several preferential treatment policies to train and attract talents from both inside and outside the VPA, such as entitlements, bonuses, and working conditions and means. This is a measure of utmost importance to attracting and bringing into play talents within the Military nowadays. Hence, due attention should be paid to continuing to develop, renew, and perfect mechanisms and policies on housing, working, living, and studying conditions for talents, take care of their families, and create a social status commensurate with their position, role, responsibilities, and assigned tasks. Doing so will enable talents to keep their mind on their work and dedicate themselves to the VPA as well as avoid “brain drain”.

Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on utilising talents retains its values nowadays; it is an important part of personnel work within the Party in general, within the VPA in particular. Therefore, leaders and commanders at all levels should continue to grasp and creatively apply the President’s ideology to their units’ building, training, and combat realities to contribute to detecting, attracting, and utilising talents, meeting the requirements of an adept, compact, strong VPA towards modernity and great capacity to firmly protect the Fatherland in the new era.

NGUYEN TUNG LAM, PhD

Political Officer College