Communist Review - Ho Chi Minh thought about the genuine revolutionary party and about the building of the power-holding communist party is of special importance for the process of the Vietnamese revolution, since the Communist Party of Vietnam came into being and led the revolution. His thought continues to be the lodestar for the current Party building and revamping of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Theory of power-holding communist party in Ho Chi Minh’s ideology and heritage

On the one hand, the creative development in theory on the power-holding party of President Ho Chi Minh from the realities of the Vietnamese revolution is the inheritance and faithful and creative application without sectarianism and dogmatism with Marxism; has developed V.I. Lenin’s theory of a new-type party and has made really great contributions to the theory on the power-holding party; has enriched the theoretical treasure and revolutionary method of Marxism-Leninism; on the other hand, His ideology has also made strong impact and great influence on the international communists’ and workers’ movement, on the world’s revolutionary movement, particularly the national liberation movement in the colonial countries, encouraged the oppressed nations to struggle against imperialism and colonialism.

In the theoretical content of Marxism-Leninism, the theory on the party - here the communist party and the communist party in power - has been less mentioned and in fact, it is the area which is yet to have the really profound interpretation, and there are a lot of issues being left open-ended and left without being explained thoroughly yet in theory as well as having not yet the practical summary so as to verify the theory and develop the new theory. This historical limitation is inevitable, because in the times of C. Marx and F. Engles, the revolution of communism remained a trend in movement, the communist party was yet to be mature and it was still in the process of building. At the time he wrote “The Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848), the party was still in the form of “the Leagues of Communists”, the proletarian revolution was not yet really ripe. The Paris Commune which he had personally witnessed was only “the prelude”, “a test” in the revolutionary action of the proletarian class in one of the advanced capitalist countries in Europe (France), but finally, it was ended in failure. The Commune could be able to hold the power in 72 days. The failure of the Commune had left the valuable lessons to the Communist Party and to the Party’s led revolutionary movement.

Due to the epochal limitations, C. Marx and F. Engels were yet to have enough historical data to discuss on the communist party, particularly on the building of a communist party in power, as well as having no precedents to settle this problem. They only stopped at the general theoretical principles, such as the differentiation of “the program of local character” and “the program of national character” so as to be able to recognize if the party is mature or not? C. Marx and F. Engels only make arguments about the historical inevitability of communism and the communist revolution. That is why, they had stopped only at the prediction, the social hyphothesis about the future society and at how would it be organized and how would the vanguard army of the revolutionary working class, i. e. the communist party, lead the class and society to advance towards communism?

Until V.I. Lenin, even though He had experienced the realities and led successfully the 1917 Great Russian October Revolution, setting up the Soviet Russia and giving birth to realistic socialism, the Communist Party of Russia was in the official position of a party in power (which He called the power assuming party, but the real time V.I. Lenin had assumed the power was very short, only in 7 years (1917 - 1924). V.I. Lenin passed away when the New Economic Policy (NEP) initiated by Him was just starting, in which there was the “Directive for Party Purging” which was extremely important, but it was yet to be carried out as much as wished. V.I. Lenin’s ideologies of reforming socialism, of building and revamping the Party had not had enough time to have them permeated into realities. He only could be able to imagine a number of issues relating to the theory about the communist party and the communist party in power to build socialism, but there were yet to be sufficient conditions for study and thorough summary.

Realistic socialism in Eastern Europe with the communist parties in power had undergone 7 decades, but during this space of time, it seemed that there was no development of theory about the power-holding communist party in a fundamental way. Almost all the socialist countries (including Vietnam) were under the governing influence of the Soviet model, where there had existed many defects. It was in this situation that the issues that President Ho Chi Minh had a presage, foresee and raised it to be the concept and argument had helped our Party form in a pretty fundmental step the theory and method of building the power-holding communist party. These are His important and outstanding contributions, starting from the book titled “The Revolutionary Path” in 1927, to the book “Correcting style of work” in 1947, to His “Testament” in 1969 and a series of works on revolutionary morality, on the combat against individualism from 1958 to 1969. In which He had pointed out the viewpoint in fighting against individualism as against “internal aggressors” - the most dangerous enemy within each person, each party organization; it could destroy from within and it has placed the party before the danger of success - failure - losses - or existence.

It can be summarized and generalized the theory about the power-holding communist party of President Ho Chi Minh through the realities of the Communist Party of Vietnam, from its nascency to the time when it held power and the process of renovation, on the following main points:

Firstly, in the process of establishing the Party, according to V.I. Lenin’s theory of a new type party, Nguyen Ai Quoc had planned a transitional form, or established “the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association”. It was the organization of the young revolutionaries He personally educated and trained in accordance with Marxism-Leninism. It was also the predecessor organization of the Communist Party of Vietnam when the situation was yet to be ripe for the establishment of the Party.

Secondly, in Vietnam, the Party’s law of nascency has got both the popularity and the special characteristics. It is the combination between Marxism-Leninism with the workers’ movement (popularity), with the patriotic movement of the Vietnamese people (charafteristics).

Thirdly, from the nature of a revolutionary party, the working class, the vanguard of which is the Communist Party of Vietnam, right from the start, had intimately associated with the nation and the people. The Vietnamese working class which was still in a small number when the Party was born, and was yet to be the direct product of the production of great industry in the country, but there was the support from nation and people, with the traditional strength of patriotism, it had still undertaken completely the mission of the revolutionary leading class.

Fourthly, the Communist Party of Vietnam was set up with the merger of the communist organizations from the three parts of the country (the Communist Party of Indochina, the An Nam Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist League) with the political program, stratagem and action program being drafted by leader Nguyen Ai Quoc and discussed and approved together with the brief Rule of the Party. Unity, unification in action for the goal of national liberation, class emancipation and social emancipation, implementation of national independence and in an advance to build the communist society, bypassing the capitalist regime is the direct manifestation of the Party’s loyalty to the interests of the Fatherland, the nation and the people.

Fifthly, from the historical realities, the Communist Party of Vietnam (the name of the Party was determined by Nguyen Ai Quoc right from the beginning) is not only the vanguard of the working class, but also the pioneer of the nation, the faithful representative of the interests of the working class and of the nation, of the Vietnamese people. Through the history of revolutionary struggle, as well as the process of renovation, our Party has affirmed clearly its nature and characteristics.

Sixthly, unity of class, unity of nation, unity of the entire people is the strategic ideology, the strategic political line of the Party, that has created the synergy of the revolution in close combination with the international solidarity on the standpoint of the working class. Leader Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh is the soul, the embodiment of ideology, the line of unity and great unity. This is one of the outstanding values of the Party; unity has become the Party’s precious tradition, the crystallization and promotion of the tradition of unity of the nation  throughout thousands of years of the national building and defending. Thanks to the firm maintenance of that tradition, in the history of our Party, there has never happened the division in ideology and organization as some of parties in the world had committed. The strength of the Party has always relied on the foundation of the strength of the nation, of the people, the fundamental force of which is the Workers – Peasants, as Nguyen Ai Quoc had affirmed in His work “The Revolutionary Path”: “Workers-Peasants are the masters of revolution” (1).

Seventhly, the Party is not only the pioneer in theory, but also the representative of revolutionary morality, not only persistent in ideology and goals, “firmly maintain –ism”, but also strives and sacrifices to the end for the independent Fatherland, the free nation and the wealthy and happy people. Apart from the interests of the Fatherland and the people, our Party has no other interests. Only by firmly maintaining and training for life the revolutionary morality: Industry, thrift, integrity, righteousness, with “no lust for materials”, by struggling against individualism for life like the fight against “internal aggressors”, only by having the bravery not to take any interest in fame and wealth, by standing outside the fame and wealth could we be able to ensure morality for direction, correct political line, for the clear-sighted mind, unanimous unity and for the strength of organization, of the self-conscious discipline so as to rally the masses and attract the masses to follow the Party, to believe in the Party (2).

One famous argument of President Ho Chi Minh: Our Party is the well-bred child, coming from the working class (workers); the Party is the morality, the civilization (3); therefore, to build the Party, particularly in the condition that the Party is in power, is not only to build the Party strong in the political ideology, organization and cadres, but also to build the Party in morality and culture. The Party has to be really pure and only in that way, the Party can be powerful. With President Ho Chi Minh being the leader who has founded and trained the Party, is the soul of the Party, of the nation, our Party not only has the political program like the declaration being the banner to rally the revolutionary force, but also has the moral philosophy, setting good example of cadres and party members, particularly the chiefs, so that the people believe, support and follow.

Eightly, the Communist Party of Vietnam has taken Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought as the ideological foundation of the Party. The Party is loyal to Marxism-Leninism in a creative way, without dogmatism, sectarianism,  developes creatively Marxism-Leninism in the realities of the Vietnamese revolution and the world revolution; the Party’s organizational principle is “democratic centralism”, the collective leadership, the individual in charge, upholding criticism and self-cricisim, and this is the law and also the method to develop the Party.

In the principle of criticism and self-criticism, as instructed by President Ho Chi Minh, it is not only the politics, but alspo the morality and more prodound, more subtle, it is the culture (“it is a must to have comradeship and mutual love”, “to have reasonability and sentiment”, “to be strict with ourselves, but generous and tolerant with others”), so as to build the political culture, the moral culture within the Party, particularly when the Party is in power.

Ninethly, one remarkable point in the ideology and theory about the communist party in power of President Ho Chi Minh is to rely on the people to build and revamp the Party. Based on the people’s attitude to recheck the lines, resolutions, advocacies and policies of the Party to see if they are right or wrong, thus making every line and policy of the Party suitable to the wishes of the people, to win the people’s hearts, without doing anything against the people’s opinions, “leading the people but not to follow the tail of the people”. Based on the people to readjust the organization, apparatus, education and training, supervision and inspection of cadres. In His book titled “Correcting Style of Work” (1947), a section deals with 12 things on building a genuine revolutionary party, this is the core contents of Ho Chi Minh thought on building the party in power.

Tenthly, the key to success or failure of the revolutionary movement, of the career is because of cadres, of human beings. The education-training of cadres must be considered as the Party’s root work. It is necessary to give care to the training of cadres for the present and for the future; cadres should have both morality and talent, but morality is the root. To skillfully lead, to skillfully inspect cadres, with the concern and with love, but there has to be the protection of cadres by the regular inspection, control and criticism so that cadres cannot become spoilt, and we cannot lose cadres (the most valuable asset – the human asset).

President Ho Chi Minh requests that it is necessary to pay regular attention to practicing broad democracy within the Party, to doing well the people mobilization, consolidating the unity, consensus, upholding the determination and faith, the spirit in charge of cadres and party members before the Party and the people; to constantly renew ourselves, to  revamp on our own for self-development, for ever-lasting progress, without having the state of degeneration and depravement within the Party; taking the satisfaction and trust of the people as the yardstick of the results, leading capacities, the prestige of the Party, the quality  and abilities of the contingent of cadres and party members.

He also pointed out that it is necessary to settle thoroughly and harmoniously the relationship between the Party and the people, the State and the people, the Fatherland Front and the organizations and the people, between our Party and the friend parties with the world. It is necessary to have the vision, the clear-cut direction, the correct policy, the timely advocacy, the practical and specific measures; the loyal, devoted and modest cadres and party members who serve the people, learn from the people, help the people to improve and so on. To this end, the fundamental and decisive thing is the quality of the contingent of cadres and party members, particularly the leading persons in the Party’s leading agencies, especially the chiefs.

These are the most fundamental and prominent points in Ho Chi Minh thought about the party in power which remains valuable for ever to the Communist Party of Vietnam, to the Vietnamese revolution. These are the contributions of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the devotion of President Ho Chi Minh to the theory about the party in power, enriching and making it lively the theoretical treasure of Marxism-Leninism from the realities of the Vietnamese revolution. These are also the vivid evidence of the clear-sighted mind of the Party, typical and crystalized in the clear-sighted mind, stratagem and great abilities of President Ho Chi Minh – the leader of the Party, of the nation.

Clear-sighted mind through realities of historical operation of Party and talented leader Ho Chi Minh

The clear-sighted mind of the Party expressed concentratedly in the leading capacities of the collective leading agencies at different levels of the Party, especially at the highest level and in the quality of mind of the leader, of the chief. The clear-sighted mind ensures the correct and timely decision on the basis of precise analysis and assessment of the situation and forces of correlative sides; responds to the requirements posed by realities before the revolutionary movement, before the Party to promote the revolutionary cause to advance; mobilises and unites the forces surrounding the Party so as to carry out the creative activities according to the determined goals.

The clear-sighted mind of the Party, first of all, is to find out the direction, map out exactly the strategic lines and the tasks to be settled in each period, each stage of development of the revolution; besides, it is also the possibility to determine clearly the necessary and sufficient conditions to implement the revolutionary goals and tasks. The clear-sighted mind is related directly to the strategic vision, far-reaching sightedness, led by the theoretical scientific mindset; consciousness and action in accordance with the law, creative application of the objective laws by the highest endeavor of the subjective factor, but without making any involuntary, subjective mistakes; without being governed by the empiricism, going beyond the conventional experience level so as to reach to the theoretical level, to master the pioneer theory; it is the capacity to use of theory as a method so that it is not only possible to apply creatively the theory in realities, but also to be able to summarize the realities with theory, from realities to discover and develop the new theory.

The Communist Party of Vietnam, the tyical concentration of which is in President Ho Chi Minh and His close collaborators in the Political Bureau and in the Party Central Committee, has implemented remarkably the instructions of principle character of the theoretical method of V.I. Lenin: “To unify theory with realities”, consistently followed the viewpoint of realities (the standard of truth) with the viewpoint of development and renovation (the dialectical mindset, moving and opening, not static and closing); “analyze concretely a concrete issue and it is the essence, living soul of Marxism”. Inheriting that spirit, President Ho Chi Minh stressed: “Practice breeds knowledge/Knowledge moves on to theory/Theory leads practice”(5).

The experience of the Vietnamese revolution shows that so long as the Party has got the mindset of independence, autonomy and creativity, the correct line, motto and measures can be made and mapped out, then the revolutionary movements will be promoted and developed satisfactorily; on the contrary, so long as the Party makes mistakes in being dogmatic, banausic, subjective, involuntary, out of touch with realities, in disregarding the objective law, running counter to the law, it will not avoid making mistakes in the lines, advocacies and policies, and in the end of the day, it will take the revolutionary movement to difficulties and will not avoid having failure.

When the renovation work was decided and initiated, at the 6th National Party Congress, December 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam had laid stress on the great lesson:      

- To build the Party on a par with the political task of a power-holding part which lead the people to conduct the socialist revolution.   

- To respect and act in accordance with the objective law.          

- To get impregnated with the ideology “The people are the roots of the country”, “The country takes the people as the roots”, so that all advocacies, policies, all the things are directed to the people, serve the people’s interests, respond the people’s legitimate aspirations.

The reason to have the renovation line at the 6th Party Congress is because of the fact that the Communist Party of Vietnam has upheld its clear-sighted mind on the basis of generalization and integrattion from the clear-sighted mind of the people, listened to the people’s voice at the grass-roots, understood thoroughly the people’s heart and recognized the “order of life”. It is clear that without the clear-sighted mind, it is impossible to have the renovation ideology, the renovation line, the timely decisive policies on renovation to come into being; it is impossible to give the clear, precise answer to the very important question: “To be or not to be”, “Renovation or die?”.

Thanks to the clear-sighted mind that the Communist Party of Vietnam has recognized and affirmed: Renovation is a golden opportunity for development; it is necessary to seize the right opportunity, without losing the opportunity, at the same time is proactive to overcome challenges, dangers, even though it is severe. Thanks to the clear-sighted mind that the Communist Party of Vietnam has recognized the dialectic of transformation: To come to meet at the right time and take the effective advantage of the opportunity, then it is possible to limit and overcome the challenges; and then the challenges will become the opportunities for the new development. On the contrary, losing opportunities (actually many times, the opportunities only appear once; they come very fast and go away very rapidly and will not reappear), so challenges and dangers will increase, become complicated and fiercer, even they can land a whole movement, a career into failure. The lesson on renovation of Vietnam led by the Communist Party of Vietnam is the logical continuity from the experience of success and failure of our forefathers in history, in face of the trend of renovation of the nation and of the world.

The Communist Party of Vietnam has inherited and promoted the clear-sighted mind filled with sensitiveness, intelligence and stratagem of leader Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh:

+ “Revolution is to break the old into the new, to break the bad into the good”(6).

+ Revolution, first of all, has the Party, the Party, first of all, has an –ism as the core. The Party without an –ism is like a man without intellect. The most genuine, most revolutionary –ism is Marxism-Leninism. In the Party, everyone must follow that –ism.

+ Revolution is renovation, development, is inheritance, should always settle the relationship between the old and the new like a struggle.

Not everything should be made anew at all. What is old, if it is still right and good, it is advisable to use it; what is old, even if it is right and good, but it causes troubles and inconveniences in application because there are new conditions arising, so it is necessary to repair it. And what is old, but it has become outdated and backward, it must be thrown away…. What is new, if it is really right and good, it is necessary to apply it resolutely (7).

The realities show that there are something very old and really obsolete, but people have got used to it, so it is regarded as normal (it is the psychological resistance force that leads to slackness, conservatism and avoidance of change). There are something new which is progressive and revolutionary, but it is still strange, so men and organizations are not ready psychologically to receive it, and it is till regarded as bad and opposed. Therefore, overcoming an old habit, receiving a new idea, settling the relationship between the old and the new is the complicated and long struggle and it needs determination, the scientific method to settle it(8).

+ Until when the Testament is left to the entire people, the entire Party, President Hồ Chí Minh has pointed out to us His ideology about renovation: “This is a struggle against what is old, damaged, to create the new, fresh things. To win victory in this huge fight, it is necessary to mobilize the entire people, organize and educate the entire people, to rely on the great force of the entire people”(9).

It is clear that the above-mentioned ideologies and viewpoints of President Hồ Chí Minh, from the days of preparing to establish the Party and build the country to the last days and months of His life, His career has been always troubled with the people’s affairs and the country’s affairs, He is worried about the present and has the plan for the future and this is the remarkable symbol for the intellect of Vietnam, for the clear-sighted mind of the Party. He is the outstanding leader of the genuine revolutionary Party, the Party of intellect, the Party of renovation, the Party of development. He is the crystallization for the creative strength of the Party and the nation, the strength to transmit the great inspiration to the entire Party and people to look ahead into the future and the fine prospect so as to build successfully socialism in Vietnam – a highly cultural society. With the ideological and intellectual potential of the nation, the Vietnamese nation will definitely become a scholarly society. The clear-sighted mind is the fundamental quality of the Party in power with its heavy responsibilities to lead successfully that glorious career as aspired by President Ho Chi Minh.

The clear-sighted mind, as considered, is not only the mind capacities, but also the base of morality and dignity. With the power-holding communist party, together with the scientific mind, the party should have the revolutionary morality and the solid political abilities so as never to lose its bearings in leadership  and power, particularly at the point of time with the watershed challenges. Putting together all these agents, it will make strength and abilities of the Party on the foundation of the nation’s strength in combination with the epochal strength. V.I. Lenin once warned that the greatest danger for the party in power is its out of touch with the masses, its divorce itself from realities; it should always guard against the “disease of communist arrogance” and the vice of administrative bureaucracy as well as the bribery and corruption. These vicious “diseases” can be born if the power-holding communist party has not trained its morality and has not kept the Party’s nature.

And if a leading, power-holding party loses its political bearings, it is synonymous with the suididal act, taking the whole movement and revolutionary career to failure. That the Soviet Communist Party was disintegrated and lost its power-hold role, the socialist regime collapsed after seven decades of its existence (even though there were a lot of glorious exploits) as it had happened three decades ago, is a painful evidence, an epochal tragedy, is of eternal significance of warning, and remains the burning news of the day for our Party and other communist parties. Through it, we have seen all the more clearly the strategic vision, “the oceanic eyesight” of the clear-sighted mind and the noble, pure morality of President Ho Chi Minh – a ideological and organizational genius of the Party and nation of Vietnam.

The clear-sighted mind of President Ho Chi Minh, of the Communist Party of Vietnam, is in the sense that the trend and prospect of history have been recognized, it is believed with the most exactly scientific confidence, it is believed with the most ardently revolutionary confidence, it is the confidence in the strength of the people, of patriotism, the most noble value of the Vietnamese history, of the Vietnamese culture, the creation of truth and morality and moral principle of the nation and of the times so as to affirm that the US imperialists would be definitely defeated, the Vietnamese people would be definitely victorious. It was a certainty (10). This is the message that the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh had transmitted to the nation and to the whole world and mankind. Until when He wrote the Testament, which He called in a humble way a letter, a few words left behind, His ardent confidence has never changed. With a regrettable confidence – great and noble of a great human dignity of the times (11), He regreted that “He could not serve the people longer and more” (12). It is the noble morality of a man who had volunteered to dedicate His whole life to the people, to the country. He said: “I have dedicated my whole life to my nation” (13), it is also the clear-sighted mind of Ho Chi Minh, just like a philosophy of human life: “Those who have morality will receive truth more easily”. With a clear-sighted mind, the leading and power-holding Party will lead and hold power by science, by politics, morality and culture.

Lessons drawn from clear-sighted mind of Party, of leader Ho Chi Minh should continue to be applied and developed now

+ The first lesson, the clear-sighted mind of the Party should go to the skilfull combination between the scientific theory and realities happening in the specific historical conditions, to the thinking abilities of independence, autonomy, creativity, without being banausic, dogmatic, rigid, the scientific mind should be closely associated with the revolutionary morality and solid and consistent political abilities before all events and challenges. The clear-sighted mind demands that it is applied right in the clement weather, favourable terrain and concord among people, in which the concord among the people is the root, the most important. It is also the clear-sightedness in consciousness and in treatment of the relations of Time – Position – Force: to take advantage of the time, to create  the position and to build and strengthen solidly the force. It is the science and art in the armed struggle, the insurrection to seize the power and maintain firmly the power.

The events in the Party’s history since Uncle Ho returned to the country, more than 80 years ago, such as the 8th Plenum decided to change the strategic direction, placing the task of national liberation on top of all, establishing the Vietnamese Independence League, upholding the spirit of great unity (May 19, 1941), the Instructions to establish the Vietnam Liberation Army Propaganda Team (Decemer 22, 1944), the National Party Congress (August 13-15, 1945), the National Congress in Tân Trào (August 16-17, 1945). The Order of Insurrection nationwide and the letters and appeals on the compatriots of leader Ho Chi Minh, the Declaration of Independence, the settlement of six urgent tasks right after the day to declare the Independence to the reorganization of the Provisional Government and the coalition government, the drafting of the Constitution and the General Election to the National Assembly…. all had become the classic examples of the mind, abilities and stratagem of the Party and of President Ho Chi Minh before the turning points of history.

This important lesson that should be applied and developed in the current time is to continue the renovation and creativity, placing the interests of the country-nation above all else, to arouse and promote the aspirations of Vietnam, the aspirations of Ho Chi Minh; to apply the spirit “to act according to circumstances” before the new opportunities, new challenges with the efforts of new actions; uphold the determination, faith, unanimity of the entire Party and people to carry out the aspiration for the powerful, prosperous and ever-lasting nation.

+ The second lesson, it is to rely on the people, to promote to the highest level the love of the country and the strength of the great national unity, “bring our own strength to conduct the liberation for ourselves”. The best way of doing things is to use the people’s talent, the people’s strength for the benefits of the people, for the happiness of the people. Deeply imbued with the national consciousness and the people’s character of the national liberation revolution to develop the nation, so the Party had made greatest efforts to liberate the people’s strength, develop the people’s strength, constantly foster the people’s strength, while it should know how to “save the people’s strength” as guided by President Ho Chi Minh. Thanks to the help of the people, the clear-sighted mind of the people that the Party has nurtured and constantly developed its clear-sighted mind. When having held the power, the Party has to be in closer touch with the people, learn from the people, raise questions with the people, promote all the initiatives and creativities of the people, rely on the people to promote all resources, build the contingent of cadres, discover and use well the talents, because human beings are the most precious asset, and virtuous and talented people are within the masses. In the contingent of the Party, the more virtuous and talented people it has, the better; this is the basis and resources, potential to help make the Party have the clear-sigted mind.

This lesson is continuing to be promoted in building and revamping the Party, in practising unity, democracy and in the population mobilization work, in the training and fostering of cadres of the Party; the Party has to be in touch with the people, rely on the force of the people and it is not allowed to separate from the people.

+ The third lesson, the clear-sighted mind ensures that the Party’s leadership will not make any mistakes when it makes a dicision. Thanks to the clear-sighted mind, the Party has avoided being landed in simplicity, subjectivism and involuntarism; it is more cautious but determined without being hesistant before the situations that demand for a more careful deliberation in many aspects. To do so, the Party is to be made to have the potential of ideology, theory, to master theory, “to renew” the intellect and the theoretical method so as not to be landed into rigidity, backwardness, to avoid being fallen into sluggishness, conservativeness, in fear of renovation because we cannot be able to free ourselves from the old experience and habits. Many times, the new situation has appeared in a very strange, very new way, demanding to have a new way of settlement, a new answer very different from the old, very popular criteria. To have breakthroughs, the Party has to have the breakthrough from theory. To have revolution, renovation is need. To have renovation, creativity is needed. To be strong in the faith, to be self-confident, but it is necessary to always verify the confidence in truth from new realities.

This lesson is well undertood by the Party when it has to settle the new requriements, new tasks without having any precedents. Following are the typical examples:

+ Is it possible to bypass the capitalist regime to advance to socialism, particularly with the very low starting point like Vietnam?

+ The country was till devided, the requirements of national liberation was placed on top of all, particularly the revolution in the Southern part of the country. So, was it better to focus on carrying out one strategic task only or two tasks simultaneously: the National liberation revolution in the South and the socialist revolution in the North to support the Southern revolution? The situation was that was it possible to transitionally advance towards socialism in North? When the US aggressors launched its war of destruction against the North, was it possible to continue the socialist construction in the fiercely destructive war or not?

+ The national reunification, taking the South together with the North to transitionally advance towards socialism or leave the South “to have some more times for rehabilitation and stability”, to concentrate on the economic development, then it would transitionally advance towards socialism?

+ Especially, when the world socialist system was disintegrated, the Soviet Union – the world’s revolutionary bulwalk had collapsed in institution, the country was falling into the economic and social crisis, how could it need to be consistent in the line of socialist building?

+ To carry out the renovation with the market economy, accepting the differentiation and competition; co-existence, cooperation and competition together in door-opening, international integration and globalization. Was it possible to develop the market economy while being loyal to the principles of scientific socialism? Was it possible to maintain firmly the socialist ideological system without leaving the difference in ideology to be the barrier to the multilateral cooperation and diversification? The Party has to lead the country and the nation to build socialism with the market economy, with the rule-of-law State, to be proactive in opening the door, integration, in establishing relations with the power-holding capitalist parties, not only with the communist parties?

In face of so many such strange situations, our Party has got the affirmative answer. The correct, clear-sighted and timely decisions of the Party: To persistently follow the ideology, goal of national independence in close combination with socialism. To be persistent and firmly maintain the ideological foundation: Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought and firmly maintain the leading and power-holding role of the Party, without pluralism, multiparty, without “the separation of three powers” in building the rule-of-law State, in building and developing the modern market economy, but it is the socialist-oriented market economy. The achievements of over 35 years of renovation have proved to these clear-sighted decisions of the Party.

Discovering the system of the great relations of the law character of renovation, the formation of new consciousness with the system of viewpoints and principles of socialism of Vietnam and the path to advance towards to socialism in Vietnam, are the achievements of important theory of the clear-sighted mind of our Party, which continue to shine the Vietnamese revolutionary realities nowadays.

Therefore, from this lesson, the Communist Party of Vietnam has paid special attention to the role of theory, the ideological theory of the Party and has made great efforts to enhance the practice of widespread democracy within the Party, served as the motive force to promote the practice of democracy in society, combining the practice of democracy with the promotion of law to ensure the social discipline (14). This relationship is discovered from the mind of the Party at the 13th Party Congress. If the Party wants to nurture the clear-sighted mind, it should strive hard to pay attention to developing and practising democracy both in the Party and in society. That is the social environment and the source of nutrition to develop the clear-sighted mind, is the path to create the loyal personality, firm abilities, to guard against the state of “false personality” alongside “false morality”, “false politics, “false science” and “false revolution”, only because the consciousness is not correct, because there is not a respect and action in accordance with the objective law(15).

+ The fourth lesson, to train for life the revolutiomary morality: industriousness, thrift, integrity and righteousness, disinterestedness and impartiality, no interest in fame and wealth, defeating individualism by the strength of the revolutionary morality following the example of President Ho Chi Minh. This is the vital lesson of the Communist Party in power. The clear-sighted mind should have the pedestal of morality. Degeneration and collapse are due to depravement in morality, which have deformed the nature of the Party and the personality of party members. That is why, training the clear-sighted mind is necessarily not separated from the requirement of training morality. Since 1949 when the senior Party school was established, President Ho Chi Minh had initiated and enlightened every cadre and party member about the learning: “Learning to work, to live to become a man, to become a cadre. Learn to serve the organizations, to serve the class and people, to serve the Fatherland and mankind. To this end, it is necessary to have industriousness, thriftiness, integrity and righteousness, impartiality and disinterestedness” (16). To apply this lesson to the present day, it is necessary to strive to improve the mind, scientific theory in combination with the great efforts in training morality, particularly of the contingent of the leading and managing cadres. Mind must be bright. Morality must be pure. Soul must be sound so as to have Great morality, real morality, Great talent, real talent and bring that real morality, real talent to serve the People, the Country, to fulfill the Party’s mission. The Party is for the People, then the People will consider the Party as their own Party.

+ The fifth lesson, to constantly nurture and develop the clear-sighted mind of the Party in power, the Party must represent the quintessence of the national and epochal mind. Within the Party, a special attention must be paid to nurturing the talents, the quintessences of the Party, not only those in the contingent of strategy-level leading cadres, but the quintessences of the mind of the Party must be found present through the contingent of talented and brilliant experts of the Party. This is the source of energy reserves of spirit, creating the potential of ideology and mind of the Party, breeding and supplying the source of cledar-sighted mind to the Party, just making the Party on a par with the task, really become the mind, conscience and honour of the nation, of the times. Whether being the pioneer in theory, protecting the Party’s ideological foundation or not, the important part lies in the contingent of these experts and quintenssences of the Party. The Party must have the strategy of training talents and this is the highlight in the personnel strategy of the Party. It is necessary to give special care to the contingent of cadres of the future generations so that the Party’s mind and morality will shine for ever in the heart of the nation and will be on a par with the times./.

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(1), (2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, the Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, tomb 2, p. 288, 280
(3) See: Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 12, p. 400, 403
(4) See: Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 4, p. 289, 290
(5) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 7, p. 120
(6) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 2, p. 284
(7), (8) See: Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 5, p. 112 – 113, 125
(9), (10) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works: Ibid, tomb 15, p. 617, 621
(11) Dr. Josephin Stenson (America) “Ho Chi Minh, A great personality of the time”, International seminar to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh, in Hanoi, on May 19, 1990, Hon Viet magazine, March 2021, p. 4-7
(12) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works: Ibid, tomb 15, p. 623
(13) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works: Ibid, tomb 15, p.674
(14) See: Documents of the 13th Party Congress, the Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, tomb 1, p. 39
(15) See: Hoang Chi Bao: “Wear the cloak of objectivism in scientific research – A Harm that needs being laid bare and eliminated”, Communist Review, No. 923, August 2019 and No. 924, August 2019
(16) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works: Ibid, tomb 6, p. 208

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 984 (February 2022)