Building and strongly promoting the "people's hearts and minds" in the national defense

Some new perspectives on building a "people's hearts" position in the national defense at the 13th National Party Congress

Firstly , there is a supplement and development of the Party's cognitive process in building "the people's hearts and minds".

Before the 10th Party Congress (2006), in official documents, our Party had not used the term "people's hearts posture", but the ideology and viewpoints on promoting the strength of "people's hearts", "relying on the people", "taking the people as the root", "national unity" were always consistent and pervasive in the Party's military and defense policies. The 10th Party Congress used the term "people's hearts posture" for the first time to emphasize the task of "building a "people's hearts posture" as the foundation for promoting the combined strength of the entire nation, in which the People's Army and the People's Public Security are the core" ⁽¹⁾ . The 11th Party Congress (2011) clearly stated: "Building a solid people's hearts posture in implementing the strategy of defending the Fatherland" ⁽²⁾ . The 12th National Party Congress (2016) once again emphasized the task of: “Building a “people’s heart position”, creating a solid foundation for building a national defense and people’s security” ⁽³⁾ in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. The 13th National Party Congress (2021) determined: “Building and strongly promoting a “people’s heart position” in a national defense and people’s security; building and firmly consolidating a national defense and people’s security position” ⁽⁴⁾ .

Border guards at Mon Son Station, Con Cuong District, Nghe An Province help people build houses_Photo: VNA

Second, The 13th National Party Congress affirmed the important role of building "people's hearts and minds" in the cause of defending the Fatherland.

Regarding the position of "people's hearts" being placed first in relation to the national defense posture and people's security posture. This is not simply a mechanical arrangement but an affirmation, supplement, and new development of the Party's thinking in the cause of defending the Fatherland, originating from theoretical and practical foundations: Firstly, originating from national traditions, the viewpoint of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh's thought on the role of the masses . In the history of building and defending the country, our people have had to constantly fight against great and brutal enemies. The fundamental reason that helps our people defeat all enemies with much greater military potential is because we are always very aware of the great role, the decisive factor for victory is the strength of the people. “people's hearts”. Marxism-Leninism also clearly states that the masses are the true creators of history and decide the development of history. VI Lenin affirmed: “A revolution is only truly a revolution when tens of millions of people unanimously and enthusiastically rise up” ⁽⁵⁾ . Creatively applying the viewpoint of Marxism-Leninism on the role of the people to the reality of Vietnam, throughout the process of leading the revolution, President Ho Chi Minh always emphasized the role of “people's hearts”. He always affirmed that revolution is the cause of the masses, by the people and for the people. According to him, in order for a society to succeed, there must be three conditions: Heavenly time, favorable terrain, and harmony. These three conditions are all important, but the most important is “harmony”, meaning that everyone is in agreement and of one mind. From there, he affirmed a truth: "No army, no weapon can defeat the spirit of sacrifice of an entire nation" ⁽⁶⁾ ; secondly, from the relationship between "the people's heart posture" and "the people's national defense posture" and "the people's security posture". The 2019 Vietnam National Defense White Paper affirmed: "The people's national defense is built on the foundation of "the people's heart posture", manifested in the infinite loyalty to the Fatherland, the people and the socialist regime; patriotism, national pride, consensus, and absolute trust of the people in the leadership of the Party, the management and administration of the State; firm belief in the victory of the cause of innovation, in the socialist regime in Vietnam, in the ability and combined strength of the country, the invincible strength of the people and of the great national unity bloc" ⁽⁷⁾ . Thus, “the people’s heart position” is the fundamental factor that determines “the people’s national defense position” and “the people’s security position”. Building a people’s national defense includes three factors: building potential, building forces and building a people’s national defense position, in which “the people’s heart position” is the most important factor in building a people’s national defense position. It is the inheritance of President Ho Chi Minh’s thought of “people first, guns later”.

Third, The 13th National Party Congress emphasized the strong promotion of "people's hearts and minds".

The documents of the 13th National Party Congress not only continue to affirm the issue of building a "people's heart position" but also add the issue of strongly promoting the "people's heart position". Affirming the need to build and strongly promote the "people's heart position" in the national defense and people's security is not only consistent with the position and role of the "people's heart position" but also consistent with the requirements and tasks of building and protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new period.

Firstly , it comes from the position and role of the "people's hearts" in the cause of defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. The "people's hearts" is a solid foundation for building the national defense in our country today. The strength of the national defense and people's security depends largely on the "people's hearts". The "people's hearts" is the source to mobilize all forces of the country to fight for the cause of defending the Fatherland; is a solid support, a belief for all cadres, soldiers of the armed forces, and all classes of people to overcome all difficulties and challenges, ready to sacrifice themselves to successfully carry out the task of defending the Fatherland. Only a solid "people's hearts" can gather people's hearts, gather material and spiritual forces, creating great strength to ensure the common victory of the cause of defending the Fatherland. If we cannot create a "battlefield" and let the "people's hearts" scatter, then there is the risk of losing the country to the invasion of outside forces.

Second, stemming from the reality of building a "people's heart position" in the cause of defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. Over the past years, our Party and State have synchronously implemented many policies and solutions to build and consolidate the "people's heart position", especially regularly focusing on building the great national unity bloc, making an important contribution to gathering and rallying people of all walks of life. However, due to many reasons, both objective and subjective, building a "people's heart position", especially realizing the contents of building a "people's heart position" still has limitations. In particular, the negative impacts of the market economy; some limitations and shortcomings in the work of Party building, management and administration of society by the State; Manifestations of lack of ethical standards, cultural values, lifestyles contrary to the fine customs of the nation and the values of the Vietnamese people... affect consensus and cohesion in society, reduce the trust of a part of the people, and significantly impact the process of building a "people's heart position".

Third, based on the world, regional and domestic situations and the goals and tasks of protecting the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the new period. In the context of globalization, international integration and the development of science and technology, in addition to the advantages, such as the trend of peace and cooperation playing a leading role in creating conditions for expanding relations and cooperation in economic development, improving people's lives; absorbing advanced scientific and technological achievements; improving the quality of human resources, etc., there are also many challenges facing the process of building and protecting the Fatherland. Notably, the world and regional situations are complicated; traditional and non-traditional security issues such as armed conflicts, ethnic and religious conflicts, transnational crimes, natural disasters, epidemics, fierce resistance from hostile forces... That situation requires even more to promote the country's combined strength, strongly promote the "people's hearts and minds", the strength of great national unity, belief and aspiration for development to build and firmly protect the Fatherland.

Solutions to build and strongly promote the "people's hearts" position in the national defense

Firstly, to raise awareness and responsibility of the political system and all people about the policy of building a "people's heart position" in the national defense.

This is the most important solution, deciding the construction of "people's hearts" in the national defense. Because only with the right awareness of the policy of building "people's hearts" in the national defense can we raise awareness of responsibility and take the right actions. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly disseminate the policy of building "people's hearts" in the national defense in the spirit of the 13th National Party Congress in the political system and among the people. In addition, it is necessary to promote broad democracy, create consensus and high unanimity in the process of performing national defense tasks and protecting the Fatherland. It is required that Party committees, authorities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations at all levels grasp the content and requirements of building "people's hearts" in each locality in order to have appropriate education and dissemination measures. Focus on innovating content, diversifying forms and methods of education and propaganda. Closely combine continuing education with specialized education associated with the country's political events. Promote the role of organizations, forces, media, and cultural institutions in education and propaganda. Promote emulation movements to build and replicate advanced models in building "people's hearts and minds".

Warm military-civilian relationship_Photo: VNA

Second, promote the building and rectification of a clean and strong Party and political system; build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law State; consolidate the close relationship between the Party, State and the people and the great national unity bloc.

Building "people's hearts" is the process of promoting patriotism, solidarity, will, belief, and determination of the entire nation, creating a solid political-spiritual foundation to mobilize the combined strength of the entire nation in the process of building and defending the Fatherland under the leadership of the Party and the management of the State. Therefore, in order to strongly promote the "people's heart position", it is important to step up the building of a clean and strong Party and political system in terms of politics, ideology, ethics, organization, and cadres, so that our Party can truly "be moral and civilized" worthy of the people's trust, be the combat staff and vanguard of the revolution, the nucleus gathering the strength of great national unity, strongly promoting the "people's heart position" in the national defense of the entire people. Strengthening the building of a socialist rule-of-law State of the people, by the people, for the people. Promote solutions to realize the policy of building a Government of “innovation, integrity, discipline, action, efficiency, serving the people”; promote public ethics, social responsibility, tighten discipline in the direction and implementation of public duties of cadres, civil servants and public employees; overcome the proposal and promulgation of ineffective policies, policies that do not suit the people's wishes, causing public outrage. Strengthen the close relationship between the Party, the State and the people; firmly consolidate the political system from the central to the grassroots level, to be truly close to and understand the people; take care to consolidate the great national unity bloc. Maintain strict discipline and law, step up the fight against corruption and waste, in order to strengthen the people's trust in the Party, the State and the socialist regime.

Third, promote socio-economic development, improve people's material and spiritual life.

Effectively implement the socio-economic recovery and development program, ensuring progress, equity and social security in each step of development. Continue to promote improving people's knowledge, training human resources, nurturing talents; take care of people's health; focus on solving problems of inequality in benefits, the gap between rich and poor between regions; attach importance to promoting people's mastery...

Fourth, intensify the fight to defeat all plots and tricks of "peaceful evolution" by hostile forces aimed at destroying the "people's hearts and minds".

Strengthen the fight against erroneous and hostile viewpoints, firmly protect the Party's ideological foundation, prevent, combat and defeat all plots and tricks of "peaceful evolution", prevent and repel "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the Party, contributing to building an increasingly strong "people's hearts and minds position". Accordingly, it is necessary to proactively identify and resolutely fight against the plots of hostile forces to sabotage the "people's hearts and minds position", especially the plot to divide the relationship between the Party, the State and the people; to divide the great national unity bloc. Closely link the fight against "peaceful evolution" with the fight to prevent and repel the degradation of ideology, morality, politics, lifestyle, "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the Party, contributing to firmly protecting the Party's ideological foundation, strengthening the "people's hearts and minds position" to firmly protect the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam.

Fifth, promote the role of the Vietnam People's Army in building a "people's heart position" in the national defense.

The 13th National Party Congress affirmed: “Strengthening national defense and security, firmly protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland is an important and regular task of the Party, the State, the political system and the entire people, in which the People's Army and the People's Public Security are the core” ^(8). As the core force in building all-people national defense, building a “people's heart posture”, protecting the Fatherland, the army needs to do a good job of advising and making proposals to the Party and the State on building all-people national defense and people's war posture; promote mass mobilization work; take the lead in helping people develop production, eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, build new rural areas, prevent and combat the COVID-19 pandemic, fight to defeat all plots and sabotage actions of hostile forces, especially in strategic areas, important for national defense and security; uphold the nature, tradition and good qualities of “Uncle Ho's soldiers”; strengthen close relations with the people..., build a revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modern army, with a number of military branches, arms, and forces advancing straight to modernity, politically strong, worthy of being a reliable force of the Party, State, and people in the cause of firmly defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

Currently, the cause of defending the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is facing both opportunities, advantages and difficulties, and challenges. In that situation, it requires the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army to thoroughly grasp the important position and role of the "people's hearts" and the Party's viewpoint on building and strongly promoting the "people's hearts" to create a solid foundation for building a national defense and people's security. Building and strongly promoting the "people's hearts" is the development of the ideology of taking "people as the root", promoting the strength of the people, is a "national defense strategy" from an early and far-reaching perspective, is the responsibility of the entire Party, the entire political system and the entire people, in which the People's Army plays a core role and is the decisive factor for the success of the cause of building and defending the Socialist Republic of Vietnam./.

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(1) Documents of the 10th National Congress of Delegates , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2006, p. 109
(2) Documents of the 11th National Congress of Delegates , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2006, p. 234
(3) Documents of the 12th National Congress of Delegates , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2006, p. 149
(4), (8) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2021, vol. I, p. 157, p. 156
(5) VI Lenin, Complete Works , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2005, vol. 36, p. 613
(6) Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2005, vol. 4, p. 89
(7) Vietnam National Defense 2019, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, p. 49

Source: https://tapchicongsan.org.vn/web/guest/nghien-cu/-/2018/825477/xay-dung-va-phat-huy-manh-me-%E2%80%9Cthe-tran-long-dan%E2%80%9D--trong-nen-quoc-phong-toan-dan.aspx