Only with the Party's leadership can the revolution succeed.

One of the important contents mentioned by President Ho Chi Minh in his works The Revolutionary Path and Common Political Knowledge is about the Party and Party building. In fact, his specific instructions in these two works still retain their value; not only contributing to meeting the requirements of the revolutionary cause under the leadership of the Party, but also having extremely important significance for the work of Party building and rectification, so that the Party is always clean, strong, and worthy of its vanguard role.

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THE PARTY'S LEADERSHIP OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CAUSE IS UNDENIABLE

The history of the Vietnamese revolution over the past 93 years has proven that the decisive factor for all victories of the Vietnamese revolution is "first of all, there must be a revolutionary party, to mobilize and organize the people internally, and to connect with oppressed peoples and the proletariat everywhere externally. Only when the party is strong can the revolution succeed, just as the helmsman must be strong for the boat to sail" (1) as affirmed by President Ho Chi Minh in the work "Revolutionary Path" in 1927. At the same time, reality has also affirmed President Ho Chi Minh's words: "To win, the revolution must have a leading party" as he wrote in section 31 of the work "Common political knowledge".

Because, according to Him, “revolution is to destroy the old and replace it with the new, destroy the bad and replace it with the good” and “to fix the old society that has existed for thousands of years to create a new society, that is very difficult” (Revolutionary Path), therefore, “revolution is a very complicated struggle. In order to avoid losing direction, the masses must have the Party to lead them to clearly understand the situation, the path and set the right motto” (section 31, Political Common Sense). Furthermore, “the revolution must first make the people enlightened” (2) (Revolutionary Path). Therefore, in order to successfully carry out the revolutionary cause, “the Party must make the masses enlightened about why they are oppressed and exploited; must teach the masses to understand the laws of social development, so that they clearly understand the purpose of the struggle; clearly show the path of liberation to the masses, and encourage the masses to resolutely make revolution; make the masses believe that the revolution will definitely win” (section 31, Political Common Sense). At the same time, the reality of the Vietnamese revolution also shows that “after the revolution has won, the masses still need the Party’s leadership, because: Even though the people have taken power, the class struggle within the country and the imperialist plot to invade still exist. Because we have to build the economy , national defense, culture, and society, the Party still has to organize, lead, and educate the masses, to bring the working people to complete victory” and for “the revolution and resistance to win, and the nation building to succeed” (3)(section 31, Political Common Sense)…

It can be said that this common but important and necessary knowledge was presented by President Ho Chi Minh very simply, specifically and clearly in Section 31 of the work Common Political Knowledge, not only helping each cadre, party member and people of all walks of life understand and correctly understand the Communist Party and the Party's leadership role, but also affirming that the Party is the vanguard of the class and the nation.

The most vivid evidence is that right from its inception, with the correct guidelines and policies, the Communist Party of Vietnam has affirmed its role; led the masses to successfully carry out the August General Uprising in 1945, founding the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, facing the ambition of the French colonialists to invade Vietnam once again and to protect the newly won independence as well as to firmly pursue the goal of national independence and socialism, under the leadership of the Party, the people and soldiers of the whole country continued the long march of both resistance against the French colonialists and economic, national defense, culture, society development... That is to carry out the cause of both resistance and nation building, building, protecting and developing the country along the chosen path.

Therefore, in order for the Party to always maintain its position and fulfill its responsibilities before the Fatherland and the people, in all circumstances and at all times, the Communist Party of Vietnam must be an organization of outstanding people. That is: 1) "The Party is the vanguard of the working people (workers, farmers and intellectuals)"; 2) "All Party members must maintain Party discipline, must obey the leadership and comply with the Party's resolutions"; 3) "The Party must lead all other organizations of the working people"; 4) "The Party must closely communicate with the masses"; 5) "The Party must be organized according to the principle of democratic centralism"; 6) In the Party, any superior or subordinate, old or new party member, must maintain the discipline of the proletariat”… These are the 6 basic principles, the organizational foundation of the Party so that the Party “is truly strong, clean, clear-sighted, and unified” (section 32, Political Common Sense)(4).

In particular, not only did he emphasize that “If the Party wants to be strong, it must have an ideology as its core, and everyone in the Party must understand and follow that ideology. A Party without an ideology is like a person without intelligence or a ship without a compass. Nowadays, there are many doctrines and ideologies, but the most genuine, most certain, and most revolutionary ideology is Leninism” (5) and “the Russian Revolution taught us that if we want the revolution to succeed, we must have the people (workers and peasants) as the foundation, we must have a strong Party, we must be steadfast, we must sacrifice, and we must be unified. In short, we must follow Marxism and Leninism” (Revolutionary Path), but in section 32 of the work Common Political Knowledge, President Ho Chi Minh also affirmed: “The Party’s ideology is Marxism-Leninism, and every Party member must study it. Every Party member must honestly criticize and self-criticize in order to progress forever”; At the same time, it requires that "party members must wholeheartedly and wholeheartedly serve the interests of the people and must set an example in all resistance and nation-building work" (6).

Next, to make the Party worthy of its vanguard role, President Ho Chi Minh not only emphasized that “The Party combines the Vietnamese revolutionary movement with Marxism-Leninism. The Party clearly enlightens the working class, has a resolute class stance, and correct class style”, but also affirmed: “The Party’s ideology is the ideology of the working class, it fights for the interests of all people. Therefore, in the Party there cannot be any ideology, stance, or style that is contrary to the ideology, stance, and style of the working class” (section 33, Political Common Sense). To lead the Vietnamese revolutionary cause, “The Party has a clear Platform: Currently, the working class leads the entire people to fight against imperialism and feudalism, to liberate the nation and implement new democracy. In the future, it will advance to socialism and communism”. At the same time, “The Party has very strict discipline, which all Party members must follow. The Party’s ideology, politics and organization must be unified. There cannot be backward and speculative elements in the Party… There cannot be cowardly and wavering elements in the Party” and “The Party must always educate Party members about revolutionary theory” as well as “The Party must strive to reform the ideology” of Party members who come from intellectual, petty bourgeois, and peasant backgrounds so that they “become fighters of the working class” (section 33, Political Knowledge)(7).

President Ho Chi Minh's thoughts and valuable instructions on the Party and the Party's leadership role in the Vietnamese revolutionary cause from the work The Revolutionary Path (1927) to Political Common Sense (1953) have been thoroughly grasped and seriously implemented, ensuring that the Party is always a unified organization in thought and action from the Central to the local level, from the Central Executive Committee to each grassroots Party organization nationwide; ensuring that the Party is always healthy, clean, strong, worthy of its "dual" responsibility - being both a leader and a truly loyal servant of the people.

General Secretary, President Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary of the Central Military Commission, met with typical and advanced delegates nationwide in building a strong national defense in the 2009-2019 period at the Party Central Committee Headquarters, December 19, 2019. Photo: qdnd.vn

THE PARTY MUST CONSTANTLY RECTIFY AND INNOVATE TO BE WORTHY OF ITS VANILLAIN ROLE

Built, organized and operated according to the principles of a new-style Marxist-Leninist Party, according to President Ho Chi Minh, building and rectifying the Party is not only a need but also an important task of the Party, of each cadre and Party member so that the Party can increasingly perfect itself. In fact, from a secret Party to a ruling Party, the Party not only faced new requirements of the situation and revolutionary tasks, especially when the resistance war against French colonialism (1945-1954) had entered the stage of preparing for a general counterattack to "bring the resistance war to victory", but also had to self-rectify and innovate so that the Party would be "strong and steadfast", meeting the requirements of reality.

During this period, along with the spirit and force (economic, military, political, cadre, etc.) for the general counterattack, the issue of "considering the work of Party rectification and military rectification as the central work of Party building and army building" to strengthen the fighting strength of the people's armed forces and the Party's leadership role in the resistance war in accordance with the spirit of the Resolution of the 3rd Central Conference, Session II (April 22-28, 1952) was implemented. Through that, "raising the ideological level and political consciousness of Party members, making the whole Party unified in thought and action. Raising the organizational spirit and discipline, making the Party's organization clean, the Party's style correct, making the Party strong enough to lead the whole people to move forward to achieve final victory" (8). In fact, the Party has “disseminated Marxist-Leninist theory among the people” because “theory is very important. Not understanding theory is like a blind person walking at night. Theory enlightens the masses, teaches them how to organize and mobilize them to fight correctly. Thanks to theory, the masses clearly understand the reasons for their suffering, clearly see the way to fight for their liberation, clearly understand the methods of fighting the enemy...) and in the work of leadership and practical direction “it has combined theory with the experience and practice of the Vietnamese revolution”, “it has applied the Marxist-Leninist stance, viewpoints and methods to solve the practical problems of the Vietnamese revolution” (section 34, Political Knowledge).

However, because “the Party has an extremely great responsibility”, the Party needs to base itself on the situation at home and abroad to not only be flexible and proactive in “putting out slogans, goals and plans for the struggle”, but also to simultaneously “determine which forces to rely on, which forces to unite, which forces to isolate and divide, in order to destroy the enemies of the class and the people”. That also means that by putting forth “correct political slogans, the entire people will clearly see the direction, recognize who is a friend, who is an enemy, and unite closely around the Party to defeat the enemies of the revolution”. However, according to his instructions, “having a common slogan is not enough, the Party must also base itself on the interests of the people in that period, put forth new slogans, to mobilize the masses, to set goals and outline the path for the masses to fight; at the same time, to train and educate the masses” (section 35, Political Knowledge). At the same time, in order for the Party to be worthy of its position, President Ho Chi Minh not only affirmed that “Party building is an important task”, but he also emphasized that the task of Party members and cadres is “to make the masses imbued with revolutionary ideology… To be exemplary in all the work of resistance and national construction. To be deeply involved in the masses, to wholeheartedly serve the masses, to make the masses love the Party, believe in the Party, to strive to support the Party and voluntarily submit to the Party’s leadership” (section 35, Political Knowledge). According to President Ho Chi Minh, in the process of practical leadership and direction, “Party members and cadres must make the people trust, obey, and love them” and “must firmly grasp the policies of the Party and the Government, and follow the mass line” to “be worthy of being Party members and cadres of the Party, only then can they lead the masses” (section 35, Political Knowledge)(9).

As a leading Party, the Party must be strong, clean, and exemplary. The entire Party must be of one mind, one action, and one spirit of solidarity to fulfill the Party's tasks. A clear and correct understanding of the Party and the purpose of Party building and "Party rectification" is to improve the ideology, political level, and revolutionary ethics of Party members and cadres, and to make Party members and cadres follow the correct proletarian viewpoint and stance. Therefore, in section 36, President Ho Chi Minh emphasized the requirement of "Party building, which has three aspects: ideology, politics, and organization", so the Party "must improve the theoretical and political level of Party members. Must strengthen the organization and discipline of Party members. Must develop the enthusiasm and political activities of Party members" (section 38). Specifically, “The Party needs to develop and consolidate. It is necessary to develop more workers. It is necessary to educate new Party members. It is necessary to reform the ideology of peasant and petty bourgeois Party members”; in which, “in terms of ideology, it is imperative to study Marxist-Leninist theory” because “it is not possible to do this by simply memorizing a few Marxist-Leninist books”. According to him, the work of “ideological education and ideological leadership is the most important task of the Party, we must resolutely fight against the habit of taking ideology lightly” and “The Party must fight against the habit of taking theory lightly. Because without studying theory, our will is weak, we cannot see far and wide, and during the struggle we easily lose direction, resulting in “political blindness”, even corruption, and distance from the revolution” (10). At the same time, “each party member must always practice honest self-criticism and criticism. The Party uses Party rectification and training to educate party members” because “improving political theory and reforming oneself is a long-term and arduous task” (section 37, Political Knowledge).

Also in the work Political Knowledge, President Ho Chi Minh concluded: “The Party is organized by Party members. All work is done by Party members. All resolutions are implemented by Party members. All policies are understood by Party members to the masses. All slogans and plans of the Party are implemented by Party members”, therefore, “the Party needs to make its Party members clean, must nurture and absorb good people from the working class into the Party”/must “select Party members” according to standards, because that is “the foundation of the Party organization” (section 38). At the same time, the Party's principle is that all Party committees at all levels and all Party members must organize and operate according to a unified principle - that is "centralized democracy" - "centralization on the basis of democracy" and "democracy under centralized leadership" and "to make the Party strong, it is necessary to expand democracy (honest self-criticism and criticism), practice centralized leadership, improve organization and discipline" (section 42)(11). That also means that, in order to bring the revolutionary cause to success, the Party must not only "have very strict discipline. Resolutely fight against the phenomena of ignoring discipline and organization", but also "must always maintain the centralized democratic regime. Must always rectify the organization, eliminate bad elements from the Party. Must train, select and use cadres correctly"...

Along with that, the cadres and party members not only need to: “On their own: Be frugal. Be peaceful without being selfish. Be determined to correct their own mistakes. Be careful without being timid. Ask often. Be patient (hard-working). Be studious and thoughtful. Be selfless. Be neither vain nor arrogant. Do what you say. Keep your ideology firm. Be self-sacrificing. Have little desire for material things. Be secretive. In dealing with people: Be tolerant with each individual. Be strict with the organization. Have a heart to teach people. Be direct without being bold. Be considerate of people. In doing things: Be careful with the situation. Be decisive. Be courageous. Be obedient to the organization” as required in the work The Revolutionary Path, but also have to practice “strict discipline, honest self-criticism and criticism”; At the same time, "closely connect with the people and never leave them for a minute, unite with the people to form a bloc. Fight against haste, impatience, bureaucracy, and commandism" as he clearly stated in section 37(12) and must "strive to serve the people, strengthen the connection between the people and the Party, promptly inform the Party of the people's needs, explain to the people to imbibe and implement the Party's policies" (section 40, Political Common Sense)(13) to gain the people's trust, support, follow, and contribute opinions...

The thoughts and instructions in President Ho Chi Minh's works The Revolutionary Path and Common Political Knowledge are the core things about the Party, the Party's leadership role and Party building in terms of politics, ideology, organization and ethics. Following his instructions, the Communist Party has not only focused on building the Party in all aspects but also regularly rectified to "correct shortcomings, develop strengths. Determined to overcome difficulties and hardships, fulfill its duties" to be worthy of being a true revolutionary Party, "ethical and civilized"; the leading force of the State and society as stipulated in Article 4 of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 2013!

(1) (2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 2, pp. 289, 288

(3) (4) (6) (7) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 8, pp. 273, 274-275, 275, 275-276, 279, 279, 287, 281, 284
(5) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 2, p. 2895
(8) Communist Party of Vietnam: Complete Party Documents, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2001, vol. 13, p. 70

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