In the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy against our revolution, ideology and cultural field is always at the forefront of this strategy. Nowadays, taking advantage of new advancements in science and technology as well as the trend of globalization, international integration and the negative side of the market economy, they have been employing new artifices of sabotage which make the struggle in this important, sensitive field more challenging and intense.

Over the past years, adopting both public and underground stratagems to sabotage, distort and attack Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Party’s guidelines and our country’s new culture without any outcome, the hostile forces have been making adjustments in their stratagems in a bid to transform Vietnam’s political regime. According to the hostile forces, the primary issue is to remove the ideological ground of the Party, the State and the socialist regime and to build another one to replace Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought for the sake of a new capitalist-style society. It is clear to say that the hostile forces’ goals of sabotage in the ideological and cultural field remain unchanged. However, to reach those goals, they have been adopting new approaches that are more “flexible”, amicable and comprehensive to integrate more deeply into social life in an effort to impact on and sabotage our ideological basis and national cultural identities and promote “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within. Correct recognition of new stratagems by hostile forces in the ideological and cultural field is of utmost importance to preventing and combating the “peaceful evolution” strategy and “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” today.

First, it is necessary to notice that the hostile forces have been proactively penetrating into and sabotaging the Party’s ideological foundation via cooperation in all fields, particularly in economic, diplomatic, training and education ones which have been given priority by our Party and State during the process of international integration. Economically, they have taken advantage of cooperation and investment to derail our economy from socialist orientation and establish the system and structure of a capitalist market economy in Vietnam in order to create material and social foundations for the formation of Western-style “democratic politics” and “civil society”. This is a favourable condition for the public appearance of oppositional organizations against the Party, State and socialist regime. It is worth noting that the hostile forces have been making best use of the entanglement of the theory on the socialist-oriented market economy to distort and deny the Party and State’s economic guidelines and achievements, encourage people’s suspicion, applaud and hype the capitalist market economy to undermine the people’s faith in the Party’s leadership and socialist regime, destabilize their ideology and especially bring about political situations. Taking advantage of those political situations, they will incite the right to “economic democracy” and demand that the Party and State must develop a Western-style market economy. At the same time, they will call for the “democratization of the government”, gradually isolate and separate party organizations and members from the masses, intensify socio-political pressure, even incite riot and disturbance to topple the Party’s leadership over the State and society. They have employed the policy of “hypocritical friendliness” to penetrate deep into the economy and widely associate with people from all walks of life to assemble forces, incite and sabotage the ideological basis, and promote “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within.

In addition to economic area, the hostile forces have been attacking diplomatic field. On the one hand, they have advocated fostering exchange and dialogue with Vietnam in various fields via official, “friendly” diplomatic activities in order to popularize capitalist image and values, and proactively associate with, support, suborn and implicate people, particularly discontented, hostile, rightist, extremist, pro-Western elements and political opportunists in a bid to form the core force for the “transformation” and “self-transformation” at senior level and from within. On the other hand, they have diversified channels of relationship to seek the opportunity to more closely associate with and suborn cadres and party members with a view to bringing about degradation in ideology, morality and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among them. Moreover, the hostile forces have given top priority to cooperation on education and training, particularly exchange programs for young students to study in capitalist countries as it is the shortest, most convenient “road” to impact on and convert Vietnam’s ideological basis. Throughout student exchange programs, they have popularized capitalist viewpoints and values, thereby making the youth worship foreign values, disregard national cultural values and politics, pursue hedonism and value materials only, planting the seeds of Western-style democracy and human rights, gradually eliminating socialist democracy and regime in our country.

Accelerating the establishment of Western-style “civil society” represents an extremely wicked stratagem by the hostile forces to remove Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought. They have employed the cover of “democratization”, formed “social criticism channels” as the basis for the establishment of organizations against the Party and State’s offices and organizations, and demanded to supervise the operation of the Party, State and socio-political organizations. At the same time, they have made use of ideological forums and cooperation on scientific research to disseminate “civil society” and capitalist democracy so as to change cadres, party members and people’s ideological basis. Besides, the hostile forces have been plotting to deny Marxist-Leninist theory and Ho Chi Minh’s thought on socialist revolution and class struggle in the new condition, undermine the goal of national independence and socialism, enhance “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”, gradually restrict and remove the Party’s leadership and the State’s management, build a Western-style “democratic”, “free” society.

To accelerate “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within, the hostile forces have taken advantage of the issues of democracy and human rights to negatively impact on and pilot our media. These issues are very sensitive and regularly thoroughly exploited to slander and sabotage us. A number of Western countries have even seen “democracy and human rights protection” as the indispensable to their diplomatic policy and international relations. Over the past years, the hostile forces have been employing various measures to mobilize mass media to the utmost to propagate, distort, and slander Vietnam’s democracy, human rights, right to the freedom of religion, and ethnicity. They have claimed the expanded democracy and human rights, and the freedom of religion and association to gather force, incite riot, and destabilize political security and social order. Most notably, they always seek to pilot the media in a bid to impact on the process of building legal documents, particularly when the National Assembly and the State amend legal documents on democracy, human rights, and religion or when the Party issues directives, resolutions and regulations on the Party building and rectification with a view to defaming our Party and State’s credibility, dividing the internal unity, and putting pressure on the Party and State. Besides, they have established many organizations and dispatch their members to Vietnam to collect information on democracy, human rights, and religious freedom, and distort and slander the situation in Vietnam.

For the sake of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”, the hostile forces have demanded the wide exercise of “democracy” in social life. According to them, it is necessary to promote the “democratization” of the Communist Party of Vietnam first and then the media and society. The two elements have a close relationship. The first decides the process of “democratization” at senior level and from within while the second accelerates the process of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the whole society. To democratize the media, the hostile forces seek to put democracy into the national system of communications and the contingent of journalists. To pilot our media, they take advantage of education cooperation programs, workshops, and exchanges with the participation of our central and local media to conduct the work of propagation in their favour. Making use of the development of the fourth industrial revolution, the hostile forces have spent a lot of money on running advertisement and funded programs to control, steer, and separate mass media from the Party’s leadership and the State’s management. Furthermore, they have taken advantage of social networks, such as facebook and blog, as well as Western press agencies and Vietnamese exiles’ means of communications to distort, slander and call for democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and press in a bid to cause ideological disorder and disorientation in social life.

Also, the hostile forces have been further establishing contacts with internal elements in order to impact on our ideological basis, sabotage national cultural identities, and carry out a cultural invasion for the sake of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within. In this regard, the building of an underground force within our Party and government will play a core role in accelerating “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from Central to grass-roots level. They have been making every effort to plant spies in offices and organizations of the Party, National Assembly and Government as well as socio-political organizations; to form parties, spread oppositional thought and “seeds” of capitalist democracy, and deepen the internal differences to divide and gradually transform the ideological foundation within the Party, government and political system. At the same time, they have been seeking to export Western depraved cultural products to our country to erode the country’s values of culture and tradition and lead to “self-evolution” and self-transformation”.

The struggle against the “peaceful evolution” strategy in the cultural and ideological field is part of our country’s class struggle in the new situation. Studying to make accurate forecasts about new hostile plots and artifices in this field is of paramount practical significance, contributing to foiling their plots of sabotage and winning victory in this struggle.

Sr. Col. Assoc. Prof. Dr Do Manh Hoa

Institute for Military Social Sciences and Humanities