It can be said that the life of the Party as well as the success or failure of the revolutionary cause are closely related to the Party's theoretical activities. This is clearly demonstrated through the glorious historical stages of our country's revolution. The foundation of our theoretical work is Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought. On that basis, theoretical work is also summarized and drawn from practice. It is practice together with the constant innovation in theoretical thinking that are the conditions and foundation for theoretical work to develop and theoretical issues to be increasingly enriched.

A very important issue that needs to be clearly recognized is that political theory is a branch of science that always has to face opposing viewpoints and theories, so theoretical work has the task of fighting against erroneous viewpoints and deviant thoughts. Theory, especially political theory, is always based on the stance of a certain class and theoretical struggle is an important front in class struggles. Theoretical struggle does not only revolve around the core issues of theory but is often associated with practical issues, especially changes in social life.

The struggle in the ideological-theoretical field is currently taking place in a new context, with many new advantages and many new difficulties and challenges for defending the theoretical viewpoints of the 13th National Party Congress. Our country has never had such a foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today. This is an important driving force and resource for us to move forward. That gives theoretical work a new practical basis, a solid "material backbone" to carry out its tasks. However, the current domestic situation still has a number of issues that deserve attention and resolution, which are also difficulties for theoretical work and theoretical struggle.

Besides, the challenges to theoretical work from outside affecting Vietnam are not small. Those are the paradoxes, the unpredictable and hard-to-predict developments of the world today. Even the noble and authentic values ​​that humanity has worked hard to create and cultivate such as peace, independence, sovereignty, justice, social progress... are being attacked by hostile and reactionary forces using all means. Moreover, there is a situation where information about all aspects of political-economic-cultural-social life everywhere in the world and in the country, both positive and negative, can be absorbed in many ways, many dimensions and many aspects. The listening, seeing and thinking of each person in the open, open, and integrated conditions with the outside today are different from yesterday. All of that affects theoretical work in general and directly affects the theoretical struggle in particular.

Illustration photo: VNA

From those issues raised for the current ideological-theoretical struggle, we must inherit the existing ways and methods, and at the same time have innovative and creative ways to find sharp arguments. The fundamental thing is to see all the new requirements set for the current theoretical struggle. Those requirements are expressed in the following main contents:

Firstly, in the theoretical struggle, it is necessary to clearly recognize the complexity of our country's revolutionary path towards the goal of a rich people, a strong country, democracy, fairness, civilization, and steady progress towards socialism. On that path, we encounter many difficulties and obstacles. There are difficulties that we ourselves cannot foresee, internal difficulties due to subjectivity, voluntarism, or conservatism, stagnation leading to stagnation, even stumbling. This leads to confusion and lack of reasoning, even deadlock in reasoning. Events in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe - places where real socialism seemed very solid but quickly disintegrated - have given us profound lessons both about the complexity of the contemporary world and the obstacles and difficulties on the path to the future of mankind.

The practical process of our revolution today also contains many complicated problems. Developing a market economy in the context of globalization and international integration are inevitable tasks that we are carrying out. Although we always maintain a socialist orientation, the stronger the development of the market economy, the more spontaneous the capitalist tendency will be. We are in a transitional period, in which the economy and society also have transitional problems intertwined, which are very difficult to distinguish. The process of opening up and integrating, proactively doing business with capitalist countries, and using the solutions and development methods of capitalism to build socialism pose many challenges to theoretical work and especially to the theoretical struggle to protect our principles, viewpoints and orientations.

Second, it is necessary to start from scientific and creative thinking in the theoretical struggle; to be convincing, all arguments used must be scientific and creative. We all see that, on the one hand, the theory of socialism and socialist society is formed scientifically, with thorough investigation and analysis based on the application of objective laws. But on the other hand, sometimes we do not pay attention or accidentally ignore an important issue: the theories of socialism are established based on highly abstract methods. We must explore and eliminate specific or non-fundamental issues and factors in order to delve into explaining the core issues.

The high abstractness of scientific socialism is the most general and universal principles that can be applied everywhere, in every country. However, in the process of applying them to build socialism, it is impossible not to take into account specific conditions. President Ho Chi Minh is an exemplary model of such creative application. Based on a deep understanding of the revolutionary and scientific nature, the dialectical and humane spirit of Marxism-Leninism, Uncle Ho creatively applied that doctrine along with inheriting patriotism, the fine traditions of the nation and the quintessence of human culture to put forth ideas suitable to the circumstances and conditions of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh's thought has been guiding the Vietnamese revolution to many victories, becoming the nation's lasting ideological foundation and having the power to spread to the world.

Third, in the theoretical struggle, we must not be one-sided, absolutist, or formulaic. One-sidedness and absolutism will lead to the loss of the scientific nature of theory and the richness of reality, causing theory to stagnate and not be flexible enough to find arguments for the struggle. For example, when discussing the relationship between productive forces and production relations, we sometimes overestimate and overestimate the "opening" effect of production relations; at other times, we only pay attention to the issue of interests, to the development of factors of productive forces, so we underestimate, or even forget, the proactive and positive conformity of production relations to productive forces. When talking about the structure and nature of socialism, we sometimes describe it in a simple, superficial, and sketchy formula, as if there were no contradictions; we do not fully see and do not pay attention to the different systems of interests of social classes. All of these things have unintentionally lowered the position and role of socialist ideology and in fact will create mechanisms to hinder the socio-economic development of the country.

Fourth, theoretical struggle must be based on practice, paying attention to the problems posed by practice. If in theoretical struggle we just follow a predetermined formula, do not pay attention to new problems arising in the economy, do not pay attention to the social mood and feelings of the people, then we cannot be convincing enough. Once ideological and theoretical work follows a rigid framework, does not mention the practical problems arising in its activities, then strange and incorrect theoretical thoughts will definitely intervene. Among the forms of thought that easily penetrate the masses, we must mention petty bourgeois ideology. Petty bourgeois ideology is often "reborn" from the subjectivity of ideological work in general and theoretical struggle work in particular; from violations of socialist principles in production, distribution and in daily life that affect the material interests and rights of the working masses. President Ho Chi Minh was the one who initiated the struggle of the people of the colonies to liberate themselves from the yoke of colonialism, to rise up and seize power, and to build a new society. On each step of the renovation path, which encountered countless difficulties of the Vietnamese revolution, President Ho Chi Minh always clearly demonstrated to the masses the specific things, each task that needed to be done and could be done if everyone was enlightened, determined, united, and joined forces.

Fifth, the theoretical struggle must aim at strengthening belief, so that all cadres, party members and people believe in the inevitable victory of the revolutionary cause, determined to carry out well the task of building and defending the Fatherland. It is very obvious that the development prospects of the country depend significantly on people's thoughts and perceptions. When thoughts are clear and unified, it will turn will into action, making millions of people unanimous and join forces, creating a great material force to push society forward. The core factor leading to the unification of thoughts and actions is belief. Belief in each person is a distillation of perception and lies in the depth of perception, but has an extremely great significance for orienting thoughts and orienting actions. The belief of cadres, party members and people is the glue that binds the Party and between the Party and the people, creating a great driving force to help us go from one victory to another.

To establish and strengthen faith, the most important thing is to raise the level of awareness and understanding of cadres, party members and people. In the period of accelerating industrialization, modernization of the country and international integration, for us, sentiment alone is not enough, but must be revolutionary sentiment based on solid scientific theory. Only then can each person have the right direction when facing complex conditions and events in a world full of turmoil, chaos and unpredictable uncertainty. Only then can we be steadfast enough to face all challenges of the times.

Professor, Dr. VU VAN HIEN, former Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council