To Vietnamese communists, dialectical materialism by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is like a prism through which they approach, study, and treat international as well as their own issues.
Over the past 80 years, Vietnamese communists have made the best use of the spirit of the Communist Manifesto issued in 1848 by Messrs.Marx and Engels, enabling them to reject the groundless arguments not only like the so-called ghost of communism that haunted Europe in the middle of the 19th century but also anti-communist forces in the contemporary world.
Their understanding of the Manifesto is based on dialectical materialism. They have equipped themselves with it and Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s Thoughts to overcome severe challenges and record great in political, economic, military, social, and cultural achievements.
In addition to the Manifesto, Messrs.Marx and Engels left behind for humankind a large theoretical system in which the most important theory is dialectical materialism, which has helped Vietnamese communists become aware of various natural and social issues and of the rules of human development in the past, present, and future.
Nowadays, when reviewing their achievements, Vietnamese communists cannot but attribute them to the spiritual strength of the Manifesto and Marxism.
In the light of the dialectical materialist method, Vietnamese communist theorists have built for themselves an ideology that laid the foundation for the August Revolution in 1945 and other victories in the nations’ resistance war against French colonialists (1945-1954) and the Vietnam War (1954-1975).
In addition, dialectic materialism has helped Vietnamese communists stand firm despite seismic changes in the world in the past few decades, with the Soviet Union, the cradle of communism, breaking up in 1991, leading to the collapse of the socialist countries in Eastern Europe.
Moreover, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, under the leadership of the Communist Party, has achieved great success in international relations, including admission to World Trade Organization in 2006 and hosting of the APEC Summit the same year.
The Vietnamese are developing their country and expanding international integration to meet the goals set forth in the Declaration. But they face some great challenges.
The first is how to respond reasonably to major global problems like wars, disputes, and religious and ethnic conflicts.
The second is how to integrate into the international community while still maintaining a national identity.
The third is how to court support from the international community to the concepts, policies, and strategies chosen for the country’s development.
The fourth is how to build harmony within the Party and among the public to ward off schemes for “peaceful development” by reactionary and hostile forces that have been trying to sow division, deny the revolution’s achievements, and incite demands for pluralism and multi-party politics.
The last is how to fight schemes to destroy or undermine friendly ties with other countries and international organizations.
By Tran Trong Dang Dan, a social science researcher
