Ho chi minh’s political thinking main characteristics and methodological

The imperative of the topic Up to present, the researches on Ho Chi Minh in general and his political career inparticular have mainly focused to clarify the creativity and the unique exp

NGUYEN THI THANH DUNG

HO CHI MINH’ S POLITICAL THINKING MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND METHODOLOGY

-Major : Political Science Code : 62 31 20 01

A SUMARY OF PHD THESIS

HA NOI - 2014

at Ho Chi Minh National political Academy

Academic Supervisor : Prof Dr Nguyen Van Huyen

First Reviewer:

Second Reviewer:

Third Reviewer:

The thesis is to presented at the Academy coucil of Thesis Accessment,

organised at Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy

At , date month year 2014

The thesis can be found at National Library and The library of Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy

1 The imperative of the topic

Up to present, the researches on Ho Chi Minh in general and his political career inparticular have mainly focused to clarify the creativity and the unique expressed in hispolitical behaviour and ideology, which were accumulated, challenged and selectedduring a process to make it more and more improved They were the result of a processrelating to not only logic and experience, right-or-wrong experiment but individualaspiration and belief as well To summary, what are the causes that lead to the creativity

in political behaviour along with ideology of Ho Chi Minh?

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “The ancestor of every action is logic” His wordsshows that every thought or action of the human beings originates from logic The rightlogic will rule over the right thought and action and create the difference in eachperson’s thought and action Above all, how excellent is Ho Chi Minh’s political logic toform the individual creativity in his own political ideology and behaviour? What are thefeatures of Ho Chi Minh political logic that set up the political thoughts changing theworld map in the 20th century?

Doi Moi policy was officially implemented in Vietnam from 1986 with the firstand foremost reform in logic In fact, it was the reform in political logic througheconomic, cultural and social perspectives It become the foundation or orientation forthe all-sided Doi Moi process in Vietnam During this process, Vietnam CommunistParty has incessantly applied the creativeness of Ho Chi Minh’s Marxism and used it asthe argumentative base for the reform process After almost 30 years, besides hugeachievements, the revolution reality increases new requirements that demand thepolitical system to enhance and to bring into play the people solidarity power as well asthe Vietnamese’s skill, spirit, intelligence and uprightness to build a prosperous,democratic and civilized country Above that, the Vietnamese need to exploit theheritages that Ho Chi Minh left so as to figure out the valuable guidelines for the currentnational revolution

Therefore, learning about the main viewpoints in Ho Chi Minh political thoughtnot only decodes the origin of creativeness in Ho Chi Minh political ideology and actionbut also creates the argumentative foundation for the current reform process Thisresearch supplements the profound knowledge of Ho Chi Minh’s political career andplays a role in the research of History of thought and Political Theory in VietnamesePolitics branch For the above reasons, the topic brings about the huge reality andargumentative values The necessary awareness of the research, the student chooses thetopic “ Ho Chi Minh’s political thinking - main characteristics and methodology” for herPhD thesis

2 The purposes and tasks of the thesis

2.1 Purposes

On the argumentative base of Ho Chi Minh’s political ideology logic, thethesis aims to analyze the factors forming Ho Chi Minh political logic; to clarifythe characteristics expressed in the content and method of Ho Chi Minh politcallogic along with the meaning of these characteristics with the political logicreform in Vietnam currently

2.2 Tasks of the thesis

To put the above targets into practice, the thesis will solve the following tasks :

- Clarifying the argumentative matters relating to logic, political logic, Ho ChiMinh political logic and the factors forming Ho Chi Minh political logic

- Clarifying the main characteristics of content and method of Ho Chi Minhpolitical logic

- Expressing the methodology of Ho Chi Minh political logic towards the politicallogic reform in the current political reform of Vietnam

3 Targets and scope of the thesis

3.1 Researched targets

- Main characteristics of Ho Chi Minh political logic

- Methodology meaning towards the current reform career of Vietnam

3.2 Scope of the reseach

From the perspective of Philosophy or Ho Chi Minh study, there have been anumber of researches with different interpretation This topic just does a researchfrom the political philosophy perspective to discover the special features in Ho ChiMinh political logic The thesis focuses on not only the general Ho Chi Minhideology but also seeks for his political logic through the researches on his politicalthoughts and behaviour However, Ho Chi Minh’s life always associated withpolitics; the political activities mainly governed other thoughts in different fields.Every thought of Ho Chi Minh of other areas in his life always aimed at his politicalpurposes It may be because his politics is humane politics; he always regarded thefreedom and happiness of people as his targets Above all, the direct scope of thistopic may be narrow but it is implemented in large scale of Ho Chi Minh’sawareness, life, career and thought For instance:

- Mentioning the time, Ho Chi Minh political logic was established anddeveloped in his abundant political life It is a process that was gradually supplemented,developed and improved Therefore, Ho Chi Minh’s political life should be consideredcarefully to identify the main viewpoints in his political logic

- For the space, Ho Chi Minh’s political life was very abundant It was formedfrom his real experiences when he stayed in many countries all over the world, hence,the thesis bases on his activity process in different countries through many articles,speeches, stories about his career to find out the main points in his political logic.

- Last but not least, mentioning the content, there is a wide scope in Ho Chi Minhpolitical logic The thesis does not review the structure or the functions of logic aspsychological prospect, but limits and recognizes the speciality of Ho Chi Minh politicallogic under political philosophy outlook

4 Argumentative basis and methodology

- The thesis bases on the argumentative basis of Marxism, Ho Chi Minh ideologyand Vietnam Communist Party about Vietnam revolution

- The methodology of the thesis is Dialectical materialism and Historicalviewpoint

- Additionally, the thesis also uses the detailed methods like history and logic,comparison, analysis, synthesis, reality arguments, specialist interviews, documentanalysis, etc,

5 Scientific contributions of the thesis

5.1 Scientific contributions

- The thesis has played a role in clarifying and deepening the matters relating tologic, political logic, Ho Chi Minh political logic and the other factors affecting theformation of Ho Chi Minh political logic

- The thesis analyzes and generalizes the main prospects on content and Ho ChiMinh political logic methodology, hence, interprets that the origin of creativeness in HoChi Minh political thought and behaviour

- The thesis infers the scientific comments that contribute to the development ofthe branch of Vietnam political logic through the research on Ho Chi Minh political logic

5.2 Contributions in reality perspective

- On the general basis of the basic Ho Chi Minh political logic, the thesisanalyzes, clarifies and affirms the values and the great stature of Ho Chi Minh throughthe application of Party and People during this current stage

- The date and knowledge of the thesis may be used as teaching material forclasses with the aim to enhance the political logic ability and political behaviour of theleader officials or managers

6 Argumentative and reality meaning of the thesis

6.1 Argumentative meaning

The thesis’s result will contribute to create the theoretical frame of logic, generalpolitical logic and particular Ho Chi Minh political logic It will become the base as well

as the tool to analyze and to deeply know the foundation and specific traits of Ho ChiMinh political logic This content has never been researched systematically but it is veryimportant to interpret the origin of political logic and behaviour among the humanbeings in general and towards Ho Chi Minh in particular.

6.2 Reality meaning

The thesis will contribute to the main picture of researches on Ho Chi Minh andconsider it as a typically economic circumstance to apply it into the current politicalstatus The thesis will become the referenced document and suggestion for the futureresearch on Politics, Ho Chi Minh study and related branches

7 Structure of the thesis

Beside the introduction, conclusion and reference index, the thesis also consists of

4 chapters and 9 sections

Chapter 1 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH RELATING TO THE THESIS

1.1 Group of the researches mentioning logic

This is one of the most attracted trends for the researchers and has gained plenty

of success Through the sciencific projects, the authors have analyzed and explainedthe matters relating to the origin, nature, characteristics of logic and Dialecticalmaterialism logic; the history of formation and development of Dialectical materialismlogic; the relation between content and method, level and ability of logic, theregulations and rule of logic and Dialectical materialism logic; the relation betweenDialectics logic and Formalism logic, etc, Through that process, the authors havecontributed to deepen the most common argumentative problems of logic andDialectical materialism logic, used the foundation of world outlook and methodology

to build the scientific logic methods in awareness and world transformation.Simultaneously, through these researches, the authors have led to many new problemsthat need to be concerned and continuosly resolved

On the other hand, logic researches associates with the reform career received theconcern of many domestic scientists, especially from the Doi Moi process of our country

in 1986 until present Though these researches have the difference in the approachingmethod and content, they have the common point which is the resolution to the commonargumentative matters on logic and Dialectical materialism logic must associate with theReform career and Socialism construction in our country The contributions of theseresearches have clarified the common arguments on logic transformation, functions oflogic renewal towards the Reform process, Socialism construction, our currentsituations along with the problems of logic that need solutions along with their

causes After the analysis of argumentative basis and reality, the authors haverecommended some methods of our Party to improve the weaknesses in thoughts andactivities of our officials so as to meet the demand of general Reform career and logicreform process particularly Among these matters, all the authors have affirmed thescientific nature of Dialectic materialism to the officials is the best way to ỉmprovethe weaknesses in our logic.

1.2 Group of researches mentioning the political ideology and political logic

This is the content that has not attracted much attention in both domestic andinternational arena The researches on this content have brought about many differentviewpoints on political logic, but in general they are both unanimous that political logic

is a process gathering and transfering information to form the viewpoints based on theknowledge of political issues

The authors have distinguished the political logic with the logic of politics.Politics is an important factor of political logic The logic of politics wants to mentionthe sustainable matters on ideology and morality that mention the political languages.Political logic wants to express a system of logic - reality relating to the collectiveactions, to distinguish with the art logic, historical logic, moral logic However, politicallogic consists of at least 6 characteristics : i) Arranging the meaning of social targets,requirements, processes and structures according to the importance or emergency level;ii) Mobilizing the support by accepting, defending, criticizing or objecting to thecollective entity, procedure and its activities; iii) Reflecting the stability or instabilitythrough the calculation of cooperation plans, divergence, disputes over the arguments ofgroups; iv) Making decision and policies through the construction plans and collectiveguidance and common outlook; v) Holding the power of words through the convincingskills, making speech, expressing feelings; vi) Making the topics for present : dividingand adjusting the different fields and the authority boundary among the social fieldsalong with maintaining the political privilege in the limitation

On the other hand, the researches also deal with the structure of political logic,political logic method and factors affecting the formation of individual as well ascommunity political logic Moreover, it also affirms the influence of political logic onthe nations’politics along with the relation between political logic and political culture

1.3 Groups of researches mentioning logic, Ho Chi Minh political logic

Although the scientific researches has turned into a unified conclusion of existing

Ho Chi Minh political logic, they have just stopped at bringing about a problem ormethodology, not the specialized research of Ho Chi Minh political logic to apply intoreal situation in our country These researches have provided the authors with all-sided

approaches so as to form the tool and specialized knowledge when doing the thesis Theresearches within and outside the country have had the contributions to the process thatexplores logic and human brain’s activities They also mention a kind of human logic atthe first level : political logic However, the number of researches on Ho Chi Minhpolitical logic is not really high It causes the disadvantages to the authors whenresearching, but also creates the new characteristic for the targets and approachingmethods Therefore, this topic will take part in fulfilling the range of Ho Chi Minh study

as well as Politics research

Interpreting a topic which has not been chosen in thesis topic creates manydisadvantages in using the directly related researches It will make some troubles whenresearching, especially a thesis with the limitation of time as well as the legal standards.However, awareness is a process in which the more the targets are researched, the more

we figure out that our knowledge is quite limited Moreover, fully understanding ofhuman is out of ability towards anybody, especially when researching a great historicalcharacter like President Ho Chi Minh The thesis desires to open some aspects of thegeneral picture It is essential to understand a person comprehensively and totally and italso contributes to add more knowledge to the enormous scientific library

Chapter 2 THEORETICAL ISSUES ABOUT POLITICAL THINKING AND

ELEMENTS FORMING HO CHI MINH’S POLITICAL THINKING

2.1 Theoretical issues about thinking, political thinking and Ho Chi Minh’s political thought

2.1.1 The concept of thinking

Thinking is a complex concept with many different commentaries in many ways,depending on the philosophical viewpoint, researching area, specialized research, Butdifferent concepts of thinking have something in common, it is: human thinking processmust be accompanied with awareness, from realistic feeling to analysis and judgment toobjective reality (including judgments, judgment is an expression of thinking, itdetermines the true or false value of the object man is thinking) under the logicnecessary to deeply recognize objective reality (through language, signs and images) andfind a direction and solution to modify objective reality in order to bring benefits to thepeople and communities

The thesis neither studies thinking as a complex psychological process aspsychology approach does nor as a process dissect the activity of neurons inpsychoanalytic research Thinking, here, is studied as activities that occur in humanbrain with distributed operations analysis, synthesis, comparison, compare to form

opinions, thoughts, words, actions to improve objective reality It is an advanced stage ofcognitive processes including acquisition, processing information and generating newknowledge in operations analysis, synthesis, comparison to create the awareness andimprove the world through practical activities of man.

Thinking occurs when practical problems arise, in other words, it is practicalproblems that require thinking When the practice impacts, knowledge transfer intohuman brains, meanwhile, takes place in the brain’s process of analysis, synthesis,comparison, comparison they are the manipulations of thinking that take place toaddress management information The result of this process will be reflected in language(including speech and writing, gestures) In this process, knowledge and practicalcircumstances should be regarded as raw materials, inputs of thinking From theknowledge about things that people take actions accordingly In turns, the real actionwas to provide evidence for a new thinking process So, the consideration of thinkingshould include the content of thinking, the way of thinking and the product of thinking.The content of thinking is the practical situation and it will be reflected throughout theprocess of thinking, through the manipulation analyze, synthesize, compare, compare tocreate the products of thinking they are thoughts, views, behavior

Products of thinking is knowledge (knowledge about the objects, phenomena).Knowledge is manifested through thought, perspective, human behavior So thoughts,views, behavior are the expression of man's understanding of the objective world,which is the product of the process of analysis, synthesis, comparison and matchingtaking place in man’s brain Therefore, learn about thinking (as a process) is differentfrom exploring thoughts (as a result of the thinking process), although they haveanintimate, inseparable relation Thought, under any form of public expression (concepts, categories, perspectives, politics are the results of thinking Correctthinking leads to right thought, action and vice versa, incorrect thinkings leads towrong thoughts and actions

* Thinking Classification: There are many ways to classify thinking, based on

different criteria:

- Based on the level of thinking: there are experient thinking and theoreticalthinking Experient thinking is a stage of cognitive rationality, in which people draw theknowledge about the material, objective phenomenon, primarily through the oldergeneralizations, inductive materials experience Theoretical thinking is rational cognitivestage, in which knowledge is drawn on the basis of an overview of the achievements ofthe previous periods

- According to thinking area: there are: political, economica, scientific, philosophical,art, militaristic, cultural, religious thinking

- According to the form of thinking, there are dialectical thinking, metaphysical,logical thinking, non- logical, integrated thinking, analysis, creative thinking, dogma,thinking positive, negative etc

The taxonomy is only relative because they're interwoven, blended together.Using the same kind of thinking for many different areas and vice versa when thinkingabout a field that can simultaneously use various types, many different forms ofthinking Therefore, in each subject, the type of thinking, thinking forms blend to createunity and distinctive in the minds of every person

Thus, "political thinking" is a kind of thinking based on the field of socialdevelopment Political thought has some commons in the concept of "thinking" but alsohas some features, with specific characteristics to distinguish them from thinking inother areas This characteristic is dominated by political activists

2.1.2 Political Thinking

Political thinkingis the activities of human brain to receive, process and produceknowledge about how to win, to hold and to exercise power to help human percept, planand implement political decisions In other words, political thinking is thinking aboutpolitical matters in a certain way In this sense, political thought appeared with theemergence of state, owned class nature and dominated by class stance Products ofthinking process are the ideological point of view or the "technology" to resolve conflicts

in political reality

Political thinking of each person depends on many factors: the objective factorsare: the practical conditions, the value in the history of thought, ideology and dominantorthodoxy; the subjective one is the capacity of man In the same practicalcircumstances, the same living conditions, the same class standpoint, the sameideological, but the way of thinking is different from man to man Therefore, eachperson's way of thinking primarily due to subjective specified factors

Subjective elements are formed from innate qualities, are trained through practicalactivities with the capacity, quality and mettle to metabolize certain objective factors onsubjective prism of each person

Political thinking has close relationship and has a dialectical impact to politicalideology Ideology and political systems reflect the views of political and economicrelations between classes, between nations and between peoples around the issue ofwinning, keeping, and organizing and implementing state power Political thinkingalways arises from a socio - economic conditions of acertain society

Thus, political thinking and political ideology have close relationships andinteractions Thinking is the process of political concern, think about the political issues,and ideas are the results of that process To understand the political thinking of a person,

we need to go through thoughts, words, and actions of people that shine on cognitivereasoning to show the basic characteristics of the thinking process Political thinking ofman can be understood through his/her ideas, views, words, writings and actions inpractice If the practice provides practical materials to form the ideological thinking, theattempt of the subject to generalize the practice to express the essence of it is in the form

of practical reasoning Therefore, studying political thought should go with learningpolitical ideology and political behavior (as a product and manifestation forms ofthinking) This concept can be a tool to better understand the related content Finding outpolitical thinking is the basis for persuasive interpretation of a political theory andpolitical behavior Because, all political behaviors are driven by politics, politicaldecisions, political thinking Politicians who give correct political decisions will governpolitical behavior correctly Conversely, the wrong political way will put the wholenation to the ladder of history So, political trends play an important role in governing allhuman activity in a society 's politics

2.1.3 The concept of Ho Chi Minh’s political thought

Ho Chi Minh 's political thinking are activities taking place in his brain,giving him political opinion and political behavior to solve the practical matters ofVietnam Generally speaking, Ho Chi Minh’s political thinking is his way ofthinking about political issues in order to win, hold and exercise power for the sake

of Vietnameses people

Learn the features of Ho Chi Minh 's political thinking is to find thecharacteristics, or the nature of principles governing the thinking process in order toachieve political objectives set out The distinct characteristics that is one of the rootcauses the formation of innovative ideas and political behavior of Ho Chi Minh Toeneralize, learn the characteristics of the political thinking of Ho Chi Minh (ascharacteristics of a thinking process about political issues) is to unify the content and themethod Which content goes with which method, and vice versa, using one method toexpress which content, one content can be reached by variety of methods The contentsand methods are unified, mixed together in a subject and create the subject’s style Wecan, through a method of processing content, find out what common characteristicsdominating Ho Chi Minh’s thinking process So, thinking about the political issues, theprocess characteristics that are prominent features are expressed through thinking aboutthe political content It is not the characteristic of content or method of thinking, but thecharacteristic of thinking (as agreed between the content and method of thinking) Orthis is the practice of the thinking method on political content Through innovativethinking and political behavior (ie, content of thought) to find the consistency thatdominates the thinking process These are distinctive features dominating Ho Chi

Minh’s political thinking process The thought of what and how about political issues.With similar political contents but different way of thinking, the results are diverse Eventhe same thinking content and the same thinking method, the results may be different.That is because of the method or the content or the way to manipulate thinking? Forexample, with dialectical method, different people give different results Ho Chi Minhapplied Marxist dialectical method but inherit both the East - West values to createsomething of his own Political thinking of Ho Chi Minh is one kind of successor,developed a creative thinking and can be called "beyond gross" on Vietnam nationalidentity Ho Chi Minh is the hyphen between Vietnam and the world, between traditionand modernity.

2.2 Factors affecting the formation of Ho Chi Minh’s political thinking

An In Hue, he witnessed the plight of working people and the image of his whitewestern swagger, arrogance and cruelty Growing up, homecoming, delving into thelives of people, Nguyen Tat Thanh penetrated the identity of people sufferingdehydration: heavy taxation, meticulous service Being exposed to the patriotic elites andheard them talking about the country, he understood the time and the torment of hisfather's generation: lost nation, broken families What helearned, heard, accompaniedand with the explanations of his father, are vivid lessons and powerful impression In hisrecognition, Nguyen Tat Thanh’s will was to expel the French

Ho Chi Minh’s Political Thinking was sproutied from it They were thecircumstances of the homeland, the country, the family that nurtured his cradle will tofind ways to reclaim independence and freedom for the people It was derived practicesthat directly impacted the formation and development of his political thinking Do notbathe in that practice, thinking about a way to help countries, hardly can a the path ofaction be realized

* World political context in the early twentieth century

First, the world revolutionary movement was transiting from old - styledemocracies to new -style democracies

Second, Russian October Revolution triumphed and the advent of the IIIInternational with Lenin's great contributions that directly impacting and decidingfactors to the formation of Ho Chi Minh’s political thinking.

Third, the national liberation movement this time had a transformation and posednew requirements that should have a consistent ideology to meet urgent demands of therevolution The process of traveling, exploring, testing and determining the path fornational salvation, liberation of Ho Chi Minh not only met Vietnam's political reality,but also reflected the trend of the world revolutionary movement It reflected thescientific revolution of Ho Chi Minh’s political thinking

Thus, the economic - political - society conditions of the homeland, the country,and the time was the first ground that affected the formation of Ho Chi Minh’s politicalthinking In addition to practical origin, Ho Chi Minh’s political thinking also based onthe inheritance theoretical achievements in the history of human thought

* Thinking - reasoning factors

- The typical political thinking of Vietnam: community; humanity - rooted

- Typical Eastern political thinking: "People - rooted" toward finding an ideal king

to state power The village community and centralization trend of central politicalinstitutions respected “peace” and “hamony"

- Typical rational Western Political Thinking: It was thought to respect anduphold human individuals; respecting the nature of the movement and socialdevelopment Thinking seeked to focus the West rationalized, objectified features in thedesign, construction and operation of institutions and political institutions Thinkingfocuses on build forms of government organizations operating in an objective manner, inaccordance with the will and interests of the ruling class but less dependent on theindividual power Thinking about the concentration of power into the virtuous leader,talented and reputatable; the participation of the elite leadership team with specialqualities and intellecture in the state apparatus

- Marxist - Leninist political thinking - materialistic dialectical method ofthinking This is the typical method of thinking, covering most dominant thinking in allareas In certain aspects, the method of thinking is another concrete manifestation ofdialectical thinking Thanks to the dialectical method of thinking, Ho Chi Minhrecorded, total - integrated and creative applicated in practical revolutionary Vietnam

To collect and study Marxism - Leninism with the path Lenin had directed, applyingdialectical thinking methods, Nguyen Ai Quoc created a suitable path for Vietnam'srevolution to win completely Marxist - Leninist, terms of geographic, is Westernthinking, but due to it’s decisive influence to the formation and development of Ho ChiMinh’s political thinking, the thesis considers it a separate element