Half a century has passed since the publication of President Ho Chi Minh’s Will, but it is still a special historical document, a priceless work of art that crystallizes the quintessence of thought, morality and spirit of the noble soul of a great man who had devoted his life to the Fatherland and humanity. His life has brought pride and has awaken the desire for self-improvement in every Vietnamese person. The Will is an action plan to fight for national liberation, improvement, construction, reestablishment and renovation of the country after reunification. The Will contains and embraces the spirit of innovation and development as the core of the dialectical methodology and also a prominent feature of his mindset. Theoretically, the doi moi in Vietnam initiated and led by the Communist Party is not accidental, but well-prepared and derived from previous ideological premise. In other words, it is a logical continuation of Ho Chi Minh’s thought - the thought for a complete renovation process. President Ho Chi Minh’s Will is a comprehensive theoretical work which summarizes unique, creative and highly generalized ideas. The ideas in the Will have reached the depth of cultural creations.

First, creative idea in assessing the Vietnamese people’s possibility to win against the US, the world’s most powerful and richest empire:

When the war became fierce, and the enemy continued to carry out many cruel and cunning tricks aiming to bomb the North of Vietnam “back to the stone age”, and some people, for fearing the American weapons and dollar, advised us to negotiate for peace, Ho Chi Minh affirmed his determination by saying, “The resistance war against America for national salvation might go through more hardship and sacrifice, but we are bound to win a complete victory. That is a certainty”.(1) His strong belief resulted from the optimistic spirit inherited from the national cultural tradition of “don’t give up the row when come the high waves”, and also the product of dialectical thinking, the way of problem assessment and recognition by “knowing others, knowing oneself”, grasping the laws of movement and development of things and phenomena. His brief statement exuded the optimistic spirit in victory from a person with great talent, great mind, and great bravery. He believed in people’s strength, the nation’s heroic tradition, the brilliant and wise leadership of the Communist Party, the support and assistance of the international community. Above all, he had strong belief in the inevitable victory of goodness, justice, and truth. In the human development history, evil and bad forces may temporarily prevail, but finally, victory will inevitably belong to the goodness, justice and the conscience. It is the law of history that no one can stop it. Ho Chi Minh brought into play a civilization to replace the barbarism. He fully understood the strength and motivational role of morality, the spiritual factors, the will and the determination of an entire nation in the historical movement.

Before dealing with the “peaceful evolution” plot of the hostile forces, we must deal with the “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party, in each cadre and Party member - the “inner enemy” warned by Ho Chi Minh in the middle of the previous century. “Individualism” in the context of the market economy is morphing with more subtle and cunning manifestations: corruption, wastefulness, and seek for power, position, age, degree, project approval, group interests, and nepotism, etc. This requires the struggle against individualism to be more drastic and substantive. Ho Chi Minh’s desire of “the Party is morality and civilization” depends greatly on the work of building and rectifying the Party, especially on the moral issues.

Third, creative idea in defining and promoting the role of the human factor, the people in the country’s construction and revival:

Inheriting the views of our forefather in the history of nation-building and defense, “the people are the root,” “the people are precious,” and the views of Marxism-Leninism - the revolution is the cause of the mass, Ho Chi Minh always appreciated the role of people and the mass in history. However, Ho Chi Minh’s thought and his Will defined the role of the human factor and the people in a creative way:

Firstly, Ho Chi Minh’s view of the people: Marxist-Leninist classic thinkers highly appreciated the role of the people, considering it the subject and driving force of the revolution. However, the concept of “people” mainly included two classes: workers and peasants. In Vietnam, in “Hai ngoai huyet thu” (The letter written in blood overseas), Phan Boi Chau mentioned ten classes of people of the same mind, including rich men, noble mandarins, apprentice soldiers, thugs, impious children, ladies, cooks, etc. However, the two most important forces, the workers and peasants, have not been mentioned. According to Ho Chi Minh’s view, people had a broader sense of meaning, including all classes, ages, ethnicities, religions, and political parties, regardless of “old, young, male, female, rich, poor, noble, ordinary”. Besides, people included Vietnamese people living in the country and the overseas Vietnamese community with the spirit of “patriotism,” vowing to strive for a common goal, i.e., national independence, freedom, prosperity, and happiness for the people. In his Will, he also mentioned such people as cadres, Party members, union members, youth, women, soldiers, farmers, martyrs, etc. This reflected the progressive, revolutionary, and cultural depth of Ho Chi Minh’s thought.

Secondly, by considering people as the goal and motivation of the revolutionary course, Ho Chi Minh paid special attention to the nurturing of people’s strength, setting up feasible and practical plans to improve and upgrade the quality of people’s life. This reflects that Ho Chi Minh thought is humane and action- oriented. The Vietnamese feudalism attached great importance to the idea of “attachment to the people,” “people are the root.” However, people were seen as subordinate, low-ranking people instead of the national citizens, the new regime’s masters. After the August Revolution in 1945, the Vietnamese people rose from slavery status to the country’s master and had the right to vote for the first time. With strategic vision, Ho Chi Minh affirmed that to ensure the people were truly the masters and had the right to mastery, the Party and the Government must develop the economy and culture to improve people’s lives unceasingly.(6) He said, “First priority should be given to people.”(7) He wanted to remind us to prioritize the human factor, by paying attention to social policies for people when the war ended. Ho Chi Minh launched a series of policies on different social groups to improve and enhance their lives: For those who valiantly shed their blood in the wars, including cadres, soldiers, militiamen, guerrillas, youth volunteers, etc., “The Party, Government, and compatriots must seek all ways and means to provide them with stable living conditions and, at the same time, organize vocational courses suited to each person, so that they can gradually become self- supporting;(8) for the fallen soldiers, “each locality (city, village) needs to build a flower garden and erect memorial stele to commemorate their heroic sacrifices, thereby educating future generations in patriotism.”;(9) For parents, wives and children of war invalids and fallen soldiers whose families are short-handed and impecunious, “the local governments (the communal authorities and farming cooperatives in rural areas) must help them find suitable employment and do not let them suffer from hunger and poverty”;(10) For young soldiers in the people’s armed forces and young volunteers, “The Party and Government need to select some of the most elite soldiers and volunteers, then send them to study professional knowledge, to train them to become good soldiers, cadres and workers with good techniques, profound ideology and firm revolutionary stance. They are the main force to build socialism in our country successfully”;(11) For women, “it is necessary to set a practical plan to foster, promote women so that more and more women are in charge of all jobs, including leadership position”;(12) For victims of the old regime, such as theft, prostitutes, gamblers, and smugglers, “The State, using both educational and legal means, rehabilitates them to become honest working people”;(13) For farmers, “agricultural tax should be exempted for one year for agricultural cooperatives to encourage farmers’ production”.(14)

Ho Chi Minh mentioned seven social policies above with specific details. It demonstrated the superior nature of the new regime because it not only promoted people’s role but also created mechanisms, institutions, and conditions for people to develop comprehensively and bring into full play all their capacities. Beside policies on specific social groups, Ho Chi Minh also reminded and assigned political tasks to the Party and State on the restoration and expansion of economic sectors, sanitation, health care, amendment of the educational system in the new circumstances, consolidation of national defense, etc. To do this well, it is imperative to know how to mobilize all the resources inherent in the people, in all walks of society, to make the country strong, ensure people’s well-being, and keep pace with the times. Ho Chi Minh set out a strategic and overall line, then proposed feasible solutions, practical plans and paid attention to each specific human condition. This demonstrated the talented wisdom of leader Ho Chi Minh based on his great compassionate heart.