Vietnam National Security
National here Ngo Quyen (A.D. 899-944), who defeated the Chinese fleet in
A.D. 938 to end 1,000 years of Chinese domination
IN THE LATE 1980s, Vietnam's leaders continued to define national
security in the same broad, all-encompassing terms used by other
Marxist-Leninist societies. The basic precept was that any effort
to alter the status quo was a threat to national security and was
to be dealt with quickly and decisively. The threat could come
from ideas as well as from invading armies. According to this
doctrine, responsibility for maintaining security rested with all
the people and was not simply vested in the police, armed forces,
or other coercive elements of the system. Finally, the
achievement of national security was regarded as a function of
proper communication with, and motivation of, the people by
various party and government organs. This approach, a careful mix
of compulsion and persuasion, created in communist Vietnam a
social discipline that contributed to the success of the
Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP, Viet Nam Cong San Dang) in the
North and was extended to the South after unification in 1976.
Data as of December 1987
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