This resolution on combatting âideological sabotageâ lumps Chinese ideological propaganda, Western propaganda operations, international human rights and humanitarian relief activities, and religious radio broadcasts and religious missionary activities all together with the spreading influence of Western culture and music in Vietnam as part of a vast, insidious effort by Vietnamâs enemies designed to corrupt Vietnamâs society and to weaken its ârevolutionaryâ spirit in order to cause the overthrow or collapse of the Vietnamese Communist Party and government.
The over-the-top rhetoric used in this resolution illustrates the widespread paranoia that infected the upper ranks of Vietnamâs Party and security apparatus during this period of the Cold War. It was not until six years later, in December 1986, that the pressures of growing internal dissension (even within the Party), the countryâs desperate economic situation, and reductions in Soviet military and economic to Vietnam resulted in the decision by the Communist Partyâs 6th Party Congress to shift to a policy of reforms, called âRenovationâ [Äá»i Má»i] reforms and to new Vietnamese efforts to normalize relations with China and the United States.
