Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on external relations is a system of view points on international issues and strategies and tactics of the Vietnamese revolution in relations to the world. Practices of the Vietnamese revolution show that in the field of international relations, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology helps raise awareness and actions of the Vietnamese people from assessment of the world situation, relations with big powers, national interest, rally of international force, forecast of opportunity and, external relation methods… 

President Ho Chi Minh perceived of the world through his journey to find the way for national salvation. His awareness, points of view as well as his ideology took shape through a long journey with direct experience of the world. His observations and analysis on international political situation and the time as well as his interactions in the international arena gradually shaped a system of point of view, doctrine, deep and realistic ideology as well as standardized and effective foreign relation activities.

In his world view, factors on international relations including partial and overall relations, key stakeholders in international relations and especially laws that govern relations among big powers and economic-political centers has an extremely important position. They become key features of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology when it comes to international relation assessment.

His revolutionary activities and his approach to Marxism-Leninism equipped him Marxist dialectical methodology, historical materialism and comprehensive points of view as well as system to access international relations-a versatile and complicated research target. If V.I.Lenin considered it “a great tool of understanding”, Ho Chi Minh maintained Marxism-Leninism was a “wonderful handbook”, “a great ideological weapon of the proletariat” and “an irreplaceable weapon”.

Based on the methodology of Marxism-Leninism, prompted by the point of view “the world situation closely relates to our country’s”(1) and revolutionary struggles of national, wherever near or far, big or small, have interrelated relations”(2), in 1944, Ho Chi Minh pointed out: “All people have to follow the world revolutionary trend… Viet Nam is part of the world and should not go against the historical tide”(3); and between Viet Nam and the world “there are thousands of relations”. The comprehensive and systematic point of view in assessment of the world situation which considered a country as part of the world with interrelated relations raised the importance of the world factor to higher level, leading to a wide difference between Ho Chi Minh and revolutionary predecessors.

As a fighter of the international communist and worker movement, an enthusiastic supporter of proletarianism and interests of the working class, the key element is his world view point was patriotism, nationalism and first and foremost national interests. A fundamental content in Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on foreign relations was to correctly identify relations between national interest and class interest in international relations.

Marxism-Leninism’s dialectical and historical materialist approaches and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on foreign relations, particularly with emphasis on the decisive role of material forces as well as interrelated relations among factors in a system, on the one hand, bring into play the political approach that considers the country as the center and national interest as a basis for assessing international relations and developing international policies; on the other hand, combine harmoniously the ideology, class interests and national interests which make Marxism- Leninism and patriotism intermingle in the Vietnamese context. This has played up scientific, revolutionary and practical characteristics in Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on foreign relations. /.

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(1) Hồ Chí Minh: Complete works, Vol. 6, The National Political Publishing House, 2000, p.170
(2) Hồ Chí Minh, Op.cit, Vol. 6, p. 452
(3) Hồ Chí Minh, Sđd, Vol. 3, pp. 464-465