Regarding Nguyen Ai Quoc's search for a new social model for Vietnam in the early 20th century.

1. Nguyen Ai Quoc's search for a way to save the country was a search for a model of Vietnam's future society.

From the mid-19th century, independent Vietnam was invaded by French colonialists, turning it into a colony. Unwilling to accept the loss of their country and homes, and the miserable lives under the oppression and exploitation of imperialism and feudalism, the Vietnamese people continuously rose up to fight for national independence and land for the tillers. However, all these uprisings were brutally suppressed and ultimately failed.

In that historical context, like many patriotic Vietnamese of his time, the young Nguyen Tat Thanh was deeply concerned about the fate of the nation and sought every means to liberate the people. However, Nguyen Tat Thanh had a unique difference in his thinking: his love for his country and people, his desire to save the nation and its people, was not merely a wish to save the country and achieve national independence. Nguyen Tat Thanh's great question was: after achieving independence, what kind of state should be established, what kind of political and social system should be in place, and what would be the fate of the people there? This was also a major question of the nation and the era that he pondered, needing answers before embarking on the struggle against imperialism and feudalism. This was precisely the purpose of his journey abroad to the West in June 1911.

Nguyen Tat Thanh's search for the image of the nation was not about finding a model of an independent country with a political and social system as defined by his predecessors: the old autocratic monarchy that the literati and scholars, such as Hoang Hoa Tham, were striving to maintain, or a new system, a capitalist system like the Japanese, French, or Republic of China systems advocated by Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chau Trinh, and Nguyen Thai Hoc. He believed that "if the country is independent but the people do not enjoy happiness and freedom, then independence is meaningless."¹Nguyen Tat Thanh's aspiration when he went abroad in June 1911 was to seek a political system after the country gained independence, one where the people would be masters of society, freed not only from the domination of foreign powers, but also from the enslavement of the feudal monarchy within the country.

Nguyen Tat Thanh's journey to find a way to save the country in June 1911 was a quest for a path of struggle that did not aim at a single goal like the ancients: national independence. Instead, it had two interconnected goals, a "dual" goal: saving the country and saving the people. That is, Nguyen Tat Thanh's purpose was not only to save the country and liberate the nation from the yoke of imperialist colonialism, but more importantly, his ultimate goal was to liberate the people from all forms of oppression, exploitation, and injustice. It was for this reason that Nguyen Tat Thanh greatly admired his predecessors such as Phan Bo Chau, Phan Chau Trinh, and Hoang Hoa Tham, but did not follow their path.

While disagreeing with the path taken by his predecessors, Nguyen Tat Thanh did not yet know how to achieve independence and build a social system, what kind of state to establish, in 1911. Nguyen Tat Thanh's intellect before going abroad, with such a general understanding, was already a miracle, a revolutionary achievement. Some argue that when he went abroad in June 1911, Nguyen Tat Thanh lacked any clear political ideology or direction, both lacking theoretical and practical basis. In reality, Nguyen Tat Thanh did not yet have a new political ideology, but his political motivation was quite clear: to find a way to save the country and its people. That is, to find a new model of state, a new political system for Vietnam after regaining independence.

Nguyen Tat Thanh's journey to find a way to save the country, as it has long been understood, was essentially a journey to find and choose a new model of state, a new political system for Vietnam. From 1911 to 1920, that journey can be envisioned as consisting of successive important stages and steps:

First stage,before 1911This was Nguyen Tat Thanh's childhood, a period in which the historical context of his country, homeland, and family shaped and nurtured his profound morals and emotions: patriotism and love for his people, fostering his great ambition to save the nation and its people.

The second phase, from 1911 to 1919This was the period when Nguyen Tat Thanh worked and studied in French colonies in Africa and later in major capitalist countries such as the United States, Great Britain, and France. This process helped him enhance his understanding of culture, society, worldview, and philosophy of life compared to when he was in Vietnam. He understood that in the world, there are two classes of people: those who oppress and exploit others, and those who are oppressed and enslaved. He also understood that in France, there were two distinct classes: the French working class who needed to be united and the French colonialists who needed to be driven out. From the realities of Vietnam and the world, he concluded that upon regaining independence, it was impossible to establish a social system based on the monarchy model, as that system was outdated; at the same time, he was very skeptical of the bourgeois democratic model, even though it was new, because it did not achieve the "dual" goals he desired.

Having studied the American and French Revolutions, and having joined the French Socialist Party, after the rejection of the "Eight-Point Demands" sent to the Versailles Conference (1919), he resolutely distanced himself from the capitalist model and system. Nguyen Tat Thanh - Nguyen Ai Quoc believed that the capitalist system was exploitative, unjust, deceitful, and did not respect the right to national self-determination, freedom, and equality of colonial peoples.

If the decision to go to the West in 1911 "to see how they do things and then return to help his compatriots" marked Nguyen Tat Thanh's break with the Eastern monarchical and feudal political model, initiating his research and understanding of Western society, then his clear understanding of the nature of capitalism through the Versailles Conference in 1919 can be considered the culmination of his assessment of the Western bourgeois state model and political system.

Third stage, from 1919 to 1920This was the time when Nguyen Ai Quoc was in France, but he closely followed and directly participated in Vietnamese patriotic organizations, undergoing a political shift from traditional patriotism to revolutionary patriotism, based on a proletarian standpoint. Many people talk about the event of Nguyen Ai Quoc reading "Draft Thesis on the National Question and the Colonial QuestionV.I. Lenin believed in Marxism-Leninism, but it is not clearly stated what the content of that Thesis was. This document, published by V.I. Lenin in the newspaper L'Humanité of the French Socialist Party in July 1920, outlines the basic tenets, serving as an initial draft (or outline) of V.I. Lenin's views on the national question and the colonial question during the period when capitalism had transformed into imperialism, when Western capitalism invaded the East as colonies. Therefore, the national liberation movement in the East was a movement against Western colonial capitalism. Since it was an anti-capitalist movement, it was, objectively speaking, a proletarian movement. A national liberation movement whose object of struggle was capitalism naturally belonged to the category of proletarian revolution. As a proletarian revolution, the national liberation movement had to follow the path of the proletarian revolution, according to Marxism-Leninism, led by the Communist Party, in order to achieve complete success. to be able to.

This means that the proletarian revolution is not only the struggle of the proletariat against capitalism in Western capitalist countries, as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels once said, but in the new era, the era when capitalism has transformed into imperialism, conquering colonies as markets, the proletarian revolution must include both the struggle of the proletariat in the West (the mother countries) and the national liberation movement in the East (the colonies). In other words, according to V.I. Lenin, the current world proletarian revolution has two parts: the proletarian revolution in the mother countries and the national liberation revolution in the colonies. This means that the slogan "Workers of the world unite!" needs to be transformed into "Workers of the world and oppressed peoples unite!" Accordingly, the national liberation movement in the new era, objectively speaking, has a socialist orientation. After achieving independence, the political system established is a new type of political system: a state of the people, by the people, and for the people, led by the Communist Party, with national independence linked to socialism.

Nguyen Ai Quoc read and understood that truth, so he was able to both explain the reasons for the failure of national and democratic movements in Vietnam in the early 20th century and recognize that the path to victory for the Vietnamese revolution was the path of proletarian revolution: "To save the country and liberate the nation, there is no other way than the path of proletarian revolution."²"Only socialism and communism can liberate oppressed nations and working people."³.

National liberation through the proletarian revolution is national liberation linked to the liberation of the working people, the liberation of humanity. Achieving national independence is the immediate and urgent goal, paving the way, while the liberation of the working class and the working people is the long-term and ultimate goal. Therefore, after regaining independence, the revolutionary forces must establish a political system where power belongs to the majority, "not in the hands of a few," that is, a people's political system led by the Communist Party. This also means that in 1920, when Nguyen Ai Quoc became a communist, he found a new path to national salvation, a path that could achieve the defined "dual" goal: saving both the nation and the people. Nguyen Ai Quoc's principle was: "Since we have sacrificed ourselves for the revolution, we should see it through to the end, meaning that after the revolution, power should be handed over to the majority of the people, not left in the hands of a small group. Only then will we avoid repeated sacrifices, and only then will the people be happy."⁴.

Finding such a new path to national salvation essentially meant finding the political system—the future social model of Vietnam, a political system—a state where the people are the masters, "beneficial to the nation and the people." To say that Nguyen Ai Quoc was searching for a path to national salvation (1911-1920) in that sense is to find a new social model, a socialist society, essentially a new political system of the people, by the people, for the people, building a prosperous, strong, democratic, just, and civilized society, and the effective methods and appropriate solutions to achieve that society—the path of proletarian revolution.

II. NGUYEN AI QUOC'S THOUGHTS ON THE NEW TYPE OF POLITICAL SYSTEM IN VIETNAM

Nguyen Ai Quoc envisioned the future of Vietnam when he chose the path of national liberation through the proletarian revolution: a regime ruled by the people under the leadership of the Communist Party. However, the specific model of that political system and the fundamental characteristics of that new type of state continued to be researched, studied, and perfected by him for many years afterward. From 1921, when he became a communist, to 1930, when he founded the Communist Party of Vietnam, a series of writings and speeches by Nguyen Ai Quoc focused on outlining the concrete model of Vietnam's future socio-political system and actively disseminated it to Vietnam, preparing the ideological, political, and organizational foundations for the establishment of the Communist Party to lead the people in implementing that model.

In Nguyen Ai Quoc's articles published in newspapers.Le Paria, newspaperHumanityof the French Communist Party, in Soviet newspapers, in the playBamboo dragon, inShipwreck login the workThe Condemnation of the French Colonial Regimeand especially in the workRevolutionary Path(1927), the model of the future political-state institution of Vietnam gradually took concrete shape. The model - the characteristics of the new type of political-state institution according to Nguyen Ai Quoc's thought and the way to achieve that state - generally included the following contents:

- National liberation through the proletarian revolution is the only solution to achieve the dual goals: saving the country and saving the people, national independence linked with socialism.

- To achieve national independence through the proletarian revolution, by the efforts of the entire nation.

- After gaining independence, a state of the people will be established, of the people, by the people, and for the people. State power will belong to the majority of the people, with the workers and peasants as the foundation and masters.

- That state, that regime, aims to achieve national independence, human freedom, and people's happiness, with the ultimate goal of moving towards socialism and communism.

- That system, that state, may have been established before the proletarian state in the mother country.

- That institution, that State, must be established and built in a scientific, correct manner, and in accordance with the characteristics of Vietnam.

- That institution, that State, maintains solidarity with proletarian movements, national liberation movements, and socialist and democratic regimes around the world.

- That regime, that state, is led by the Communist Party, a party that adheres to Marxism-Leninism.

These are the qualitatively different and new aspects of the Vietnamese revolutionary model and path according to Nguyen Ai Quoc's ideology, the core of which is achieving national independence, which, while urgent and prioritized, is not the ultimate goal. It is a struggle for national independence that does not aim to re-establish the feudal regime like previous uprisings and resistance movements in Vietnamese history, nor to establish a capitalist regime or system like the American or French Revolutions. Fundamentally, it is similar to Russia after the October Revolution of 1917: a system of the majority, for the independence of the nation, the freedom of the people, and the happiness of the working class.

With that model, when we say that Nguyen Ai Quoc was seeking a path to national salvation, it was essentially about finding a new model of state, a state ruled by the people, led by the Communist Party. This also means that Nguyen Ai Quoc's process of spreading Marxism-Leninism in Vietnam was the process of spreading this new model of state and political system. When we say that the workers' movement and the patriotic movement in Vietnam embraced Marxism-Leninism, it also means that these movements embraced the new political system chosen by Nguyen Ai Quoc – the model of a state ruled by the people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, aiming towards a socio-political system of the people, by the people, and for the people. Accordingly, when we say that the national and democratic movement developed into a proletarian revolutionary movement, it also means that these movements shifted their goal to establishing a political system and a model of state ruled by the people, under the leadership of the Communist Party.

With the correct orientation regarding the purpose of the struggle, a struggle that not only brought independence but, more importantly, established a democratic regime of the people, by the people, and for the people, the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal movements in our country erupted strongly. When the movement became a proletarian movement, it led to the emergence of communist organizations and the establishment of the Communist Party in our country in early 1930. The national liberation movement with a proletarian political orientation was essentially a national democratic movement aimed at a society where the people are the masters, to establish a state of the people, by the people, and for the people, led by the Communist Party.

InBrief Political Platform, Brief Strategy, Brief Action Programof the Party, inA call to action on the occasion of the Party's founding.of Nguyen Ai Quoc (February 1930) as well as inPolitical ThesisIn the Party's document (October 1930), the contents of the political system and the model of the new type of state were presented concisely and clearly: It was a model mimicking the Soviet state of workers, peasants, and soldiers in Russia.

The characteristics of the Soviet state model and the methods for achieving it included the following basic elements: Carrying out a bourgeois democratic and agrarian revolution to advance towards a communist society; Overthrowing French imperialism, feudalism, and landlords, establishing a worker-peasant-soldier government; Confiscating imperialist land and distributing it to poor peasants; confiscating the assets of imperialist capitalists and handing them over to the worker-peasant-soldier government; Developing industry and agriculture; Universalizing education based on worker-peasant principles; Building a worker-peasant army; Implementing gender equality; Uniting all strata of the people, valuing the rights of workers and peasants; Establishing contact with the proletariat and oppressed nations; Using revolutionary violence as the method of struggle; Leading the revolution through the Communist Party, the working class.

In 1930, within the historical context of the world and Vietnam, when there was no more suitable model of state or political system than the Soviet regime in Russia, choosing that model was correct and progressive, creating new momentum for the Vietnamese revolutionary movement, culminating in the Nghe Tinh Soviet of 1930-1931.

During the subsequent revolutionary process, through experimentation and theoretical research on political institutional models and state models around the world and in Vietnam, Nguyen Ai Quoc and the Party arrived at a model.democratic republicIndochina provided the impetus for the emergence of a vibrant democratic movement in the years 1936-1939. During the national liberation movement of 1939-1945, Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh and the Party continued to explore, experiment, and ultimately choose a more suitable political system and state model, namely the Indochina regime.Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Political institutionsDemocratic Republic of VietnamIt is a model of the State, a new political institution defined by Ho Chi Minh and the Central Committee of the Party at the 8th Central Committee Conference in May 1941.Viet Minh Frontis a type of stategovernment moneyWith a program of action clearly demonstrating that power belongs to the people, a transitional socio-political system of the people, by the people, and for the people. That model, that system, was the driving force, the banner that called upon the entire Vietnamese nation to rise up and carry out the August Revolution of 1945, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as President.Democratic Republic of VietnamDespite extremely difficult circumstances, it was established quickly and fundamentally, creating a new socio-political system chosen by Nguyen Ai Quoc, with the aim of achieving independence, freedom, and happiness for the people.

*****

The historical context of the world and Vietnam, the circumstances of his homeland and family, and Nguyen Tat Thanh - Nguyen Ai Quoc's personal awareness in the early 20th century determined his choice of a path towards the West and the social model he chose for Vietnam's future. This model and the path to achieving it bear the strong imprint of the contemporary historical context. It has proven correct and has had a positive impact on Vietnam for over 100 years, which is highly commendable. However, in the new context of accelerating industrialization, modernization, and deep international integration, where the historical context of the world and Vietnam has changed significantly, the characteristics of that model, political and social institutions, as well as the roadmap and solutions to achieve it, will undoubtedly require careful consideration, adjustment, and innovation. Only in this way can Vietnam soon achieve the basic characteristics and goals of the social institutional model defined in Nguyen Ai Quoc's thought at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as in the 2011 supplementary and development program and the Resolution of the 12th Party Congress in 2016. Nguyen Ai Quoc's decision in 1920 to liberate the nation through the proletarian revolution, which in essence was to choose a political system, a new model of state for Vietnam—a model that was both suitable for the times and met his desire to achieve the "dual" goal of saving the country and saving the people, with the characteristics of an independent nation, free people, and happy people as the ultimate goal—continues to be pondered by all Vietnamese people today.