SoftPower' of Vietnamese traditional country protection culture in the defense of Fatherland

AuthorHoang Thuc Lan - Phan Manh Toan
PositionHanoi National University of Education - Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics
Pages77-82
European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences
IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria
Vol. 3 No. 1
January, 2019
ISSN 2519-1284
Acces online at www.iipccl.org
77
"So Power" of Vietnamese traditional country protection culture in the de-
fense of Fatherland
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Thuc Lan
Hanoi National University of Education
Dr. Phan Manh Toan
Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics
Abstract
The concept of "so power" was rst introduced in the 1990s by Joseph Nye, an American
professor. According to him, "so power" is the ability to in uence through a raction
and convincing others to do what we want. For a country, so power is understood as the
a ractiveness and convincingness of a country to other countries by non-violent, non-coercive
and non-oppressive means. It is built on the basis of three basic elements: culture, value system
and national policy. However, the distinction between "so power" and "hard power" is only
relative as they are intimately related, serve as each other’s premises and they increase the
strength of one another, and they can be mutually transformed under certain conditions. So, in
practice, it’s necessary to combine harmoniously, dialectically "so power" with "hard power"
to create "synergy", "intelligent power" to bring maximum e ciency.
Keywords: so power, the spirit of patriotism, the tradition of solidarity.
Introduction
In the history of the Vietnamese nation, although the concept of "so power" has
not been used, Vietnamese people have used many so power forms to build and
maintain the country naturally. The Vietnamese traditional country protection culture
is a form of so power, used by our ancestors in a exible and creative way in the
ght against foreign invasions, combined with the "hard power" of the military force
to protect our country throughout the history of the nation, leaving many lessons for
the defense of our country today. "So power" of the Vietnamese traditional country
protection culture in the defense of the fatherland has the following main contents:
Firstly, the spirit of patriotism, pride, self-respect
It can be said that in the constituent elements of Vietnamese traditional country
protection culture, the spirit of patriotism, pride and self-respect is one of the typical
contents, playing the dominant role and orientation, forming the characteristics of
Vietnamese country protection culture. Many researchers said that patriotism "is the
greatest sentiment and thought of the Vietnamese people”, it is like "the red thread
through the entire history of Vietnam from ancient to modern times” (Tran Van Giau,
H. 1980, p. 100).
The patriotism, pride and self-respect of the people of Vietnam are manifested rst
and foremost in their unyielding resilience, resolutely defeating foreign invaders,
protecting their independence and preserving their cultural identities. That is,

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