Time & Perspective Quote by Tran Duc Luong

A president’s optimism is rarely just optimism; it’s a diplomatic tool. Tran Duc Luong’s line wraps a political program in the language of moral inevitability, presenting “humanist and progressive values” not as contested choices but as the hard-won destination of “mankind” itself. That framing matters. It turns ideology into heritage: if history is a “long… struggle and creativeness,” then today’s leadership can cast itself as the steward of that arc, the custodian of progress rather than merely one faction among many.

The phrase “we all share” is doing heavy lifting. It’s an invitation and a pressure tactic at once, smoothing over disagreement by implying consensus already exists. For domestic audiences, it can read as nation-binding rhetoric: unity through a shared belief, with the implicit suggestion that dissent sits outside the moral community. For international listeners, it functions as reassurance: Vietnam (and its leadership) belong to the respectable global vocabulary of humanism and progress, even when the specifics of governance, rights, and pluralism are debated.

The subtext is strategic ambiguity. “Humanist” and “progressive” sound expansive while remaining undefined enough to travel across ideological borders, from socialist narratives of liberation to modern development talk. By locating these values in “struggle,” the quote also echoes postcolonial legitimacy: progress is not imported; it is earned. The result is rhetoric that seeks to pre-empt critique, recruit allies, and place the state on the side of history without naming the compromises history always demands.