General Vo Nguyen Giap, the Elder Brother of Vietnam People’s Army, has followed Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, etc. to return to the sacred Mother Earth, to the great ancestor Lac Hong. For us - the staff, reporters, soldiers of National Defense Journal – the inconsolable grief over the death of the General is not only over a General Commander of the People’s Armed Forces, a Minister of National Defense, a well-rounded National Hero, etc. but also over a close collaborator of the Journal for over 65 years since its foundation. Perhaps, very few newspapers have been given such a great love and dedication from the General. It is our great honor.

General Vo Nguyen Giap with representatives of National Defence Journal, April 2008

Requirements of the resistance war against French colonialists in April 1948 called for more focus on the study of military and political theories, review and dissemination of practical combat experience. Under the direction of President Ho Chi Minh, in his capacity as Minister of National Defense, the General personally directed the establishment of the Military Journal (the precursor of the National Defense Journal). It was also a great honor that, in the first edition (May 4^th, 1948), the Military Journal posted a letter from the Minister of National Defense (Deputy Minister Ta Quang Buu signed on his behalf) to the Military Journal, right after President Ho Chi Minh’s letter. The Minister’s guiding opinions on principles, purposes, missions and operational characteristics of the Journal remain valid till now. The Minister’s letter read “...the military is only one stage and dimension of the war that our nation must undergo. In the future, after gaining independence, we would have to fight for reconstruction, strengthening and protecting the independence, but fighting in other ways.” He advised that the Military Journal, on one hand, should execute its function as a forum “...to exchange current combat experience and ideas”; on the other hand, it should be useful for “...outlining a bright path for future constructive ideas.” The more we contemplate the more we realize how strategic and keen the General’s thinking is. Not only did he write the Advice Letter, even in this first edition, the General, as the No. 01 collaborator of the Journal, started his writing with the article titled “Vigorously Advancing Towards a New Stage.” The article was a condensed summary of the success, experience and lessons learned from the Viet Bac Counter-Attack Campaign - Fall Winter 1947; at the same time, it reminded all officers and soldiers to try their best to study to enhance abilities, meeting new demands of the resistance war.

Besides quality, the General also paid attention to utility and development of the Journal. Half year after its release, on realizing the need to reorganize the readers work and expand the content scale to cover political aspect, the General wrote “Letter To All Commanders of the National Army and Militia Force of Vietnam” (December 1948 Edition). In the letter, along with the decision to rename the Military Journal to the Politico-Military Journal, the General noted “the Politico-Military Journal is a work dedicated by all of our troops, not just a product of a minority. Every level should comprehend this concept and regard the writing for the Politico-Military Journal as an essential task, etc. I look forward to the implementation at all levels so that the Journal could truly be a convergence point for thinking and reasoning of military commanders at all levels.” To date, the General’s initial subtle thoughts on directing the Journal have not been outdated although time and current situations have been much different to the past.

More honorably, not only as a leader, a director who used to be in the position as Chairman of the Steering Board of the Journal, the General was also a seasoned writer, a great collaborator working closely with the Journal. That was reflected in the General’s fairly large number of articles for the Journal and his record time working as a collaborator of the Journal. The General wrote altogether 30 articles, including daily commands orders, directives and letters, etc. to the journal over the time. And if regarding the time line, the General started his writing for the Journal since its first edition (January 4^th 1948); and 60 years later, on the anniversary of the first issue of the Journal, the General, who was in good health condition then, himself composed compliments to the Journal (published on the front page of May 2008 Edition). With such impressive figures, the General was the most long-standing collaborator and also the writer who possessed the largest number of articles for the Journal for more than 65 years. Surely, not many press agencies in our country would get this honor.

The General’s works published on the Journal pertain to many genres, including commentaries, practice & experience reviews, major and small issues, military and political themes, etc. The manifestation of the General’s articles are also very diverse; each one possesses a style, but all of them present deep generalizations, condensed and deep arguments, rich and vivid realities, and sharp criticisms and are shown by a simple style of writing that is easy to understand and easy to remember. It was clear that the General realized exactly what he had instructed cadres at all levels when writing articles for the Politico-Military Journal; he put “Do not apprehend that your opinion is trivial, sketchy and flawed, but the matter is how to make your writing practical, easy to understand and not lengthy.”  The General also expressed himself as being deeply imbued with the teachings of President Ho Chi Minh in his letter to the Military Journal, “...the writer needs to write in a popular, easy to understand, simple but coherent style.”

Among the works written by the General for the Journal, there are some typical articles  such as: “The Guerrilla Warfare and Mobile Warfare” (August 1949 Edition); “Clear Analysis of the Right and the Wrong, Promoting Self-Criticism and Criticism, Strengthening Unity and Unanimity, Enhancing the Combat Morale, Actively Carrying Out the Tasks of Building Vietnam People’s Army and Strengthening National Defense” (May 1957 Edition); “The Sacred Cause of Fighting Against the American Aggressors for National Salvation of Vietnamese People Will Definitely Succeed” (January 1969 Edition); “Our Party’s Military Guidelines Are the Invincible Flag of the People’s War in Our Country” (December 1969 Edition), “President Ho Chi Minh, a Strategic Genius, the Beloved Father of the People’s Armed Forces of Vietnam” (May 1970 Edition), or “Building the Powerful  All-People National Defense, Firmly Safeguarding the Socialist Fatherland of Vietnam” (May 1976 Edition), etc. Each article is a summary, which contains important topics of discussion, drawn on vivid practical experience. If the General’s articles were sorted in chronological order, we could figure out main features of the revolutionary military theory of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh Era.

In addition to organizing articles, it is another special honor for the Journal’s editorial board throughout the periods to be frequently entrusted with the task of summarizing revolutionary military theory by the General. For example, in 1968, Comrade Le Hai (then Head of the Editorial Board) was assigned by the General, in his capacity as the Minister of National Defense, Secretary of the Central Military Commission to participate in the summary of the 1968 Tet Mau Than General Offensive and Uprising (the summary outline prepared by the Journal was later used by the General to report at the Party Central Committee’s Conference). The General, in 1972, entrusted the Journal’s Research Division with the task of editing the Military Thesis: “Arming the Revolutionary Masses- Building the People’s Army” (the work was undersigned by the General and published on the Journal in January 1972 Edition), etc. Such “unplanned” tasks also became “regular” as a special political mission, a special honor for the Journal until today, while functioning as the Theoretical Organ in Military and Politics of the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defense.

Feeling honored, proud and responsible, staff, journalists and soldiers of National Defense Journal today pledge to turn their grief into action, doing their utmost to learn and follow the General’s example – an outstanding militarist, a prominent politician, a model dignity, and a “far-visioned and mindful” journalist. On that basis, we shall actively cultivate, steel the political will, improve the military, political and professional knowledge, ethics and behavior of military journalists, making contribution to building the Journal to be always powerful, fulfilling all missions entrusted by the Central Military Commission, leaders of Ministry of National Defense, the General Political Department in the new revolutionary stage.

By  Colonel Nguyen Hoc Tu

Deputy Editor-in-Chief