The 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising was the pinnacle of the resistance war against the US for national salvation, culminating in the historic victory on 30 April 1975, completely liberating the South, unifying the country. That great victory was the combined result of the national strength and the strength of the times, with the political - spiritual factor of our Military and people playing a role of utmost importance. As a consistent lesson of the Vietnamese revolution, that victory is of theoretical and practical significance in building a politically strong Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) in the new situation.

The Great 1975 Spring Victory is a golden epic, a shining milestone, and the most heroic and glorious page in the Vietnamese nation’s history, victoriously ending our people’s prolonged, arduous resistance war against the US for national salvation under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, ushering our country into an era of complete independence and freedom towards socialism.

Militias carrying ammunition in the resistance war against the US for national salvation (file photo)

Victory of the resistance war against the US for national salvation in general, the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising in particular was a combination of many factors in which the political - spiritual factor played a role of special importance, acting as a deep-rooted source pervasive within the heart and mind of our entire people and VPA, connecting, gathering, and maximising other factors for such a great victory. Just as V.I. Lenin affirmed: “In every war, victory finally depends on the morale of the masses that are shedding their blood on the battlefield. Belief in the justice of the war and a sense of understanding that it is necessary to sacrifice one’s life for the happiness of one’s brothers and sisters represent the factor which boosts the morale of soldiers and enables them to endure unprecedented hardships”. The political - spiritual factor in the Great 1975 Spring Victory was demonstrated in ardent patriotism, indomitable will, unwavering faith in victory, solidarity, national pride, clear perception of the ideal of national independence and socialism, as well as in the spirit of determination to fight and to win and the entire nation’s desire for independence and freedom. All those manifestations were brought into play in the resistance war against the US for national salvation under the leadership of the Party and Uncle Ho, creating tremendous strength for our people and VPA to overcome countless difficulties and challenges and win a decisive victory in the strategic decisive battle.

The Party’s revolutionary lines and sound, creative leadership determined the development and augmentation of our entire VPA and people’s political - spiritual strength. In the resistance war against the US for national salvation, in light of Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, our Party correctly, creatively formulated its resistance lines, leading our entire VPA and people to uphold the flag of national independence and socialism, performing the two strategic tasks, namely socialist revolution in the North and people’s national democratic revolution in the South simultaneously, successfully achieving its targets in each period, defeating US imperialists’ strategies. At the same time, it well managed the relationship between the Vietnamese revolution and the world revolution and garnered both material and spiritual support from other countries and progressive, peace-loving people around the world, thus putting the enemy into increasing isolation. Notably, seizing the strategic opportunity, it made a resolution to liberate the South and unify the country so that our people could live in peace, independence, freedom, prosperity, and happiness. That strategic resolution gathered and brought into play the entire nation’s strength, turning the desire for independence and freedom into a revolutionary action movement across the country. Under the Party’s leadership, the whole country engaged in the war with heroic spirit and unprecedentedly great resolve to fight and to win, bringing into play revolutionary heroism, self-reliance, self-strengthening, ingenuity, and creativity, transforming spiritual strength into material strength, launching swift, daring, all-out attacks for victory.

In the 1975 Spring strategic offensive, our Military and people’s political - spiritual factor was manifested in the nation’s valuable tradition, which has been formed and developed via thousands of years of struggle for national construction and protection. This includes our VPA’s fervent patriotism and infinite loyalty to the Fatherland, Party, State, and people, together with its self-consciousness and readiness to fight and sacrifice for the country’s independence, freedom, and unity. That spirit “transformed into an extremely powerful and great wave which swept through all dangers and difficulties” towards the complete liberation of the South and the unification of the country. With their absolute faith in the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh as well as in victory of our just struggle for national independence, in the combat process, despite harsh battlefield conditions and a lack of equipment and logistics materials, our soldiers maintained their iron will and readiness to fight and sacrifice for the Fatherland’s freedom and independence. Central Highlands Campaign could be seen as a vivid testament to our troops’ spirit of determination to fight and to win. When being ordered to attack Buon Ma Thuot, all troops participating in the Campaign shared a single will to quickly occupy targets and win a decisive victory to create a turning point on the battlefield. Under the close leadership and direction of the Campaign’s Party Committee and Command, with our Military and people’s indomitable spirit, we rapidly destroyed the enemy’s defensive system in the Central Highlands as a catalyst for the unavoidable fall of the Saigon puppet army and regime. On other battlefields, our troops’ fighting morale soared as they entered Hue - Da Nang liberation campaign. Our lightning-fast marches and constant offensives under the spirit of “one day equalling 20 years” seriously demoralised the enemy. Notably, in the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, every column of vehicles and attacking direction of our VPA moved straight to Saigon under the motto of “lightning speed, daring, surprise, certain victory”, with the resolve to liberate the South in the shortest, earliest time.

Together with their courage on the battlefield, our troops demonstrated their resilience in harsh situations. Not only complex natural conditions, our troops were also confronted with desperate counterattacks and last-ditch defence of the Saigon puppet army and regime characterised by fierce battles; however, our cadres and soldiers always remained their offensive spirit and readiness to fight and to win; our troops overcame all pains of illness, hunger, and loss, strictly obeying the order: “Speed up, speed up even more; be bold, be even bolder. Make use of every hour, every minute, advance towards the front to liberate the South. Be determined to fight and to win decisively”, moving straight into the enemy’s final stronghold, completely liberating the South, and unifying the country.

Sr. Lt. Gen. Trinh Van Quyet inspecting troops participating in the parade to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national unification (photo: qdnd.vn)

Military - civilian unity and consensus within the entire country served as the source of political - spiritual strength for us to achieve tremendous victories. The Northern people spared no effort to provide sufficient material and human resources for the South battlefield. While providing food and shelter for troops, the Southern people actively guided troops, transported wounded soldiers, and engaged in combat, thus creating an extensive people’s war posture that overwhelmed the enemy from all directions. In Central Highlands Campaign, thanks to ethnic minorities’ support, our troops had a good grasp of terrain conditions and developed a solid siege posture. Thousands of locals contributed labour and resources, transporting ammunition, nurturing cadres in secret, creating a favourable condition for our Military to launch rapid attacks and win big victories. In Hue - Da Nang Liberation Campaign, prior to our VPA’s attacks, the masses rose up simultaneously, exerting strong political pressure, weakening the enemy’s will to resist. Youths and students took part in demonstrations, distributing leaflets, even organising themselves into self-defence teams to provide support for our troops in each battle. In the historic days of April 1975, thousands of people went to the streets to block enemy military vehicles and prevent enemy reinforcements, leading to the rapid fall of the Saigon puppet regime. It was the “people’s will” that increased our troops’ spiritual strength as a deciding factor in the victory of the Campaign.

Great feats affirmed our VPA and people’s indomitable will, valour, and invincible political - spiritual strength. To reach the final victory, our Military and people created many extraordinary feats symbolising Vietnam’s will and aspirations. With the resolve to “split Truong Son mountain range to save the country”, tens of thousands of soldiers, youth volunteers, and conscripted labourers participated in building and protecting roads under enemy bombs and bullets. Suffering from a serious dearth of food and drinking water, malaria, jungle leeches, and harsh weather conditions, they still held their positions to ensure a smooth transport system. The spirit “the enemy destroys, we fix; the enemy destroys again, we fix again” turned Truong Son trail into a legendary route in the Vietnamese history of war. “No number” ships overcame countless giant waves and the enemy’s prevention and attacks, providing timely active support for the South battlefield, contributing to winning landslide victories. Tens of thousands of engineering troops, youth volunteers, and conscripted labourers, regardless of difficulties, dangers, and enemy bombs and bullets, worked day and night to construct, repair, and operate a smooth oil pipeline system from the North to the South battlefield, which was not only an unprecedented feat in the history of logistics work, but also a symbol of our VPA and people’s creativity, resolve, and combat morale. Thanks to those extraordinary feats, all our corps went to the battle at a lightning speed, with unwavering resolve; every shipment of supplies, carrying the people’s belief and burning desire for a complete victory, made it to the battlefield. Then, in the Spring of 1975, that indomitable spirit crystallised into the strength for a great victory - the Great Spring Victory ending the entire country’s 21-year-long arduous but extremely heroic resistance war for national salvation. That was the victory of the entire Vietnamese people’s will, belief, fervent patriotism, and national great unity - the invincible power that made history!

Half a century has elapsed since the historic 1975 Spring Victory; that monumental revolutionary fruit has laid a solid foundation for our country to firmly step on the path of development and integration, ushering our country into the era of the nation’s rise with intertwining advantages and challenges. Currently, there are complex, unpredictable global and regional changes; armed conflicts, strategic competition, trade war, disputes over territorial sovereignty, and non-traditional security challenges are greatly impacting on many countries. Domestically, political - social stability is maintained, the economy is witnessing rather rapid growth, defence and security are strengthened, many new lines and policies are being drastically executed, living conditions of the people and troops are considerably improved. However, our country is being faced with many theoretical and practical issues that should be resolved. Hostile forces are stepping up their “peaceful evolution” strategy via new, more cunning tactics. The VPA continues to make force adjustments and turn itself into an adept, compact, strong Army towards modernity. That further asserts the great role and significance of the political - spiritual factor in the revolutionary cause but necessitates the VPA sustaining and raising its political quality as a solid foundation for maintaining combat readiness, avoiding falling into passivity, and winning victory in any situations. Bringing into play the political - spiritual strength in the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising for the building of a politically strong VPA capable of its task requirements in the new situation, the entire Military should focus on several main measures as follows.

First, maintaining and enhancing the Party’s absolute, direct, all-round leadership over the VPA. The Party’s leadership acts as a deciding factor in the maturity and victory of our VPA in general, the building of a politically strong VPA in particular, ensuring that the VPA will always be absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, Party, State, and people, ready to fight and sacrifice for the Party’s goal and ideal, for the Fatherland’s independence and freedom, and for the people’s happiness. To maintain and strengthen the Party’s leadership over the VPA, it is essential to focus on building an exemplarily, typically strong, pure Military Party Organisation (MPO) in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel, with all-round leadership capacity and high combativeness. In the medium term, party committees and party organisations within the MPO should uphold a sense of responsibility and focus on grasping and realising Directive 2960-CT/QUTW, dated 18 July 2024, by the Central Military Commission (CMC) Standing Board on all-level party congresses within the MPO towards the 14^th National Party Congress. It is necessary to align the building of typically strong, pure grass-roots party organisations with the building of “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units; party committee building should be combined with the building of a corps of key cadres; the building of a contingent of party members should be associated with the building of a pool of cadres. It is important to grasp and strictly execute resolutions, directives, and conclusions on building and rectifying the Party and political system as well as regulations on example-setting responsibility and revolutionary moral standards of cadres and party members in the new era. Due attention should be paid to enhancing inspection, supervision, and Party discipline work and managing and training cadres and party members. Doing so will help build a really exemplary, pure, strong MPO and render party committees, party organisations, cadres, and party members absolutely loyal to the Party, State, and people, steadfast in the goal of national independence and socialism, and capable of leading the entire Military to keep promoting the nation and VPA’s glorious tradition, deserving to be “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, worthy of great devotion and sacrifice of generations of cadres, soldiers, and people for national independence and freedom.

Tradition and history education at Division 308, Army Corps 12 (photo: qdnd.vn)

Second, continuing to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of party and political work in the new situation. To build the political - spiritual factor as the basis for connecting and promoting other factors, creating synergy for the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, activities of party and political work made a very important contribution in each battle and campaign. Promoting that valuable lesson in the building of a politically strong VPA, the entire Military should continue to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of party and political work. Offices and units should actively renew the content and forms of this important work to be relevant to target individuals, social and military development, and troops’ activities, particularly in training, combat readiness, exercises, political system streamlining, natural disaster response, search and rescue. Offices and units should grasp and closely, effectively implement the CMC Standing Board’s Directive 2423-CT/QUTW, dated 9 November 2023, on renewing and improving political education in the new period. Forms and methods of political education should be creatively applied to render cadres and soldiers fully aware of Marxism - Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the Party’s lines, the State’s laws and policies, and missions of the VPA and its offices and units. Due regard should be paid to educating troops on the VPA’s heroic tradition and glorious cause, widely disseminating examples of courageous combat and heroic sacrifice set by previous generations, clarifying the country’s achievements, fortune, position, and international prestige, highlighting the political system’s unity and resolve to usher the country into a new era, thereby stimulating pride, belief, motivation, and desire for devotion among cadres and soldiers, ensuring that in any circumstances, given dangers or even sacrifice, cadres and soldiers will always remain their absolute loyalty and resolutely firmly protect our Fatherland, Party, State, people, and socialist regime. 

Offices and units should always attach importance to managing ideological developments and orientating public opinion. They should carry out correct evaluations of troop ideology, especially amid complex regional and global changes, hostile forces’ sabotage, and impacts made by the revolution to streamline the political system’s apparatus, in a bid to opportunely completely handle emerging ideological issues and avoid falling into passivity. Besides, they should closely combine ideological work with organisational work and policy work, align ideological management with discipline management, integrate education and persuasion with administrative measures, and step up the building of a healthy, diverse military cultural environment to ensure stability and uniformity in awareness and action across the VPA.

Third, focusing on building a pool of “both red and expert” military cadres as the core force for making the VPA politically strong. When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh said: “cadres are the root of all work”, “success or failure depends on good or bad cadres”. His argument was profoundly tested by realities of the Vietnamese revolution. Notably, in the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, cadres, especially military cadres played an extremely significant, strategic, decisive role in the nation’s great victory. The building of a politically strong VPA in the new situation necessitates party committees and commands of offices and units developing a contingent of cadres who have sufficient qualities, capabilities, and prestige on a par with their task requirements, dare to think, dare to speak, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, dare to be innovative and creative, dare to confront difficulties and challenges, and take drastic action for the common good. Hence, all-level party committees and commands should continue to grasp and realise conclusions, directives, resolutions, and regulations on personnel work, particularly the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 26-NQ/TW, dated 19 May 2018, on building a pool of cadres at all levels, especially at the strategic level with sufficient qualities, capabilities, and prestige on a par with their task requirements, the CMC’s Resolution 109-NQ/QUTW, dated 11 February 2019, on building a corps of military cadres, especially at the strategic and operational levels in the new situation, and the Project on “policies to attract and utilise talents for the VPA towards 2030, with a vision towards 2050”. Emphasis should be placed on building a contingent of cadres with adequate quantity, proper structure, and high quality. Due attention should be paid to arranging, adjusting, using this contingent after new changes in the organisation of local military agencies under Conclusion 126-KL/TW, dated 14 February 2025, by the Politburo and the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat (13^th tenure) on content and tasks to continue arranging and streamlining the political system’s apparatus in 2025. It is vital to comprehensively raise the quality of training and cultivating cadres, rapidly design and adopt measures to improve military cadres’ capacity to implement breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation, creativity, and national digital transformation under Resolution 57-NQ/TW, dated 22 December 2024, by  the 13^th Politburo. Regulations on power control in personnel work should be strictly executed, while all signs of bribery for job titles should be resolutely combated. Due regard should be paid to building a democratic, disciplined environment and well performing policy work for military staff and their families to enable cadres to keep their mind on their work.

Fourth, continuing to cement the close-knit bond with the people and promote the strength of military - civilian unity. Ours is an army of the people, by the people, and for the people; the VPA’s maturity, development, combat, and victory process is closely linked with the people’s affection, shelter, and support. Therefore, the building of a politically strong VPA must always be in tandem with cementing a close-knit bond with the people and promoting military - civilian unity. To that end, the entire Military should keep raising the quality and effectiveness of mass mobilisation, with a focus on grasping and effectively executing the CMC’s Regulation 718-QC/QUTW, dated 5 November 2021, on mass mobilisation work of the VPA, staying close to realities, actively renewing forms and methods of mass mobilisation under the motto of “listening to the people, saying what the people can understand, making the people believe”. It is essential to study and follow President Ho Chi Minh’s style of “respecting the people, staying close to the people, understanding the people, and being responsible to the people”, step up national target programs on socio-economic, cultural development, sustainable poverty reduction, and the building of strong political bases, and promote the emulation movements of “clever mass mobilisation” and “building good mass mobilisation units”, particularly in isolated, remote, border, sea, island areas. Cadres and soldiers across the Military should serve as a reliable, strong fulcrum for the people when performing their “combat” tasks in peacetime, especially in natural disaster and epidemic response, search and rescue, and international missions.

Fifth, actively, proactively combating wrong, hostile viewpoints, maintaining the Party’s ideological foundation within the Military. In response to hostile forces’ intense sabotage strategy, especially their conspiracy to “depoliticise” our VPA, all-level party committees and commands should regularly grasp and implement the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 89-KL/TW, dated 25 July 2024, on continuing to realise the 12^th Politburo’s Resolution 35-NQ/TW, dated 22 October 2018, on “further safeguarding the Party’s ideological foundation, protecting the Party, State, and people, combating wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation”, ensuring that the Military will always be the vanguard force in fighting wrong, hostile viewpoints and protecting the Party’s ideological foundation. Due attention should be paid to diversifying forms of propagation, closely combining “fighting” with “building”, and taking the positive against the negative. Those efforts will help stimulate national pride, patriotism, and faith in the Party and socialist regime among cadres and soldiers and encourage them to dedicate themselves to serving the Fatherland and people, maintaining and bringing into play the noble virtues of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”.

Additionally, it is vital to opportunely detect and resolutely combat hostile forces’ arguments aimed at distorting our 14^th National Party Congress, our Party and State’s resolve to usher our country into the era of the nation’s rise, our revolution to streamline the political system’s apparatus, and our Party’s breakthrough lines on science and technology development, innovation, creativity, and national digital transformation; besides, it is necessary to actively combat hostile forces’ plots of “depoliticising” our VPA, defaming the image and virtues of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, undermining the VPA’s prestige, and promoting “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within. Doing so will help maintain the Party’s ideological foundation within the VPA and ensure that all cadres and soldiers will always remain their absolute faith in the Party’s leadership and the State’s management, readily undertake and successfully accomplish all their assigned tasks.

Victory of the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising proved the political - spiritual factor’s role of special importance in the revolutionary war. In the new context, we should continue to research and creatively apply the power of this factor in the building of a politically strong VPA to contribute to raising the Military’s synergy and combat strength for firmly protecting the Fatherland, maintaining a peaceful, stable environment, and ushering the country into a new era - the era of the nation’s rise.

Sr. Lt. Gen. TRINH VAN QUYET

Secretary of the Party Central Committee

Member of the CMC Standing Board

Director of the General Department of Politics of the VPA