“Depoliticising” the military has been a key focus of hostile and reactionary forces within their “peaceful evolution” strategy. This tactic is being intensively promoted under the guise of distorting, undermining, and denying the role of party and political work as Party and Government implement the policy of building an elite, compact, strong, and modern Vietnam People’s Army. This issue demands clarification and resolute opposition and refutation.

Building an elite, compact, strong, and modern military is an inevitable and objective requirement, a major policy which demonstrates the strategic vision and thinking of the Party and the Government in order to build a military with comprehensive quality and high combat power, capable of meeting the requirements of national defence in the new situation. However, by exploiting this policy, hostile and reactionary forces intensified their sabotage from various angles. One of these is to disseminate propaganda to undermine and deny the role of party and political work, for example, building the military toward modernisation requires only significant investment in advanced weapons and equipment; eliminating unnecessary activities, particularly party and political work, to focus on professional, specialised training; even claiming that party and political work is merely “time-wasting” and “having no benefits on building the military toward modernisation”. Additionally, they promote the so-called “weapons theory”, which centres on absolutising the role of weapons and equipment while downplaying the importance of human factors and political-spiritual elements.

The purpose behind such arguments is to abolish the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party over the military; executing the “depoliticisation” of the military to change the revolutionary nature, causing the military to gradually move away from its fighting goals and ideals, and no longer being a reliable political force or a sharp tool of violence for the Party and the Government. However, both theoretical and practical evidence reject these unreasonable and unscientific distortions.

Flag salute ceremony at Submarine 187 Ba Ria - Vung Tau (Photo: baobariavungtau.com.vn)

First and foremost, conducting party and political work ensures the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party over the military - a foremost factor determining the success of building the military toward modernisation. We all know that our military was founded, organised, led, educated and trained by the Communist Party of Vietnam, led by President Ho Chi Minh, based on Marxist-Leninist principles on building a new-style army, always embodies the essence of the working class, deeply reflecting the people’s and national characteristics. Thanks to the Party’s wise and ingenious leadership, our military has grown stronger over time, together with the entire Party and people, achieving remarkable victories. Therefore, the work of building the military toward modernisation must first strengthen the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party over the military and the cause of national defence and safeguard the Fatherland. To achieve this, it is necessary to carry out Party and political work and always consider it an important factor and an immutable principle in building an elite, compact, strong, and modern military. It also serves as a steadfast guarantee for the military to maintain its true nature with correct political direction, and absolute loyalty to the goals and ideals of the Party; being the military of the people, by the people, and for the people. Moreover, through various aspects of work such as ideology, organisation, personnel, and policy, the Party and political work enables the whole Party, the whole people, and the whole military to thoroughly grasp, deeply understand and create high consensus on the Party’s guidelines and policies on building the military and strengthening national defence; thoroughly grasp the theoretical and practical foundations; the position, significance, and necessity of modernising the military. Without adhering to this principle properly and straying from the Party’s leadership, the military would lose its combat orientation, face political, ideological, and organisational disintegration, and lack the strength to fulfill its roles, missions, and defeat the enemy. Lessons from the collapse of socialist models in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries show that the fundamental cause of the collapse was the armies gradually abandoned the leadership role of the Communist Party, while Party and political works were paralysed and ineffective. Thus, to build the military toward modernisation, regardless of the circumstances, it is imperative to remain steadfast in the principle of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Vietnam People’s Army. Therefore, the arguments that party and political work “serve no purpose” in building military toward modernisation are merely subjective misinterpretations rooted in dubious and unacceptable intentions.

Building the military toward modernisation is a long-term process encompassing multiple contents; alongside advancements in weaponry and equipment, emphasis must be placed on developing human and organisation - the central factors that play a decisive role. This includes building a cadre of leaders and commanders at all levels, technical specialists, and soldiers with strong political capacity, high determination, loyalty and dedication to the Party, the nation, and the people; having strategic thinking, proficiency, competence, mastering science and technology, proficiency in utilising advanced weaponry and technical equipment; adopting modern methodologies and working styles, etc. Party and political work significantly contributes to developing, educating, and training the cadre of officers and soldiers, meeting this critical requirement; at the same time, it also attracts and retains talent, develops a high-quality workforce to serve the goal of military modernisation. On the other hand, the practical process of adjusting and rearranging the organisation and staffing in the roadmap for building the military toward modernisation have impacted various levels, sectors, units, organisations, and individuals, raising numerous sensitive and complex issues; directly affecting the sentiments and morale of cadres, soldiers in the entire military and the people. As a result, party and political work holds an even more crucial and decisive role in building a clean and strong Military Party Committee, exemplary in politics, ideology, ethics, organisation and cadres. Therefore, directly contributing to the development, consolidation, and refinement of Party committees and organisations at all levels, especially at the grassroots, ensuring unity in both thought and action, demonstrating comprehensive leadership capacity and high combat readiness, guiding agencies and units to overcome difficulties and challenges, addressing emerging issues effectively and harmoniously during organisational and structural adjustments, and advance the modernisation of the military to meet the demands of national defence in the new situation. In addition, the role of the Party and political work is evident in nurturing and developing the noble qualities of revolutionary soldiers, raising awareness of respecting, preserving and constantly promoting the qualities of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in officers and soldiers in the new phase of military development and the nation’s advancement; strengthening the military-civilian relations and building the great unity bloc of the nation. Educating, guiding in ideology, and ensuring military cadres and soldiers maintain strong political capacity, steadfast in their goals and fighting ideals; remain undeterred by challenges and difficulties; do not be tempted by material interests; ready to sacrifice personal interests for the common good and collective interests; deeply aware of adversaries, allies, mission situation, see all advantages and difficulties, clearly identify responsibilities and commit to accomplishing all assigned tasks. From the points outlined above, it is evident that building the People’s Army toward modernisation involves not only investing in the modernisation of weapons and equipment but also developing human resources, organisation, and military arts in order to generate comprehensive and superior strength to successfully accomplish all assigned tasks. Therefore, arguments that overemphasize weaponry and technical equipment while downplaying or dismissing the importance of Party and political work in military modernisation reflect a narrow, impractical perspective that lacks scientific foundation.

The 80-year history of building, fighting, triumphing, and maturing of the Vietnam People’s Army shows that Party and political work has always been the “soul and lifeline” of the military, contributing to building a politically strong Army, thereby laying a solid basis for building the military toward modernisation; promoting the political-spiritual factors of the soldiers, multiplying the strength of weapons and equipment. Recognising this crucial position and role, throughout its process of leading the revolution, our Party and Government have consistently pursued the comprehensive development of the military in all aspects; in which, prioritising the Party and political work on building a politically strong Army. Party and political work are conducted on the foundation of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought, Party’s guidelines and policies, the Government’s policies and laws, which have equipped the military with a scientific worldview, correct methodology, and true communist belief, therefore, inspiring cadres and soldiers to uphold patriotism, revolutionary heroism, and promoting political capacity, fostering a firm determination to fight for the independence and freedom of the nation and the happiness of the people, ready to “carve through mountains, sleep in trenches, drench in rain, eat compressed rice, mix blood with mud”, “march across the Truong Son range to save the nation”... to defeat of the professional armies of French colonialists and American imperialists with sophisticated and modern weapons many times more advanced than ours. This affirms V. Lenin’s thought that: “Where political work in the army, the work of political commissars, is carried out most thoroughly... there is no laxity in the army, the army maintains better order, and possesses higher morale; more victories are achieved there” and “In every war, ultimate victory depends on the spirit of the masses who are shedding their blood on the battlefield”. At the same time, these insights serve as valuable lessons for Party and political work to continue to promote effectiveness and efficiency, and strengthen the soldiers’ confidence in the fighting and winning ability of our army and people; deeply understanding and creatively applying President Ho Chi Minh’s principle of “people before weapons”, promote the spirit of self-reliance, self-strengthening, proactiveness and creativity in training and combat readiness; effectively using modern weapons and equipment to create comprehensive strength, ready to defeat all wars of aggression and wars using high-tech weapons of the enemy.

From this basis, it can be affirmed that in the process of building the military toward modernisation, the role of the Party and political work does not disappear but becomes increasingly critical. Arguments aimed at denying or undermining the role of the Party and political work in the military lack scientific basis and persuasive value, are subjective with dubious intentions, requiring resolute opposition and refutation. 

Dr. NGUYEN DO PHU