Our military has the nature of the working class, the people and nationalism. It is also an army of the people, originating from the people, fighting for the people. During the process of building, fighting and maturing, the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) has always built, consolidated, and maintained solidarity with the people. The relationship has become a precious tradition, which instills the image of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” in the people’s hearts, contributing to the defeat of hostile forces’ plots and conspiracies to separate the VPA from the people.

Being taught by President Ho Chi Minh that “without the people, there is no military” and “the people are the foundation and parents of the military”, during nearly 77 years of building, fighting and maturing, generations of cadres and soldiers have been unafraid of sacrifices, difficulties and hardships, “loyal to the country, pious to the people”, while building up and cultivating solidarity and a tight-knit relationship with the people. Throughout revolutionary periods, military men always relied on the people, protected the people, and shared sorrow and happiness with them; vice versa, the people also trusted and protected the VPA, honoured them as “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. The solidarity between the military and people became an internal strength, which played a decisive part in helping the VPA and the people achieve great feats in the cause of national liberation and unification.

In the period of our national renewal, construction and defence, the solidarity between the military and the people has been raised to a higher level. Military officers and soldiers continue to promote the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, while being unreservedly patriotic, absolutely loyal to the Party and the Fatherland, and ready to fight and sacrifice for national independence and freedom, socialism, and the people’s happiness. Commanders of military units always proactively and cooperatively carry out the propaganda of the Party’s lines and guidelines, the State’s policies and laws, local socio-economic development programmes, contributively creating a high consensus and unity among all classes of Vietnamese people, building a great national unity block as well as solidarity between the VPA and people. In any garrisons, military units are all twinned with local organisations, unions and forces as well as actively participate in building a strong local political system. The military always stay close to the people under the motto of “eating with, living with, working with the people and speaking ethnic languages together” to encourage the people to well adapt to the Party’s lines, the State’s policies and laws, programmes on socio-economic development, national defence and security, thereby building a stable environment in each locality. In the struggle for the Fatherland’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, military units encourage the people to unite with the Border Guard, the Navy, and the Coast Guard to protect the national sovereignty over seas and islands, national border security, and safeguard our sacred land. Besides, they actively prevent and effectively fight against all kinds of crimes such as: drug trafficking, human trafficking, trade fraud, illegal exploitation of natural resources, etc. Meanwhile, being assigned to strengthen political bases, thousands of officers work tirelessly in localities and advise local Party committees and authorities to promptly handle complicated issues. Particularly, the Border Guard has dispatched more than 320 officers to border communes to take on key positions in the Party Committees and People’s Committees. These activities help form a consensus and unity in the society, promote the political system at grass-roots level, and create socio-political stability for economic development and improvement in the people’s living standards.

Dealing with unexpected developments, especially in some localities where complex political security incidents occur, local military agencies, working teams, and key units stationed in those areas actively grasp the situation by going to each alley, knocking each door, fully understanding each individual to persistently enable the people to distinguish between right and wrong and fight against hostile forces’ plots and subversive activities, thus contributing to maintaining political stability and social order and safety as well as protecting the people’s peaceful life.

Performing the function of an army ready for work and promoting the tradition of “being pious to the people”, military units closely cooperate with forces to participate in hundreds of projects and contribute millions of working days to socio-economic and cultural development. They also join hands to build new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas, reduce poverty sustainably, foster socio-economic development in ethnic minorities’ areas and mountainous areas, closely combine socio-economic development with national defence and security consolidation, especially in the remote and border areas, on islands, and in the regions mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities and religious citizens.  Military enterprises and economic corps effectively implement programmes for agricultural, forestry and fishery development, hunger eradication, and poverty alleviation as well as mobilise local resources for socio-economic development, which helps bridge the gap among regions. Moreover, military units proactively apply technological achievements to cleaning up contaminated soils inflicted by wars and environmental pollution incidents. Units specialising in technology are responsible for the teaching of information technology, support the installation of Internet access points, consolidate and build communal cultural houses and communal cultural post offices in localities. Military hospitals successfully foster local medical staff’s knowledge and professional qualifications, supply medical equipment, and provide free medical checkups, consultation and medicine for the people. Many typical activities and models have been conducted, such as: “The military joins hands to build  new-style rural areas”, “The military joins hands for public health”, “Teachers and doctors with green ranks”, “Vietnamese Navy serves as a fulcrum for fishermen to reach the sea”, “Bonding Kinh households with ethnic ones”, “Border guard posts’ adopted children”, “Military-Civilian Tet holiday”, etc. along with thousands of typical examples in “mass mobilisation” being honoured and rewarded. These clearly prove the solidarity between the VPA and the people, which becomes a decisive factor to build and firmly defend the Fatherland in the new situation.

In preventing and fighting natural disasters and epidemics, military men regard it as the “combat” task in peacetime. Accounting for over 70% of the whole force, the military always plays a core role in evacuating and rescuing the people, providing medicine and food, quickly overcoming consequences, and stabilising the people’s life. Typically, they overcame the consequences of forest fires, floods, droughts, saltwater intrusion in the North, the Central Coast, and the South, conducted search and rescue operations during the collapse of Da Dang tunnel (Lam Dong), treated environmental pollution at Rang Dong company and dioxin-contaminated soil at Da Nang airport, handled consequences of marine environmental pollution in the Central Coast, etc. During the process, many military officers and soldiers sacrificed their lives for the peaceful life of the people. In particular, in COVID-19 pandemic prevention and combat, military units have closely controlled  borders, organised nearly 200 quarantine zones, disinfected millions of square kilometers in pandemic-hit areas, constructed field hospitals to receive and treat patients, formed mobile teams for preventing and controlling the pandemic, ensuring social security for the affected people. Engraved in the heart that “people are the foundation and parents of the military men”, and “the military men must be pious to the people”, officers and soldiers have all demonstrated the spirit of serving the people. Following the motto of “where hardships remain, there will be military men”, soldiers have actively come to the people in all situations, shared sorrow and happiness together. More difficulties and dangers lead to the more cemented solidarity between the VPA and people, which helps defeat the hostile forces’ plot to distort and split that relationship.

Besides, the entire VPA thoroughly grasps and well implements resolutions, action programs, patriotic emulation movements and campaigns. Annually, the military has hundreds of scientific research works, and technical innovation initiatives applied in training, production, and study which practically serve military and defence activities and contribute to national economic development. Also, attention is regularly paid to improving soldiers’ material and spiritual life, building a good, healthy, and rich cultural environment with typical models, such as “soldiers’ cultural park”, “Green lecture hall”, etc. being a cultural highlight for educating and training soldiers, which spreads widely among the people from all walks of life.

The tight-knit relationship between the military and the people is the strength and motivation for the cause of national renovation, construction, and defence. The VPA is a revolutionary army that originates from the people and fights for the people. It is also a special political force which is absolutely loyal to the Party, the State, and the People. It is an army ready for combat, for work, and for production. It is an army of culture as well. Therefore, hostile forces always intensify their activities of “peaceful evolution”, subversive unrest with malicious tricks to separate the VPA from the people, which aims at sabotaging our revolutionary cause. The reality has proven that hostile forces cannot carry out their destructive plots and conspiracies provided that the solidarity between the military and the people is preserved and strengthened.

In the new situation, especially in the face of fierce opposition from hostile forces, the building and strengthening of military-people solidarity have become more important and meaningful than ever. Therefore, great value should be attached to building a politically, ideologically, morally, and organisationally strong VPA absolutely loyal to the Party, the State and People so that it will work closely with the whole Party and people to maintain a peaceful and stable environment for national development. Simultaneously, due regard should be paid to well performing the function of an “army ready for work”, forming a close bond with the people, entirely relying on the people, consolidating and maintaining “the posture  of people’s hearts and minds”. All military staff members and citizens should unanimously, successfully implement the Party’s guidelines, the State’s policies and laws, resolutely fight to defeat hostile forces’ plots and conspiracies to ruin the relationship between the VPA and the people. Military officers and soldiers shall relentlessly improve their moral qualities and working styles, “respect the people, stay close to the people, understand the people, learn from the people, and be responsible for the people” as the motto of mass mobilisation to deserve people’s trust and enhance the quality and tradition of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new era.

Major General NGO THANH HAI, Director of the Department of Mass Mobilisation