On 2 and 5 August 1964, the Vietnam People’s Navy (VPN) cooperated with other forces in courageously fighting to win victory in the first battles. It is forever a source of pride and encouragement for generations of Naval cadres and soldiers to overcome all hardships, successfully fulfil all assigned tasks, and build an “elite, compact, strong”, modern Service worthy of its core role in firmly protecting national sovereignty over seas and islands.

Inspecting the Radar Station of Naval Region 5

By 1964, facing the risk of failure in their “Special War” strategy, US imperialists recklessly expanded their war of destruction against our strategic rear, with a view to stopping the North from giving support to the South battlefield. Since March 1964, the US and Saigon puppet regime regularly employed reconnaissance aircraft and warships to infringe upon our territorial waters from Thanh Hoa province to Quang Binh province. It should be noted that on 2 August 1964, the US Navy deployed its destroyer Maddox close to Hon Me island, Thanh Hoa province (10 nautical miles southeast of Hon Ne island) in order to carry out reconnaissance and provoke our forces. Following higher echelons’ directives, the VPN organised attacks to expel US Maddox destroyer and resolutely punish the enemy for violating our waters. After our attacks, the US government made up the so-called “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” falsely accusing the VPN of “deliberately” attacking US destroyer in an international sea as a pretext for further escalation of their war in North Vietnam. Under that plot, on 5 August 1964, the US immediately launched Operation “Pierce Arrow”, deploying the maximum of aircraft from Constellation and Ticonderoga aircraft carriers to destroy economic targets, bases, depots, and docking facilities of our VPN along the coastline from Gianh river (Quang Binh province) to Bai Chay (Quang Ninh province), commencing the war of destruction against North Vietnam. That was a fierce clash between forces and people’s war posture at sea from North Vietnam as one side and US Air Force and Navy as the other. In spite of being confronted with the enemy’s modern weapons and equipment, with their willpower, determination, and courage, Naval troops coordinated with the three-category air defence forces and people of coastal localities to shoot down 8 enemy aircraft, damage many others, and capture a number of enemy pilots alive, thereby foiling the first phase of US imperialists’ destruction plot against the North, bolstering our Military’s tradition of winning the first battle.

Victory on 2 and 5 August 1964 opened up the VPN’s glorious combat history, contributing to encouraging the entire Party, Military, and people to strive to annihilate more enemy troops, achieve more feats, and drive the US and Saigon puppet regime away. That victory became the VPN’s tradition of “winning the first battles”, forever acting as a shining example of revolutionary heroism, asserting the will and determination of the VPN in particular, the whole Military and people in general in the war against the US. That was the victory of unity, combat coordination, and knowledge of the Vietnamese people; it demonstrated the military art of “taking the small to win against the big, taking the few against the many”, and promoting the entire nation’s synergy to defeat the enemy with superiority in all domains, thus proving the soundness of the guidelines on people’s war set by our Party and President Ho Chi Minh. That victory was also the crystallisation of willpower, revolutionary vigilance, creativity, and training, preparation, and combat readiness process of all forces at sea with the VPN playing a core role.

Victory in the first battles on 2 and 5 August 1964 produced far-reaching effects in the international arena, asserting the indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese nation which is small but never yields to any invader. 60 years have elapsed, but victory in the first battles still retains its values as a huge incentive for Naval troops to devote efforts to achieving new feats and contribute to building and firmly protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

Currently, although peace, cooperation, and development are the mainstream of the times, the situation on global and regional scales continue to witness complex, unpredictable changes. Disputes over territorial sovereignty, conflicts relating to ethnicity and religion, local wars, and non-traditional security challenges are on the increase and more intense. The situation in the East Sea has seen complex developments posing unpredictable risks. Hostile forces have been stepping up their acts of sabotage against our country’s revolution via the “peaceful evolution” strategy together with new cunning artifices. The task of protecting the Fatherland in general, national sovereignty over seas and islands in particular is imposing more demanding and comprehensive requirements and faced with a lot of difficulties and challenges. To fulfil its responsibility towards the Party, Fatherland, and people, the Naval Service will continue to uphold the tradition of “winning the first battles” and focus on building an “elite, compact, strong” Service in the new situation.

Commander of the VPN visits Song Tu Tay Island

First of all, concentrating on building a politically strong Service. Doing so will lay a solid foundation for improving the Service’s synergy and combat power and enabling the Service to successfully fulfil all assigned tasks. To that end, the Service will continue to step up political and ideological education and further improve the effectiveness of party and political work to render its cadres and soldiers fully aware of the Party’s military-defence guidelines, particularly the Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 8^th Plenum on “the Strategy for Fatherland Protection in the New Situation” as well as the importance of seas and islands and the Service’s tasks. The Service will enhance education and propagation work to make troops cognisant of plots and artifices of hostile forces, partners and opponents of the Vietnamese revolution, and urgent requirements set by the protection of seas and islands in the new situation. Doing so will allow the Service to continue to raise its troops’ awareness, responsibility, political steadfastness, and vigilance. Besides, this measure will help encourage the Service’s troops to surmount all difficulties and hardships, remain flexible, resolute, persistent, and creative in performing their tasks, and promote determination to fight and defeat the enemy in all situations for the sake of sacred national sovereignty over seas and islands.

Furthermore, the Service will focus on making its Party Organisation strong in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel. Great value will be attached to raising the leadership capacity and combativeness of all-level party committees and party organisations, particularly within units tasked with combat readiness or stationed on islands and platforms. The Service’s Party Organisation will continue to well implement the Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 4^th Plenum on Party building and rectification as well as higher echelons’ directives, guidance, and conclusions on studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, especially the Politburo’s Regulation 144-QĐ/TW dated 9 May 2024 on revolutionary moral standards of cadres and party members in the new period. At the same time, due attention will be paid to raising the quality of criticism and self-criticism in order to make a huge positive change in cadres and party members’ political ideology, morality, and lifestyle and push back negative practices. The Campaign titled “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers - Naval Soldiers” will be well carried out as the basis for building a politically strong Service capable of meeting its task requirements in the new situation.

Second, raising the quality of training and combat readiness to firmly protect national sovereignty over seas and islands. The Service will continue to realise Resolution 1659-NQ/QUTW dated 20 December 2022 by the Central Military Commission (CMC) on raising the quality of training in the period of 2023 - 2030 and beyond. It will strive to further improve the quality of training, combat readiness, and combat coordination among its forces, with sea and island protection being seen as the goal of training work. In the process, it will adhere to the motto of “basics, practicality, solidity”, focus on synchronous, specialised training relevant to each unit’s tasks, combat projects, operational area, organisational structure, and equipment, and closely combine combat training with political education, regularity building, and discipline management. It will increase practice and exercises to train its troops to deal with complex conditions and defeat the enemy with hi-tech weapons, which will also help improve its troops’ command and coordination capacity and willpower. It will continue to achieve a breakthrough in training its troops to master and provide technical support for new-generation weapons and equipment. Besides, it will cooperate with military regions, localities, and relevant forces in building an inter-connected, firm coast - sea - island posture, while raising the quality of situational research and forecast to proactively propose measures and strategies for handling incidents at sea and avoiding passivity. At the same time, it will continue to conduct researches to draw lessons from its combat process, especially from its first battles and apply them to training, force building, and naval combat art development in accordance with its weaponry, equipment, and new requirements of sea and island protection.

Third, focusing on consolidating the Service’s organisational structure in an “elite, compact, strong” manner and accelerating the modernisation process. Grasping and seriously implementing the 13^th Politburo’s Resolution 05-NQ/TW dated 17 January 2022, the CMC’s Resolution 230-NQ/QUTW dated 2 February 2022, and Plan 1228/KH-BQP dated 25 April 2022 by the Ministry of National Defence (MND) on the organisation of the Vietnam People’s Army in the period of 2021 - 2030 and beyond, the Service will continue to focus its leadership and direction on organisational adjustment and force building under the road map and plan approved by the CMC and MND. In this regard, adjustments in the Service’s organisational structure and force disposition will be carried out simultaneously, especially in the key directions and regions to make the Service capable of flexibly transforming its posture, maintaining close coordination between its forces, and conducting both joint and independent operations when necessary. Additionally, the Service will direct its affiliates to actively reduce intermediate units and carry out troop deployment from abundance to scarcity, with priority given to combat readiness units. To realise the goal of basically building a modern VPN by 2025, in addition to the strategy to develop human resources and the training of its cadres and soldiers, the Service will concentrate on modernising its means, weapons, and equipment and acquiring observation and reconnaissance equipment for its forces at sea to ensure that its forces will be strong enough to perform a core role in conducting a people’s war at sea, managing and protecting national sovereignty over seas, islands, and continental shelf in the new situation.

Fourth, well implementing logistics - technical work to contribute to raising the Service’s combat power. As the core force in Fatherland protection at sea with the use of specialised, modern means and weapons, logistics - technical support is of paramount importance to the Service’s task performance. Therefore, the Service will continue to grasp and further implement resolutions and directives of the CMC and MND on logistics - technical work towards 2030 and beyond. Much importance will be attached to consolidating and merging logistics and technical units at all levels to meet the requirements of building an “elite, compact, strong” Service and improve the quality of logistics - technical support for tasks, particularly for units tasked with combat readiness and forces stationed on Truong Sa Islands and DK1 Platform. At the same time, the Service will continue to direct its offices and units to review, supplement, and complete their logistics - technical operational documents, maintain combat readiness to provide logistics - technical support in all situations, and focus on developing and practising logistics - technical support projects for the quick deployment of ships. Moreover, emphasis will be placed on giving advice on constructing logistics - technical bases and sub-bases for operational level, clusters of forces, and islands in a mobile, inter-connected, solid fashion. The Service will actively cooperate with sectors and localities in building and managing logistics - technical reserve forces and means to maintain readiness for mobilisation in the event. 

In addition to those above-mentioned measures and tasks, the Service will continue to improve the effectiveness of international integration and defence diplomacy, while strengthening and developing friendly and cooperative relations with naval forces of other countries. It will also proactively attend global and regional naval forums and conferences, actively take part in joint patrols, foster international cooperation in military technology, logistics, training, education, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing prevention and control to contribute to building trust and raising the VPN’s status and prestige in the international arena.

Bringing into play the tradition of “winning the first battles”, cadres and soldiers of the VPN will continue to strive to build an “elite, compact, strong”, modern Service worthy of its core role in firmly protecting sacred national sovereignty over seas and islands.

Vice Admiral TRAN THANH NGHIEM

Member of the Party Central Committee

Member of the CMC

Commander of the VPN