In response to the requirements set by the Vietnamese revolution, on July 11^th, 1950, President Ho Chi Minh signed the Decree 121/SL on the organisation and task of the General Command of the Vietnam People’s Army. According to that document, the National Defence Army Publishing House (the present-day People’s Army Publishing House) was founded with a merger between the old National Defence Army Publishing House under the Political Department and the Guerrilla Publishing House under the Department of Militia. Since then, the Eleventh of July has become the traditional day of the People’s Army Publishing House (hereafter the Publishing House).

In the war against the French Colonialists, in spite of difficulties in force, equipment and facility, cadres and employees of the Publishing House promoted a sense of unity to fulfil all missions and especially publish hundreds of volumes and important books serving the task of building the armed forces and encouraging the people and soldiers across the country to take part in the resistance war and national construction. Those were invaluable political, military, economic and cultural documents and products which were warmly welcomed by cadres and soldiers of the armed forces and effectively applied to the revolution by the people all over the country, thereby making contributions to the victory of the resistance war.

In the war against the U.S., to contribute to building the Army and performing the two strategic revolutionary tasks (socialism construction in the North and fulfillment of the people’s democratic revolution in the South for the national unification), the Publishing House selectively published classic materials on Marxism-Leninism, wars and the military as well as great works by our leaders, such as President Ho Chi Minh, Le Duan, Truong Chinh and Pham Van Dong. Those documents not only made contributions to giving instructions to our Military and people on successfully executing the Party’s political and military guidelines and tasks, but also helped disseminate universal military knowledge, combat experience and revolutionary mission as well as condemn and unmask plots, artifices and crimes by the U.S. and Saigon regime in the South.

After the country was reunified, together with offices and units within the whole Military, the Publishing House focused on constructing and developing itself according to its function and task and took part in occupying the cultural and ideological front in the newly-liberated areas. In the wars to defend the national border in the Southwest and the North and the international mission in Cambodia, the Publishing House kept releasing many types of documents aimed at exposing the enemies, introducing the Party’s political and military tasks, and equipping our cadres and soldiers in the sea, island and border areas and those who were fighting in Cambodia with necessary knowledge.

Over the past 70 years of construction and development, under the leadership by the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence and commanders of the General Department of Politics, generations of cadres and employees within the Publishing House have devoted their knowledge and effort and maintained a sense of unity to overcome difficulties and successfully fulfil their assigned missions. Tens of thousands of volumes with tens of millions of copies and billions of papers have been published  and greatly contributed to disseminating the military doctrine of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, giving advice to our Military and people on performing the Party’s military-defence tasks, preserving and upholding the revolutionary nature and heroic tradition of the people’s armed forces, educating troops on vigilance and combat readiness, and building Vietnam’s military science and the country’s revolutionary literature about the armed forces and revolutionary war. Many of the books published by the Publishing House have been included in our cadres and soldiers’ backpacks on battlefields or provided for troops in the sea, island, border areas and the people across the country. Those books have really become an invaluable source of mental strength nurturing the ideology and soul of numerous generations of Vietnamese people and encouraging them to fight and sacrifice for national liberation and construction.

With its outstanding achievements, the Publishing House was given the First-Class Feat-of-Arms Order (1969), the First-Class Military Exploit Order (1982), 2 Third-Class Independence Orders (1997 and 2007), 2 Third-Class Labour Orders (2010 and 2015), and the Second-Class Fatherland Protection Order (2020) by the State. It was presented with 40 Certificates of Merit by the Ministry of National Defence and the Central Commission for Propaganda and Education. It was also rewarded with the Emulation Flag and tens of certificates of merit for its achievements in publication serving the political task by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Information and Communications as well.

Party and State leaders visiting the People’s Army Publishing House’s exhibition on the occasion of the 90th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (3/2/1930 - 3/2/2020)

In recent years, to respond to the increasingly high requirements set by the Military build-up and the Homeland protection and the impacts by the 4^th industrial revolution, the Publishing House’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have exercised their leadership and direction over all pieces of work in order to build a comprehensively strong unit and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks. In the building of a politically strong unit, the Party Committee and Board of Directors have introduced higher echelons’ documents and especially resolutions, directives and guiding documents by the Party, the State and the Military on publication to staff members, while building up their resolve and responsibility for editing and publishing books and magazines, thus avoiding mistakes in the contents and viewpoints, opportunely serving major political events of the country, the Military, offices and units. Great value has been attached to combining political, legal, moral education with measures for grasping, managing, and orientating staff members’ ideology and action. The emulation-commendation work has been maintained regularly while the Determination to Win Emulation Movement has been combined with the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics and lifestyle under the 12^th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW, dated May 15^th, 2016 and the Central Military Commission Standing Board’s Directive 87-CT/QUTW, dated July 8^th, 2016 as well as the Campaign entitled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers in the new period” under the Central Military Commission Standing Board’s Directive 855-CT/QUTW, dated August 12^th, 2018. As a result, the Publishing House’s staff members always have political zeal and commit no sign of degradation in political ideology, ethics and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.”

Discussion about edition and publication

In addition, emphasis has been placed on improving the Publishing House’s performance of professional tasks. Priority has been given to publishing works that would confirm the invincibility of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the path towards socialism and communism as an inevitable development of human race and our country, and the key role of our Party’s leadership over the national reform. At the same time, the Publishing House has cooperated with offices and units across the Military in designing 8 basic sets of military books, such as classic and theoretical books, the system of textbooks and materials for teaching, military science, professional instruction, dissemination of experiences in the political, staff, logistics, technical and local military work, military history, literature on the people’s armed forces, and research and reference works.

Amidst the rapid development of information technology, the Publishing House has computerised its management, edition and publication, transformed its working method from traditional to modern ones, thereby saving its human resources, shortening its duration of labour, improving its productivity. At the same time, it has enhanced its staff members’ professionalism, professional competence and information technology level. Cadres in charge of publication must be able to work as political and military officers, teachers, diplomats, and linguists. It should be noted that since 2019, the Publishing House’s electronic publication system with over 500 volumes on the Military’s intranet and the Internet has been put into service, enabling readers to approach, look up and archive data quickly, conveniently and effectively. That has provided the Publishing House with a solid foundation for its development in the era of 4^th industrial revolution.

Besides, the Publishing House has taken many measures for raising the quality of military training, combat readiness, fire and explosion prevention and control, military standard order building, and discipline management. In this regard, significance has been attached to training officers and professional service men  and women in shooting, line-up regulations, shift of combat readiness states, and projects for fire and explosion prevention and combat and facility protection. The Publishing House has strictly maintained the order for command, office, and work duty and the regulations on infiltration prevention and cyber security, while enhancing measures for military standard order building, discipline management and traffic safety, with a focus on the regulations on troops’ working time and manners. As a result, it has witnessed no violation of discipline and law that would be handled and ensured the absolute safety within itself.

Furthermore, due regard has been paid to sufficiently, opportunely providing logistics and technical support for missions. To practise thrift and fight against corruption, wastefulness and negative practices, the Publishing House has placed emphasis on well performing the administrative and financial work for regular and irregular missions, managing, using, upgrading, and preserving its facilities. Simultaneously, it has ensured sufficient policies and entitlements for its staff members and improved their living conditions. In recent years, the Ministry of National Defence has made investments in improving the facilities and acquiring more pieces of equipment and technological devices to modernise and make the Publishing House capable of keeping pace with the development of the 4^th industrial revolution.

Those remarkable achievements have laid an important foundation for cadres and employees of the People’s Army Publishing House to continue building a comprehensively strong unit, following the motto of “revolutionary, regular, professional, and modern” publication, raising the status of the Military’s publishing sector, and striving to become a “top destination” in Vietnam’s publishing industry.

Sr. Col. DAU XUAN LUAN, Director and Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Army Publishing House