Provincial defensive area is a component part of the whole country and military zone's defensive system, playing a strategic role in the Homeland construction and protection. Its strength is a combination of various elements, among which political and spiritual potential is at the core.

The building of defensive area is, in fact, the consolidation of its potential. The consolidation of political and spiritual potential is the enhancement of personnel and organizations’ capability to create the area's political and spiritual strength, making sure that the people with the armed forces at the core, keep their absolute faith in the Party’s leadership, first and foremost the local party committee, being fully aware of their rights and responsibilities, and being willing to take part in the construction of defensive area in peacetime as well as in wartime. Also, the building of defensive area is the consolidation of organizations and “the people’s heart and mind posture”.

To meet the requirements in building political and spiritual potential in defensive area, attention should be paid on conducting the following basic points.

First, it is necessary to strengthen political and ideological education to raise cadres and people’s awareness and responsibilities toward the building of defensive area. It is considered the most important factor in the building of the area’s political and spiritual potential. Its aim is to reach a consensus among the people, armed forces, local government’s branches and organizations over the task of defensive area construction. To this end, military and security organs at levels need to proactively give advice to local party committee and authority to boost the task of political and ideological education, defence and security education. Accordingly, fundamental contents in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and Party’s guidelines in the Homeland protection should be at the core. As for local party committees, authorities, and key cadres at levels, the content of education should be on the building of all-people defence, all-people defence posture associated with all-people security posture, and defensive area; civil defence, defence mobilization, local status shifting from peacetime to wartime.

Together with political and ideological education, it is necessary to regularly consolidate and strengthen political systems at levels, particularly to build strong party committees, satisfying the requirements in leadership and direction of building firm defensive area in peacetime. Localities should attach great importance to enhancing party organizations’ leadership and fighting capabilities from commune (grass-roots) level to district and province level in order that the party organizations are capable enough to lead armed forces and the people to successful construction of comprehensively strong defensive area. In particular, we determine to eliminate ideological, political, moral and lifestyle degradation among a number of cadres and party members, timely identifying and thoroughly dealing with emerged problems, and preventing “hot spots”. At the same time, localities should build strong authorities at levels that are actually the authority of people, by people, and for people. First and foremost, there should be a focus on training, fostering, and improving the quality of local cadres from commune level to district and province level; supplementing qualified young cadres; combining the shifting around of cadres so that they could have more experience of the real situations. Notably, in border provinces, there should be cadres in charge of border issues as the core factors in firmly protecting national sovereignty and border security.

Among the most important issues in building defensive area's political and spiritual potential is the building of strong “people’s heart and mind posture”. To this end, it is important to educate people by propagation and education, so that they clearly understand the hostile forces’ plots, tricks, and acts of sabotage; their citizenship responsibilities and obligations in the cause of protecting the Homeland, the Party and the socialist regime. Cadres at levels need to innovate their methods of working, attaching to grass-roots units, promoting people’s mastery, always respecting and relying on the people, being people’s public servants in every activity of locality; determining to eradicate bureaucracy, corruption, wastefulness, impracticality. Units in armed forces need to collaborate with localities to actively assist the people with production development, hunger elimination and poverty reduction. Units also should well implement social policies on assisting troops’ families, supporting the people with epidemic and natural disaster prevention and relief, so as to improve their life. 

Colonel Do Tran Hung