With its “adept, compact, strong” organisational structure, Division 308  (hereinafter referred to as the Division) under Army Corps 12 has been orientated towards modernity under the 13^th Politburo’s 05-NQ/TW dated 17 January 2022 and the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 230-NQ/QUTW dated 2 April 2022. Due to the development of its tasks, the Division has experienced an increase in the size of its workforce, which has imposed higher, more comprehensive, and more complex requirements on its training, combat readiness, human and material management, and other pieces of work. However, the Division’s troops have different educational backgrounds; weapons and equipment, especially tanks and armoured vehicles have been in use for ages; political security and social order and safety in the stationed area still face complex elements; the dark side of the market mechanism and the Division’s ongoing organisational adjustments greatly impact on cadres and soldiers’ ideological situation. Against that backdrop, the Division’s Party Committee and Command have determined to focus on raising the quality and effectiveness of legal dissemination and education as the basis for building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Division capable of undertaking and successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.

Traditional history education for new soldiers

Under that line, the Division’s Party Committee and Command have concentrated their leadership and direction on raising awareness and a sense of responsibility in legal dissemination and education among all-level party committees and commands and considered this work as a top priority. Realities have revealed that insufficient awareness and a lack of responsibility from all-level party committees and commands are the root cause of most of the violations of law and discipline. Hence, the Division has directed its offices and units to continue to grasp and effectively realise higher echelons’ resolutions, directives, and guiding documents on legal dissemination and education, regularity building, and discipline management. Meanwhile, all-level party committees and organisations have issued specialised resolutions on discipline management and education and regarded this work as one of the urgent, basic, long-term breakthroughs in the process of leadership and direction. Besides, the Division has required all-level party committees and organisations to correctly evaluate the observance of law and discipline within their offices and units, point out strengths, weaknesses, and causes, and formulate measures of leadership to improve the quality of this important work. In the process, heads of offices and units have concretised party committees’ specialised resolutions into action programs and plans with specific objectives, requirements, content, and timings for each group of troops, with a focus on drawbacks, sections performing tasks independently, and newly-founded or reorganised offices and units. The outcome of leadership and direction has been regularly reviewed and seen as a criterion for assessing the task performance of party organisations, cadres, and party members as well as for annual emulation and commendation work. Doing so has contributed to making a huge, solid positive change in cadres and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility towards regularity building and discipline management in offices and units across the Division.

Besides, the Division has frequently consolidated Coordinating Councils for Legal Dissemination and Education at all levels, promoted the role of these Councils, and raised the quality of rapporteurs, communicators, and psychological, medical, and legal consultation Teams. Adhering to its task requirements and changes in its manpower, the Division has both qualitatively and quantitatively consolidated Coordinating Councils for Legal Dissemination and Education at all levels and frequently completed the Operating Regulations of these Councils. On a yearly basis, these Councils have cooperated with competent offices, particularly political and staff ones in advising all-level leaderships and commands on designing and promulgating plans for legal dissemination and education properly. Offices and units have focused on building and training a pool of rapporteurs, communicators, and members of psychological, medical, and legal consultation Teams with political steadfastness, pure morality, good knowledge and skills of propagation and education, creative working methods, great responsibility, and enormous enthusiasm; these cadres have been encouraged to set good examples in study, task performance, and observance of law and discipline for soldiers to follow. Thanks to this approach, the Division’s core force has always heightened a sense of responsibility for conducting the work of legal dissemination and education, providing sound advice on law, discipline, and especially troops’ rights and duties, opportunely helping troops with ideological and psychological issues. Doing so has helped encourage cadres and soldiers to overcome difficulties, well perform their tasks, and self-consciously abide by law and discipline.

To bolster the attractiveness and persuasiveness of legal dissemination and education, the Division has actively renewed and diversified the content, forms, and methods of this work. In terms of content, the whole Division has accomplished all training programs under higher echelons’ regulations. At the same time, offices and units have intensified propagation, dissemination, and education regarding new legal normative documents. On a monthly basis, offices and units have opportunely provided troops with sufficient information about violations of law and discipline to draw lessons and orientate troop ideology.

To instil legal documents and regulations on regularity building and discipline management into troops, the Division has directed its offices and units to flexibly, creatively employ various forms and methods. Importance has been attached to raising the quality and effectiveness of directly delivering specialised topics and combining legal dissemination and education with political, ideological, and task-related education. The Division has continued to bring into play the role of cultural institutions within its offices and units, stepped up propagation via the internal radio system, and organised wide and deep political activities in diverse, thrilling forms, with practical effectiveness, such as law-related forums, talk shows, and knowledge contests. Moreover, it has improved the quality and effectiveness of the Political and Cultural Day at grass-roots level and the Legal Study Day, while continuing to enhance the operation of models, such as “Psychological, medical, and legal consultation team”, “Studying one article of law every week”, “One legal question every day”. In the process, the dissemination of legal documents has been linked with raising troops’ law-abiding awareness in the performance of tasks, particularly in the Determined to Win Emulation Movement, the Regulations on Grass-roots Democracy, and the Campaign titled “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers in the new era”. As a result, the Division has succeeded in building a democratic, united atmosphere and fostering a healthy, diverse cultural environment within each office and unit as a solid foundation for troops to strive to successfully fulfil their tasks and minimise violations of law and discipline.

Proud of being the first mobile regular unit of the Vietnam People’s Army, aka the Vanguard Group, the Division has always closely combined legal dissemination and education with traditional history education as the “dual motivation” for troops’ task performance. Offices and units have frequently educated cadres and soldiers on the Division’s challenging but glorious 75-year journey of construction, combat, victory, and maturity. Due attention has been paid to disseminating heroic feats of arms and the pride of a unit which had been visited by Uncle Ho on five occasions, especially the President’s instructions given to cadres and soldiers of Division 308 on 19 September 1954 at Hung Kings Temple (Phu Tho province):  “The Hung Kings had the merit of building the country, we must together safeguard it”. Doing so has provided an incentive for cadres and soldiers to uphold self-reliance, proactiveness, creativity, and self-improvement, self-consciously observe law and discipline, maintain and promote the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, and continue to bolster the glorious tradition of “vanguard, courage, unity, discipline, lightning speed, determination to fight, determination to win”.

“The Military attributes its strength to decent education, effective policies, and strict discipline”. Hence, legal dissemination and education must be in parallel with discipline management. To do so, the Division has directed its offices and units to stringently maintain daily and weekly work and study regimes properly. Significance has been attached to raising troops’ self-consciousness of observing military regulations and discipline. At the same time, the Division has promoted the role of all-level cadres in inspecting troops’ task performance and conformity to law and discipline, especially on national holidays and days off as well as in rest hours. Offices and units have proactively cooperated with local party committees and authorities and families in educating and comprehensively managing troops, particularly troops’ political ideology, difficulties, aspirations, and social relationships. Offices and units have opportunely detected and completely handled violations of discipline, thereby recording no serious violations of discipline, maintaining the rate of normal disciplinary violations below 0.2%, ensuring the absolute safety in all operations.

Proud of its glorious tradition and achievements, Division 308 will continue to improve the effectiveness of legal dissemination and education via synchronous measures as an important prerequisite for raising its synergy, combat power, and task performance in the new period.

Lt. Col. DANG VAN THUONG

Political Commissar of the Division