Over thousands of years of building and defending the country, the Vietnamese people have faced numerous invaders with much stronger economic and military potentials; however, victory has always been on our side. The national cultural foundation, in which the tradition of military culture (the culture of national defence) is the key to these victories.

Among the values of the Vietnamese military culture, great humanity is of outstanding significance, deeply expressing the characteristics of the Vietnamese people. Its core reads "Great justice over cruelty, humanity over violence", which embodies itself in the following basic contents.

Firstly, the ultimate goal of our resistance wars is to gain and maintain national independence. The essence of culture is creativity and humanity. Therefore, our resistance wars for national independence represent cultural acts, which express great humanity. They protect the rights of life, freedom, and equality; protect human dignity, culture, civilisation, national pride. At the same time, they fight against invasion, enslavement, massacre, plunder, etc., which counters evil, greed, nefariousness, anti-culture, and anti-civilisation.

In 40, Trung sisters led the resistance war with an oath to demonstrate the will of independence, the goal of saving their country and family: "The first is to wash away national humiliation. The second is to bring back the golden era of Hung King’s Dynasty". In 1789, before sending his troops to the North against the Qing invaders, Quang Trung took the oath of fighting against the enemy until the very end. Thus, King Quang Trung affirmed the goal of protecting the national culture, independence and sovereignty.

Particularly, our nation have been deeply aware that only determining the right political goals, can we promote patriotism and mobilise all classes against foreign invaders with the spirit of each citizen being a soldier. The “killing Yuan” willpower immersed in Dong A spirit was strongly felt under Tran dynasty; along with spirit of "Sacrificing for the Fatherland", "Rather sacrificing all than losing the country and being slaves", "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom", etc. in the resistance wars against the French colonialists and the American imperialists. All these built up an invincible power to defeat the invaders. Besides, the righteousness of our just wars awakened the conscience of those who have gone astray, of the soldiers on the other side and gained the support from progressive people all over the world, even the people in countries which launched the war.

During the Ho Chi Minh era, under the leadership of the Party, the Vietnamese revolution targets at successfully building socialism; liberating social classes, nation and people, which embodies great humanity. According to President Ho Chi Minh, the goal of national liberation is to guarantee peasants’ land possession, so that "everyone has food to eat, clothes to wear and chance to study". His strong aspiration expressed his profound humanitarian ideology. He affirmed that the Vietnamese revolution must follow the path of the proletarian revolution - national independence associated with socialism. He assured that only socialism can save people’s freedom and happiness, because "if the country is independent but its people cannot enjoy freedom and happiness, then independence is meaningless."⁵ That great humanitarian goal has created the driving force to mobilise the masses under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, forming the strength of the entire nation, sailing the Vietnamese revolutionary boat over all difficulties to victories.

Secondly, there requires clarification on the relationship between benevolence and military strategy. During war time, benevolence and military strategy are the two factors which overwhelmingly affect warring parties. While most of the world's people believe that military strategy is the strongest attribute of a leader, Vietnamese people consider benevolence as the foundation and a unique feature in our military tradition. Benevolence is the righteousness, the spiritual factor; the power of patriotism; the thought for people, which comes from compassion and justice. It is also an act of saving people from the misery and slavery amid national invasion. Therefore, benevolence is a good example of great humanity. Military strategy represents conspiracies, which are commanders’ military measures, plots, and strategies to respond to and solve war situations and to command soldiers. In this relationship, our forefathers had always taken benevolence as the first and foremost because "humanity lies in people’s peace of mind". People are the root of any victories against foreign invaders.

The history of national defence shows that it is benevolence that can mobilise “strong forces", turn weakness into strength, few into many to defeat enemies who possess better economic and military potentials. During Lam Son uprising led by Le Loi, Nguyen Trai achieved great merits with not only his military strategy but also his upholding humanity. He said that troop education and training had to focus on "forging benevolence", insisting the goal to drive away invaders, regaining national independence and freedom, as well as a peaceful life for people. In a letter in June 1426 to Phuong Chinh, the enemy’s commander, Nguyen Trai pointed out: "The top priority a commander must put on is benevolence, not the power”. Inheriting such an ideology, during the two wars against the French and the US, President Ho Chi Minh also affirmed that "Troop deployment is a benevolent act to save the people and the country".

Thus, Vietnam’s strength is the combination of benevolence and military strategy, which is revealed in the blend of leaders’ virtue and talent as well as people’s kindness and wisdom. Benevolence and kindness make the whole nation’s great humanity. The convergence of the commander’s military strategy with people’s wisdom builds up the national willpower. Promoting intellect based on the nation's great humanity will bring into play the great strength of the whole nation in wars. After all, our national strength over invaders stems from the combination between Vietnamese people’s benevolence and intellect as well as culture.

Thirdly, due regard is paid to humanity, love and good behaviour towards people. Historically, it is true that facing the hostile conspiracies, our ancestors would choose to prevent war from happening. During the Middle Age, Dai Viet's dynasties often conducted flexible diplomacy to avoid bloodshed. When resorting to violence to regain independence, we always desired to end the war as soon as possible, in order to save blood and money for both sides, and to create a friendly environment for building and developing the country. Our national war guideline does not advocate the annihilation of the last enemy, but to drain their will of invasion, forcing them to withdraw. During the resistance war against the Ming invaders, General Wang Tong was forced to surrender in an oath ceremony with the Lam Son insurgents in the southern citadel of Dong Quan while their troops were up to 100,000 at that time. In the war against the French colonialists, when the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Indochina were signed, the enemy still had about 450,000 troops. Against the US imperialists, President Ho Chi Minh clearly defined the goal "to force the Americans out of the country and overthrow puppets", not to completely destroy the enemy, because the ultimate objective of Vietnam’s revolution is independence.

Humanity is eloquently expressed in our culture, especially in Vietnamese sayings, such as: "return favour in response to revenge", "hit those who go away, not those who come back", etc.  In times of war, when the enemy exhausted and surrendered, our nation would pave them a way and treat the prisoners with humanity. During the second resistance war against the Song in Ly Dynasty, when the Song army was on the verge of being destroyed, Ly Thuong Kiet actively opened a retreat for the enemy by making peace and ending the war. His great decision helped to "save blood and flesh and preserve humanity", which proved our righteousness and forgiveness. During the resistance war against the Ming by Le Loi and Nguyen Trai, after the enemy was in desperation and exhaustion, we did not take revenge, but provided them with food, ships, and horses. Receiving such humanity, the enemy returned home with anxiety.

Imbued with Vietnam’s humane ideology, President Ho Chi Minh once expressed: "I feel sorry for the French deaths. With regards to humanity, French or Vietnamese blood is the same, French and Vietnamese are both human”. He also pointed out that it was the war instigators, the leaders and the enemy’s commanders who deserved criticism; those directly fighting the wars were only victims of their dark schemes. Therefore, President Ho Chi Minh called on our people to humanely treat the enemy soldiers who had already surrendered.

It can be seen that the great humanity in Vietnam's military history clearly shows the strength of the Vietnamese nation not in violence, but in forgiveness and educative words and awakening conscience. In other words, our victories against aggressors are not only through violence but also through great humanity and forgiveness. This issue needs to be further studied, developed and applied in the national defence and Homeland protection.

Senior Colonel LE HUU TRUONG, PhD, Deputy Head of Army Corps 4’s Political Department