Military officers are part of the Party cadres in which the grassroots-level officers play a decisive role to the task performance of units. Therefore, building a contingent of grassroots-level officers on par with task requirements represents an important, key, and regular work of  Party committees.

“Cadres are the root of all jobs", and “successes or failures are dependent on the capability of cadres”. Thus, in the revolutionary cause, our Party has always paid special attention to the cadre work and considered it a "key" step of the "pivotal" task. Accordingly, in recent years, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Defense have regularly focused on thoroughly implementing the Party's viewpoint on building the contingent of cadres. In particular, focus has been placed on Resolution No. 03-NQ/TW issued by the Party Central Executive Committee (the 8^th Tenure) on Cadre strategy in the period of industrialization and modernization of the country, Resolution No. 04-NQ/TW issued by the Party Central Executive Committee (the 12^th Tenure) on strengthening Party building and rectification and preventing and reversing the decline in political ideologies, ethics, and lifestyle and the manifestations of  internal "self-evolution" and "self-transformation", Resolution No. 769-NQ/QUTW issued by the Central Military Commission on building the Military cadres in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond, and, recently, Resolution No. 109-NQ/QUTW issued by the Central Military Commission on February 11^th, 2019 on building the contingent of cadres, especially at the campaign and strategic level, to meet the requirements of tasks in the new situation, etc. On that basis, military Party committees at all levels have developed their leadership and direction guidelines and solutions for building and improving the quality of the cadres in general and those at the grassroots level in particular to meet the requirements of building a "Revolutionary, regular, elite, and increasingly modern" Army to successfully complete all assigned tasks.

In addition to the important achievements, at some grassroots units, shortcomings and limitations still remain in the cadre work. To overcome such shortcomings and meet the requirements of building and defending the Fatherland in the new situation, the work of building the contingent of grassroots-level cadres should be renewed in a strong and comprehensive manner. Particularly, the following basic solutions should be focused on.

Firstly, the process of cadre assessment should be regularly innovated. Cadre assessment is the first step that holds an important position and role in the entire cadre work process. It, however, is a complex and sensitive work that is related to the political life of the cadres. As a result, during the review and assessment, it is required to be very careful, objective, fair, and compliant with the process and principles. The motto: "Innovating the cadre assessment work in the direction of thoroughness, continuity, multi-dimension, specific criteria, by product, through surveying, publishing results, and comparing with equivalent titles; attaching individual assessment to collective assessment and the units’ performance of task” should be well implemented.  Accordingly, the Party committees and commanders at all levels should follow closely and base on the criteria of the titles of cadres specified in each level. In particular, it is necessary to base on the actual task performance and responsibilities of each official in association with the units’ performance of tasks and the "quantified" credit level to review, assess, and conclude. The superior Party committees and functional agencies should actively foster subordinate Party committees and cadres in charge of this work with sufficient qualifications and capacity to review and assess correctly, scientifically, objectively, and fairly. At the same time, the periodical and by-task assessment should be closely maintained with high quality. The assessment of the Party committees and commanders should be combined with the self-assessment of cadres and the opinions of the masses in a uniform, tight sequence. All manifestations of subjective imposition, modeling, dogmatism, and one-sided facets.

Secondly, the work of planning and creation of sources should be renovated. This is an important link, closely related to all stages of the cadre work. The 3^rd Central Resolution (the 8^th Tenure) affirmed that "Cadrel planning is an important content of the official work to ensure that the cadre work goes into order, is active, has a foresight, meeting both immediate and long-term missions”. The practice has proved that in order to build a sustainable and stable contingent of cadres, the Party committees at all levels shall regularly do well the planning and creation of sources. In order to achieve that, the Party committees and commanders should base on the political tasks of the units, the status of the contingent of cadres, and the development direction of each specific official. On that basis, a comprehensive official planning should be developed in quantity, quality, and structure. In parallel with the creation of sources, the Party committees at all levels should do well in managing and fostering sources, regularly reviewing, supplementing, and perfecting them to complete the planning. Meanwhile, unqualified cadres should be resolutely removed from the planning.

Thirdly, the renovation of training and fostering should be promoted. Doing well this work will not only solve the problem of quantity but also improve the quality of the cadres to meet the requirements of immediate and long-term tasks. The training and fostering of cadres at grassroots units throughout the Army today, although there have been many efforts, but have still revealed inadequacies as defining objectives, contents, programs, forms, and methods have not kept pace with the actual situation. Therefore, to "attach planning with training and fostering according to title standards", the contents of training and fostering should be comprehensive, that include both theoretical and practical knowledge. Academies and schools should continue to vigorously renew educational content and methods, especially methods of testing, examining, and defending dissertations and theses. Along with that, it is necessary to do well in-service training and actively open training courses on professional skills and other necessary knowledge such as social culture, law, economics, information technology, foreign languages, etc.

Fourthly, it is necessary to constantly renovate the arrangement and employment of cadres. It can be said that whether the unit completes its task well depends on the proper arrangement of cadres, especially the presiding ones. As a result, the arrangement and employment of cadres should stem from political requirements and duties of the units. The basic problem in appointment and promotion is to find cadres who are really capable and worthy of the assigned positions. In order to do this, when appointing and promoting cadres, competent authorities should organize for eligible candidates to sit in exams and present their options and plans for unit construction and measures to solve some specific situations in training, combat readiness, management, or commanding, etc. The forms of organization depend on each specific unit but the principles include transparency, openness, and broad democracy. If done well, it will help find cadres who are worthy, have actual performance and training, and are really prestigious in the units.

Fifthly, the management of cadres should be actively innovated. The situation of the management of cadres at the grassroots units has shown that, besides the advantages, there are still weaknesses and shortcomings as the management is uncertain, not tight, and not comprehensive that led to improper assessment and arrangement of cadres. In the management of cadres, therefore, it is required to perform the aforementioned work should be done regularly, continuously, and closely from the units, residential areas, and social relations. In order to do so, the Party committees and commanders need to regularly and well perform the work of annual assessment of cadres and Party members and survey the critic opinion of the masses so that no official can stand outside the management of the Party committees, Party cells, and the supervision of the masses. Along with the management of the organization, it is necessary to uphold the responsibility of the individuals. Each individual should self-manage, and each official should self-cultivate and trains themselves to perfect their personality and voluntarily, strictly observe the Party discipline, the Army discipline, and the State law.

Building a strong contingent of cadres at grassroots-level units is a fundamental, long-term, and urgent issue today. Performing the aforementioned solutions synchronously will make cadres at the grassroots-level units qualified, capable and creditable enough to well fulfill their tasks in each position and title, contributing to the successful implementation of the tasks of grassroots-level units and the Army in the new situation.

Senior Colonel, Le Duc Lu,  PhD., Corps 4 Military School