The 80-year journey of construction, combat, victory, and growth of the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) has always been closely associated with the continuous enhancement of the quality and effectiveness of party and political work - an inseparable component of the Party's leadership - which serves as the VPA’s “soul and lifeblood”.

When it comes to the role of party and political work in the VPA, General Nguyen Chi Thanh emphasised: "The history of construction and endeavour of our Military is, first and foremost, the history of the Party’s leadership over the VPA; the process of growth and victory of our Army is closely linked to the continuous consolidation and enhancement of party and political work within the Military. Party and political work has been the soul and lifeblood of our VPA, making it truly an Army of the people, of the working class, an Army destined for victory". Accordingly, party and political work holds immense and indispensable role in all aspects of the Army’s operations, ensuring that the VPA will always adhere to the chosen "political path" - fighting for national independence and socialism, for the freedom and happiness of the people. It is also the lifeblood and source of vitality for the "body of the VPA" - as essential as daily needs like food, water, and air. Without it, the "cells" of the "Army's body" cannot survive or develop. Party and political work serves as the conduit that delivers "nutrients" to sustain every part and cell of the Military's “body”. If these "nutrients" are absent or delivered untimely or inadequately, the components and organs of the VPA will develop abnormally, leading to errors and deviations in practice. This is a reality that has been tested and confirmed. Therefore, for every organisation and individual within the Military to exist and grow, the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of party and political work must always be continually improved.

Military units from the North entering the South battlefield during the resistance war against the US for national salvation (file photo)

The aspects of party and political work, with leadership, combat, and mass mobilisation as the features, have been continuously refined and comprehensively developed through practical experience, thereby ensuring the Party's "absolute, direct, all-round leadership" over the VPA, reinforcing the Military’s working-class, people-oriented, and national natures, strengthening the close-knit bond between the Army and the people, fostering truly democratic and equal relations between officers and soldiers, promoting a correct understanding of the relationship between weapons and human factor, allowing cadres and soldiers to distinguish between partners and adversaries. As a result, the VPA has been made politically strong as the basis for improving its synergy and combat strength, successfully fulfilling every task assigned by the Party, State, and people.

The 80-year process of building, fighting, winning, and growing has confirmed the indispensable role of party and political work in the development of the VPA. Any mindset or action aimed at undermining, undervaluing, or weakening party and political work in the Army is fundamentally erroneous and would erode the Party's leadership over the Army and impair the Military’s task performance. Hence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of party and political work must be a routine, continuous task - an indispensable part of VPA building. By doing so will party and political work remain the “soul and lifeblood” of the VPA.

Currently, the international and regional landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with complexities and unpredictability. Globalisation and the 4^th Industrial Revolution create opportunities but pose challenges for defence - security consolidation and Fatherland protection. Domestically, the great, historic achievements of the renewal process provide a solid foundation for building a revolutionary, regular, elite, modern VPA. However, higher requirements are being imposed on Fatherland protection amid the country’s deeper and wider international integration. The dark side of the market economy, hostile forces' sabotage efforts, and the Military’s force adjustments in an “adept, compact, strong”, modern manner are greatly impacting on troops’ perception and ideology. That necessitates continuing to raise the quality and effectiveness of party and political work, enabling this work to remain the “soul and lifeblood” of the VPA, meeting the requirements of building a politically elite, comprehensively strong Army capable of playing a core role in strengthening national defence and safeguarding the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. To that end, it is vital to focus on the following key elements.

Firstly, heightening the leadership and directive roles of party committees and party organisations, promoting a sense of responsibility among cadres and party members, especially the key ones at all levels, in the performance of party and political work. Party and political work represents a basic duty of party committees, political commissars, junior political commissars, and commanders; this work is also the responsibility of all organisations, forces, cadres, and party members, with party organisations and political cadres at all levels playing a central role. Reality shows that wherever the efficiency and leadership of party committees, party organisations, political commissars, junior political commissars, and commanders are well promoted, party and political work will be enhanced and achieve significant results and vice versa. Therefore, to elevate their leadership and directive roles in party and political work activities, it is necessary to focus on making party committees and party organisations strong in terms of politics, ideology, morality, structure, and personnel. This includes continuously improving their comprehensive leadership capacity, combat strength, and creativity, turning them into the political nucleus of their respective units. The development of typically clean, strong party organisations should be aligned with the building of “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units. It is vital to effectively execute Conclusion 21-KL/TW, dated 25 October 2021, by the Party Central Committee on building and rectifying the Party and political system in conjunction with the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 01- KL/TW, resolutely, promptly prevent and address signs of political ideology, morality, and lifestyle degradation as well as “self-evolution" and "self-transformation” from within.

It is essential to renew and improve all-level party committee members and commanders’ methods and capacity of grasping, developing, and realising resolutions and directives on party and political work. Leadership over the raised quality and effectiveness of party and political work during missions must be seen as a regular activity of party committees and party organisations. Leadership over party and political work must be comprehensive but centred on basic, new, central tasks and issues arising from reality. The quality and effectiveness of leadership by party committees and party organisations must be reflected via the thorough grasp and serious execution of higher echelons’ directives, resolutions, and guidance in the tasks of training, combat readiness, regularity building, discipline management, force adjustment, administrative reform, military business reorganisation, local military - defence operations, natural disaster, fire, and explosion prevention and control, search and rescue, and military call-up. While cadres and party members’ skills, capabilities, and methods in conducting party and political work should be improved, there should be measures to cultivate their ethical qualities, exemplary behaviour, and working style. Besides, due attention should be paid to effectively managing the relationship between leaderships and commands and aligning the accountability of key leaders with the task performance of their units and offices.

Secondly, regularly renewing the content, forms, and methods of conducting party and political work for the building of an adept, compact, strong VPA towards modernity. This is an objective and on-going requirement for ensuring that party and political work will always remain the “soul and lifeblood” of the Military. Thus, party committees and commanders at all levels should closely follow directives and guidance of the General Department of Politics and functional agencies to innovate the content, forms, and methods of carrying out party and political work. These innovations must be in compliance with the goals and requirements of basically building an adept, compact, strong VPA by 2025 as a solid foundation for the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, modern VPA from 2030. Priority should be given to innovating and improving party and political work at grass-roots units in accordance with their training and combat readiness in the new context. Additionally, emphasis should be placed on executing the Central Military Commission Standing Board’s Directive 2423-CT/QUTW, dated 9 November 2023, on “Renewing and improving political education in the new era”, fostering strong consensus and unity in terms of politics among officers and soldiers as the basis for building a unity bloc across the entire VPA.

It is necessary to enhance the quality and effectiveness of party and political work during all tasks, especially training, combat readiness, the building of an adept, compact strong VPA towards modernity, and discipline management. Party and political work should be well carried out during new, complex missions, such as natural disaster, epidemic, environmental incident prevention and control, search and rescue, cyber warfare, participation in United Nations peacekeeping, and defence diplomacy. It is essential to study ongoing military conflicts worldwide to propose solutions for strengthening and leveraging the political and spiritual element among troops in the current military context. At the same time, efforts must be directed towards guiding, encouraging, and promoting positive factors, proactively preventing and eliminating factors that could negatively affect troops’ mindset, determination, and combat strength. This can be achieved by tightly integrating educational and persuasive measures with administrative and disciplinary approaches. Furthermore, it is necessary to combine the study and application of valuable lessons learned from the VPA’s construction, combat, and development process with the timely, selective adoption of societal trends and scientific, technological advances to bring the attractiveness to party and political work.

Thirdly, building a contingent of officers, especially political officers at all levels as the core force to enhance the quality and effectiveness of party and political work. Conducting party and political work is the responsibility of all officers and soldiers across the VPA, with political officers and political agencies at all levels serving as the key and direct force. Therefore, the quality and effectiveness of this work heavily depend on the quantity, quality, and structure of this workforce. Under the Party’s resolutions, regulations, and policies on building a pool of military cadres, it is necessary to focus on strengthening the contingent of political officers, political commissars, and junior political commissars both qualitatively and quantitatively. These officers should act as the backbone in carrying out the political tasks of their units. Additionally, due regard should be paid to raising all-level political officers’ competence and capacity to grasp and realise the Party’s resolutions and directives on party and political work. It is also vital to enhance the competence of political commissars and junior political commissars, enable them to undertake political work, and equip them with comprehensive, specialised knowledge and skills in applying various forms, methods, and means of conducting party and political work. Doing so will contribute to raising the overall quality and effectiveness of party and political work, allowing this work to remain the "soul and lifeblood" of the VPA. Besides, party committees and party organisations must uphold the principle of Party's unified leadership over cadre work and cadre management; all personnel-related issues must be managed under the pre-set procedures and regulations. Much importance should be attached to renewing and improving cadre evaluation, planning, training, rotation, and policy, strengthening power control, combating power abuse and bribery for job titles, resolutely, strictly handling violations, and ensuring fairness and transparency in personnel work.

Fourthly, harnessing the roles of organisations and forces in enhancing the quality and effectiveness of party and political work. Party and political work activities encompass numerous aspects and involve a wide range of organisations and forces with their distinct functions, tasks, and operational methods. Therefore, it is necessary to fully promote the roles and functions of all organisations and forces, with a focus on political commissars, junior political commissars, commanders at all levels as well as political, staff, and logistics - technical agencies, mass organisations, and soldiers' councils in conducting party and political work. In addition, consideration should be given to cooperating with ministries, sectors, and localities and maintaining coordination between all-level leaders, commanders, and competent bodies to create synergy for carrying out party and political work and building a politically strong VPA. Furthermore, great weight should be added to ensuring resources, technical supplies, funding, equipment, and means to support party and political work. Preliminary and final reviews should be regularly conducted to draw lessons from each mission and phase and continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of party and political work.

Over the past 80 years, party and political work has convincingly demonstrated its role as the "soul and lifeblood" of the VPA. In order to enable this work to retain its critical role in the new era, it is imperative to continuously enhance the quality and effectiveness of all aspects of party and political work. This is the responsibility of the entire political system, particularly officers, soldiers, party committees, party organisations, political cadres, and political agencies at all levels across the VPA.

Lt. Gen., Associate Prof. NGUYEN VAN BAO, PhD
Director of the Political Academy, Ministry of National Defence