In July 1950, under President Ho Chi Minh’s Decree, the People’s Army Publishing House (hereafter the Publishing House for short) was founded on the basis of a merger between the National Defence Army Publishing House under the Political Department and the Guerrilla Publishing House under the Department of Militia. It is an agency of the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defence specialising in military publishing under the direct management of the General Department of Politics; it is also a publishing centre of the entire Military as part of the publishing system of the Party and State, operating within the Publishing Law.

The release of the book titled “Promoting heroic tradition, building an elite, compact, strong, modern Vietnam People’s Army in the new period” by General Phan Van Giang (2023)

In spite of difficulties in manpower, means, and facilities in the beginning of its foundation, the Publishing House always remained united to successfully fulfil all tasks. Hundreds of books, mainly important political, military, economic, and cultural works and documents that served the building of the armed forces and encouraged troops and people to join national resistance and construction were published. Those valuable works and documents were warmly welcomed and effectively applied to the revolutionary cause by not only staff members of the armed forces, but also citizens across the country, thereby greatly contributing to the glorious victory in the resistance war against French colonialists.

In the resistance war against the US for national salvation, the Publishing House released a lot of classic materials on Marxism-Leninism, wars and the military as well as great works by our leaders, such as President Ho Chi Minh, Le Duan, Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong, Vo Nguyen Giap, and Nguyen Chi Thanh. Those documents made contributions to giving instructions to our Military and people on successfully executing the Party’s political and military guidelines and tasks, while helping disseminate universal military knowledge, combat experience, and revolutionary missions as well as condemn and unmask plots, artifices, and crimes by the U.S. and Saigon regime in the South, thus creating synergy for liberating the South and unifying the country.

When the country performs the two strategic tasks of Fatherland building and protection, the Publishing House continues to release a large number of books and documents, particularly on cultural and ideological fronts to unmask the enemy’s schemes, disseminate the Party’s political and military guidelines and missions, and equip cadres, soldiers, and citizens with necessary knowledge in the new period.

In the process of construction and development, the Publishing House has published tens of thousands of volumes to prove the revolutionary and scientific nature of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, and the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints, defend and raise our Party and Military’s prestige, and take part in renewing publishing and journalism sector and winning landslide victories together with the entire Party and people in the cause of national liberation, unification, construction, and protection. Those significant contributions serve as the foundation for the core values of the Publishing House, namely “Willpower, Responsibility, Progressive Spirit, Proactiveness, Acumen, Discipline, Creativity, Unity, and Cooperation”.

In the upcoming time, a part from advantages, the publishing industry across the country will be impacted by macro-elements, such as economic, cultural, social development, policy, and the 4^th industrial revolution. At the same time, it will be faced with difficulties, especially when the Internet and other kinds of communications witness robust developments, which demands a reform in the publishing industry. Therefore, to enable the work of edition and publication, particularly in the military field to achieve sustainable development and satisfy the requirements of Fatherland building and protection in the new situation, the Publishing House’s Party Committee and Board of Directors continue to exercise their leadership and direction over the comprehensive performance of all pieces of work, with a focus on several main measures as follows.

First, enhancing all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction over military publishing work. This is a deciding factor in the quality of publishing in general, the task performance of the Publishing House in particular. Thus, the Publishing House’s Party Committee and Board of Directors will continue to render cadres and employees fully aware of documents, resolutions, and directives by our Party, State, and Military on publishing work. At the same time, they will direct all sections to comply with the Publishing Law of 2012, Announcement 19-TB/TW dated 29 December 2016 by the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Secretariat on continuing to execute Directive 42-CT/TW dated 25 August 2004 by the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Secretariat on comprehensively raising the quality of publishing, and Circular 98/2014/TT-BQP dated 22 July 2014 by the Minister of National Defence on the Publishing Regulations within the Vietnam People’s Army. Grounded on those documents, each unit, section, cadre, party member, and employee shall raise their responsibility for the task of editing and publishing books, which will help guarantee political orientations, avoid mistakes in the content and viewpoints, opportunely serve major political events of the country, the Military, offices and units.

A series of books released to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory and the Book and Reading Culture Day of Vietnam of 2024

Second, raising the quality of publications in terms of both content and form. Grounded on the functions and tasks of the Military and the General Department of Politics, the Publishing House’s Party Committee and Board of Directors formulates the yearly publishing plan in accordance with higher echelons’ orientations and direction. Emphasis will be placed on publishing key sets of books serving major political events of the country, the Military, offices and units. Great value will be attached to improving the capabilities in drafting, editing, and prepressing as well as releasing, disseminating books and works (2 basic steps of publishing work). To that end, the Board of Directors will give specific targets to each department and editor, while attaching importance to encouraging personal responsibility and well implementing proper remuneration policies for edition and publishing. In the process, due attention will be paid to following the motto “revolutionary, regular, professional, modern” in publishing work, maintaining ideological orientations, actively taking part in the fight against wrong viewpoints on political and ideological fronts, preventing and combating hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy, manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”, and plots of “depoliticising” our Army.

Third, actively training and developing a contingent of cadres, particularly editors to meet the increasingly high requirements of publishing. This is a measure of utmost importance to the quality and effectiveness of edition prior to publishing. There is a fact that many research centres like the Publishing House are experiencing a transition between generations of editors and managers. That necessitates the Publishing House developing a pool of editors with political steadfastness, deep knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the Party’s guidelines, the State’s law, the Army’s tasks, and party and political work within the Army, professional expertise in publishing, and pure occupational ethics (10 occupational ethical standards). Besides, the Publishing House will intensify on-the-spot training via refresher courses on edition, publishing, information technology, and foreign languages, while improving its staff members’ professionalism and skills in drafting, editing, introducing, and disseminating books. Great value will be attached to training new and young editors, improving cadres and employees’ material and mental life, and encouraging all staff members’ effort and determination to well perform central political tasks. On a yearly basis, the Publishing House will proactively organise meetings with its collaborators and other activities on the Book and Reading Culture Day (21 April). It will continue to closely, carefully, safely, effectively organise the literature camp on the armed forces and revolutionary war, while proactively maintaining cooperation and participating in book fairs and exhibitions. Moreover, it will continue to well conduct the work of personnel planning, training, and use and attach significance to sending its cadres to universities both inside and outside the Military for further education.

Fourth, proactively adapting itself to future electronic publishing. Due to the current robust development of the 4^th industrial revolution, digitalisation and advantages of electronic publishing are clear and irreversible. Products of electronic publishing include not only e-books and audio-books, but also e-learning and videos; there are even printed books integrated with videos (via QR codes) and digital audio (via stylus pens). Several new forms of publishing electronic books, such as retail, wholesaling by packages, and online book rental with the undeniable pre-eminence have appeared in all over the world and in Vietnam. Therefore, in the foreseeable future, although electronic books can not entirely replace printed books, the former will outnumber the latter. Against that backdrop, the Publishing House’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have formulated guidelines and detailed plans for electronic publishing and digital transformation. In the medium term, all publications as the fruit by generations of cadres and editors of the Publishing House in the past 75 years will be digitalised; the electronic publishing system (via the Internet and the Military’s intranet) will also be exploited and brought into play. Besides, the Publishing House will actively promote the advantages of electronic publishing via its cooperation with the Military Library, publishing companies, and bookstores across the country to disseminate its image and introduce more literary works associated with its brand to the reader both at home and abroad. Doing so will help opportunely meet the reader’s demand, attract more new, young, potential authors to the Publishing House, and maintain the status of a top publishing centre in the Military’s publishing sector.

Sr. Col., Writer PHAM VAN TRUONG

Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Publishing House