On March 25^th, 1946, President Ho Chi Minh signed the Decree 34/SL on organising the Ministry of National Defence, including the Political Department. On My 11^th, 1946, the Minister of National Defence issued the Decree 27/NĐ-QP  on organising the Political Department (the present-day General Political Department), including the Office, the Training Division, the Propaganda Division, and the Inspectorate. Since then, the Eleventh of May has become the traditional day of the Office of the General Political Department (GPD). Over the past 75 years of construction, combat, and development, the GPD’s Office has always brought into play its political zeal and knowledge to successfully fulfil all assigned tasks, build up its tradition of “loyalty, steadfastness, flexibility, unity, and determination to win,” and make contributions to improving the quality of the party and political work and the building of a politically strong Army. With its remarkable achievements, the GPD’s Office has been given Second-Class and Third-Class Military Exploit Orders, 1 Feat-of-Arms Order, 1 Second-Class Fatherland Protection Order and many other noble rewards by the State. It has also been presented with the Isala and Second-Class Labour Orders by the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos.

Sr. Lt. Gen. Tran Quang Phuong, Deputy Director of the GPD addressing the Party Congress of the GPD’s Office for the 2020-2025 tenure

To obtain such impressive achievements, the GPD’s Office has studied and grasped the Party’s revolutionary guidelines, the State’s law, the Military’s political task in each period, and its own function and task, while keeping improving its staff members’ political and professional knowledge, sticking to the Military’s operations, remaining proactive and flexible in its work, and building up its cadres and employees’ determination to undertake and fulfil any assigned mission. Emphasis has been placed on educating staff members on the Party’s strategic viewpoints and thoughts, analysing the situation, the development trend and the possibility to realise the strategies, measures, and requirements relating to the party and political work, clarifying new issues, and orientating cadres and employees’ action. The work of propagation and education has been carried out in various forms, such as training course, scientific conference, news briefing, and ideology-related meeting relevant to each group of employees, with importance attached to educating key cadres and those who serve Commanders of the GPD, ensuring combativeness, clarifying issues and specific weaknesses, and resolutely dealing with deviations, particularly at crucial and hard times. The GPD’s Office has given sound advice to Commanders of the GPD on many measures to conduct the party and political work in accordance with the situation in each revolutionary period, thereby making contributions to building troops’ faith in the Party’s leadership and their determination to defeat all forms of warfare, even the hi-tech one. It has actively fought against hostile, wrong viewpoints and rectify the sign of ambiguity, the lack of vigilance, and the undermined combat morale.

Due attention has been paid to building a pure, strong Party Organisation in line with a comprehensively strong Office. This acts as a determinant to the task performance and development of the GPD’s Office. Raising the Party Organisation’s leadership capacity and combativeness has always been seen as a central task. “The Party’s absolute, direct leadership” has always been grasped and maintained via specific regulations and statutes. As the GPD’s Office is tasked with advising and assisting Commanders of the GPD in directing the party and political work within the people’s armed forces, its field of work is very large, its mission is always important and secret, and it has to be confronted with a lot of contingencies. Nevertheless, its cadres and party members have always promoted their responsibility and proactively, creatively successfully fulfilled their assigned task. In any circumstance, the Office’s Party Organisation has always been consolidated in accordance with the Office’s development in each period. Due regard has been paid to building party committees both qualitatively and quantitatively. Significance has been attached to making party committees politically, ideologically, and morally strong and building their working and leading regulations. Leadership over the Party building and rectification has been well exercised, while wrong viewpoints and deviations negatively impacting on party committees’ leadership over the Office’s affiliates have been settled opportunely. The Office’s Party Organisation has strictly maintained party meetings, frequently renewed the contents and method of leadership, expanded democracy and promoted collective knowledge in designing and realising resolutions. Doing so has enabled the Party’s ideological foundation and principles to be maintained; party committees and cells have always played a core role in building the GPD’s Office.

The GPD’s Office has focused on building a contingent of cadres and employees with political zeal, pure morality, and professional competence on a par with their task requirements. In fact, it is the building of a pool of experts with sufficient qualities and capabilities to advise Commanders of the GPD on effectively directing the party and political work within the people’s armed forces. In all periods, all-level party committees have always placed emphasis on training cadres and employees and considered this work as a determinant to the Office’s task performance and development. Due attention has been paid to training, retraining, using, evaluating, recruiting and managing personnel, and building key cadres of divisions and committees in line with the consolidation of party committees and commands according to their responsibilities and tasks. At the same time, the GPD’s Office has well carried out the work of training its cadres and closely combined the in-service training of cadres and party members with reviews to draw lessons and task introduction. It has stringently maintained the principle of democratic centralism when managing, recruiting, evaluating and using its cadres. Also, it has established a system of criteria for each job title. Doing so has allowed the GPD’s Office to build a contingent of cadres and employees with the absolute loyalty to the Party, the Homeland and the people, political zeal, sensible thinking, and great capabilities in giving advice, undertaking scientific researches, designing plans, and maintaining coordination to implement the task, thereby actively contributing to making the Military politically strong in all revolutionary periods.

The GPD’s Office has opportunely grasped directions of Commanders of the GPD in each period and sphere of the party and political work so that it would give advice on formulating directives and plans relating to the party and political work for the entire Military and the GPD’s missions. The Office’s affiliates have educated their staff members to actively study the Party’s resolutions and directives and legal normative documents, to keep improving their theoretical and professional knowledge, to master the contents of legal documents, and to broaden their experience in organising and conducting the party and political work so that they would give sound advice to commanders. Great value has been attached to renewing the working style under the regulations, identifying new issues, proposing remedial measures opportunely, and promoting coordination with competent offices in giving advice. Due attention has been paid to strictly maintaining the order for information and report in a quick, sufficient, accurate fashion, building and consolidating the Office’s organisational structure under the regulations, standardising job titles, enhancing the administrative reform, and applying information technology to the work of management and operation.

Inspecting the clerical work within the GPD’s Office

Great value has been attached to building a scientific, democratic, united, disciplined working method and style and abiding by the working principles and statutes of the GPD and the Office. This is a matter of principle for the GPD’s Office’s operations. Scientific working method and style have been manifested in well-prepared plans and their specific goals, which have produced an effect on all practical activities of each cadre and employee of the GPD’s Office, particularly on anticipating possible projects and situations. Every cadre and employee of the GPD’s Office have stuck to plans and considered this as a command to avoid mistakes, weaknesses, arbitrariness, and stereotypes during their work. Cadres and employees of the GPD’s Office have frequently kept a close eye on the GPD’s affiliates to ensure principles for assessment and prevent bureaucracy. Due regard has been paid to gradually building a scientific, elaborate working method and style amongst cadres and employees of the GPD’s Office, encouraging their proactiveness, flexibility, and creativity, and improving their capacity to deal with issues arising from reality. Besides, consideration has been given to closely cooperating with other offices and units in making reports, promoting collective knowledge in giving advice, enhancing a sense of unity and coordination between the GPD’s Office and affiliates of the GPD and the Ministry of National Defence. As a result, offices and units under the GPD and all-level political agencies have operated in a smooth, effective manner, while the relationship between the GPD and the Central Military Commission, the Politburo, the Party Central Committee’s Secretary as well as the Party’s Commissions and the State’s agencies has been closely maintained under the Party’s principles, the State’s law, and the Military’s regulations.

To meet the requirements set by the building of a politically strong Army in the new situation, cadres, employees and soldiers of the GPD’s Office will bring into play the 75-year tradition to successfully fulfil several main tasks as follows.

First, frequently grasp resolutions and directives by the Party, the Central Military Commission and higher echelons, with a focus on giving advice and instructions to units under the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy.

Second, actively consolidate the Office’s organisational structure in a compact, strong, synchronous fashion and keep renewing the working method and style in a more professional, scientific, standard, modern manner.

Third, maintain a sense of internal unity and closely collaborate with other offices and units across the Military as well as relevant agencies of the Party and the State in performing the task.

Fourth, build a pure, strong Party Organisation and make the GPD’s Office comprehensively strong, with emphasis placed on improving cadres and party members’ political zeal, knowledge, and professional competence so that they will always be ready to undertake and fulfil any mission.

Maj. Gen. TRINH VAN HUNG, Head of the GPD’s Office