The Commando Corps (hereafter the Corps) is an elite combat force of our Military. Researching solutions to build a politically elite Commando Force is of utmost importance and both theoretical and practical significance. It is a crucial factor in every victory of this special force.

In his address to the Commando Force on 19 March 1967, President Ho Chi Minh clearly stated that: “Commando operations represent special tasks with a unique honour, necessitating extraordinary efforts. Commando soldiers bear a special trust… Their resourcefulness must be extraordinarily flexible; their techniques must be meticulously trained; their political stance must be exceptionally firm”. President Ho Chi Minh’s guidance provides a comprehensive and profound summary of the nature, formation, and development of the Force, outlining fundamental principles for its construction and combat process, serves as a guiding light for all actions of the Corps. The term “special” permeates every facet, with “exceptionally firm political stance” playing a pivotal role in determining victories and shaping the Corps’ tradition of being “extraordinarily seasoned, superbly courageous, ingenious and daring, triumphant in challenging battles”.

A combat training course for the commando force

The global and regional landscapes are now undergoing rapid, complex, and unpredictable transformations. The 4^th Industrial Revolution, along with its application in recent local conflicts worldwide, has profoundly impacted on many countries’ defence and security. Domestically, the degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle coupled with “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among a section of cadres and party members, has significantly affected troops’ political mind-set. Hostile forces are intensifying their “peaceful evolution” strategy, particularly in cyberspace, to sabotage our revolution. They are increasing efforts to “depoliticise” our Military, which can lead to “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among some cadres and soldiers. Due to the country’s deeper and wider integration into the world, the task of building and safeguarding the Fatherland imposes new and higher requirements. The Corps is currently implementing a restructuring plan to create an elite, compact, and robust force. This adjustment also profoundly impacts on the ideology and sentiment of cadres and soldiers. Against this backdrop, building a politically astute Commando Force becomes a task of utmost importance and urgency. This article puts forward a number of solutions to perform this important task.

First, focusing on renewing and improving political and ideological education to build solid political willpower among cadres and soldiers. This solution plays a crucial role as the initial step in the building of a politically elite Corps. Therefore, all-level leaderships and commands should actively renew political education, raise the quality and effectiveness of this work within their units as well as promote social sciences and humanities education at the Commando College. Emphasis should be on renewing the content and methods of political education and enhancing the quality of this work in line with Directive 2423-CT/QUTW dated 9 November 2023 by the Central Military Commission (CMC) on “Renewing and improving political education in the new period”. Furthermore, it is necessary to equip cadres and soldiers with fundamental knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Party’s lines, the State’s laws and policies, as well as tasks of the Vietnamese revolution, the Military, and their offices and units. In the process, political education should be closely integrated with legal dissemination. Attention should to be paid to strictly adhering to the Grass-roots Democracy Regulations and the Campaign “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” in the new period via creative and effective models. This approach will help build political steadfastness and absolute faith in the Party’s leadership among cadres and soldiers, raise their awareness of the building of a revolutionary, regular, exceptionally elite Commando Corps towards modernity, and encourage them to be proactive in mastering weaponry and maintain a high level of combat readiness for successfully dealing with all situations.

Second, consistently providing effective ideological guidance for cadres and soldiers, especially in response to new and sensitive matters. To that end, it is essential to intensify methods of grasping and managing cadres and soldiers’ ideology and aspirations, proactively forecast and opportunely deal with ideological issues to avoid a lack of vigilance. Simultaneously, due regard should be paid to improving troops’ cultural and spiritual life and building  a healthy, rich cultural life within offices and units as the basis for raising troops’ law-abiding awareness and enhancing the fight against the degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle. To achieve the effectiveness in this regard, it is imperative to embrace the spirit of daring to think, daring to act, daring to take responsibility, and daring to face difficulties for the common good. In combat readiness, training, exercises, education, and training, emphasis should be placed on fostering unwavering determination among troops. Commands at all levels must consistently impose higher requirements, delegate more complex tasks, and put their troops in the most difficult, arduous, and dangerous simulations to challenge their troops. Doing so will help build and improve steadfast political willpower, unparalleled determination, and absolute faith in the Party’s leadership among cadres and soldiers of the Corps.

Third, building strong party organisations in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel. This solution plays a decisive role in building a politically elite Commando Force. Therefore, party committees and organisations at all levels must thoroughly execute resolutions of all-level Party Congresses via specific programs and plans. They must continue to effectively realise resolutions, directives, and conclusions of the Party and CMC on Party building and rectification, particularly the Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 4^th Plenum on Party building and rectification, Conclusion 111-KL/QUTW, dated 12 February 2019 by the CMC Standing Board on further improving the leadership capacity and combativeness of grass-roots party organisations and the quality of cadres and party members across the Military in the new period. Moreover, priority should be given to renewing party-related activities, especially within party committees and party cells, improving the capacity to formulate, disseminate, and realise resolutions, encouraging self-criticism and criticism, and maintaining unity and consensus within offices and units. In the process, it is necessary to step up the learning and following of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, ethics, and lifestyle and strictly adhere to regulations on example-setting responsibility under the mottos: “self-examination, self-correction”, “superiors set good examples for subordinates to follow”. The Corps should concentrate on inspecting and supervising party committees and party organisations regarding their leadership over political tasks, Party building as well as cadres and party members’ task performance and self-improvement in morality and lifestyle. Besides, it must proactively detect and strictly handle any violations by collectives or individuals, without any exception or restricted area. Doing so will help build really pure, strong party committees and party organisations capable of leading offices and units to successfully fulfil all assigned tasks.

Fourth, concentrating on building a contingent of “both red and expert” cadres. This is a prerequisite to ensure the successful execution of all assigned tasks by the Corps. To that end, party committees at all levels must consistently bear in mind the teachings of President Ho Chi Minh: “Cadres are the root of all work”. They should prioritise the execution of the motto: “To build a modern Commando Force, first and foremost we must develop a modern workforce”, as emphasised by the Party Committee and Command of the Corps. Hence, party committees must rigorously adhere to resolutions, directives, regulations, and guidelines issued by the Party, CMC, and Ministry of National Defence on personnel work, particularly Resolution 976-NQ/ĐU dated 29 March 2019 by the Corps’ Party Committee on building a pool of cadres, especially at operational level to meet the task requirements in the new situation. Consideration should to be given to raising the quality of cadre training and development and intensifying in-service training at grass-roots level. In the process, it is important to strictly follow the 12^th Politburo’s Regulation 205-QD/TW dated 23 September 2019 on “power control in personnel work and the prevention of bribery to acquire high-ranking positions”, and ensure democracy and objectivity in the assessment, planning, training, development, appointment, and rank promotion of cadres. At the same time, mechanisms, policies, and measures should be synchronously implemented to attract talented individuals, especially those with high great professional competence to the Corps. Doing so will help build a contingent of cadres with sufficient qualities and capabilities, unwavering political commitment to the Party, Fatherland, and people, comprehensive knowledge, good health, and reasonable age range and quantity to ensure a continuous, solid transition between generations and facilitate the building of a modern Commando Corps.

Fifth, proactively and actively protecting the Party’s ideological foundation, countering wrong and hostile viewpoints, and preventing “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within. To achieve this crucial objective, all-level Party committees, key cadres, and political agencies must excel in internal political protection, combine the building of safe military units with that of safe stationed areas, and effectively carry out policy work, mass mobilisation work, and special propagation work as the basis for building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” within the Corps’ stationed areas. Concurrently, the Corps must align the development of politically elite offices and units with the fight against hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and plots to “depoliticise” our Military. The Corps must stringently execute Resolution 35-NQ/TW dated 22 October 2018 by the 12^th Politburo on “Enhancing the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation and the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation”. Due attention should be paid to consolidating Steering Boards 35 and the core force at all levels in charge of the fight against erroneous, hostile viewpoints, with a view to ensuring political orientation, particularly for new, complex, and sensitive issues, fostering consensus and unity, and safeguarding the Party’s ideological foundation within the Corps.

The Corps is fully aware that building a politically elite Commando Force is an ongoing process that demands relentless efforts of all-level leaderships and commands as well as all cadres and soldiers, with cadres and party members playing a core role. Therefore, it is imperative to raise the awareness, political responsibility, belief, and aspirations of all target individuals in the building of a politically elite Commando Force as the bedrock for building a revolutionary, regular, exceptionally elite Corps capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.

Sr. Col. NGUYEN QUOC DUAN

Political Commissar of the Corps