Stepping up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style according to the Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW, dated 18 May 2021, of the Politburo (13th tenure) provides a solid foundation for making party organisations, the 490th Missile Brigade Party Committee in particular, pure, robust, and representative. This is also a key task that the Brigade’s Party Committee and Commanders focus their leadership on with a view to ceaselessly enhancing its overall quality and combat power and completing all assigned tasks successfully.

The 490th Missile Brigade is a strategic surface-to-surface missile unit of the Artillery and tasked with combat training and readiness, participating in natural disaster prevention and relief, and undertaking other unplanned missions. Although it is founded in the period that the entire country carries out the two strategic tasks of building and safeguarding the Fatherland, its cadres and soldiers have inherited, deeply grasped, and ceaselessly promoted Uncle Ho’s Soldiers’ fine tradition of heroism, solidarity, unity, proactive creativity, self-reliance, resilience, surmounting all difficulties and challenges, making concerted efforts, and unanimity for accomplishing all assigned mission successfully.

Over the past few years, to meet requirements and missions, the Brigade Party Committee and Commanders have led and directed synchronous implementation of solutions, of which understanding and strict realisation of Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW, dated 18 May 2021, of the Politburo (13th tenure) on further carrying out Directive No. 05-CT/TW, dated 15 May 2016, of the Politburo (12th tenure) on “Stepping up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style” is a key solution. This solution has received active response from departments, units, cadres, and soldiers and brought about novel changes in task performance of the Brigade. On perceiving demands of Conclusion No. 01, the Brigade Party Committee seeks to closely combine the study and imitation of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style with party building and rectification; concentrate on building a pure, strong, representative Party Committee; take enhanced leadership and combat power of party committees and party organisations as a breakthrough and the key to the success of the Brigade’s gradual concretisation of higher echelons’ policy on building an adept, compact, robust, mobile, agile Artillery with high combat power and capability to meet requirements and missions in any situations.

Being imbued with President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching: “The Party cells are the Party’s grassroots foundations. Good party cells mean that everything will be good,” the Brigade Party Committee always attaches importance to enhanced leadership, combat power, and firm maintenance of party committees’ and party cells’ key role. To put this direction into everyday life, the Brigade regularly strengthens party committees at all echelons with sufficient quantity and proper structure; continually reforms and improves the quality of party cells’ activities, most notably the issuance of resolutions; promotes training of party members in terms of political quality, ethics, lifestyle, sense of compliance with discipline, and capacity for command and control. It is extremely important to make each cadre and party member deeply aware of missions of their units and those of their own as well as advantages and disadvantages of using, managing, and storing effectively many valuable, scare weapon systems and equipment of the military and nation. To fulfil these goals, the Brigade closely combines party members’ political theory training and in-service training with stepping up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style in connection with carrying out the Campaign of promoting tradition, devoting talent, and deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers in the new era and Resolution No. 847-NQ/QUTW, dated 28 December 2021, of the Central Military Commission (CMC) on promoting the dignity of Uncle Ho’s soldiers and resolving to combat individualism in the new situation. As for party cells, formulation of working must be suitable for missions, conditions, and realities of units, most notably the leadership of political missions, party building, and party rectification as well as the plans to study and follow Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style. Party members are requested to prepare the content of studying and following Uncle Ho carefully; review and draw lessons for themselves periodically. Consequently, studying and following Uncle Ho have become a regular deed of cadres and party members, which enable them to have the right attitude and willpower to overcome difficulty, and bring into play their exemplary role anytime and anywhere, contributing to building of pure, strong, representative party cells and party committees, the most important factor in task accomplishment of units.

Meeting of the Brigade's Party Committee on leading the task performance in the second half of 2023

Democratic centralism is a fundamental organisational principle that guides all activities of the Party. It has been clearly pointed out by President Ho Chi Minh that “all party members, levels, and organisations are united according to a specific principle – democratic centralism.” Reality of the Brigade has proved that where and when the principle of democratic centralism is exercised well the unit stays united and complete its missions successfully and vice versa. Strictly adhering to the principle of democratic centralism, therefore, is identified as the foundational, key factor in building a pure, robust, representative Brigade Party Committee. Party committees and party organisations of the Brigade Party Committee always maintain working regulations as stipulated by established statutes and processes. It is necessary to regularly review, amend, supplement, and improve the system of leadership statutes and working regulations of the Brigade Party Committee, especially those concerning crucial work as provided by Instruction No. 1224/HD-CT, dated 27 July 2022, of the General Political Department; comply with the principle of self-criticism and criticism and foster solidarity and unity within the Party Committee. Thus, important, sensitive matters that may lead to wrongdoings and corruption are adopted by party committees and party cells before being put into operation. Every party member always emphasises their responsibility for straight, honest, objective, self-criticism and criticism; resolves to defend the rights and reject the wrongs. Working style and method of cadres and party members, especially the members of party committees and leading cadres, witness positive, considerable changes and serve to tap into collective intelligence in task performance. It is important to successfully address the relationships, especially between leadership and management, command, and control; collectives and individuals; and policy and coordination of implementation on the basis of the principle of organising party meetings and the motto “the higher echelon sets an example for the lower echelon to copy.” The assignment of members of the Brigade Party Committee and brigade commanders to quarterly meetings of party cells, especially those in units undertaking difficult, complex tasks, is maintained seriously.

On determining that cadre work and the corps of cadres are of significant importance, the core elements of the core missions, and the roots of all tasks, the Brigade Party Committee focuses on leading serious implementation of regulations, processes, and steps, ensuring democracy and openness in cadre work. Accordingly, the Brigade Party Committee regularly reviews, supplements, adjusts, and closely carries out the planning of leadership and management cadres at all levels in accordance with practical missions; leverages the responsibility of members of party committees and leading cadres at all levels for the management and training of cadres as devolved; evaluates cadres in an impartial, objective, correct manner; associates cadre evaluation with appointment and assignment of cadres; pays attention to good implementation of cadre work as regulated currently. Specifically, regarding the newly graduates from military colleges and new comers, the Brigade hold training courses to help them understand theory well and be skilled at movement. These new officers will be tested before being allowed to practice their knowledge and skills on weapons and equipment. Therefore, the Brigade can build a corps of cadres with proper quantity and structure, high quality, good knowledge and comprehensive skills, good health, and ability to meet requirements and missions.

When President Ho Chi Minh was alive, he used to attach importance to inspection and control in the Party’s leadership activities. According to him, leadership must go with inspection. Skillful inspection will definitely minimise shortcomings. Skillful inspection will expose all shortcomings. On studying and following his teaching, the Brigade Party Committee always attaches importance to and carries out inspection and supervision effectively. On the basis of profoundly grasping resolutions, directives, regulations, decisions, conclusions, and instructions of the higher echelons on the Party’s inspection, supervision, and discipline, the Brigade Party Committee concentrates on leading strict implementation of inspection, supervision plans according to the motto of proactiveness, combat, education, and effectiveness. Accordingly, the inspection and supervision are conducted in a routine manner and without passivity as the role of party committees, party organisation, and party members in self-inspection is leveraged. When violations are detected, there is a need to clearly determine their nature, scope, cause, and effect; defend the rights and deal with the wrongs, thereby giving momentum for making cadres and party members clearly aware of their shortcomings and limitations and work out measures to address these shortcomings and limitations. However, inspection and supervision should not be seen as fault-finding, which may undermine cadres’ and party members’ willpower for success and achievement. Content of inspection and supervision of party organisations focuses on their leadership of political task execution, party building, compliance with regulations and discipline, and education, management, and training of party members. Regarding party members, they are to be inspected and supervised in terms of quality and effectiveness of task performance, self-study for increased competence, preservation of fine dignity and lifestyle of party members, compliance with the regulation on things that party members avoid doing, implementation of the Resolution of the 4th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (13th tenure) in connection with stepping up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style, thereby making a direct contribution to enhanced capability and combat power of party organisations and quality of party members, building of a pure, strong, representative Brigade Party Committee, capable of completing all missions.

Directions and measures to make the 490th Brigade Party Committee pure, robust, and representative not only demonstrate the earnestness and effectiveness of realising Conclusion No. 01, but also are the factors further upholding the tradition of “copper feet, iron shoulder, good combat, and target hitting” of the heroic Artillery Soldier over the past 40 years.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN DUY LONG, Brigade Commissar