Being imbued with President Ho Chi Minh’s teachings on the special honour to be commando soldiers, the Commando Corps continues bringing into play its heroic tradition to build an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Corps to deserve to be a special elite force capable of meeting its task requirements in the new situation.

In response to the urgent need of the resistance war against the U.S., for national salvation, on March 19^th, 1967, the Commando Corps was established. Over the past 55 years of construction, combat, and development, under the leadership and direction from the Party, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence, Commando troops have always heightened revolutionary enthusiasm, wisdom, and courage in combat, remained proactive and creative in work, and achieved brilliant feats of arms to build up the tradition of “special fighting skills, bravery and heroism, resourcefulness and boldness, and striking key locations to win big victories.”

In the resistance war against the U.S., for national salvation, following the Party’s military viewpoints and creatively applying our country’s military art of “taking the few against the many,” the Commando Corps directly took part in thousands of battles and important campaigns, annihilating a large number of enemy troops, destroying a lot of means of war, making significant contributions to our Party, Military, and people’s struggle for completely liberating the South and unifying the country.

In the period of national construction and protection, the Corps has focused on adjusting its force and posture, raising its synergy and combat readiness, improving its political quality, enhancing the quality of education and training, and effectively implementing the Project to “modernise the counter-terrorism military force,” thereby contributing to firmly protecting the country’s independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity and fulfilling international missions. With those special achievements, 105 collectives within the Corps have been given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces; the Corps has been twice given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces; it has been presented with 1 Gold Star Order and 1 Ho Chi Minh Order by our State, First-Class, Second-Class, and Third-Class Itxala Orders by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and 1 Angkor Order by the State of Cambodia.

Currently, the Military build-up, national defence consolidation, and the Homeland protection under the spirit of the Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress are imposing new higher requirements on the entire Military in general, the Commando Corps in particular. That necessitates the Corps’ Party Committee and Command continuing bringing into play the Corps’ heroic tradition and focusing their leadership and direction on synchronously, effectively adopting measures to enhance the study and following of Uncle Ho’s teachings in order to keep raising the entire force’s synergy and combat power and successfully fulfilling all assigned missions.

First of all, the Corps concentrates on building up cadres and soldiers’ political zeal according to Uncle Ho’s teachings. This measure acts as a determinant to the fulfilment of the Corps’ political mission. Notably, in the current situation, this measure becomes more important to the Commando Force as it is tasked with conducting operations against invasions, riots, conversions, and terrorism and fighting to defend national sovereignty over seas and islands. To that end, offices and units across the Corps should continue effectively executing the Project to “renew political education at military units in the new period,” while well organising courses to study the Party’s resolutions and directives and particularly thoroughly grasp and realise the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 847-NQ/QUTW, dated December 28^th, 2021 on bringing into play the virtues of Uncle Ho’s soldiers and resolutely fighting against individualism in the new situation in tandem with the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 01-KL/TW, dated May 18^th, 2021 on “continuing studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle.” Doing so will enable all troops to remain steadfast in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, and the Party’s guidelines, comprehend tasks of the Military, the Corps, and their units, distinguish between partners and opponents, and clearly understand plots and artifices in hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy. At the same time, offices and units within the Corps should well carry out ideological work and further educate troops on the Corps’ heroic tradition in order to encourage them to overcome all difficulties and improve their political qualities, morality, and task performance. By doing so, each cadre and soldier will heighten a sense of responsibility for building a politically strong Corps absolutely loyal to the Party, the Homeland, and the people, capable of undertaking and successfully fulfilling all assigned missions to deserve to be a special elite force and avoid falling into passivity in any situation.

Tactical training at sea

Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings on combat skills, the entire Corps focuses on a breakthrough in raising the quality of combat training and education – training to meet its task requirements. To that end, all-level party committees and commands within the Corps should continue grasping and seriously, effectively executing resolutions and directives by the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, the General Staff, and the Corps on training work. Grounded on those documents, they should renew contents and methods of training under the motto of “basics, practicality, solidity,” with significance attached to synchronous, intensive training. Emphasis should be placed on holding refresher courses to improve all-level cadres’ capacity, decentralising training work, organising situations-based and intensive training courses for forces tasked with A2 mission, anti-terrorism, and sea and island protection, and increasing night-time and field training under complex terrain and weather conditions and in hi-tech warfare. Importance should be attached to training troops to master new weapons and equipment and enhancing physical training to improve troops’ fitness and resilience for combat missions. In education and training work, a part from the Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress, it is necessary to effectively execute the Strategy for the development of education and training within the Military in the period of 2021-2030, with a vision towards 2045. It is essential to adhere to the motto of “basics, systematisation, uniformity, and specialisation”, align theories with practice, actively renew contents and programmes of education and training relevant to units’ training, combat readiness, and combat, effectively employ the learner-centred approach, and apply information technology and simulation technology in teaching work. By 2025, the Corps will basically be made “compact and strong.” By 2030, the Corps will build a modern Counter-Terrorism Commando Force and a modern Water Commando Force. From 2030, the entire Corps will be modernised.

In addition, the Corps well performs combat readiness work to avoid falling into passivity in any situation. Amidst rapid, complex, unpredictable changes in global and regional situations, the entire Corps must make elaborate, comprehensive preparations for combat readiness work. Over the years, the Corps’ Party Committee and Command have frequently paid due regard to this work. However, for both subjective and objective reasons, some units across the Corps have still exposed weaknesses and shortcomings in this work. Hence, in the upcoming time, offices and units of the Corps should proactively anticipate situations in their assigned directions and areas, opportunely adjust, complete, and practise combat documents and projects, and consolidate their organisational structure, weapons, and technical equipment to successfully fulfil all missions in any situation. They should stringently maintain regulations on combat readiness duty, proactively successfully deal with incidents and especially A2 situations, well perform the tasks of combating terrorism and defending national sovereignty over seas and islands, and take part in ensuring the safety of national holidays and major political events. They should further improve the quality of training and exercises under the pre-set projects especially when cooperating with other forces in counter-terrorism exercises under the General Staff’s directions. At the same time, they should well prepare personnel, means, and projects to participate in natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue as well as in other missions when being requested by higher echelons.  

Operations by the Commando Force often take place suddenly under complex, difficult conditions. It sometimes has to cooperate with other forces, but more frequently it has to conduct independent operations. Therefore, the Corps’ Party Committee and Command focus on directing affiliates offices and units to ensure logistics and technical support for missions. To do so, offices and units within the Corps should continue effectively implementing the Central Military Commission’s Conclusion 86-KL/QUTW, dated January 25^th, 2018 on “enhancing leadership over logistics support towards 2020 and beyond” in line with the Emulation Movement titled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings.” Great value should be attached to sufficiently, opportunely providing logistics materials and equipment for training and combat readiness, especially for counter-terrorism and the defence of seas, islands, and borders as an important factor in the Commando Force’s task performance in the new period. Besides, offices and units should strictly follow directives by the Ministry of National Defence and the Corps on technical work, enhance the Campaign entitled “managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically, and ensuring traffic safety,” and opportunely, sufficiently, synchronously provide weapons and technical equipment for all missions, particularly for training and combat readiness to defend seas and islands. They should strictly abide by regulations on managing, maintaining, storing, and inspecting weapons and technical equipment. At the same time, significance should be attached to organising technical training courses, particularly for the counter-terrorism force. Last but not least, due attention should be paid to upgrading and modernising weapons and technical equipment for forces tasked with combat readiness, counter-terrorism, and sea and island protection.

Bringing into play the tradition of a heroic unit, cadres and soldiers of the Commando Corps will devote more effort to following Uncle Ho’s teachings with synchronous measures to build pure, strong party organisations and “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units, raising the Corps’ synergy and combat power, and successfully fulfilling all assigned missions.

Maj. Gen. VU HONG QUANG, Commissar of the Commando Corps