In order to concretize the Directive No. 03-CT/TW dated 14 May 2011 of the Politburo (XI tenure) on “Continue to foster the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh morality” in accordance with the particularities of the Military, on 26 December 2013, the Standing Office of the Central Military Commission issued the Directive No. 788-CT/QUTW on launching the Campaign “Promoting tradition, dedicating talent, deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier” (herein after the Campaign). After more than 5 years of implementation, the Campaign has gained important initial outcomes, creating a profound spillover effect and becoming a significant dynamic encouraging the whole Military to stay united and surmount challenges and hardships to accomplish all assigned tasks.

So far, the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, the General Political Department, party committees, commissars, junior commissars and commandants at all levels have paid much attention and exerted their close leadership and direction for the synchronous implementation of the Campaign by various creative measures and innovations. During the implementation, the party committees and commandants of the units and offices have always stuck to the Central Resolution 4 (XI and XII tenure) on Party building and rectification; the regulations on upholding the exemplary role of cadres and party members, especially commanding officers. The General Political Department has drawn up the code of ethics of “Uncle Ho’s soldier” for the new situation and strengthened the education and propagation about the implementation of the criteria of “Uncle Ho’s soldier” in association with the major emulation movements and drives of the Military, etc. Thereby, the Campaign has built the dynamic, self-consciousness for officers and troops and become their routine. It has encouraged them to heighten their sense of self-reliance, activeness and creativeness for successfully accomplishing their training, combat readiness, public and international works, contributing to improving the status and combat strength of the Military and ensuring that it remains a loyal political force of the Party, successfully carry out its functions and missions of firmly protecting the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland; firmly protect the Party, State, the People and the socialist regime. The more hardship they face, the more their political steadfastness, belief, determination, unity are manifested, and so is their virtue of “Uncle Ho’s soldier”, deserving the belief of the Party, State and People.

Outstanding collectives after 5 years implementing the Campaing being honoured (Photo: qdnd.vn)

After more than 5 years implementing the Campaign, there have emerged a number of good and effective models, notably: “5-good office” (administrative offices), “self-correction” (MR3), “4-good party cell and 5-good party member” (MR7), “helping children to school” (Border Guard”, “Cultural hospital” (Hospitals), “No smoking training field” (schools), “1 concentration, 2 regular, 3 break through, 4 together” (Corps 4), “Golden time for flight” (Corps 18), “100-dong house” (Military Youth), “3-good women group”, etc. There have been 21,000 collectives and individuals being honoured and awarded at units; 203 collectives and individuals being awarded by the Minister of National Defence, 4 collectives and individuals being honoured at State level. More importantly, through the Campaign, the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldier” which have been nurtured by the past generations have been further maintained, developed and promoted.

In the coming time, the world and regional situations are forecasted to have complicated evolutions. Hostile and reactionary forces and political opportunists are strengthening their plots and schemes of “peaceful evolution”, fostering “self-evolution”, “self-transformation’ and “depoliticization of the Military”. In addition, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and, together with traditional and non-traditional security threats, especially international terrorism and cyber-security crime are affecting deeply all aspects of social life. The negative impacts of the market economy, open policy and international integration are increasingly severe. A number of cadres and party members still show signs of degradation in politics, morality and lifestyle which badly affects the belief of people and troops. Especially, it’s now an important time when we are striving to realize the Resolution of the 12^th National Congress of the Party and prepare for the Party congresses at all levels prior to the 13^th National Congress of the Party.

In order to continue to realize the Directive 05-CT/TW of the Politburo (XII tenure) on promoting the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and lifestyle, build the Military Party strong in politics, ideology, organization and morality, build the Military revolutionary, regular, seasoned, and increasingly modern, meeting the requirements of Fatherland protection in the new situation, the entire Military should further strengthen the implementation of the Campaign “Promoting tradition, dedicating talent, deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier” with the following measures:

First, continue to improve the efficacy of leadership, direction and implementation of the Campaign. Party committees and commandants at all levels should pay attention to leading the directing the study and implementation of the Directive No. 855-CT/QUTW dated 12 August 2019 of the Standing Office of the Central Military Commission on strengthening the implementation of the Campaign in the new situation so as to enhance the awareness and responsibility of troops. The implementation of the Campaign should be defined as a focus of leadership and direction in the resolution of party committees and plans of the commanders and commissars. Political offices at all echelons should promote their role and responsibility, sticking to the reality and actively make recommendation for the implementation of the Campaign. It is necessary to choose and concentrate on the “break-through” to make progresses in the weak aspects, especially the observance of laws, military disciplines and nurturing the virtues of a revolutionary soldier.

Second, deciding the content, criteria, model, and method of implementation of the Campaign relevant to the particularities of each unit. The ultimate goal of the Campaign is to make the criterion of “deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier” become a momentum of each cadre and soldier; build cultural, green, clean, scenic environments for the units; build pure and strong party organizations, and all-strong, exemplary units. Units and offices, particularly the grassroots ones, should actively and flexibly employ the models and methods of implementation basing on the basic contents of the Campaign. In each certain period of time, they should renew the contents and methods to make it relevant to the situation, tasks and evolution of the practice.

Third, strengthening the propagation of the goal, requirement, content and outcome in implementing the Campaign. Pay attention to broadening and creating different models of propagation on mass media and in grassroots cultural institutions; promote the role of the disseminators to make the Campaign be widely, vividly and systematically spread. It is necessary to focus on the 5 criteria of “deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier” as defined in the Directive 855 first. Military press agencies should continue to maintain customized columns which stick to the reality of the Military and operations of troops to opportunely report the good and effective ways of doing and the role models in task performance.

Fourth, uphold the role of presiding cadres in the implementation of the Campaign. Commissars, junior commissars, and commanders should fully grasp the role, meaning, and content of the Drive, then have the sound leadership over the implementation of the Campaign in their units in accordance with the directives, instructions and plans of upper echelons. At the same time, they should seriously adhere to the regulations on the prohibitions for party members; the Regulation No. 101-QĐi/TW on upholding the exemplary role of the cadres and party members, etc. It is necessary to uphold their accountability in the leadership and direction, being truly exemplary and pioneering in implementing the criteria of the Campaign; the implementation of the Campaign should be regarded as a KPI to evaluate the capability and responsibility of cadres.

Fifth, regularly conduct review of the implementation of the Campaign. Units should conduct review of their implementation of the Campaign on a periodical basis to discover, choose, build and multiply the role models; opportunely appraise and commend the outstanding collectives and individuals in task performance. In addition, it is necessary to figure out the cause of the shortcomings, then supplement the content, criteria and method of implementation to make the Campaign unceasingly developed, meeting the requirements of the situation and being a momentum for the entire Military to accomplish their assigned tasks, contributing to promoting the tradition, fine virtues and image of “Uncle Ho’s soldier” in the new era.

Continue to promote the implementation of the Campaign to make the fine virtue of “Uncle Ho’s soldier” become a way of life of cadres and soldier Military-wide and shine in social life is the responsibility of party organizations, cadres, party member to contribute to building the Military politically strong as a basis for improving the overall quality, combat strength and combat readiness and successfully accomplish the mission of Fatherland protection in the new situation.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Trong Nghia, Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Central Military Commission, Deputy Chairman of the General Political Department