Protecting military secrets is an important task of the military security work, playing a significant role in ensuring security and safety of military operations, contributing to maintaining national security and social order and safety. In the current situation, due regard should be paid to leading, directing, and performing the work of protecting military secrets by party committees and commanders at all levels.

Grasping resolutions and directives by the Party and State on the work of protecting state and military secrets, the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Ministry of National Defence (MND) and the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) have issued directives, regulations and guiding documents on this work. Grounded on those documents, all-level party committees and commands have promoted the work of propagation and education to raise military staff’s awareness and responsibility towards the prevention of infiltration and the protection of military secrets. At the same time, they have put forward measures for leadership, direction and implementation, enhanced inspection, supervision and close management of the situation to ensure absolute safety and secrecy and prevent military information leak. Military security offices have regularly grasped the situation, given sound advice to party committees and commands at all levels, and cooperated with forces and competent offices in detecting, preventing and neutralizing acts of sabotage and military information and secret theft by hostile forces, thereby ensuring security and safety of military operations, greatly contributing to defending national security and protecting the country’s political stability.

Maj. Gen. Duong Duc Thien delivers the closing speech at the refresher course on military security in 2018

However, there remain weaknesses in the process. A number of military staff members have been inattentive, negligent, and irresponsible, made arbitrary speech, posted wrongful information and distasteful images on the Internet, or arbitrarily exchanged or provided information and documents for wrong people. It should be noted that leaked military secrets on the Internet and mass media have become quite popular, particularly military-defence documents related to several military offices, units, schools, and enterprises. That has negatively impacted on not only the Military’s prestige but also its offices and units’ process of performing the task.

At present, the task of Military build-up and Homeland protection has opportunities and advantages while facing a lot of difficulties and challenges. The hostile forces continue to promote their act of sabotage against our Party, State and Military in political, organizational, and ideological terms. They make best use of the condition of reform and international integration, science-technology advancement, social networks and mass media as well as our weaknesses to carry out intelligence operations, collect state and military secrets, implement the “peaceful evolution” strategy, and encourage “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, and “Military depoliticization”. That situation has necessitated military offices and units promoting the work of protecting military secrets. To do so, unit commanders should synchronously adopt measures, with a focus on the following.

1. Well conducting the work of propagation and education to raise military staff’s awareness and responsibility towards the work of protecting military secrets in the new situation. This is a matter of utmost importance to raising vigilance and well performing this work. Reality has shown that over the past time, several offices and units have paid insufficient regard to propagating and educating troops on the work of preventing infiltration and keeping military secrets, thus enabling the hostile forces to collect our information and secrets. In the coming time, due attention should be paid to well conducting the work of propagation and education to render cadres and troops fully aware that protecting military secrets is the responsibility and duty of all organizations and staff members, not only military security offices. To do that, party committees and commanders at all levels should focus on grasping and strictly implementing resolutions, directives, regulations, and guiding documents by higher echelons on the protection of state and military secrets, particularly the Prime Minister’s Directive 05/CT-TTg, dated February 2012, on “Improving the quality and effectiveness of protecting State secrets in the new situation”, the National Defence Minister’s Circular 91/2012/TT-BQP, dated July 26^th 2012, the MND’s Circular 202/2016/TT-BQP, dated December 12^th 2016, on “Regulations on ensuring information safety within the VPA”, the Regulations on managing, supplying, using the Internet services within the VPA as well as other regulations on the protection of state and military secrets. At the same time, significance should be attached to enhancing the work of political education and ideological orientation to raise public awareness of hostile plots and sabotage as well as requirements of the protection of military secrets in the new situation. Besides, great value should be attached to raising revolutionary vigilance, awareness and responsibility of all military staff members towards the protection of military secrets and making all people know how to protect themselves; to aligning propagation and education with troop management; to strictly maintaining regulations, building safe units and stationed areas; to preventing and neutralizing intelligence operations and information theft by hostile forces.

2. Closely managing the situation in all aspects, preventing information, documents and military secrets from being leaked. First and foremost, all-level party committees and commands should concentrate their leadership and direction over the work of internal political protection, grasp and closely manage the ideology and discipline situation and relationships of their troops. Due attention should be paid to reviewing and ensuring political preferences for the staff working in cipher offices and units. Consideration should be given to stringently implementing regulations on relationship and contact with foreign organizations and persons; to effectively fighting against the exploitation of military foreign relations and cooperation to collect intelligence and secrets, plant spies, entice our staff. Due regard should be paid to strictly maintaining regulations on management and cultivation of cadres and party members and the regulations on information, report, meeting and lesson drawing; to closely managing the Military’s documents, weapons, equipment and property; to enhancing the work of managing military secrets on mass media, particularly the use of Internet services and technological devices. Units should closely manage cyber information and prevent their staff from accessing websites with hostile, wrongful information and from posting military secret-related or “sensitive” information and images on mass media and social networks. When detecting information and images related to military secrets on social networks, military staff should report them to higher echelons and competent offices to handle opportunely. Exchanging and providing information for the press, publishing houses, research centres and mass media inside and outside the Military must be in accordance with the MND’s regulations in order to prevent military secrets from being leaked.

3. Promoting inspection and supervision work to opportunely deal with shortcomings and weaknesses in the protection of military secrets. All-level party committees and commands should regularly inspect and supervise their staff’s observance of directives and regulations on infiltration prevention and secret protection; the recruitment of personnel to cipher offices and units; military call-up; military entrance examinations; overseas study and business; crime prevention and control; conformity with the State’s law and Military discipline with a view to ensuring units’ security and safety for all operations. Units should actively detect and opportunely prevent deviations in awareness and action, signs of negligence and irresponsibility as well as accidental or deliberate acts of revealing military secrets. At the same time, units should actively combat and prevent hostile forces from hooking up with and enticing their staff to collect military secrets. Reviews of the protection of military secrets should be carried out periodically while regulations on this work must be supplemented and completed in accordance with the condition of each office and unit. The military security offices at all levels should cooperate with local party committees and authorities, competent offices and other forces in the stationed areas in keeping a close watch on the situation, taking preventive measures, and opportunely detecting and handling cases of military information leak or violations of the regulations on protecting military secrets.

4. Building strong military security offices as the core force in the protection of military secrets. This is also an important solution to prevent military information leak. Thus, all-level party committees and authorities must pay due regard to building and consolidating military security offices both quantitatively and qualitatively. Importance should be attached to improving political zeal, ethics, capability, professional competence and working method of the staff in charge of military security so that they would be highly responsible, courageous and resolutely fight to prevent and neutralize hostile plots and artifices. At the same time, due attention should be paid to recruiting cadres to military security offices under the required standards; to improving capability and professional competence and skills of cadres in charge of military security, meeting the task requirements in both long and short terms.

Being fully aware of and effectively performing the work of military secret protection will provide an important foundation for preventing and foiling hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage, ensuring security and safety of military operations, contributing to defending national security and social order and safety in the cause of national construction and protection.

Maj. Gen. Duong Duc Thien, Director of the Department of Military Security