The People’s Army and the People’s Public Security are all reliable revolutionary armed forces of our Party, State and people organised, led, educated and trained by the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh. When he was alive, Uncle Ho ever said that “the Army and the Public Security are two arms of our people, Party and Government; therefore, they must promote a sense of unity and help each other.” Being imbued with his teachings, over the past 75 years, in any circumstance, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security have always stood shoulder to shoulder with each other to successfully fulfil the defence-security task. Solidarity and combat coordination have become a glorious tradition and valuable lesson of the two forces, acting as a determinant to creating the synergy for liberating the country, constructing and defending the Socialist Vietnamese Homeland.

Minister of National Defence and Minister of Public Security                      (photo: cand.com.vn)

Unity and combat coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security are part of the country’s patriotic tradition and solidarity combined with the exemplary spirit, responsibility and political determination of the two forces, while serving as a natural relationship between components of the people’s armed forces - the main instrument of violence for protecting the Party, the State, the people and the socialist regime. This is a matter of principle derived from the unavoidable requirements set by the dialectical relationships between national defence and security, between national construction and protection, and between the function and task of the two forces. Therefore, in the process of construction, combat and development, solidarity and combat coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security have played a deciding role in enabling each force to fulfil their function and task and creating the internal strength so that the entire Party and people could achieve outstanding feats of arms in the wars for national liberation and today’s national construction and protection.

Immediately after the country gained independence, under the leadership by the Party and Uncle Ho, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security brought into play their strengths and closely cooperated with each other to fight internal and external enemies, safeguard revolutionary achievements, ensure the absolute safety of the country’s historic political event - the Independence Day on September 2^nd, 1945 giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and assist the fledgling revolutionary government in overcoming numerous difficulties and challenges when the country’s fate was “hanging on a thread.” In response to the Appeal for National Resistance by President Ho Chi Minh, under the spirit of sacrificing for the Homeland, our people and troops all rose as one against the enemy. The voluntary Public Security Force of Hanoi cooperated with units of the Military and the Militia and Self-Defence Force in bravely fighting to protect the Capital City during 60 days and nights, thereby making contributions to foiling the French Colonialists’ strategy of “rapid fight and victory,” creating a favourable condition for offices and organisations to transport and evacuate documents, materials, assets and citizens from the war zone.

In 9 years of resistance against the French Colonialists, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security surmounted a lot of difficulties and hardships and encouraged combat coordination on all fronts. In the areas temporarily controlled by the enemy, the two forces focused on building bases, grasping the situation, destroying the wicked, the evil, and the enemy’s dangerous scouts, while organising battles. In the free areas and revolutionary bases, a sense of unity was expressed by coordination in building and consolidating forces, fighting against the enemy’s intelligence activities, thwarting many sweeps by the enemy, and firmly protecting army rears and resistance bases. On the battlefields and  particularly in the large-scale campaigns, the Public Security Force cooperated with the Military’s intelligence force and local armed forces in grasping the situation, protecting military secrets, and ensuring the safety of transport lines and troops’ marches, thus creating a favourable condition for the People’s Army to concentrate on attacking and destroying the enemy, gain victory in each battle and campaign, and win the victory of Dien Bien Phu that “resounded across five continents, shook the globe,” and victoriously ended the resistance war against the French Colonialists.

The Geneva Accords of 1954 were signed, our country was temporarily divided into two parts, the Vietnamese revolution carried out the two strategic tasks simultaneously, namely socialism construction in the North and the people’s national democratic revolution in the South. In the North, to meet the new requirements set by the defence-security task, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security continued to closely cooperate with each other in grasping the situation, fighting to defeat the enemy’s plot and strategy for enticing and forcing the North’s citizens to migrate to the South. The two forces also enhanced coordination to deal with anti-revolutionary forces and those who opposed our Party’s guidelines and our Government’s policies. It should be noted that in response to hostile forces’ acts of sabotage, especially the formation of armed bandit groups in Western Nghe An, Northwest, and Northeast, the People’s Public Security, particularly the People’s Armed Public Security closely cooperated with the People’s Army, the militia and self-defence force and other relevant forces in conducting propagation and launching military attacks on those groups’ dens, arresting and destroying most of the bandit groups and Chiang Kai-Shek’s agents who colluded with Vietnamese bandits against our revolution, thus making contributions to stabilising the situation. At the same time, the two forces ensured the absolute safety of offices, socio-political organisations, socio-economic and defence-security targets, facilities, and military depots and constructions, while maintaining security and order in localities across the North.

The People’s Army and the People’s Public Security also promoted unity and coordination in performing the defence-security task, defending the socialist North, and combating spies and commandos from the U.S. and the Saigon puppet regime. Under the direct leadership and direction by local party committees and authorities, the People’s Public Security proactively conducted investigations and worked with units of the Military and the militia and self-defence force to quickly besiege, hunt down, destroy or arrest the enemy’s moles and commandos who entered the North by air, sea and land in the border as well as neutralise the enemy’s espionage when they attacked the North. Between 1961 and 1970 alone, we prevented and arrested 78 groups including 436 spies, and captured over 10 tons of weapons and explosives, 30 tons of supplies, and many pieces of information equipment and means of war. It is worth noting that after capturing the C4 explosive used by the enemy’s spies, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) directed its technical units to cooperate with military units, namely the Factory Z41, the Department of Weaponry, and the Engineer Corps in studying, manufacturing and successfully trialling time land mines of various types. It transferred the technology to the Ministry of National Defence (MND) for mass production to opportunely provide for battlefields in the South, thereby enabling our commando, public security, reconnaissance, and armed public security forces in the South to raid and destroy the enemy’s military targets, such as airports, seaports, and police stations, causing panic and enormous damage among them.

When the U.S. used its navy and air force to attack the North, the People’s Public Security, particularly the People’s Armed Public Security directly cooperated with the three-category armed forces (main force, local force and militia and self-defence force) in dealing with the enemy’s aircraft, evacuating the people, and protecting assets of the State and citizens. In the 12-day-and-night Air Defence Campaign (1972), our troops and people in the North courageously combated the enemy, established a solid, inter-connected air defence posture, and gained the victory of “Hanoi Dien Bien Phu in the air” that shook the globe and made contributions to changing the state of war and forcing the U.S. to sign the Paris Accords of 1973 and withdraw its forces and allied troops from Vietnam. To obtain those achievements, the People’s Public Security, especially the Public Security Force of Hanoi and units of the Military and the militia and self-defence force maintained a sense of unity and close coordination to ensure social security and protect the people’s life and assets when they were evacuated.

In the South, under the direct leadership by the Central Office for South Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, the Military and Public Security forces built revolutionary bases together and played a core role in developing the people’s war extensively, establishing a posture against the enemy in all mountainous, rural, and urban areas, and defeating the U.S. war strategies, namely “Unilateral War” (1954-1960), “Special War” (1961-1965), “Local War” (1965-1968), and “Vietnamisation War” (1969-1973), hence creating advantages an strengths to win victory in the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, with the Ho Chi Minh Campaign as its peak, victoriously ending the resistance war against the U.S., completely liberating the South, reunifying the country. Combat coordination between the Liberation Army of South Vietnam and the South Security Force represented a noble symbol of Vietnam’s revolutionary heroism and bolstered the tradition of unity and combat coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security in the cause of national liberation and unification.

When peace was restored, our country ushered in a new period with the two strategic tasks, namely national construction and protection. Solidarity and coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security continued to be encouraged and brought to a new height. The two forces regularly exchanged information with each other to grasp the situation domestically, regionally, globally and proactively give advice to the Party and the State on guidelines for the defence-security task, while directly playing a core role in effectively executing those guidelines. The two forces and all Vietnamese people won the wars for national border protection in the Southwest and the North, fulfilled the international mission to help Cambodian people escape from genocide, and maintained coordination in ensuring security and order in localities, attacking and destroying FULRO organisations, criminal gangs and reactionary groups within our country. At the same time, they prevented and neutralised the hostile forces’ strategy for penetration and sabotage against our country, thus contributing to maintaining political security and social order and safety, protecting our Party, State, people and socialist regime.

In recent years, to respond to new developments of the situation globally, regionally, domestically, our Party and State have issued documents for leadership over coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security. The 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.8 on the Strategy for the Homeland Protection in the new situation has underlined “the enhanced cooperation between the People’s Public Security, the People’s Army, sectors and localities in the Homeland construction and defence.” According to the National Defence Law of 2018, the People’s Public Security shall be the core force in maintaining political security and social order and safety; it shall be responsible for cooperating with the People’s Army and the militia and self-defence force in performing the national defence task. Meanwhile, according to the Article 11 of the People’s Public Security Law of 2018, the People’s Army and the militia and self-defence force shall be responsible for cooperating with the People’s Public Security in maintaining national security and social order and safety, preventing and combating crime and violations relating to national security and social order and safety as well as in building the People’s Public Security. The Government and the Prime Minister have released the Decision 107/2003/QĐ-TTg, dated June 2^nd, 2003 on the Regulation for Coordination between the MPS and the MND, the Decree 77/2010/NĐ-CP, dated July 12^th, 2010 on cooperation between the MPS and the MND in maintaining national security and social order and safety and performing the national defence task (the present-day Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP, dated September 5^th, 2019 on cooperation between the MPS and the MND in maintaining national security and social order and safety, preventing and combating crime, and performing the national defence task) as an important legal corridor to develop a sense of unity and combat coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security in the new period.

The People’s Army and the People’s Public Security cooperate with each other in patrolling and guarding the sea (photo: hvcsnd.edu.vn)

Grasping the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security have frequently exchanged information with each other, correctly assessed and anticipated possible complex situations as the basis for proactively adjusting and supplementing determination, plans and projects for defending the Homeland and maintaining national security, and giving advice to our Party and State on defence-security and diplomatic strategies. Moreover, they have proposed measures for effectively settling issues on the East Sea, security and order in the border, sea, island areas and especially in the Northwest, the Central Highlands, and the Southwest. Also, they have actively given advice to the all-level Defence and Security Education Councils and played the core role in providing defence and security education for all groups of learners. Between 2013 and 2019, 2.7 million cadres of all groups attended defence and security education courses. Notably, the Standing Office of the Central Defence and Security Education Council cooperated with the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the Government’s Committee for Religion, and the Defence and Security Education Councils of military regions and Hanoi City in organising defence and security education courses for over 300 members of the Saint Joseph Seminary of Ho Chi Minh City and the Saint Quy Major Seminary in Can Tho, for 120 religious dignitaries as members of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, for 320 monks and Buddhist students of the Vietnam Buddhism Academy, and for nearly 720 religious dignitaries and monks. Defence and security education has been provided for students from high schools to universities. Defence and security education for all people has been enhanced and diversified in accordance with the particularities of each residential area. Doing so has helped raise public awareness, create a sense of consensus, and promote the role of the entire political system and people in performing the defence-security and Homeland protection task.

To lay a solid foundation for defending the Homeland from afar, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security, particularly local military and public security offices have closely cooperated with sectors and organisations in advising local party committees and authorities on building provinces and municipalities into comprehensively strong defensive zones in terms of potential, force and posture. The two forces have worked with each other and local party committees and authorities to build, consolidate, and make the all-people national defence and the posture of all-people national defence associated with the people’s security and the posture of people’s security capable of successfully handling defence-security situations in their areas, preventing and combating the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution,” riot and conversion strategy, thereby creating the internal strength to readily defeat any foreign invasion. While maintaining coordination in appraising socio-economic development projects, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security have proactively ensured economic security in the building of ASEAN Community, the country’s participation in regional and global organisations and forums, and the signing of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements. The two forces have proactively developed and seriously executed plans/projects for maintaining security and order in industrial and economic zones as the basis for the country’s development.

Performing its function as an army ready for work, the People’s Army has closely cooperated with the People’s Public Security in advising local party committees and authorities on conducting propagation to encourage the people to follow the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy, particularly in the strategic, border, sea, island areas and the regions mainly inhabited by ethnic and religious people. They have directly assisted the people in natural disaster and epidemic prevention and control, search and rescue, new-style countryside construction, socio-economic development, hunger eradication, and poverty reduction, while taking part in building strong political bases. At the same time, they have built and multiplied typical models, such as “safe border areas,” “self-control houses,” “bell of border areas,” “peaceful fishing villages” and “safe fishing vessel clusters.” Doing so has contributed to raising public awareness, cementing the people’s faith in local party committees and authorities, consolidating the close-knit bond between citizens and members of the people’s armed forces, helping the people to remain revolutionary vigilance against the hostile forces’ plots, artifices and “peaceful evolution” strategy, building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” and promoting the synergy for executing the movement of all people protecting national security, defending territorial sovereignty and national border security.

It should be noted that against the complex developments of COVID-19, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security have been in the vanguard of the fight against this pandemic, making contributions to protecting the people’s health and peaceful life. Under the spirit of “fighting the epidemic like fighting enemies,” cadres and soldiers of the People’s Public Security and the militia and self-defence force have conducted “house-to-house” propagation to raise the people’s awareness of COVID-19, while cadres and soldiers of the People’s Army have brought into play the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers,” proactively prepared barracks to establish quarantine zones, taken care of citizens, and prevented the epidemic from spreading within those quarantine zones. Besides, cadres and soldiers of the Border Guard Force have closely controlled the people’s travelling and prevented drug and counterfeit trafficking in the border areas. Military-Security teams and groups have been founded to maintain security and order at quarantine stations and create a favourable condition for the health sector to well perform the work of epidemic prevention and control. All activities mentioned above seem to be independent; however, they have been carried out according to a joint action plan by the two forces, for the shared goal of “fighting for and serving the people.”

In the upcoming years, the situation globally and regionally will continue to witness complex developments. In addition to advantages, our country will be confronted with great challenges. The hostile forces will keep using plots and acts of sabotage against our country’s renewal policy and enhancing their “peaceful evolution” strategy, with a focus on sabotaging our all-level party congresses towards the 13^th National Party Congress. They will also promote their conspiracy to “depoliticise” our armed forces, with a view to removing the Party’s absolute, direct leadership over the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security, undermining solidarity between the two forces, and making our armed forces unable to perform their core role in protecting our Party, State, people, socialist regime, national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Furthermore, the issues relating to political security, social order, information security and cyber security as well as crime, natural disasters and epidemics will continue to be complex and pose threats to the country’s stability.

More than ever before, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security should keep raising their synergy, professional competence and awareness of the importance of coordination to perform the defence-security task. In this regard, it is necessary to correctly anticipate new plots and artifices by the hostile and terrorist forces, comprehend partners and opponents, well carry out the staff work, renew the contents and methods of cooperation between the MPS and the MND in maintaining national security and social order and safety, preventing and combating crime, and performing the national defence task under the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP, dated September 5^th, 2019 so as to develop solidarity and combat coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security, satisfy the requirements set by the defence-security task, and firmly protect the Socialist Vietnamese Homeland in any situation.

Inheriting and bringing into play solidarity and combat coordination between the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security, cadres and soldiers of the People’s Army will continue standing shoulder to shoulder with the People’s Public Security to make the people’s armed forces revolutionary, regular, seasoned, and gradually modern as a reliable, loyal army of our Party, State and people. Doing so will contribute to assisting the entire Party and people in successfully carrying out the national reform and building an increasingly “powerful and prosperous” Vietnam as President Ho Chi Minh ever wished.

General NGO XUAN LICH, Member of the Politburo, Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission, Minister of National Defence