In the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, with Ho Chi Minh Campaign as its peak, Military Region 7’s armed forces remained unity with the people to courageously fight to victoriously end our heroic resistance war against the US for national salvation, completely liberate the South, and reunify the country. The Great Victory was the pinnacle of the war of the Vietnamese people in general, the Southeast region in particular, providing many valuable lessons for Military Region 7’s armed forces to build strong all-people national defence, meeting the requirements of Fatherland protection in the new situation.

The Military Region’s Command honours enterprises with great contributions to the building of all-people national defence

The 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising was commenced with Central Highlands Campaign in which Buon Ma Thuot acted as the key battle, making a new strategic shift for the revolutionary war in the South. Seizing that historic opportunity, our Party decided to put all our efforts into two campaigns to liberate Hue - Da Nang and the entire Central Coast, thus gaining resounding victories. At that moment, Military Region 7’s armed forces constantly launched two campaigns at Route 333, Route 2, and National Highway 1. Those campaigns accomplished all tasks assigned by the Region’s Command, liberating the strategic hamlets of Gia Ray, Suoi Cat, and Bao Binh, creating an encirclement of Xuan Loc town in both Northern and Southern directions. After units of Military Region 7 had been detached from Hoai Duc - Tanh Linh Campaign for Route 2 Campaign, Military Region 6’s units and local units of Binh Thuan and Binh Tuy continued to engage in Hoai Duc - Tanh Linh Campaign, completely liberating the two districts of Hoai Duc and Tanh Linh, destroying a large quantity of enemy troops and means of wars, isolating the enemy’s 2^nd and 3^rd Military Zones, connecting our liberated areas in the South Central Coast and the Southeast Region.

In late March 1975, on the basis of our victories on the battlefield, Army Corps 2 and local armed forces continuously liberated a series of Central provinces, forcing the puppet regime’s army to withdraw their troops and establish defensive lines in Tay Ninh, Xuan Loc, and Phan Rang to protect their remaining sites in the South; however, their newly-founded defensive lines were not capable of preventing our main corps from moving straight to the Southeast region. On 8 April, Division 6 (Military Region 7) within the formation of Army Corps 4 conducted attacks on the enemy’s solid defensive line known as an “iron gate” in Xuan Loc to pave the Eastern way towards Saigon; as of 21 April, our forces liberated Xuan Loc and Long Khanh province. Regarding Military Region 6, our local armed forces with the support from Army Corps 2 liberated Binh Thuan (19 April) and Binh Tuy (23 April). In Saigon - Gia Dinh, between 8 April and 20 April, the entire municipal armed forces managed to occupy starting areas, establish the battlefield, and prepare materials for the campaign to liberate Saigon. The Municipal Military Command was divided into Northern and Southern wings to coordinate with other wings of our main forces.

In 26 April 1975, Ho Chi Minh Campaign officially commenced; 4 main army corps (1,2,3, and 4) and Southwest Corps (232) started attacking Saigon from the North, East, Northwest, South, and Southwest. Division 6 (Military Region 7) as part of Army Corps 4 carried out attacks along Route 1, Bien Hoa town; together with Division 341, it occupied the enemy’s 3^rd Corps Command, 5^th Air Division Command, and Bien Hoa airport, and then advanced towards Independence Palace. Division 5 (Military Region 7) within the formation of Corps 232 attacked downwards Tan An and Thu Thua, cutting off Route 4 from Ben Luc to Tan An, blocking the enemy’s retreat route towards Mekong Delta. Saigon - Gia Dinh municipal armed forces cooperated with our main, commando, and ranger forces to develop attacks on Tan Son Nhat, Ba Queo, Quan Tre, Saigon Highway, and Nha Be estuary. At 5:30 AM on 30 April 1975, all wings of our Military simultaneously launched attacks on Saigon; at 11:30 AM on the same day, our revolutionary flag flew on the roof of the Saigon puppet regime’s Presidential Palace, victoriously ending the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, marking a glorious milestone and a shining symbol of the Vietnamese people’s will and unity in the Ho Chi Minh era.

The Great 1975 Spring Victory is a typical example in building and promoting the combined strength of the people’s war posture, providing Military Region 7’s armed forces with lessons on the building of robust all-people national defence today. Over the years, under the Party’s military - defence lines, especially the Resolution of the Party Central Committee’s 8^th Plenum (11^th and 13^th tenure) on the Strategy for Fatherland Protection in the New Situation as well as other resolutions and directives by the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence, Military Region 7 has focused its leadership and direction on building strong all-people national defence via several main measures as follows.

A training session for soldiers of Infantry Division 5

First, enhancing political education and ideological orientation among cadres, party members, and the people. Viewing it as a primary measure, the Military Region has directed all-level military agencies to give advice to local party committees and authorities on stepping up education and propagation work to raise awareness, a sense of responsibility, and revolutionary vigilance among cadres, party members, and all people towards the performance of military - defence tasks. In their capacity as the Standing Offices of all-level Defence and Security Education Councils, all-level military agencies have assisted those Councils in raising the effectiveness of defence and security education, renewing forms and methods of education and propagation, rendering cadres, party members, and all people fully aware of global, regional, and domestic situations, hostile forces’ plots and artifices, the Party’s lines on building all-people national defence, and local military - defence tasks. Promoting their role as “an army ready for work”, Military Region 7’s armed forces have endeavoured to surmount all difficulties and actively stayed close to grass-roots areas, especially the key, complex areas in terms of religion and ethnicity as well as the isolated, remote, border, sea, and island areas to encourage the masses to observe the Party’s lines, the State’s policies and laws, and local regulations and remain vigilance against hostile forces’ incitement and illegal religious activities. At the same time, they have actively taken part in developing political bases and executing the “paying debt of gratitude” movement, thereby building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds”, cementing the people’s faith in the Party, State, and Military, thwarting all plots and artifices of hostile forces, making grass-roots areas politically strong.

Second, fostering unity and coordination between local authorities, enterprises, and individuals to well perform local military - defence work. To that end, the Military Region has signed regulations with provincial-level party committees and authorities on coordination in defence work and the building of defensive zones. Party committees and authorities of 9 provinces and municipalities have always supported all strategic lines, projects, and models of political - social significance by the Military Region’s Party Committee and Command, such as building border patrol roads, standing land border militia posts, and residential areas adjacent to militia posts and border guard stations, developing a core political force within industrial parks and export processing zones, mobilising civil personnel, vessels, and means for protecting national sovereignty over seas and islands. Over the years, the Military Region has constructed 63 standing land border militia posts, completing over 300 km of border patrol roads, building and handing over 58 residential areas with 722 houses adjacent to border militia posts and border guard stations. Localities have paid special regard to investing in defence work (5 trillion VND in 2024); up to now, they have planned and constructed district-level and provincial-level logistics - technical bases with a total area of 31,000 ha to serve military - defence tasks, facilitate their own socio-economic development, and gradually consolidate logistics - technical potentialities within the Military Region.

Third, promoting the role of ethnic minorities and religious people in the building of all-people national defence. Ethnic minorities account for 31.96% of the Military Region’s population; there are 15 religions with nearly 8,000 places of worship and over 10 million religious followers. Thus, the Military Region has always attached importance to encouraging the role of ethnic minorities and religions in the building of all-people national defence via effective approaches. Notably, it has well implemented the line on “fostering friendly bonds, providing assistance for ethnic minorities and religious people”. Up to now, the Military Region has maintained coordination to construct 1,937 houses of military - civilian unity and 166 cultural and sports works within religious facilities and the areas mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities. It has regularly worked with localities to organise meetings to equip religious dignitaries, village heads, and clan leaders with knowledge of defence and security. Its economic - defence units, especially Economic - Defence Unit 778 have collaborated with local party committees and authorities to build hundreds of houses for the people and encourage nearly 600 S’tieng people with nomadic life to settle down in Bu Gia Map district, Binh Phuoc province. During major religious events, the Military Region’s Command, units, and localities have organised visits to religious facilities for congratulations. Those efforts have contributed to strengthening unity between the Military Region and religions; religious dignitaries have always accompanied the Military Region’s armed forces to encourage religious believers to fulfil their religious and civic responsibilities.

Fourth, focusing on raising the armed forces’ synergy and combat power. In order to make the Military Region’s armed forces “adept, compact, strong” in line with their training and combat readiness tasks in the new situation, the Military Region has made decisions on establishing, disbanding, renaming, and reorganising its affiliated units with their new organisational structure. Up to now, the standing force has reached the rate of 98.36% compared to its authorised strength; the militia and self-defence force has made up 1.32% of the total population; all reserve units have been staffed with the rate of 99.79% compared to their required strength. Regarding training work, the Military Region has concentrated on holding specialised, synchronised training courses relevant to each area’s particularities and each unit’s organisational structure, weaponry, and tasks. Training programs have been designed and managed scientifically, effectively, practically to enable the armed forces to readily deal with possible situations. The Military Region has also developed training programs for its Standing Militia Squadron to take part in protecting seas and islands; local standing militia companies have been trained to handle political security situations in their areas; the militia force along the border and the self-defence force within industrial parks and export processing zones have been trained to improve their task performance; as a result, theories and realities of the building and operation of defensive zones and civil defence have been supplemented and developed. The Military Region has strictly followed decisions by the Government and the Ministry of National Defence on adjusting targets of building, mobilising, and receiving the reserve force as well as the registration and management of reservists and technical means of the national economy. All targets of training, exercises, and inspection of mobilisation readiness and combat readiness assigned to the reserve force have been fulfilled. Besides, the Military Region has focused on building a “strong, extensive” militia and self-defence force with proper structure and increasingly great synergy as the basis for the building of robust all-people national defence.

Lt. Gen. NGUYEN TRUONG THANG

Member of the Party Central Committee

Member of the Central Military Commission

Commander of the Military Region