Preserving and ensuring the absolute safety of President Ho Chi Minh’s body is a sacred mission that our Party, State and people have assigned to the Military, directly the President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum Protecting Command (the Mausoleum Command in short). For the past 50 years, his body has still been kept in the best condition.

The moment of 9.47 A.M, September 2^nd, 1969 went down in Vietnamese history when our Party, people, troops, and international friends forever lost a great leader, i.e. President Ho Chi Minh.

After his death, in response to the desire of the entire Party, people, and troops, the Politburo and Party Central Committee decided to preserve his body and build a mausoleum for him so that generations of Vietnamese people can pay respect and become deeply imbued with the great cause and image of President Ho Chi Minh. This task was assigned to the Military, directly the Mausoleum Command.

Maj. Gen. Cao Dinh Kiem addresses a conference held on the occasion of 50th anniversary of preservation of Uncle Ho's body

For the past 50 years, with their strong sense of responsibility and special honor, generations of cadres and soldiers of the Command have always been absolutely loyal to the Party and Uncle Ho, united, surmounted difficulties, and upheld their will for independence, self-reliance, activeness, creativity to successfully accomplish their assigned task.

The above result is attributed to the synchronous measures carried out by the 969 Corps, the Mausoleum Command. Firstly, they have thoroughly conducted education work to enhance the awareness and responsibility of cadres and soldiers of the honor and pride in this special political mission. The preservation of Uncle Ho’s body and the building of the Mausoleum are manifestation of the affection, belief, respect and gratitude of Vietnamese people to him whereas contributing to educating his thought, morality and revolutionary cause. This matches the grateful tradition of Vietnamese people and their aspire to meet him once, especially Southern people who have never had such chance. This requires that those who directly involve in this task must have a deep insight into his life and cause. Therefore, the Party Committee of the 969 Corps has regularly held talks, story telling, exchange, discussion about Uncle Ho’s life and cause for its soldiers. Moreover, it has also held field trips to historical relics and conducted tradition briefing about Uncle Ho’s thought, moral and lifestyle to make them more imbued and affectionate with our late President. Besides, the Mausoleum Command has also promoted the operation of its website, radio and television system to spread propaganda about his life and cause; made documentary, issued books and leaflets; coordinated with press and media agencies to disseminate the mission of preserving the body of President Ho Chi Minh and the political and cultural meaning of the Mausoleum. Thereby, the affection of cadres, staffs and people towards Uncle Ho is increasingly enhanced, stimulating them to strive for successfully accomplishing their task.

How to preserve the body of Uncle Ho amid the difficulties of the country while this is a new and difficult task represents such a matter to cadres and soldiers of the Mausoleum Command. In order to overcome this challenge, the Party Committee of the 969 Corps, the Mausoleum Command have always stuck to the guidelines of independence, self-control, self-reliance, activeness and creativity to fulfill this special task. To that end, medical procedures have been conducted in a careful, serious and accurate manner. Given the fact that body preservation is a new and difficult field while Vietnam has tropical climate and a poor economy, difficulties seemed to multiply, especially during the years of war. With the respect to President Ho Chi Minh, and thanks to the attention of the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense and the help from the USSR (now Russia), over the past 50 years, the mission of preserving President Ho Chi Minh’s body has been conducted in a thorough manner since the early days by the Special Medical Team, later the 69 Corps, the forerunner of the Mausoleum Command. Besides, cadres and medical staffs of the command have always combined well medical work with technical work in the research and appliance of technology, and in the making of chemical solution to ensure the best condition for Uncle Ho’s body. Various scientific projects and initiatives have helped clarify the scientific and realistic grounds for both short term and long term issues. The unit has maintained and strengthened its relationship with the Moscow Medical Research Center; proactively established cooperation with domestic and overseas scientific institutions in carrying out the project of “Preserving and ensuring absolute safety for President Ho Chi Minh’s body”.

Implementing the Project 2341 approved by the Prime Minister on 22-December-2010 and the Resolution No. 122 dated 08-March-2012 of the Permanent Office of the Central Military Commission on “Leading the mission of preserving and ensuring the absolute safety for President Ho Chi Minh’s body and promoting the political and cultural meaning of the Mausoleum in the new period”, for the past years, the unit has fostered the development of human and material potentials to build the 69 Institute into a specialized, regular, scientific and modern one. In addition, its scientists and technical staffs have always strived to master the operational procedures and ensure the technical specifications to meet the medical requirements and master the advanced and automatic technology for this mission. Particularly, the unit has succeeded in making the chemical solution and the special clothes for the mission. This represents the unit’s growth and a significant result of scientific research and apply, affirming the ability to master their task.

One decisive factor to the above success is the regular attention paid to the building of pure and strong party organizations and all-strong units with due leadership capability for fulfilling the assigned task. This is the thing that the Party Committee of the 969 Corps and its junior party committees have always emphasized. They have adopted a number of measures for building pure and strong party committees and organizations; associating the building of party committees with the development of a contingent of exemplary cadres and party members. Attention has also been paid to the building of strong political cadres, political offices, and unions of the mass. The internal solidarity is maintained; political and ideological ground is strengthened. Besides, the Party Committee of the 969 Corps and the Mausoleum Command have also set out measures and guidelines for effectively implementing the Resolution 4 (12^th tenure) on Party building and rectification; enhancing the leadership capability and combat power of party organizations and the qualities of the cadres and party members. Moreover, they have also attached importance to building the all-strong unit towards regular, exemplary and compact direction; accelerated the Determine to Win Emulation movements together with the implementation of the Directive No. 05-CT/TW of the Politburo (12^th tenure) on studying and following Ho Chi Minh thoughts, morals and style, the Campaign of “Promoting tradition, dedicating talent, deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier”; encouraged their cadres, staffs and soldiers to strive for successfully accomplishing the mission assigned by the Party, the State, the Military and the people.

The preservation and protection Uncle Ho’s body during the past 50 years have significant political and historical meaning, affirming the right decision of the Politburo and the Party Central Committee and meeting the earnest desire of the entire Party, Military and people to be able to visit, pay respect and show gratefulness to Him. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum at Ba Dinh Square is a sacred place where converge the belief and affection of the whole nation for our beloved leader. Proud to be a trusty and absolutely loyal force of the Party, State, and the Military, for the past 50 years, in any circumstances, cadres, staffs, and soldiers of the Mausoleum Command have always upheld their determination to overcome any difficulties and challenges to successfully accomplish their assigned task. For all of these, the Command was warded with the Heroic Unit of the Armed Forces title by the State in 2004; its technical and medical scientists were given the State Award for the project of preserving President Ho Chi Minh’s body in 2000, and many other noble awards.

Promoting the tradition of a Heroic unit in the Doi moi era, cadres, staffs and soldiers of the Mausoleum Command will ceaselessly strive for fulfilling their special political mission, deserving the honor and responsibility that the Party, State, Military and people have assigned.

Major General Cao Dinh Kiem, Commissar of the Mausoleum Command