Fully aware of the importance of ideological work in the new situation, the Party Committee and Commanders of the Tank and Armor Corps have been implementing a number of synchronous measures to make the Corps politically, ideologically and organizationally strong with high overall quality and combat capability and successfully accomplish its assigned tasks.

Tank and armor is an important combat force of Vietnam Army with the mission of advising the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defense on the organization, development and deployment of the tank and armor force of the Military; conduct training, combat readiness, research and develop combat tactics in the condition of modern warfare. It is controlling a large amount of weapons and equipment; its troops usually operate in harmful, risky and noisy environment with high requirements for technical maintenance, high training intensity. Especially, some of its units are located in urban areas, hence facing difficulties in training and life, coupled with the adverse impact of the market economy, the wrongful information on the social networks, the sabotage of hostile forces. These are negatively affecting the thinking, ideology of its troops.

Sr Col Nguyen Duc Dinh awarding the outstanding unit in the Determined to Win Emulation movement (2018)

Deeply aware of this situation, over the past years, thoroughly grasping the viewpoints of the Party and the Central Military Commission on strengthening ideology work in the Military, the Party Committee and Commandants of the Corps have focused their leadership and direction on implementing a number of breakthrough measures aimed at enhancing the ideological work and troop management, contributing to making the Corps comprehensively strong with high overall quality and combat capability, meeting the mission requirements in the new situation.

Notably, there have been positive changes in the awareness and sense of responsibility of party committees, commandants, commissars and junior commissars for ideological work and troop management; the political and ideological education have been paid more attention and achieved significant results. Agencies and units of the Corps have been proactively in renewing the contents and methods of conducting the ideological work. They have grasped, forecasted, analyzed and evaluated the ideological situation rather effectively which is an important precondition for mapping out appropriate measures for managing and orienting troop’s ideology. The ideological work has been combined closely and carried out synchronously with organizational work, policy work, cadre work and administrative measures. The struggle to counter wrongful and hostile arguments has been attached emphasized, etc. Thereby, the ideological situation in the Corps  has been kept stable. Party, commanding and mass organizations have been built strong, united and unified. The role of party committees and organizations have been promoted, etc,.

In the coming time, the Corps will be assigned new tasks. It will build its force toward elite, lean and powerful direction and carry out restructuring, hence affecting its troop’s thought. Therefore, in order to further improve the effectiveness of the ideological work in the new situation, the Party Committee and High Command of the Corps have agreed on the following measures:

First, strengthen leadership and direction of the party committees, commissars, junior commissars and commandants over the work of ideological and political education. In the resolutions of party committees and organizations, it is necessary to pay attention to the management of thought; have the right evaluation of the situation; anticipate ideological trend of troops; stick to the features and practical mission of units to build measures for leading and directing the implementation of ideological work suitably and effectively. In addition, it is necessary to have significant and comprehensive renewals in the work of political and legal education, focusing on the education of tradition, mission, ethics and lifestyle. Besides basic contents, units should add their own programs. The aim is to make troops aware of the guidelines, goals, requirements and roadmap of the Corps modernization; directives and regulations on training and combat readiness, disciplining. Moreover, units and agencies should diversify their models and measures, apply interesting and creative models which bring about high effectiveness. Thoroughly implement the Central Resolution 4 (12^th tenure) on Party building and rectification; the Resolution No.35-NQ/TW of the Politburo, the Directive No.823-CT/QUTW of the Permanent Office of the Central Military Commission on strengthening the protection of the Party’s ideology, preventing and controlling “peaceful evolution” in the ideological and cultural fields in the Military, the Directive 05-CT/TW of the Politburo on fostering the studying and following Ho Chi Minh thought, morality and style and the Drive of “Promoting tradition, dedicating talents, being worthy of Uncle Ho’s soldier”, to make significant changes in the ideological work and troop management. The education is aimed to make its troop politically steadfast, persistent with Marxism - Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought, the goal and ideal of the Party, believe in the regime, in the weaponry and equipment staffed, in the tactics and actively surmount difficulties to accomplish their assigned tasks.

Second, implement synchronously and effectively measures for troop management and ideological work. Agencies and units should place their emphasis on efficient and effective implementation of all steps and stages of ideological work, especially the active, flexible, quick and opportune management, anticipation, and orientation of thought, while strengthening measures for managing internal political situation.

To be effective, agencies and units should foster training to enhance capability and experience in managing, settling the emerging ideological matters for cadres at all levels, especially those at grassroots level, while upholding their responsibility and exemplary role; maintain a close relation between officers and soldiers to create a friendly atmosphere so that soldiers are willing to share their privacies base on which cadres can determine the proper contents for education and orientation. Besides, promote the role of organizations in the units, members of the party committees, security staff, “tank crew”, “consulting team”, and disseminators in grasping, disseminating, orienting ideology of troops to make them deeply aware of partners and rivalries, subversive plots and schemes of hostile forces, and be able to distinguish good news from bad and poisonous ones on social networks, thereby raising their vigilance, not to be trapped by the enemy and violate the Cyber security Law. Particularly, party committees and commandants should pay attention to improving troop’s living standard both spiritually and materially; build a healthy cultural environment in their campus; coordinate with localities to build the surrounding residences and areas of operation become cultural spotlights, contributing to safeguarding political security, social safety and order.

Officers and soldiers of the 201 Tank and Armor Brigade helping local people alleviate consequences of natural calamity (2018)

Third, strictly adhere to the Grassroots Democratic Regulations; strengthen democratic exchanges between executive cadres and their soldiers, focusing on units in charge of training new recruits, newly established units and units staying on combat readiness to grasp and opportunely settle the emerging issues, creating a democratic, united, trusting, friendly and  helpful environment in the units. At the same time, strictly adhere to the principle of democratic centralism in meetings in which all guidelines and missions must be openly discussed, enabling troops to promote their role, know, discuss, implement, supervise, check, access to information and voice their legitimate wishes. In particular, attention should be paid to political democracy, especially the deployment of cadres; military - professional democracy to improve the training quality and level of combat readiness and disciplining.

Fourth, promote the synergy of agencies, mass organizations and troop councils in conducting ideological work and troop management. Focus on promoting the role of political agencies, cadres, and party members in advising, instructing, checking and settling of ideological issues. In particular, agencies and units should adhere to the meeting and reporting mechanism. When detecting new ideological issues, party committees should have the right leadership, direction and settlement in accordance with procedure and area of responsibility in a calm, sensitive and appropriate manner. During implementation, party committees and commandants should stick to the grassroots level, conduct review, opportunely commend the good models, and multiply the role models while adjusting and surmounting the limitations, contributing to building the Corps strong in politics, ideology and organization and successfully accomplish their assigned tasks.

Thoroughly grasping the viewpoints of the Party and the Central Military Commission on ideological and troop management work in the new situation, and implementing effectively the above measures will stabilize the ideological situation and improve the overall quality and combat capability of the Tank and Armor Corps, meeting the requirements and mission of national defense.

Senior Colonel Nguyen Duc Dinh, Secretary of the Party Committee, Commissar of the Corps