Saigonese concentrated at the Independence Palace to mark the victory day (File photo)

40 years ago, the great victory of the General Offensive and Uprising in the Spring of 1975 with the Ho Chi Minh campaign as the peak, ended gloriously the anti-US resistance war for national salvation. One of the factors leading to the victory is that our Party has utmost promoted the political and spiritual strength of the whole nation.

The most focused manifestation of the political and spiritual strength in the Ho Chi Minh campaign as well as in the anti-US resistance war for national salvation is shown in the Party’s leading guidelines. On grasping Marxism – Leninism and the concrete situation of Vietnamese revolution, the Party and President Ho Chi Minh drew out sound, creative and scientific guidelines for political and military issues. The two revolutionary strategies were conducted at the same time: the socialist revolution in the North and the national and democratic revolution in the South, to defeat the invasive war of the US imperialists and its lackeys, realizing the aims of national unification, independence and democracy.

Sticking to the Party’s guidelines and methods for leading, in each stage, the General Political Department opportunely gave out directions for implementing party and political work with a number of essential and effective contents, forms and methods. Ideological work regularly made the troops  aware of their missions as well as advantages and disadvantages of the situation. Thereby, troops demonstrated their sheer determination, cleverness, creativeness, flexibility and daring to gain victory. This was clearly shown in the implementation of the Politburo’s strategic guidelines of “lightning speed, daring, surprise, certain victory”, “Lightning and more lightning. Daring and more daring. To grasp every moment on the front to liberate completely the South, determine to fight and win wholeheartedly”. These guidelines were not only orders but also a kind of encourage, stimulating and directing the actions of troops and people in the last battle when the historic chance came. For this reason, the political and spiritual strength of our troops and people at that time was multiplied with the motto “one day equals to 20 years” making an exciting and widespread revolutionary movement in both the front and the rear. The ideal of “life is most beautiful on front against the enemy” and the spirit of “the whole country goes to the battlefield, the whole people take up arms against the enemy” were developed into high revolutionary movement in the General Offensive and Uprising of Spring 1975. The brave, clever, creative actions during fighting and in serve for fights of cadres, troops and people of all strata through out the country were a vivid manifestation of our political and spiritual strength in the anti-US resistance war for national salvation with the Great Victory of Spring 1975 as the peak.

In the present revolutionary stage, the above mentioned valuable lesson of promoting the political and spiritual strength is still of value, especially when the world and the region still witness complicated and unexpected changes. The competition of power and strategy among major powers tend to be on the increase. As for our country, hostile forces are still accelerating their sabotage acts with the strategy of “Peaceful Evolution”, depoliticizing the military with  subtle and dangerous plots, especially during the time we convene party congresses at all levels in preparation for the 12^th National Congress of the Party.

To promote the political and spiritual strength and build the military politically strong in the new situation, it is necessary to focus on the following issues:

First, enhancing the comprehensive leading capability and fighting capacity of party organizations, ensure the absolute, direct and comprehensive leadership of the Party over the military.

Second, renovating, enhancing the quality of political, ideological education.

Third, building a sufficient cadre staff in terms of both quantity and quality, meeting the requirements of the new situation.

Fourth, carrying out the mass mobilization thoroughly to consolidate the solidarity between people and troop.

Fifth, strengthening internal security, actively countering to defeat  the strategy of “Peaceful Evolution” of hostile forces.

Senior Lieutenant General Ngo Xuan Lich

Member of the Party Central Committee,

Standing member of the Central Military Commission,

Director of the General Political Department - VPA