President Ho Chi Minh - the great leader of the Vietnamese revolution, a brilliant military strategist, who directly organised, built, led, educated and trained the Vietnam People's Army. Within the system of precious ideological and theoretical legacies left by him, there are outstanding viewpoints on the construction of the people's army that need to be thoroughly understood and creatively applied to the practical tasks of building the army, strengthening national defence, and safeguarding the Fatherland at present.

President Ho Chi Minh's outstanding viewpoints on building the people's army are deeply revolutionary and scientific, which is the result of the application and creative development of Marxist-Leninist perspectives on constructing a new type of army for the working class in the specific conditions of our country; it also absorbs selected essences from the construction of armies in socialist countries, along with his rich practical activities in organising, leading, educating, and training our army. These viewpoints have not only been proven correct through previous practical experiences in building the people's army but also retain their value to this day, serving as guiding principles for the ongoing revolutionary, regular, sophisticated, and progressively modernised construction of the people's army.

Firstly, regarding the necessity of building the People's Army. Fully explaining both the theoretical and practical basis, President Ho Chi Minh asserted that constructing the People's Army is a foremost and urgent task, a prerequisite for achieving victory in the resistance wars. Therefore, when discussing the tasks of the new democratic government, he emphasised the primary task: “To achieve victory in the resistance, the country must develop on multiple points: Building the army - A truly strong People's Army under the leadership of the working class and the Party”. Transitioning into a new revolutionary period, it is necessary to continue striving to build a strong army to safeguard the revolutionary achievements, preserve peace, unify the Fatherland and advance towards socialism. He emphasised, “...must be striving to build a powerful People's Army, serving as a strong support for the struggle to consolidate peace, achieve national unity, independence, and democracy throughout the country”.

Throughout the leadership of the Vietnamese revolution, our Party not only organised the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army Team - the precursor of the current Vietnam People's Army very early, but also continuously focused on building a comprehensive and robust army. Presently, our Party advocates: “Continuing to build the People's Army,... revolutionary, regular, sophisticated and progressively modernised, with certain arms, services, and units advancing towards modernisation. By 2025, fundamentally constructing an elite, compact and strong army, laying a solid foundation, aiming by 2030 to build a revolutionary, regular, sophisticated, and modern People's Army”.

President Ho Chi Minh visited an air-defence unit on 25 September 1966 (Photo: VNA)

Secondly, by applying and creatively developing Marxist-Leninist principles, President Ho Chi Minh clearly outlined the purpose of building a strong People's Army as to fulfill the political goals of the Party. The immediate goal is to establish a political force, a fighting force, and a sharp revolutionary violent tool to seize and maintain power, construct peace, eliminate the risk of war, and safeguard the Fatherland. He pointed out: “To defeat French colonialism, American interventionists, and Vietnamese traitors... we must have a truly strong and ever-progressing People's Army”. Once the objective of seizing and maintaining power is achieved, he affirmed the ultimate purpose of “Building a revolutionary army led by the Party, conducting revolutionary warfare is to prepare the conditions to eliminate all wars”, to preserve peace and protect the Fatherland.

Based on these invaluable directives, in response to the new requirements of the revolutionary cause, to make the army become the backbone in safeguarding the Fatherland, Vietnam's 2019 National Defence Whitepaper asserts: “The Vietnam People's Army has been renovated in organisation, equipment, and military art; its comprehensive strength continues to be enhanced; its combat readiness is being raised; truly becomes the army of the people, a politically reliable, loyal and trustworthy fighting force of the Party, government and people, the core force protecting the Fatherland in the new situation”.

Thirdly, regarding the content and tasks of building the People's Army, President Ho Chi Minh emphasised that the army's development should be rooted in the purpose of building the army and based on the revolutionary mission's requirements, thus being very comprehensive. Therefore, according to him, “... on one hand, continuously implementing training plans for the army, on the other hand, preparing to implement regular regimes and gradually addressing issues to strengthen rear services. This is a very significant and important task for the entire Party, the entire army, and the entire people”. To further clarify and emphasise the comprehensiveness of the content and tasks of building the army, he affirmed that the People's Army must be developed vigorously to fulfill three functions: a combat force, a work force, and a production labour force. These functions are all prestigious and closely related to each other, he stressed: “The Party and the Government entrust our army with two tasks: 1. Building a stronger and combat-ready People's Army. 2. Actively participating in production to contribute to building socialism. These are two very prestigious tasks; these tasks are consistent with each other. Everyone must make efforts to study and work to build the army; they must also actively participate in production and economise, supporting units transitioning to production”.

Fourthly, regarding the principles of building the People's Army. Remaining faithful to the Marxist-Leninist theory on organisational leadership and constructing a new type of army for the proletariat, President Ho Chi Minh regarded “taking politics as the foundation” as a fundamental principle in building the Vietnam People's Army. Because: “Military without politics is like a tree without roots, useless and even harmful”.

To ensure that our army truly remains a revolutionary force, absolutely loyal to the Party, the Fatherland and the people, President Ho Chi Minh emphasised: The Party must exercise absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the army-building endeavor. This is an immutable principle, which was established very early in the “Brief Outline” and the “Brief Strategy” of the Party in February 1930, directly drafted by President Ho Chi Minh. Practical experience has shown that to maintain political orientation in building the army consistently, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh have always emphasised and firmly asserted the sole leadership role in leading the armed forces, without delegating this leadership to any class, organisation, or other political party, thus, “Our army has unparalleled strength because it is a people's army built by our Party, led and educated by our Party”.

Fifthly, regarding the method of building the People's Army. According to President Ho Chi Minh, to construct a strong People's Army, it is necessary to employ a comprehensive range of methods and measures. First and foremost, there must be an enhancement of the Party's leadership, regularly elevating the quality of political and  ideology education, socialist awareness for the army. On this basis, military and technical training must be vigorously promoted, regulations and discipline must be enforced and strictly adhered while production plans must be effectively fulfilled. President Ho Chi Minh emphasised that for our army to accomplish these tasks, cadres must elevate their determination and caution. Determination and caution must go together, not recklessness. The determination of the Party and the government must be transformed into the determination of our entire army and must be specifically expressed for each type of unit. For regular military units, there must be active learning, strict adherence to regulations, discipline, and high combat readiness. Production military units must actively engage in labour to fulfill production plans. Cadres must possess a sense of responsibility, adhere to orders and directives, overcome difficulties, go deeply into reality, regularly inspect and against the bureaucratic tendencies. “The entire army must unite and strive, determined to build our army into a strong, combat-ready, academically proficient, operationally proficient, and production proficient force”.

Fully comprehending President Ho Chi Minh's directives, during the process of renewal from the 6th to the 13th Party Congress, our Party consistently affirmed the principle of maintaining and strengthening the Party's leadership over the military, setting forth strategies and leadership solutions to build a revolutionary, regular, sophisticated, and gradually modernised army. On 20 July 2005, the Political Bureau (9th tenure) issued Resolution No. 51-NQ/TW on “Continuing to improve the Party's leadership mechanism, implementing the single-command system linked with the implementation of the political commissar, political officer system in the Vietnam People's Army”. This is the “universal key” to build our army into a revolutionary and powerful force. Consistent with this viewpoint, the documents of the 13th Party Congress continued to stress the necessity of “Maintaining and strengthening the absolute and direct leadership of the Party in all aspects, the centralised  and unified management of the government over the People's Army”.

Currently, our endeavor of building and safeguarding the Fatherland is facing both opportunities and challenges, the military is vigorously adjusting its organisational structure to lay a solid foundation for modernisation. In this context, more than ever, the People's Army must demonstrate its pivotal role in safeguarding the Fatherland, the Party, the government and the people, protecting the achievements of the revolution. To fulfill this glorious and sacred duty, we need to creatively apply the outstanding directives of President Ho Chi Minh to the task of building an elite, compact, strong and modern People's Army, capable of meeting the requirements and tasks in the new situation. In particular, focusing on implementing these key contents:

Firstly, continue to deeply understand and study the thought of Ho Chi Minh regarding the construction of the People's Army, serving as the basis for effectively and creatively applying it to the process of building an elite, compact, strong, and modern People's Army. Additionally, focus on researching and developing strategies, mechanisms and policies to establish political foundations and legal frameworks that enhance the effectiveness of thoroughly grasping and efficiently applying Ho Chi Minh's thought in building the People's Army in the new situation.

Secondly, all agencies and units should continue to thoroughly understand and strictly implement the resolutions of the Party and Central Military Party Committee on building an elite, compact, strong and modern People's Army. The focal points are Resolution No. 05-NQ/TW dated 17 January 2022, of the Political Bureau (13th tenure), and Resolution No. 230-NQ/QUTW dated 2 April 2022, of the Central Military Party Committee on leading the implementation of the organisation of the Vietnam People's Army in the period 2021-2030 and the following years, closely linked with the thorough understanding and implementation of the directives of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong regarding the construction of the military in the book “Some issues on military strategy, national defence strategy in the cause of building and defending the socialist Vietnam Fatherland in the new period”.

Thirdly, being consistent with the principle of building a politically strong People's Army, which serves as the foundation for enhancing the overall quality and combat strength of the entire military. This involves maintaining and strengthening the absolute and direct leadership of the Party, the centralised and unified control of the government over the People's Army. Additionally, continue to strengthen the nature of the working class, the character of the people and the national identity of our military. Regularly consolidate and strengthen the relationship between the military and the people - a solid foundation for building a powerful army.

Fourthly, every agency and unit must regularly review and improve the organisation, payroll and equipment to meet the requirements and tasks in the new situation.

Fifthly, combining innovation and improvement of training quality, paying attention and care for building high-quality human resources with improving the quality of formal construction, ideological and discipline management.

Sixthly, effectively carry out logistics and technical work, develop the national defence industry in the direction of autonomy, self-reliance, modernisation, and dual-use, meeting the requirements of building the military and developing the economy and society.

Upholding the teachings of President Ho Chi Minh, all cadres and soldiers of the entire army pledge to unite, strive tirelessly, and continuously promote the noble essence and good traditions, building a revolutionary, regular, sophisticated and modern People's Army, excellently fulfilling all assigned tasks; contributing alongside the entire Party and people in successfully implementing the cause of renovation, building and firmly safeguarding the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

Col, Dr. NGUYEN KIEM VIEN, Head of the Military Science Department, General Political Department of the Vietnam People's Army