The victory of the August Revolution has set an important milestone in Vietnam’s history. It was the victory of a sound revolutionary guideline and the active and creative implementation of that guideline by under the relationship of our Party and President Ho Chi Minh; of the patriotism and the earnest desire of “nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” of the Vietnamese people; of the art of seizing opportunity for launching the General Uprising nation-wide, etc. Its valuable lessons and significance helped our Party, people and troops forward firmly in the new revolutionary cause and win other achievements in the history of national liberation, construction and defence.
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Troops protecting the mass in the General Uprising in Hanoi (File photo) |
At present, though peace, cooperation and development are still the main stream in the world and region, there appear complicated and fast changing evolutions with hidden unpredictability. Small war, racial and religious conflicts, terrorist attacks, territorial disputes, etc are happening at an increasing severity creating both opportunity and challenges. As for our country, hostile forces are strengthening their comprehensive sabotage with their “peaceful evolution” strategy; pushing up “self evolution”, “self transformation”, “depoliticizing the armed forces” in order to remove the Party leadership and change political regime in the country.
Against such backdrop, our Party, people and troops need to promote the uprising spirit and lessons from the August Revolution, seize the opportunities, overcome the challenges and fulfill the two strategic tasks of national construction and defence in the new situation. First and foremost, we need to grasp thoroughly the Party guidelines, viewpoints in military and defence; step up consolidating the all people defence to firmly protect the Vietnam socialist Fatherland. The lessons on force generation and on the great solidarity in the August Revolution remind us of attaching importance to building a strong all-people defence and upholding the great solidarity. The main content of building a whole people defence is to strengthen the defence and security posture and force in each region and in the whole country. Provincial defensive area is the background of the whole people defence. Defence and security forces include all people, industries, sectors at all levels, the whole political system with armed forces being the core one, all of which are put under the leadership of the Party, and the management of the State. Our Party’s consistent policy is that protecting firmly the nation must be based on the close combination among economic, political, ideological, defence, security, cultural missions, particularly the coordination between defence and security and external affairs to create a synergy for safeguarding independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity of the country. For this reason, we must always grasp the Party guidelines in defence, security and external affairs, focusing on the Central Resolution 8 (XI tenure) on Strategy to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation; the 22 Resolution of the Politburo (XI tenure) on international integration and the 806 Resolution of the Central Military Commission on international integration and defence diplomacy. Particularly, we need to grasp the set-out aims, viewpoints, directions, missions and solutions to effectively apply into reality. On the basis of the right anticipation of the international and domestic situation, we need to create our own opportunity and seize the opportunity in cooperation and integration to strengthen our defence potentials; combine the nation’s strength with that of the time; actively prevent from afar the risks of war or conflict; opportunely detect and destroy factors detrimental to the cause of renovation, building and protecting the country.
Regarding the complicacy of the current situation, we need to enhance the capability and effectiveness of the collaboration between the military and the police in accordance with the Directive 77/2010/ND-CP dated 12 July 2010 of the Prime Minister, focusing on the building of an all people defence posture associated with people’s security posture.
Nowadays, facing the high requirements of the cause of Fatherland protection, we need to build the armed forces, particularly the military ever strong to fulfill its mission and assigned tasks. First and foremost, it is necessary to build the military “revolutionary, regular, seasoned and gradually modern” with increasingly high quality and combat capability and a special importance attached to its political strength.
Along with building the military’s political and ideological strength, we need to pay attention to building its organization toward “elite, compact and powerful” direction with reasonable structure so that it maintains high combative capability and fulfils all assigned tasks.
Besides regular force, it is also necessary to attach importance to building the reserve force. Further study should be conducted to make a fundamental change in terms of organization, development, management, training, equipment, mechanism, and policy for this force.
Building local military agencies and border guard strong and capable of implementing advisory task for the local party committees and authorities on the defence and military work.
On the basis of the Militia and Self-Defence Law, localities should continue to renovate and build their militia and self-defence force in the direction of “solidity and extensiveness” with appropriate quantity and proportion and increasingly high quality as the core force in defence and military work at grassroots level.
The 70th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day is such a good occasion to remind us of our tradition and its great significance. Promoting its spirit, the whole military determine to emulate and gain great achievements to welcome the 10th Party Congress of the Military and the 12th National Congress of the Party; continue to grasp the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints; enhance our synergy and combative capability deserving the core force for the whole people in the cause of firmly protecting the Vietnam socialist Fatherland.
General Phung Quang Thanh
Member of the Politburo, Vice Secretary of the Central Military Commission
Minister of National Defence