In 2018 the issuance of the National Defence Strategy (NDS) and several other specialized strategies marked the impressive development in our Party’s theoretical thought in the cause of national defence and Homeland protection. The NDS has referred to many important issues and stayed close to the new situation; its content has clearly expressed the consistency in the Party’s military guidelines. This is also the salient point which we should thoroughly grasp when studying and implementing the NDS.

As a component of the system of national strategies, the NDS is aimed at meeting the requirements set by the task of national defence and Homeland protection. Naturally, national strategies are normative documents which elaborate the Party’s guidelines on the fields covered by those strategies.

The inception of the NDS is necessary especially when the situation in the world and the region has complex, rapid developments and potential risks of destabilization. Therefore, the timely release of the NDS would satisfy the increasingly higher requirements of the cause of national defence and Homeland protection. However, it should be understood that like other national strategies, the NDS has been formulated to serve the national defence mission or more broadly the revolutionary mission in a certain period; when the revolutionary mission has new developments, the NDS will be adjusted, supplemented or rebuilt. This is an objective, scientific requirement for national strategies in general in response to reality. Nevertheless, as for the NDS, it is essential to fully aware of a very important feature that the NDS could be supplemented, or several points in the NDS could be changed when necessary, but its ideological content which is the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines, in other words the Party’s military guidelines will never be changed. The NDS’s ideological content is the core, consistent matter and most clearly expressed in its prime goal. The reason is that the NDS is the document which elaborates the Party’s national defence viewpoints in general, its military guidelines in particular. The Party’s military guidelines in fact represent the crystallization of military knowledge and thought of the Party and the whole nation; it is associated with the survival and leadership role of the Party in all phases of Vietnamese revolution, both in cause of national liberation in the past and today and future’s cause of Homeland protection. Thus, it is clear to see that the military guidelines are among the most primary bases for the establishment of the NDS; therefore, the NDS is revolutionary, scientific and highly feasible only when it profoundly expresses and is imbued with the Party’s military guidelines. The Party’s military guidelines consists 3 basic, core components, namely the guideline on building the all-people national defence, the guideline on building the people’s armed forces; and the guideline on conducting the people’s war. These basic elements of the military guidelines are also the Party’s consistent viewpoints in all revolutionary phases and based on the inheritance of the nation’s military tradition and Ho Chi Minh’s military thought, and to some extent on the world’s military quintessence. With reference to the unity between the Party’s military guidelines and Ho Chi Minh’s military thought, it is comprehended that the basic points in the Party’s military guidelines are same to the core points in Ho Chi Minh’s military thought. And that the NDS grasps and institutionalizes the Party’s military guidelines means basic elements of the Party’s military guidelines have been grasped and concretized deep into each point of the NDS and become its prime direction. Those features have been demonstrated in the following.

1. The building of comprehensively strong and increasingly modern all-people national defence. Correctly assessing the role and strength of the masses and learning from the nation’s military thought and strategies for national defence as well as the world’s military quintessence, our Party advocates that national defence is the cause of all people. “All-people national defence” becomes a basic viewpoint by the Party in all phases of Vietnamese revolution and an integral part of its military guidelines. Throughout realities of Vietnamese revolution, the military guidelines have been supplemented and developed in accord with the requirements of the revolutionary task.

To meet the increasingly higher requirements of Homeland protection in the new situation, the NDS has grasped and elaborated the Party’s military guidelines and viewpoints via the goal of building the comprehensively strong, increasingly modern all-people national defence. The Strategy’s goal includes the following issues: Vietnam’s national defence by its nature is the national defence of all people, by all people and for all people and made comprehensively strong and increasingly modern, which profoundly demonstrates the nature of peace and self-defence. That is also the feature of Vietnam’s national defence and clearly shows that our Party and State’s consistent policy on national defence is not to use violence (national defence strength) or threaten to use force against any country. The national defence of all people, by all people and for all people emphasizes the people’s role in the building and operation of national defence with both their self-awareness and obligation under the regulations of law (the Amended National Defence Law 2018). The national defence strength is unceasingly consolidated with a view to safeguarding the socialist Homeland and ensuring that all people will enjoy a peaceful, free, independent life in a sovereign and impregnable country. The all-people national defence is built with the close combination of external and internal resources in which the internal resources play the pivotal role. The internal resources are from the state budget allocated for national defence and contributions by organizations and persons (the people in general) in various forms. At present, as our country is integrating into the world increasingly widely and deeply, it is vital to exploit the external resources via international cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral terms, particularly on defence field in order to serve the country’s national defence cause.

Building the comprehensively strong and increasingly strong all-people national defence is the goal set by the DNS and the objective requirements set by the process of building the all-people national defence in the new situation. With hands-on experience in wars and process of building national defence as well as the country’s rapid economic development and increase in state budget for national defence, we have reason to believe in building the comprehensively strong all-people national defence according to the stated goal and requirements. The all-people national defence will be made strong in all aspects, the core of which is military strength, the centre of which is national defence force and posture. Besides, the DNS specially stresses the demand for the “increasingly modern” national defence, which is a new point in grasping and elaborating the military guidelines. It is worth noting that in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, if a war occurred in our country, it would be a hi-tech war with the proliferation of modern weapons; therefore, right in peacetime, the building of “increasingly modern” all-people national defence is a matter of necessity and even urgency. Certainly, to achieve that goal is not easy and requires the joint efforts made by all sectors and fields, particularly the national defence field and sectors directly related to national defence. However, the degree of the national defence’s modernity mentioned here is “within our capacity”, not compared to any other country’s potential. Vietnam’s national defence is in general now assessed as not modern yet; it is modern to certain extent. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to set the guidelines and goals of building such national defence. As for the elements of the national defence which have yet to be modernized, we should strive to have them modernized while there is a need for continued investments in making the modernized ones more modern in the upcoming time.

The national defence strength greatly depends on the degree of the national defence’s modernity. Therefore, building the increasingly modern national defence must rely on the combination of various factors and ensure the encouraged strength of all sectors, fields and people. Only by doing so, could we exploit the country’s resources of science, technology and wisdom to the fullest to serve the national defence cause, ensuring that the national defence is strong enough to win the victory in the people’s war for Homeland protection against the enemy with hi-tech materiel. According to military experts, the strength of the national defence is made up by the “hard strength” and the “soft strength”. Things mentioned above represent the “hard strength” while the “soft strength” includes tradition, morale and diplomacy of a nation. Carefully studying the national defence’s modernity, we could realize, to some extent, the factor of wisdom expressed in the ruling class and apparatus’ capability in directing, commanding and operating the building and operation of national defence.

Our country is developing in peacetime but facing potential challenges and risks from both the inside and outside. Those challenges and risks could threaten the survival of the country and the socialist regime unless they are settled opportunely and effectively. Thus, building the all-people national defence aims to not only defeat the enemy’s war of aggression, but first prevent and repel the risks of war and conflict, which are the most important goal and the “cleverest” approach. Due to the country’s condition, its national defence is built and operates at the same time under the guidelines on the close combination of the building and operation and vice versa. The process of building national defence must be the process of performing national defence tasks and dealing with national defence situations to ensure the country’s stability and development. Things mentioned above are the main points of the guidelines on building the all-people national defence in the new situation which the NDS has grasped and expressed.

Maj. Gen. Nguyen Manh Hung

(To be continued)