Promoting the 70-year tradition of building, fighting, and maturing of Vinh Phuc Province armed forces and thoroughly grasping the Party's views and guidelines on building the armed forces, the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have been synchronously and drastically implementing solutions on leading and directing to build the Province’s armed forces comprehensively strong with overall quality and high combat readiness.

Vinh Phuc Province was established on February 12^th, 1950. Implementing the policy of “resistance cum national construction”, promoting the construction and development of the armed forces in general and the local armed forces in particular to promptly meet the combat and combat service tasks in the resistance war against French colonialists of the Central Party Committee and Northwest Front Party Committee and Command (presently Military Region 2), on June 13^th, 1950, Battalion 64 (the predecessor of the Province’s armed forces) was established. Immediately after its establishment, the Battalion engaged the war and won the first battle, destroying all enemy troops at Son Kieu post.

Under the leadership of the Party, directly the Provincial Party Committee, Vinh Phuc armed forces secretly built resistance bases in the hearts of the people, expanded the guerrilla zones, and developed forces to cunningly and bravely protect the locality, serve and directly participate in fighting with the major forces in campaigns, including Tran Hung Dao, Hoang Hoa Tham, Dien Bien Phu, etc. The Province directed its armed forces to fight 6,122 large and small battles; killed 15,887 enemies, destroyed and damaged 285 military vehicles, knocked down 209 posts and watchtowers, and captured 17,303 guns and cannons, contributing to globally land-sliding Dien Bien Phu victory of our people’s and Military. During the anti-American resistance war to save the country, Vinh Phuc's armed forced and people sent 12,000 youngsters and nearly four thousand volunteers to the battlefields and provided food to support the Southern frontline. In particular, in the two times of fighting against the destructive war by the US Air Force in the North, Vinh Phuc armed forces and people coordinated with the Air Defense - Air Force in 783 battles and shot down 120 enemy aircrafts, (including 02 B52 Stratofortresses and 01 F111 Fighter). When the country was unified, many of Vinh Phuc people participated in protecting the Southwest and Northern borders and performing international missions in Cambodia to contributing to firmly defending the sovereignty and sacred territory of the Fatherland.

In the period of building and defending the Fatherland, under the leadership of the Party and the support of the people of the ethnic groups in the Province, Vinh Phuc armed forces have constantly grown in all aspects to act as a core in construction and protection of the locality; incessantly consolidate the all-people defense and all-people defense posture in association with the people security posture; build the defensive area; and maintain political security, social order, and safety to create favorable conditions for fast and sustainable economic, cultural, and social development. Recognizing the great dedication and sacrifice of the generations of the armed forces and people of Vinh Phuc Province in fighting, building, and defending the Fatherland, the Party, the State, and the Army have awarded many noble titles to encourage the armed forces and people in the Province to continue to fulfill their duties and to build an increasingly rich and beautiful homeland.

In the coming time, the task of building and defending the Fatherland has new developments that require the Province Party Committee and People's Committee to continue to thoroughly grasp the Party's views and guidelines on military and defense to synchronously and comprehensively implement all aspects of work. In particular, leading and directing the building of the strong armed forces with overall quality and high combat readiness to meet requirements of tasks in every situation is an important content.

A conference on military and defence tasks of Vinh Phuc's Party Committee

First of all, to focus on building the strong political forces to be absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, the Party, the State, and the People. This is an important premise for the armed forces to accomplish their tasks. Therefore, the Province Party Committee and People's Committee have strengthened their leadership and direction over the Military Command to closely coordinate with the Province Party Committee's Propaganda Commission and relevant agencies to actively innovate and improve quality and effectiveness of propagation, political education, and legal dissemination; strengthen communication and propagation on national defense and military tasks; and well perform the emulation and commendation work and promote the Determination-to-Win Emulation movement in association with the Patriotic Emulation movement of the locality. At the same time, measures have been promoted to build provincial, city, and district Military Party committees to be strong in politics, ideology, organization, and ethics and enhance the comprehensive leadership capacity and combat power of Party committees and organizations at all levels and the quality of Party members. A breakthrough has been made in improving the capacity to communicate, concretize, and organize the effective implementation of resolutions, directives, regulations, and conclusions of the Central and the Central Military Commission on the Party building work and the quality of activities of Party committees and cells and building comprehensively strong agencies and units and excellent and strong organizations. The Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have also led and directed to review the completion of the remaining targets and tasks in the Resolution of the 6^th Provincial Party Congress (2015-2020 term); successfully organize the Party Congress at all levels within the armed forces, proceeding to the 7^th Provincial Party Congress and the 13^th National Party Congress; continue to implement the programs and plans for implementing the 4^th Central Resolution (the 12^th Tenure) on the Party building and rectification and the Politburo's Directive No.05-CT/TW and Central Military Party Commission Standing Committee’s Directive No.87-CT/QUTW on promoting the learning and following of Ho Chi Minh thoughts, ethics, and style; assign the responsibility of modeling of cadres and Party members; and consolidate the presiding cadre contingent in association with the preparation of candidates for the Party Congresses at all levels. To enhance the leadership strength, the Party committees at all levels within the armed forces have attached importance to the development of Party members and done well the work of inspection, supervision, and protection of internal politics to fight against “peaceful evolutions” and manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”.

Secondly, to strengthen the restructuring to build the armed forces towards “lean, compact, and strong” direction. Thoroughly grasping and implementing the Party's views and lines, especially Resolution No.18-NQ/TW issued on October 25^th, 2017 by the Party Central Committee (the 12^th Tenure) on further innovating and streamlining the organizational structure of the lean, compact, efficient, and effective political system; Resolution No. 606-NQ/QUTW issued on June 16^th, 2018 by the Central Military Commission on leading the implementation of Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW issued on July 7^th, 2017 by the Politburo on organizing the Vietnamese People's Army by 2021; and the Decision of the Military Region 2 Command on organizing of forces in 2020, the Military Command has actively researched and advised the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee with policies and solutions for leadership, direction, and implementation. Thereby, the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have concentrated on leading and directing the building of strong armed forces with overall quality, qualifications, high combat readiness, reasonable structure, and balance among the regular force, reserve force, and militia force to be suitable with the functions, tasks, staffing, weapons, fighting style, and defensive area posture of the Province.

Thirdly, to promote training, drilling, and raising the level and capacity of combat readiness to meet the requirements of the task of defending the Fatherland. Thoroughly grasping the resolutions and directives of the Central and the Military Region on training and combat readiness, especially Conclusion No. 60-KL/QUTW issued on January 18^th, 2019 by the Central Military Party Commission on continuing to implement Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW issued on December 20^th,  by the Central Military Commission on improving the quality of training in the 2013-2020 period and beyond and the Military Region  Commander’s Order on defense and military work, the Party committees of agencies and units have concretized into thematic resolutions to lead this important task to ensure the consistence with their characteristics and tasks and good and efficient implementation.

Finally, the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have focused on leading and directing to improve the quality of regular training and discipline observance and strictly implement the “Discipline Year 2020” within the Army, the Constitution, and the State laws to contribute to building the Province's armed forces to be politically steadfast and militarily strong to fulfill the assigned tasks and be worthy of the 70-year tradition of building, fighting, and maturing.

HOANG THI THUY LAN, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Vinh Phuc Province Party Committee