Identifying and refuting the distorted, reactionary rhetoric aimed at denying the Party’s leadership in the current development of the Army is an urgent task. It requires a solid foundation in both theoretical and practical science. At the same time, it is essential to affirm that the Party’s leadership is the decisive factor in the success of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army.

Executing the plot of “peaceful evolution,” hostile forces view “undermining the Communist Party as a fundamental task, a decisive breakthrough.” In this process, they thoroughly exploit the Internet and social media to attack the Party’s leadership over the Army in general, and in the construction of a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army, in particular. Their rhetoric is both open and hostile, while also subtle, insidious, and harmful.

According to these forces, the Party’s goal of building a “revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern People’s Army” is inappropriate and contradicts the principles of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought, as these doctrines do not address this issue. From this, they claim that the Party’s policy is flawed, deviates from the guidance of the classical theorists, and will lead to a political loss of direction, ultimately resulting in “bankruptcy.”

They further foolishly argue that in peacetime, it is unnecessary to build and modernise the military, claiming that such efforts are “wasteful and expensive,” which would negatively impact the country’s economic development. They suggest that if the Party insists on modernising the Army, it must ally with powerful nations to build a military model based on the Western “professional army.” More blatantly and maliciously, they even seek to label the Party’s policy of modernising the military as “the beginning of a new arms race in the region,” thereby making the regional situation more complex and “heated.” They make dogmatic assertions that under the Party’s leadership, our Army is “large but not strong,” lacking the ability to protect our maritime sovereignty and islands, and thus, there is a need to “reform the Army” by detaching it from the Party’s leadership, “depoliticising” the Army, and vigorously denying the principle that “the Communist Party of Vietnam has absolute, direct leadership over the Army in all aspects,” among others. While these arguments are not new, they are highly subtle and malicious, requiring us to remain vigilant and resolutely fight to refute them.

A live-firing exercise conducted by Brigade 167 of Naval Region 2 (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)

It can be asserted that building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army is a correct policy, reflecting the Party’s strategic thinking and vision. This ensures that the Army always maintains its working-class nature, deeply rooted in the people and national identity, while continuously improving its overall quality and combat strength. It must be capable of fulfilling all tasks and safeguarding the Fatherland in all situations. This policy of the Party is established and implemented based on objective, scientific foundations that are highly persuasive.

Firstly, remaining loyal to and creatively applying the Marxist-Leninist views, as well as Ho Chi Minh’s thought on war, the army, and national defence. Based on the study of human social history since the emergence of classes, K. Marx and F. Engels argued that with the rise of the state, the army inevitably emerged. The army always carries the class nature and is managed by the state that organises and sustains it. No army exists outside of politics. They also pointed out that, in order to seize and defend the fruits of the revolution, the working class must organise a proletarian army and lead the building of an increasingly strong army. V.I. Lenin also affirmed: “Not bringing the army into politics - this is the slogan of the servile, falsehoods of the bourgeois class” and called for the construction of the Red Army to ensure that “Our army is a real guarantee that prevents imperialist powers from daring to make any attempts or actions against us.” Loyal to and creatively applying the Marxist-Leninist viewpoint, President Ho Chi Minh also emphasised: “We must make every effort to build our army into a powerful people’s army, a revolutionary army advancing towards regularity and modernity, to preserve peace and protect the Fatherland.”

In the light of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought, throughout the revolutionary leadership process, our Party has continuously focused on building the Army in a revolutionary, regular elite, and progressively modern way. Today, we have gathered the necessary conditions to construct a modern Army. Therefore, the Party’s determination to build a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army is entirely correct.

Secondly, inheriting and selectively applying the historical experiences of our nation and the world. The history of building and defending our nation shows that prosperous dynasties and feudal states paid great attention to military construction, with policies such as “the army values quality, not quantity” (the army should be elite, not numerous), and “soldiers should be harmonious, not numerous, and elite, not numerous,” etc. Thanks to this, whenever the country was invaded, with a well-organised, compact, and high-quality army, it had the strength to lead the people in successful resistance. Inheriting, applying, and creatively developing these experiences, our Party’s policy of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army is entirely correct and appropriate.

Looking globally, although political systems may differ, nations also focus on building armies that are increasingly regular and modern, always placed under the strict leadership of the ruling class. In reality, there is no such thing as a general, classless army, nor is there an army outside of politics, as hostile forces distort. The valuable lesson from the collapse of socialist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the late 20^th century remains relevant today, reminding us to remain vigilant against the schemes and tactics of “peaceful evolution” and the “depoliticisation” of the Army by hostile forces.

Thirdly, the leadership of the Party is the decisive factor in building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army.

(1) The Party defines the policy and leads its successful implementation of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army. In line with the principles and results from previous Party Congresses, the 13^th National Congress set forth the policy and orientation with very specific objectives: “Building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security... By 2025, the Army and Police will be substantially built compact, strong, and create a solid foundation, aiming to complete the modernisation of the People’s Army and Public Security by 2030.” This is the Party’s correct policy, clearly outlining the direction for Army construction from 2021 to 2030, divided into two phases: 2021-2025 and 2025-2030. However, due to the movement and development of the practical situation and the demands of safeguarding the Father in the new era, the necessity to build a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army from 2026 has arisen. This decision not only reflects a very high political determination but also demonstrates the Party’s strategic thinking and vision.

On 17 January 2022, the Politburo issued Resolution No.05-NQ/TW on “Organisation of the Vietnam People’s Army for the period 2021-2030 and beyond,” and Resolution No.08-NQ/TW, dated 26 January 2022, on “Accelerating the development of national defence industry until 2030 and beyond.”

(2) Implementing the construction of a compact, strong military to lay a solid foundation for building a modern Army is a very important matter, related to ideological work, organisational work, and policy work. Therefore, the Party, directly under the guidance of former General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, has directed: “The implementation process must be strict, decisive, and persistent, with an appropriate roadmap and steps, without complacency or haste.” Following this directive, the entire Army has been working well to review, adjust, and streamline the organisation, personnel, and ensure appropriate equipment for the functions and tasks. Regarding organisation, adjustments are being made from the Ministry of National Defence’s units to operational and tactical-level ones. Regarding personnel, adjustments are being made to create compact, strong forces capable of using and mastering new, modern weapons and equipment, etc. For the operational and strategic-level units, the focus is on adjusting the organisation and personnel by reducing intermediate links and service personnel; reinforcing units on strategic sites, borders, seas, and islands. For the combat units, organisational adjustments focus on enhancing combat power and mobility. The restructuring of national defence production units and military training institutions is being carried out to meet the demands of new tasks. Through these adjustments, significant progress has been made in the organisation, personnel, and equipment of the military, with a rational structure, appropriate numbers, and continually improving quality, making the military compact, strong, and modern.

(3) Under the leadership of the Party, the task of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Army has achieved important results. From 2016 to 2023 alone, the Army has adjusted over 2,000 organisations, disbanded vocational schools and 61 provincial military schools; strengthened forces to protect borders, seas, and islands, as well as combat-readiness units. A balanced, relatively synchronised structure has been ensured between arms, services, agencies, and units, as well as between active and reserve forces. National defence production and industrial units have been reasonably adjusted, reducing intermediate organisations, and progressively developed in a modern, dual-purpose direction. Special attention has been paid to building a politically strong Army as the basis for improving overall quality and combat strength, ensuring the military’s absolute loyalty to the Fatherland, the Party, the State, the People, and the socialist regime.

Historical reality has proven that the leadership of the Party is the leading factor that determines the growth and victory of our Army, including in building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern military. Any distorted rhetoric that denies this is wrong and reactionary and must be promptly identified and refuted.

Lieutenant General, Assoc. Prof. Dr. DANG SY LOC, Director of the Political Academy, Ministry of National Defence