The success of the August 1945 Revolution marked a milestone in the history of national construction and protection of Vietnam, symbolising our people’s willpower, indomitable spirit, and burning desire for national independence and freedom. 80 years have elapsed, but the greatness, indomitable spirit, and shining ideal of the August Revolution always remain existent in tandem with the country’s development, laying a solid foundation for the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) to sustain its combat goal and ideal in the new era.

In the Autumn of 1945, under the sound leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and President Ho Chi Minh, our people successfully conducted a general uprising, smashing the yoke of colonialism, fascism, and feudalism, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam - the first people’s democratic state in Southeast Asia, ushering the Vietnamese nation into a new era - the era of national independence and socialism.

Gen. Trinh Van Quyet addresses the 10th Congress of Military Region 3’s Party Organisation for 2025 - 2030 tenure (photo: qdnd.vn)

In Vietnam’s history of national construction and protection, the August 1945 Revolution represents the greatest revolution; it is the most glorious victory reflecting the entire nation’s indomitable spirit and burning desire for peace, independence, freedom, prosperity, and happiness; it is the crystallisation of the entire people’s ardent patriotism, profound knowledge, and strength of national great unity combined with the strength of the times. Victory of the August Revolution showed the world that “for the first time in the revolutionary history of colonies and semi-colonies, a Party, only 15 years old, successfully led a revolution and seized power nationwide”, while proving a truth of the times: once a nation remains united as one, follows sound political lines, and is placed under the brilliant leadership of a revolutionary Party, no force could hinder it from making revolutionary advances.

The success of the August Revolution was a combination of many subjective and objective factors; among those factors, sound revolutionary lines and leadership by the CPV and leader Ho Chi Minh played a deciding role. Our CPV creatively applied Marxism - Leninism to Vietnam’s practical conditions, developing revolutionary lines, goals, methods, and forces properly, carrying out its operations effectively in practice. The CPV identified the leading role of the national liberation revolution, adopting the most effective solution to manage the relationship between the tasks of fighting imperialism and feudalism appropriate to Vietnam’s characteristics, utilising the strength of the entire nation for self-liberation, proactively, quickly building forces, increasing the power of revolutionary armies, including leaderships, mass organisations, armed forces, bases, safe zones, and war zones, correctly assessing the situation and the balance of power, precisely forecasting situational developments, making sound, timely decisions.

In the process of preparing and carrying out the August Revolution, in each period, the CPV formulated sound strategies and policies, while always remaining steadfastness in the Vietnamese revolution’s lines and goal of “conducting a bourgeois democratic revolution and a land revolution towards communism”. That is the basic, long-term goal of the CPV and Vietnamese revolution, demonstrating the close relationship between national independence and socialism, aligning the Vietnamese revolution with the world revolution and the inevitable trend of the times.

National independence and socialism constitute the Vietnamese revolution’s goal and ideal, laying a foundation for uniting, gathering, and encouraging the entire Vietnamese nation to overcome numerous hardships in the early days of national independence, victoriously carry out resistant wars against colonialism and imperialism for national liberation, unification, construction, and protection, enhance Doi Moi (renovation) and international integration with tremendous historic achievements; as a result of national independence and socialism, our country has never had such fortune, potential, position, and prestige as it does today.

The VPA, whose forerunner was the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army Team, was founded in the masses’ revolutionary movement; it was organised, educated, and trained by the CPV and leader Ho Chi Minh; it was closely associated with the nation’s destiny; being imbued with the Party’s revolutionary goal and ideal, it stood shoulder to shoulder with the entire Party and people to seize power and protect the fledgling revolutionary government. During the August Revolution, the armed forces demonstrated their voluntary spirit, devotion, courage, and readiness to fight and sacrifice themselves for national independence and socialism. That is also a prerequisite for forming the VPA’s nature and glorious tradition of “loyal to the Party, pious to the people, readily fighting and sacrificing for the Fatherland’s independence and freedom, for socialism, fulfilling every mission, overcoming every difficulty, defeating every enemy”. That tradition continues acting as a source of motivations for cadres and soldiers to remain steadfast in their combat goal and ideal in the new era.

Currently, the entire CPV, people, and VPA are entering a new era - the era of the nation’s development and prosperity, amid fundamental changes across the world and intertwined opportunities, advantages, difficulties, and challenges; conflicts and wars take place in many regions and possibly spread. Strategic competition between major powers is increasingly intense; disputes over territories, seas, and islands, including those in the East Sea continue to be complex. The 4^th industrial revolution and especially the development of artificial intelligence (AI) are making profound impacts on all aspects of social life, including the movement, development, and methods of warfare. Cyber space becomes a “special territory” where ideological and information struggles take place and hostile forces step up their sabotage strategy against our CPV, State, and VPA via cunning artifices.

Domestically, the cause of Fatherland construction and protection is entering a new development era with growing demands for independence, strategic self-reliance, rapid and sustainable economic growth, political - social stability, and defence - security consolidation in any circumstances. The revolution to streamline the political system’s apparatus and the adoption of a two-tier local government model have obtained significant achievements, bringing a new incentive to national development but causing many new issues to be addressed. That situation necessitates the entire political system devoting more efforts; hence, the VPA must continue to play a core role in the cause of national defence consolidation and Fatherland construction and protection. Promoting the spirit of independence, self-reliance, self-strengthening, and resolve to surmount challenges and master the nation’s destiny in the August Revolution, the VPA must always remain steadfast in its combat goal and ideal towards national independence and socialism; it must also keep raising its synergy and combat power to excellently fulfil all assigned tasks. To that end, the whole Military should adopt synchronised measures as follows.

First, maintaining and enhancing the CPV’s absolute, direct, all-round leadership over the VPA. This is a matter of principle and plays a decisive role in the VPA’s revolutionary nature, combat goal and ideal, maturity, and victory. In the current period, it is necessary to focus on building a pure, strong Military Party Organisation in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel, enhancing leadership capacity and combativeness of all-level party organisations, particularly the newly-founded ones after force adjustments, guaranteeing their core role in leading military - defence tasks. The whole Military should continue to grasp and seriously execute the 9^th Politburo’s Resolution 51-NQ/TW, dated 20 July 2005, on perfecting mechanisms for the Party’s leadership and implementing one-commander system in line with political commissar and junior political commissar system within the VPA, the 13^th Politburo’s Regulation 332-QĐ/TW, dated 24 June 2025, on party organisations within the VPA, the Party Central Committee’s Regulation 334-QĐ/TW, dated 27 June 2025, on organising political agencies within the VPA, the Party Central Committee’s Regulation 335-QĐ/TW, dated 27 June 2025, on functions and tasks of regional defence command party organisations within the VPA, the Party Central Committee’s Regulation 336-QĐ/TW, dated 27 June 2025, on functions and tasks of border guard command party organisations within the VPA, and the 13^th Politburo’s Directive 45-CT/TW, dated 14 April 2025, on all-level party congresses towards the 14^th National Party Congress. Great value should be attached to closely combining the building of pure, strong party organisations with the building of “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong units and aligning the building of a corps of party members with the building of a contingent of cadres to meet the task requirements in the new situation.

The VPA should continue to strictly implement resolutions, directives, and conclusions by the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, the CPV’s Secretariat, and the CMC on the building and rectification of the Party and political system. Revolutionary ethics and example-setting role of cadres and party members should be improved and promoted in the new era. The Military should enhance the work of inspection, supervision, and Party discipline, actively combat degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, fight against “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”, resolutely discharge cadres and party members who make negative impacts on party organisations’ combativeness and the VPA’s prestige. Emphasis should be placed on building a really exemplary, united, pure, strong Military Party Organisation and developing a pool of cadres and party members with absolute loyalty to the Fatherland, the State, the people, and the goal of national independence and socialism.

Second, renewing and improving the work of political education and ideological leadership to ensure that cadres and soldiers will always be imbued with the Military’s combat goal and ideal in any circumstances. During the August 1945 Revolution, the work of political education and ideological leadership played a role of paramount importance to disseminating the Party’s lines and policies, fostering political awareness, patriotism, indomitable spirit, and faith in victory of the struggle for national independence and socialism among troops and citizens, encouraging the entire people and armed forces to rise up and seize power. Bringing into play that spirit, all-level party committees, political commissars, commanders, and political agencies should be fully aware of the objectives, position, and vanguard role of political education and ideological leadership work. They should continue to grasp and seriously execute resolutions, directives, conclusions, guidance, and regulations by the CPV, the CMC, and the General Department of Politics on the work of political education and ideological leadership, particularly the CMC Standing Board’s Directive 2423-CT/QUTW, dated 9 November 2023, on renewing and improving political education in the new period, and the Regulation on political education within the VPA and the Militia and Self-Defence Force as the basis for formulating measures of leadership in a timely, effective way.

The Military should continue to flexibly, creatively adopt forms of political education and promote the role of press agencies, publishing houses, and cultural institutions, especially Vietnam Military History Museum and Ho Chi Minh Halls in organising educational activities and encouraging patriotism, national pride, revolutionary ideal, and a sense of responsibility among all troops. Great value should be attached to clarifying the scientific and revolutionary nature of Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, affirming the soundness of the Party’s viewpoints and lines, opportunely disseminating the State’s laws and policies as well as the VPA’s tasks in the new era. Due attention should be paid to educating troops on the VPA’s revolutionary nature and glorious tradition, spreading typical examples in the fight for national independence and socialism, and fostering the image of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. It is necessary to render cadres and soldiers fully aware of the significant achievements, fortune, position, and international prestige of our country after 80 years of national independence and nearly 40 years of Doi Moi. Doing so will help encourage pride, a sense of responsibility, faith, and incentive for devotion and self-improvement among all troops and ensure that in any circumstances, despite hardships and even dangers, cadres and soldiers will always remain absolutely loyal and steadfast in the goal of national independence and socialism, and resolutely, persistently protect the Fatherland, Party, State, people, and socialist regime. The whole VPA will, therefore, always remain united and devote efforts to assisting the entire CPV, people, and political system in realising revolutionary strategies by the Party and State and ushering the country into the era of development and prosperity.

All-level competent offices and cadres should be active in situational research and forecast to give advice to the CMC, the Ministry of National Defence, party committees, political commissars, and commanders on effective measures to improve troops’ political zeal against multidimensional, complex situational developments. At the same time, it is vital to closely combine ideological work with organisational work, personnel work, and policy work, manage and forecast ideological developments of cadres and soldiers, particularly prior to, during, and after the merger and dissolution of offices and units, the re-organisation of local military agencies, and the adoption of two-tier local government model. Ideological issues among troops should be opportunely detected and handled to avoid falling into passivity, while a sense of responsibility and willpower among cadres and soldiers should be promoted under the spirit of “going anywhere, doing anything” when the Fatherland needs.

Third, raising the quality of personnel work, building a pool of cadres, particularly at operational and strategic levels as the “cornerstone” for the VPA to remain steadfast in its combat goal and ideal. In the success of the August 1945 Revolution, cadres played a role of special importance. They were the ones with ardent patriotism, profound awareness of revolutionary goal and ideal, courage, great knowledge, political acumen, and good skills in mass mobilisation. They acted as the core force in organising, encouraging, and directly leading the masses, the armed forces, and all people to conduct the general uprising and seize power, thereby making decisive contributions to the victory of the Revolution. Promoting that lesson in the new situation, our CPV has attached special importance to building a contingent of “both red and expert” military cadres, particularly at operational and strategic levels, as the “cornerstone” and “locomotive”, with sufficient qualities, capabilities, and prestige, the spirit of daring to think, daring to speak, daring to do, daring to take responsibility, daring to be innovative and creative, daring to confront difficulties and challenges, and daring to act for the common good, as well as great capacity to give advice to the Party, State, CMC, and Ministry of National Defence on strategic issues to fulfil the cause of national defence consolidation and Fatherland protection.

To that end, all-level party committees and commands should continue to grasp and effectively implement conclusions, directives, resolutions, and regulations on personnel work, particularly the CMC’s Resolution 109-NQ/QUTW, dated 11 February 2019, on building a pool of military cadres, especially at operational and strategic levels to meet the task requirements in the new situation, the CMC’s Regulation 2036-QC/QUTW, dated 16 June 2023, on leading personnel work within the VPA, Decision 2259/QĐ-BQP, dated 23 May 2025, by Minister of National Defence, approving the action plan for the Project to attract and utilise talent for the VPA towards 2030, with a vision towards 2050. Competent offices should actively maintain coordination and give advice on issuing decrees, regulations, and policies to attract and utilise talent for the VPA, while training and developing cadres comprehensively in terms of political ideology, professional expertise, culture, leadership, and task execution. It is necessary to closely combine personnel work with organisational work, conduct personnel planning, rotation, evaluation, and deployment in a scientific, flexible manner, improve the quality of education and training, and heighten political responsibility and combativeness in personnel assessment, planning, and use.

Based on their functions and tasks, party committees and party organisations should strictly maintain regulations on personnel work, closely combine the building of a corps of key cadres with the building of a pool of party committee members, and well carry out personnel planning, rotation, management, evaluation, and use. They should raise the quality of personnel training and development to meet the requirements set by the 13^th Politburo’s Resolution 57-NQ/TW, dated 22 December 2024, on breakthroughs in science - technology development, innovation, and national digital transformation. Due regard should be paid to enhancing the “digital literacy” movement to ensure that each cadre will have deep knowledge of the area of their responsibility and scientific thinking in leading and directing their offices and units.

Furthermore, it is vital to closely combine personnel work with organisational work and policy work, step up the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, and well execute the CMC’s Resolution 847-NQ/QUTW, dated 28 December 2021, on promoting the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” and resolutely fighting individualism in the new situation and the Campaign on promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” in the new era. Regulations on power control in personnel work and policies for cadres and military families should be well implemented. Due regard should be paid to building a united, democratic, disciplined environment within each office and unit to create the most favourable condition for cadres to improve their qualities and capabilities and undertake any assigned missions.

Fourth, closely combining the building of troops’ political zeal with the VPA’s improved synergy and combat readiness capacity to firmly protect the Fatherland in any situations. The August 1945 Revolution is a shining symbol of cadres and soldiers’ political steadfastness, determination to fight and to win, and readiness to sacrifice themselves for the country’s freedom and independence. That revolutionary feature acts as the key to forming the VPA’s combat power and victory. Promoting that spirit, in the new era, cadres and soldiers should continue sustaining their faith and combat goal and ideal; they should realise that ideal via the performance of their military tasks, which will be demonstrated in the VPA’s training quality, combat capacity, and synergy.

To that end, offices and units should closely combine troops’ raised political zeal with the improved quality of training and combat readiness. They should grasp and strictly implement the CMC’s Resolution 1659-NQ/QUTW, dated 20 December 2022, on raising the quality of training in the period of 2023 - 2030 and beyond, well carry out party and political work, and actively renew the content, forms, and methods of training and exercises in accordance with the CPV’s new thinking on military - defence tasks, the requirements of Fatherland protection, and new warfare conditions. It is important to take combat training in hi-tech warfare as the environment for improving troops’ capacity and political zeal and regard the task of protecting the Fatherland, socialist regime, and people’s lives and assets as the objective of training and the basis for fostering the Military’s revolutionary nature and the close-knit bond between the VPA and the people. Significance should be attached to aligning military training with political education and physical training to improve troops’ willpower, fitness, resilience, and adaptability to every harsh condition and difficulty. Doing so will help unceasingly foster troops’ revolutionary ideal, political steadfastness, and combat power to meet the requirements of protecting the Fatherland early and from afar.

Fifth, raising the effectiveness of the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints, safeguarding the CPV’s ideological foundation, protecting the Party, State, and people in the new conditions. The August 1945 Revolution was the crystallisation of the people’s aspirations for independence, freedom, self-reliance, and self-strengthening; it was also the vivid manifestation of political acumen and determination against the enemy’s plots and acts of sabotage. Promoting that spirit in the new era, in response to hostile forces’ sabotage efforts in ideological and political areas, the VPA should continue affirming its core, vanguard role in protecting the CPV’s ideological foundation and combating all wrong, hostile arguments.

Offices and units should keep strictly implementing the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 89-KL/TW, dated 25 July 2024, on continuing to grasp and execute the 12^th Politburo’s Resolution 35-NQ/TW, dated 22 October 2018, on protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation. They should closely combine “building” with “fighting”, while the task of protecting the Party’s ideological foundation should be aligned with consolidating faith of cadres, soldiers, and citizens. They should proactively, opportunely detect and combat wrong, hostile viewpoints and especially distortions of the CPV’s leadership role, the August Revolution’s historical values, our Party, State, and people’s resolve to usher our country into a new era of development and prosperity, the revolution to streamline the political system’s apparatus, the Party’s lines of science - technology development and national digital transformation, and preparations for the 14^th National Party Congress; besides, hostile forces’ plots and tactics of “depoliticising” the VPA should be resolutely neutralised.

All cadres and soldiers should keep improving their knowledge, especially in political, legal, and social areas, and their skills in detecting wrong information in cyber space and mastering the Party’s ideological foundation in any circumstances. To that end, all cadres, party members, and the masses must have great resolve, sharp thinking, and creative action to ensure that the VPA will always be an absolutely loyal political and fighting force of the Party, State, and people and contribute to maintaining a peaceful, stable environment for the country’s sustainable development in the new era.

The 80^th anniversary of the August Revolution and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an occasion for us to take a look back at the glorious, heroic tradition of the CPV, nation, and VPA, clearly understand the historical significance and values of this great victory, cement unity, remain steadfast in the ideal and goal of national independence and socialism, and devote more efforts to building and firmly protecting the Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new era.

Gen. TRINH VAN QUYET

Secretary of the Party Central Committee

Member of the CMC Standing Board

Director of the General Department of Politics of the VPA