Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” constitutes a distinctive system of values and an important source of internal strength that enables the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) to remain politically strong and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks throughout every revolutionary stage. Today, in response to the new requirements of VPA building, national defence consolidation, and Fatherland protection, it is essential to further promote the cultural values of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” and remain steadfast in building a politically strong VPA as a solid foundation for continuously improving the Military’s overall quality and combat power. To contribute to clarifying this issue, the National Defence Journal respectfully introduces a series of three articles by the group of authors, namely Pham Tuan, Minh Duc, Dinh Bang, and Gia Dong.

I. Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” - the foundational value in building a politically strong VPA

Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” - the crystallisation of the VPA’s revolutionary nature

Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” represents distinctive values that have been formed and developed throughout the process of the VPA’s establishment, combat, development, and victory. It is founded upon Marxism - Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, the Party’s lines, education, and training, the affection, shelter, and assistance of the people, together with the nation’s tradition and culture. It includes absolute loyalty to the Party’s goals and ideal, the determination to fight and to win, the willingness to sacrifice for national independence and socialism, pure revolutionary morality, a simple and modest way of life, a strict sense of discipline, solidarity and comradeship, as well as a strong sense of responsibility and affection for the people. These values not only reflect the noble qualities of revolutionary soldiers but also constitute the convergence of political, ideological, and moral factors that shape our VPA’s nature, tradition, and combat strength.

President Ho Chi Minh’s visit to a military unit on 25 September 1966 (file photo)

Building a politically strong VPA is a matter of principle and aimed at ensuring that the Military remains absolutely loyal to the Party’s revolutionary goals and ideal, steadfastly upholds and strengthens its working-class nature, and continually enhances its overall quality and combat power. President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Military affairs without politics are like a tree without roots, useless and even harmful”. This statement not only highlights the role of politics in military affairs but also sets the requirement to establish a spiritual foundation capable of transforming revolutionary goals and ideal into the faith, determination, and voluntary actions of every officer and soldier. That spiritual foundation is most vividly embodied in the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”.

In essence, the VPA’s political and spiritual strength is manifested in political steadfastness, uniformity in combat objectives and ideal, solidarity, a strong sense of discipline, a close bond with the people, and the will to overcome every hardship and challenge in order to accomplish all assigned missions. These qualities do not arise naturally; they are continuously nurtured and forged by the value system of the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. This demonstrates that culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” is not merely a component of military cultural life but also the spiritual foundation and a particularly important source of internal strength that allows the VPA to remain politically strong. Such a role is reflected in the process of transforming cultural values into political steadfastness, faith, resolve, motivation for action, and spiritual strength, thereby laying a solid foundation for the Military to preserve its revolutionary nature and successfully fulfil every assigned task.

Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” - the foundation of the VPA’s political and spiritual strength

First and foremost, culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” forms the foundation for cultivating troops’ faith and political steadfastness. The VPA’s political and spiritual strength originates from its unwavering commitment to the combat objectives and ideal and its absolute faith in the Party’s leadership. However, such steadfastness can only be truly enduring when revolutionary ideal is transformed into values that permeate the spiritual life and actions of every soldier. This is precisely the role of the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” - the bridge that closely links political awareness with revolutionary emotion, faith, and action, transforming ideal into motivation, standards of conduct, and benchmarks of value in practice. Consequently, loyalty to the Fatherland, Party, State, and people becomes not merely a responsibility but an intrinsic need, arising from each serviceman’s sense of honour, pride, and devotion. On that foundation, troops’ political steadfastness is strengthened and demonstrated through the resilience in the face of every hardship and challenge, the consistency between awareness and action, the ability to recognise and combat wrong, hostile viewpoints, and the unwavering commitment to their combat objectives and ideal despite complex situational developments.

A training course designed for troops of Commando Brigade 429 (photo: baoquankhu7.vn)

Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” provides the foundation for cultivating revolutionary morality, generating the VPA’s tremendous political and spiritual strength. For more than 80 years, it has nurtured and shaped the distinctive moral values of revolutionary soldiers: loyalty to the Fatherland and Party, wholehearted devotion to the people, diligence, thrift, integrity, righteousness, and selflessness, among others. These values have become common standards governing awareness, attitudes, and conduct, enabling every soldier to place the interests of the Fatherland, people, and collective above all else, and to stand ready to fight and sacrifice for the Fatherland’s independence and freedom and for the people’s happiness.

Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” provides powerful motivation, turning the process of self-cultivation, moral preservation, observance of discipline, and healthy lifestyle development into the responsibility, honour, and intrinsic obligation of every serviceman. As a result, officers and soldiers preserve their revolutionary qualities, strengthen their resilience against the adverse effects of the market economy, individualism, and manifestations of degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, thus ensuring that the VPA will always be ready to undertake and successfully accomplish every assigned mission.

Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” fosters solidarity and unity of will and action throughout the entire Military - an element of decisive significance in creating the political and spiritual strength and laying a core foundation for continually enhancing the VPA’s overall quality and combat strength. During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh attached special importance to unity and affirmed: “Unity, unity, great unity/ Success, success, great success”. This teaching has become an enduring value of Vietnamese military culture, and it has been nurtured and developed by successive generations of officers and soldiers. Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” builds and strengthens comradeship on the basis of mutual respect, trust, and assistance, promoting the spirit of sharing hardships and joys alike, and willingly accepting difficulties for the sake of the collective. These values create close bonds between individuals and the collective, between superiors and subordinates, and are reflected in everyday life as well as tested and affirmed during training, combat readiness, disaster response, epidemic prevention and control, and the execution of arduous and demanding missions. From the Oath of Honour: “to unite closely with one another as members of one family, bound by class comradeship; to wholeheartedly help one another both in peacetime and in battle; to ensure that the entire Military shares one common will”, there emerges a high degree of unity in both awareness and action as the basis for creating the strength of a VPA united in determination. Every officer and soldier is directed towards a common goal, carries out common tasks, and always places the interests of the VPA, Fatherland, and people above all else. This constitutes an important basis for maintaining discipline, promoting collective strength, and ensuring that the Military remains united and steadfast in the face of every hardship and challenge to successfully fulfil every assigned task.

Officers and soldiers of Division 312, Army Corps 12 evacuate locals to safe place during a storm (photo: qdnd.vn)

In particular, culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” forms a solid foundation for the close-knit bond between the Military and the people. President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Ours is an Army of the people. That means it is made up of the beloved sons and daughters of the people. It fights the enemy to regain independence and unity for the Fatherland, and to protect the freedom and happiness of the people. Apart from the people’s interests, our Army has no other interests”. This relationship is established through the VPA’s functions and duties and nurtured via profoundly humane cultural values. Respecting the people, assisting the people, protecting the people, wholeheartedly serving the people, maintaining a close bond with the people, and being prepared to sacrifice for the people’s peaceful lives have all become core values of the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. It is precisely the values that have earned the people's trust and affection for the Military, contributing to building a firm “posture of people's hearts and minds” - the profound social foundation of the VPA’s political, spiritual, and combat strength.

Thus, culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” is both the crystallisation of the VPA’s revolutionary nature, glorious tradition, and combat ideal, and a direct source of internal strength that shapes, nurtures, and reinforces its political and spiritual strength. It is the unity between the system of cultural values and the Military’s political foundation that has created the VPA’s unique identity, enduring vitality, and capacity to accomplish every assigned mission successfully. This is also why, throughout the Military’s process of construction, combat, and maturity, the task of building a politically strong VPA has always gone hand in hand with preserving and promoting the noble qualities and image of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. In this relationship, building a politically strong VPA provides the basis for nurturing and developing cultural values, while culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, in turn, becomes a source of internal strength that reinforces the Military’s political and spiritual foundation.

However, the cultural values of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” have not only been affirmed in theory but have also been tested and verified in practice. It is the very process of construction, combat, victory, and maturity of the Military throughout revolutionary periods that has profoundly demonstrated the role of the culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” in building a politically strong VPA, and at the same time set new requirements for preserving and promoting this system of values nowadays. These are also issues that should continue to be clarified.

(Next issue: II. Culture of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” and the building of a politically strong VPA - practice and emerging issues).