Over the past nearly eight decades, with absolute trust in the sound leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh and the strong faith in victory, the first revolutionary team of Vietnam has overcome all difficulties and hardships and constantly developed.
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The Vietnam Dissemination and Liberation Armed Team established on December 22, 1944 in Tran Hung Dao forest |
From a small armed team, the VPA has constantly developed and is on the path to become a modernized military. The achievements have originated from its absolute loyalty to and consistency with the Party's goals, ideals, and ideological foundation, shaped by the determination, creativity, and paragon of generations of officers and soldiers of the entire military. This quality is unique.
The Vietnamese military, together with the whole Party and people, gained a resounding Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954 to end the resistance war against the French colonialists and successfully launched the General Offensive and Spring Uprising in 1975 to liberate the South and reunify the nation, putting a complete end to the Vietnamese people and troops’ resistance war against the American imperialists. Later on, the Vietnamese troops won victories in border defense wars, contributing to firmly safeguarding peace for socialism building. Those were victories of the era.
In addition, the Vietnamese soldiers completed international duties in Laos and Cambodia. They stood side by side with troops and people of the neighboring countries to restore peace and independence, build and develop the nations.
Born before the nation gained the independence, the VPA is closely attached to the people; serves the people; is ready to fight and sacrifice to protect the Party, regime, and the people’s happiness. It gives wholehearted support to international friends, accomplishes any task, overcomes any difficulty, and defeats any enemy. Therefore, we are rightfully proud of the heroic military of the heroic Vietnam.
Today, the country is in a period of openness and enjoying new development opportunities. However, complicated developments in the world and the region require us to have appropriate strategies and tactics to maintain peace and stability, creating a solid foundation to continuously develop the country.
As the core force in the Fatherland protection cause, renewing the structure and organization to improve the overall quality to meet the Fatherland protection requirements and tasks in the new period is an objective necessity. The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress determined the mission of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modernized military with a number of units and forces going straight to modernity to create a premise for becoming a modernized military by 2030. The entire military has been striving to successfully complete political tasks and actively adjust personnel organization, build forces, weapons, and equipment in line with the road-map determined in the Politburo's resolution on streamlining the military in 2021-2030 period. Many units have been dissolved, merged, reorganized, and newly established in accordance with the Party's guideline of building an "elite, compact, and strong" and modernized military.
To achieve the target of building a new entity to generate new energy and leave new imprints, each officer, soldier, agency, and unit in the whole military should continue to study to thoroughly grasp the Party’s guidelines on military, defense, and building the whole people’s defense and security posture and “elite, compact, strong” military. Agencies and units should thoroughly grasp and understand the leadership and direction of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense and strictly implement the plan on adjusting the VPA’s organization and forces in the new period.
Political and ideological education should be strengthened to enhance troops and people’s awareness of military building in the new period. The military should effectively carry out training and combat readiness work, enhance the mastery of science and technology and weapons, update new modern combat methods, and creatively apply Vietnamese military art to tasks.
Together with that, the military should mobilize resources for building strong whole people’s defense, military region defensive posture, and defensive areas; three competent forces; modern defense industry service.
Since close attachment to the people is a beautiful tradition of the VPA, it should continue to well carry out policy, gratitude, and mass mobilization work and actively assist people in disease prevention and control and response to natural disasters and fire incidents.
In addition, defense diplomacy work should be focused on to enhance the position and prestige of the VPA in the world, thus raising the position of the nation and actualizing the Party’s guideline on protecting the Fatherland early and from afar.
2024 is drawing near and the VPA is about to mark its 80th founding anniversary, a historic milestone of the revolutionary team. Efforts of each officer and soldier today will contribute to enhancing the glorious traditions which have been built by many generations. Those efforts are practical deed to contribute to building “elite, compact, strong,” revolutionary, regular, elite, and modernized army and celebrate the VPS’s 80th founding anniversary.
People’s Army Newspaper’s Editorial Board
Translated by Tran Hoai