General Ngo Xuan Lich, Politburo member, Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission and Defense Minister, sent a congratulation flower bouquet to the get-together.

leftcenterrightdel
 Members of the mission posing for a joint photo

At the meeting, former advisors recalled the glorious tradition of Mission 478. During just over a decade of undertaking the international duty in Cambodia, the mission’s members actively and proactively brought into full play their capabilities to support the Cambodian Defense Ministry to build staff, political, logistic, technical, press and radio agencies and affiliated units. Besides, the Vietnamese mission also wholeheartedly gave instructions and assistance to the Cambodian cadres at all levels in making policies, issuing instructions and decisions on specific command and combat plans for each campaign, national defensive plans, external defense affairs, the building of a people’s armed forces, including regular troops, local troops and militia-guerilla force. All of these important contributions greatly helped destroy the plots of the Pol Pot’s genocidal regime and promote national harmony so as to build a prosperous Cambodia.

In his speech, Senior Colonel Le Lien, Deputy Head of the Liaison Board and Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Association of former Vietnamese military advisors of the Ministry of National Defense, emphasized that from 1978 to 1989, more than 1,000 cadres of the mission lent the Cambodian military their helping hands. With its good performance, the mission was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Order by the Party and State of Vietnam.

“We completed our duty in Cambodia with a high sense of noble and pure international spirit. We spared no efforts, even sacrificed our own flesh and blood, to save the Cambodians from the Pol Pol’s genocidal regime, revitalize the country, consolidate the administration, restore the national independence and reconstruct Cambodia,” the senior officer said.

Translated by Mai Huong