Together with the emulation congresses of our forces in the various war zones, in the various arms and services since early spring, this Emulation Congress of the anti-aircraft and air forces marks a tremendous victory of our people in their resistance against U.S. aggression, for national salvation. This is a triumph of the people’s war in North Viet Nam over the U.S. imperialists’ air and naval war of destruction. Along with the resounding successes on the South Viet Nam theatre it is a victory of great consequence, of strategic significance.
Four years ago, when their “special war” strategy in South Viet Nam was facing complete bankruptcy, the U.S. imperialists, with the utter obduracy of an international gendarme and counting on their economic and military potential, made the most serious strategic and political mistake in the history of their aggressions. To make good their failures, they launched a large-scale “limited war”, committed masses of expeditionary troops to an aggression against South Viet Nam, and at the same time started a piratical air and naval war of destruction against North Viet Nam — an independent and sovereign state, a member of the socialist camp.
On the South Viet Nam theatre, they mounted one major counter-offensive after another during two successive dry seasons, which all came to grief. But the heavier their setbacks, the more frantically they stepped up the aggressive war, deploying everbigger ground, air and naval forces which soon far exceeded the strength originally intended for a “limited war.”
In the North they carried out frenzied raids and continually escalated the war as their reverses increased, extending their attacks up to the 19th and 20th parallels, then to the Northwest, Northeast and Viet Nam-China border, and finally to Hanoi, our capital, and Haiphong, the biggest port in North Viet Nam.
They mustered a fairly big modern air force based in Thailand and on aircraft carriers, together with artillery of various types operated from on board the Seventh Fleet and from the infantry forces south of the demarcation line. They mounted nearly 100,000 strikes against our beloved North Viet Nam, using more than one million tons of bombs and shells. They tried all kinds of hardware in their arsenal such as bombs and shells, rockets, steel-pellet bombs, napalm and magnetic bombs, and all the other most up-to-date and murderous weapons at their disposal short of nuclear ones.
The U.S. imperialists thought that with their modern air and naval forces and the huge amount of bombs and shells which they believed nothing would resist, they could easily achieve their strategic objectives and finally subdue our people and bring to fruition their scheme of neo-colonialist aggression.
But they were grossly mistaken.
They thought that our determination would be shaken within a few weeks and our people would give in. But, contrary to their expectation, the fiercer their strikes, the deeper our people’s hatred for the U.S. aggressors and the firmer the resolve of our entire army and people to defeat them. True, the aggressors had made careful and comprehensive calculations, banking heavily on the effectiveness of their modern armoury. However, there was one hard reality they had failed to take into account, that is: the Vietnamese people are a heroic people who have since time immemorial never bowed to any invader and who have in less than three decades defeated Japanese fascism and French imperialism one after the other, and are now staunchly fighting and keeping in check the U.S. imperialist aggressors.
The U.S. imperialists believed that with the force of their weaponry they could within a short period of time destroy all our land and water communications, completely sever North from South Viet Nam and realize their dark design of preventing the North Vietnamese from fulfilling their sacred duty to their Southern kith and kin. But reality has completely baffled their plans. The more their raids intensified, the warmer the militant solidarity between North and South, the closer the North Vietnamese stood by their beloved countrymen in the South, and the more zealously they fulfilled their duty as the great rear area toward the great fighting front. Viet Nam is one country, the Vietnamese are one nation; no force can drive them apart.
In the “All for defeating the U.S. aggressors” and “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” spirit the North Vietnamese people have constantly turned their thoughts toward their Southern kindred, and have discharged with merit their sacred duty toward the liberation cause in the other half of their beloved country.
The U.S. imperialists expected that with the formidable destructive power of their modern air and naval forces, they could promptly bring our people’s economic and cultural life to a standstill and cause serious damage to our national defence potential and our socialist construction. But what happened upset their calculations. In the flame of the fighting and in the flush of its victory over the war of destruction, North Viet Nam grew ever steadier and stronger. Agricultural and industrial production has remained stable and even developed. Communications and transport have been safeguarded. Cultural, educational and medical activities have increased. The national defence forces have consolidated and grown considerably. Even in wartime, the people’s life has continued unperturbed and the army’s needs have been adequately met. The moral and political unity of our entire people has become stronger than ever before. With such marvellous achievements in fighting and in production the socialist regime has unmistakably proved its superiority and great vitality. The North has brought into full play its role as the base of the revolution for the whole country and as the great rear area for the great fighting front.
In combat, the North has grown steadier than ever before and has become our steel rampart. This we can rightly take pride in. Friends from foreign countries who visited North Viet Nam were astonished by the strong vitality of our nation and the miraculous revolutionary optimism of our people. Such a nation, such a people, under a socialist regime, will surely defeat any enemy.
The main goal of the U.S. imperialists’ war of destruction against the North was to effectively co-ordinate actions with their expeditionary troops in the South Viet Nam theatre of operations and realize their aggressive design there.
After years of U.S. intensified aggressive war in both parts of our country, big changes have occurred in the South Viet Nam situation. The more the U.S. imperialists stepped up their aggressive war, the heavier their failures; the more our people persisted in their resistance, the greater their victories. Especially since early spring 1968, under the banner of the National Front for Liberation, the heroic people and Liberation Army in the South have been mounting wave after wave of widespread offensives and uprisings against the enemy, springing powerful continual and many-sided attacks — military and political — in towns and country, in the plains and hill-forests areas; the liberated areas have been expanded and people’s revolutionary power set up throughout South Viet Nam. The generalized offensives and uprisings have won tremendous and unprecedented successes on every side, upsetting the strategic battle array of the enemy, rocking their rear area and shaking their aggressive will. They have forced the U.S. imperialists to put an end to the counter-offensive stage of their “limited war” on the South Viet Nam theatre, switch on to the defensive and the “clear and hold” strategy, and muster the major part of their forces for the defence of the towns and important bases.
In early spring this year, at the very moment when the Nixon administration, which had just assumed office, was at a loss to find a solution to the Viet Nam problem, the armed forces and people in the South staged a new wave of attacks, powerful and well-timed, striking hard at the U.S. aggressors in many skilfully prepared and highly efficient actions. These repeated assaults prove that the longer they fight the stronger the South Viet Nam armed forces and people become, and spell out the great ability of South Viet Nam — the bulwark of the fatherland — to deliver powerful and continuous blows, and its determination to press its attacks till final victory.
Turning our thoughts to the heroic South we warmly hail the great victories of our fourteen million beloved countrymen, of the heroic Liberation Armed Forces, the pride of our entire people.
Having bitterly failed in their war effort and confronted with innumerable difficulties not only on the Viet Nam battlefield but also at home and in the world, the U.S. imperialists were forced to reconsider their unjust war condemned by all progressive mankind. They had to enter into talks with the delegates of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and the South Viet Nam National Front for Liberation. This was something they had not envisaged when they sent massive numbers of aggressor troops to our country. This was one more aspect of their political passiveness in the face of the radiant justice and great strength of our nation. Recently the N.F.L. put forward its tenpoint overall solution to the Viet Nam problem together with very sound and serious principles which further aggravated the U.S. imperialists’ and their flunkeys’ embarrassment.
The U.S. imperialists attacked the North in the hope of extricating themselves from their predicament in the South, but they met with bitter setbacks in both parts of our country. On the South Viet Nam theatre the heroic people and Liberation Armed Forces inflicted reverse after reverse upon 1,200,000 troops of the U.S. imperialists and their henchmen. This marvellous exploit was a telling blow at the U.S. imperialists’ scheme of aggression and a very important contribution to defeating their war of destruction in North Viet Nam. The aggressors were driven to unconditionally cease their bombardments in the North. It was the failure not only of the war of destruction but also of an important part of the “limited war” strategy and of this strategy itself. It is safe to say that they have now tacitly admitted the bankruptcy of their “limited war” strategy and are forced to consider an “honourable” settlement and of “de-Americanizing” the war. Is “de-Americanization” a new manœuvre? Surely the U.S. imperialists have not forgotten that they have once used non-American forces — the puppet army and administration — in the “special war”, and having failed miserably, they had, out of passiveness, to take the decision to “Americanize” the war. Now that the “limited war” has gone bankrupt, they hope to turn the tide by resorting to the old trick of “de-Americanizing” or “Vietnamizing” the war. Both the U.S. and puppets have failed to gain a position of strength and have sustained more setbacks in the process. Yet they now want to put into effect a plan for a “phased withdrawal” of U.S. forces, with a view to replacing them by puppet troops and securing a position of strength. It is clear that they are plunging deeper into an impass, a quagmire and a losing position.
Our people are determined to continue foiling all their new schemes and keep up our resistance till final victory. And this war against U.S. aggression, for national salvation — the biggest in our nation’s history against foreign aggression — will dash to the ground the myth of U.S. invincible military and economic strength. Our people’s war is beating off and will surely defeat completely the neo-colonialist aggressive war of the U.S. imperialists.
Under the leadership of our Party headed by our beloved and venerated President Ho Chi Minh, the people’s armed forces in the North have upheld the tradition of resolute fighting until victory, of loyalty to the Party and devotion to the people, and have gloriously fulfilled their duty of crushing the American imperialists’ war of destruction so as to make a worthy contribution to the great victory of our nation.
The anti-aircraft forces of our three kinds of armed forces in all localities, from the militia or selfdefence member holding the plough or the hammer in one hand and the gun in the other, or fighting on a permanent basis in the battlefields, to the antiaircraft and air force units have achieved very brilliant exploits and, together with the entire army and people, shot down nearly 3,300(2) American planes, got the better of the modern air force, and sunk or burnt hundreds of warships and commando boats of the topmost imperialist power. These are most glorious feats of arms. At this congress, it is very gratifying for us to commend all cadres and fighters of our heroic people’s armed forces, of the anti-aircraft, infantry, artillery, engineer, transport, signal, naval and other units on the collective exploits achieved.
We all warmly congratulate our anti-aircraft artillery and missile units, air force, radar and other units of the anti-aircraft and air forces for their very important part in the victory over the U.S. air force. They have displayed revolutionary heroism, their resolve to fight and win, their splendid courage, great vigilance, intelligence and creative power; they have constantly improved their technique and tactics and devised skilful fighting methods to foil the perfidious technical tricks of the American aggressors and shot down nearly all types of their most up-to-date planes.
Promoting their spirit of “aiming right at the enemy”, many anti-aircraft gunners and units have recorded outstanding achievements. They are the heroic Company No. 1, the Hong Linh unit credited with the highest record of 200 planes downed, the Xung Kich unit which fought with extraordinary perseverance and courage on the strategic communications front. Many comrades such as chief gunner Nguyen Huy Hong who, seriously wounded, continued to fight heroically, chief gunner Bui Xuan Chien who rushed into the flames to keep up the fighting. These comrades have set shining examples of revolutionary heroism.
Our young but heroic missile force has grown rapidly to maturity. Many units and operators recorded great feats such as the heroic Section No. 61, the Section No. 64 which grounded the highest number of American aircraft (over 40), the Song Da unit with 137 planes downed to its credit, the Nam Trieu and Ha Long units with a score of over 100 aircraft each, army hero Nguyen Tuyen and others who have ceaselessly improved their scientific and technical levels thanks to their revolutionary ardour.
Our nascent but heroic air force, true to its tradition of winning every battle has scored valiant exploits: The heroic Company No. 1 downed over 60 aircraft, Company No. 2 over 50, Sao Do unit over 100. Besides heroes Tran Hanh, Nguyen Van Bay and Lam Van Lich, many other comrades fought most valiantly and skilfully, and performed brilliant feats such as Nguyen Van Coc who blasted 9 planes, Ha Van Chuc who broke into an enemy formation of 36 aircraft and grounded the leading one manned by a colonel, thus checking the attack.
Our radar operators, courageous and constantly vigilant have never ceased to improve their technical level and proved capable of spotting the enemy “from afar, rapidly, accurately and thoroughly”; they have fought tirelessly by their oscilloscopes and recorded ever greater achievements; among others we can mention such distinguished units as Companies Nos. 11 and 19 and such able operators as Pham Si Yeng, Do Ngoan, Nguyen Van Giang and Tran Vinh Quang.
Signal, engineer, transport, armoury and other support units, offices and schools have displayed great combativeness and efficiently served the fighting, making an important contribution to the common victory.
Our heroic anti-aircraft and air forces have accomplished the task entrusted them by the Party and the people with splendid success and earned the confidence and love of our armed forces and people.
We are very proud of our fellow-countrymen who have spared no effort and even sacrificed their lives in helping the armymen and, together with them, in taking part in the fighting. They have spent millions of work-days to build defence positions and roads to haul guns, carry ammunition, and tend the wounded. Without the wholehearted assistance and encouragement of the population, of Party organizations, government bodies and mass organizations of various localities, and of people of various nationalities, it would have been impossible for our army to perform such outstanding exploits.
The victories won by our armed forces are closely associated with the success of precautions against air raids taken by the civilian air defence. Our compatriots have dug millions of air raid shelters and tens of thousands of kilometres of communication trenches; by efficiently organizing an alert system and a thorough dispersal they reduced the losses caused by the enemy to the minimum. Thus, highly favourable conditions were created to fight the adversary and foil their objectives.
The successes of our armed forces and people are closely associated with our achievements in production, transport and communications and in the cultural, medical and other branches. In production, our people displayed courage and perseverance, unceasingly improved their technique and increased their labour productivity, overcame natural calamities and the havoc wrought by the enemy and satisfied all the requirements of our resistance. More particularly, as of late the enemy concentrated their attacks on the communication lines, and as a result the fighting unfolded most fiercely. With the spirit “to mend the roads immediately after the enemy destroy them” and “when the vehicles cannot pass, even houses are dismantled to repair the road”, the forces in charge of transport and communications and the population have fought very heroically and gloriously carried the day. Thanks to the valiant struggle and strenuous efforts of our people in all branches, organs and localities to repel enemy raids and overcome difficulties and hardships in order to win on all fronts, we have recently recorded great successes in every field.
Once again, we warmly hail and praise the tremendous achievements of our people in all localities and on all fronts. We express our profound gratitude and respect to them who, under the leadership of our Party, have given us added strength to defeat the enemy.
All the great successes of our people originate from the correct revolutionary line and the sound leadership of our Party headed by President Ho Chi Minh.
Our Party has laid down its revolutionary line by correctly and creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of the revolution and of revolutionary war in our country.
That is the line of “promoting the socialist revolution in the North and at the same time the national people’s democratic revolution in the South, achieving the reunification of the country on the basis of independence and democracy, building a peaceful, reunified, independent, democratic and prosperous Viet Nam, thereby contributing effectively to the strengthening of the socialist camp and to the defence of peace in Southeast Asia and the world”.
That is the line of revolutionary war in a country with no large territory and population, but carried out by a heroic people — who possess a time-honoured tradition of building and defending their country, who have stood up time and again to fight and defeat enemies many times stronger than themselves economically and militarily — for their independence and freedom, for socialism.
This line, imbued with the radical revolutionary spirit of the working class, is the application of an offensive strategy to the concrete conditions of the present epoch; it is imbued with a constant determination to attack the enemy, to repel them step by step and smash them part by part so as to crush them completely and secure final victory for the revolution. That line gives full play to the ardent patriotism of our people, and at the same time is permeated with genuine proletarian internationalism. Our Party has always upheld the spirit of self-help, of relying mainly on our own strength while highly valuing the devoted assistance of the fraternal countries and the sympathy and support of all progressive mankind. That line is a condensed expression of our Party’s spirit of independence and sovereignty and stems from its sense of political responsibility for the revolutionary cause of our people and nation.
The fundamental point of our Party’s line of revolutionary war is this: the whole people, the whole country fights the aggressors with the people’s armed forces as the hard core. By mobilizing the entire people to resist aggression, by bringing people’s war to a very high level, and by displaying unprecedented courage and creative power, our Party has firmly grasped the rule of revolutionary war in Viet Nam, thus generating a mighty force to get the better of any aggressor.
Deeply confident of the people’s invincible strength and indomitable in face of U.S. imperialism — an enemy possessed of a tremendous potential and, in addition, utterly cruel and perfidious — our Party has always seen through the nature and scheme of the enemy, their general strategic intentions as well as their political manœuvres and concrete tactics. It has accurately appraised their strong and weak points, their innumerable contradictions and insurmountable difficulties, and has made a scientific analysis of the rules of the U.S. neo-colonialist war of aggression. In this aggressive war, all strategic schemes of neo-colonialism have been foiled one after another by the powerful offensives of people’s war. The failure of their “special war” compelled the U.S. imperialists to wage a “limited war”. Their bitter defeats in the South drove them to launch a war of destruction in the North. Their reverses forced them to escalate and it is their losses which led them to de-escalate in their war of destruction. The more reckless they were, the heavier setbacks they suffered as a result of our people’s strong offensives. Obdurate in escalation they met with defeats; obdurate and frenzied in de-escalation they met with still more humiliating ones. That is a blind alley which will inevitably lead them to complete failure. That is the irrevocable development process of the U.S. imperialists’ aggressive war, and it has the character of a rule.
The military line in our people’s war against the U.S. neo-colonialists’ war of aggression has these marked characteristics:
The spirit of sustained, resolute and all-round offensive against the enemy. To strike the enemy with all our forces: basing ourselves on the valiant spirit and intelligence of the Vietnamese people who have reached a high level of political consciousness and are very closely united, to vigorously develop the efficiency of all kinds of weapons at our disposal, use all forms of struggle and combat methods and hit the enemy everywhere and at any time. To constantly attack and wipe out the enemy while seeing to the preservation and development of our own forces so that we become stronger and score more successes as we fight.
The capability to strike a big force with a small force, the courage to confront and defeat an opponent disposing of modern war means with weapons which are in most cases unsophisticated, to use seasoned troops and clever combat methods to fight an enemy superior in number and equipped with modern armaments. Imbued with such a spirit and devising excellent fighting tactics, our people and armed forces always hold the initiative of operations against the enemy, hitting them devastatingly from a position of strength.
In the South, under the sound leadership of the National Front for Liberation, our people, millions acting as one man, have taken up arms and launched a strategic offensive by making use of both political and revolutionary armed forces, of the regular army, regional troops and militia and guerillas, of all weapons available, rudimentary, improved and modern; they have co-ordinated armed struggle with political action, military operations with uprisings, military and political offensives with persuasion work among the enemy troops, used various combat methods — fielding small-, mediumsize and big units in all the three strategic areas: hill-forests, plains and urban centres. The South Viet Nam people and armed forces have skilfully used the method of opposing a small force to a bigger one, concentrating an appropriate troop strength when need be, using a highly effective force, striking hard and telling blows at the enemy’s manpower, war means and rear bases, in order to cause them ever heavier losses while we grow stronger in the fighting and win bigger successes.
In the North, to worst the U.S. war of destruction, our people have developed an enormous fighting potential. To defend the North and fulfil their duty as the great rear area to the great fighting front in the South, our people and armed forces have thwarted all the frenzied efforts of the American aggressors and scored brilliant successes.
Our Party has energetically aroused the patriotism and love for socialism of the entire people, and called on our armed forces and people to enhance their determination to fight, bring into full play their revolutionary heroism, surmount all difficulties and hardships, make sacrifices and endure losses, in order to mobilize and organize the people’s forces in the fight against the invader.
Hence, the entire people have taken part in the struggle in a well-organized manner. Prompted by deep hatred for the enemy, our army has made good use of ever more sophisticated weapons and equipment and devised highly efficient combat methods. In the course of the fighting they have developed to the utmost their offensive spirit, searched the enemy to beat them, grasped the rule governing their activities and the characteristics and capabilities of our own forces, then acted with determination, secrecy and suddenness to engage the enemy and wipe them out. All this has enabled us to avail ourselves of the adversary’s moves to hit them back, depriving their attacks of all or part of their efficiency while constantly keeping our initiative of operations. We have thus made notable progress in our efforts to oppose a smaller force to a bigger one and to co-ordinate small engagements with medium-size and big ones. Where and when we grasp this fighting method, there and then we can obtain the greatest success, continually harass the enemy, destroy their manpower and foil all their tactical manœuvres and schemes.
Everywhere in our country, all our three kinds of armed forces have defeated the enemy. Our militiamen and guerillas, young or old, men or women, have downed enemy jets and captured American pilots. Each rifle, machine-gun, heavy gun, missilelaunching-pad or modern plane at our brave and resourceful fighters’ disposal has been brought into full play; even rifles can successfully cope with modern U.S. jet planes.
Being aware of the enemy’s perfidious scheme to check our communications and transport and sever the relations between our rear area and our fighting front, we have set our army and people to fight on the communications and transport front considered as an emergency central task. With gallantry, perseverance and commendable creativeness our people have remarkably fulfilled their task on this front, frustrating the above-mentioned scheme of the enemy.
The adversary plotted to cause us heavy losses in life and property and to wreck our economic potentialities and national defence. Parallel to the participation in the fighting, our people have made great efforts to effectively preserve their forces. The dispersal of civilians and precautions against air raids have proved their efficiency in the protection of the lives and property of the population and their tremendous significance in our victorious resistance.
We have changed the orientation of economic construction in wartime, strengthen regional industry, ensure production while fighting and continue to build socialism, in order to satisfy the immediate needs of the war and to meet the longrange requirements of socialist construction in the North. In the thick of the fight, the socialist relations of production have not only been maintained but they have also developed their great efficiency in the enhancement of our people’s material and moral strength to defeat U.S. aggression and to build socialism. Our people have fulfilled this glorious task with a high political consciousness tempered in the process of socialist construction in the North. Whereas our resistance war against the French colonialists was conducted with a people’s democratic economy, today, for the first time in our long history we are waging a war of resistance for national salvation against the American imperialists under a socialist regime. Through the trials of the war the socialist system has proved its excellence and stability.
Since the outset of the U.S. predatory war against the North, our Party realized that the aim of the aggressors was to stave off the U.S. puppet predicament in the South Viet Nam theatre and it has therefore called on the entire people to devote their heart and strength to the fight against the aggressors with a view to liberating the South and defending the North. Our fellow-countrymen in the South and their Liberation armed forces have put up a stubborn struggle: against a blow dealt at the North, the enemy received ten at the hand of the South Viet Nam people and armed forces who have thus won bigger and bigger successes.
It is in these conditions that our armed forces and people in the North have unceasingly heightened their combativeness, caused ever heavier losses to the enemy, foiled all their strategic schemes and political and tactical manœuvres, compelling them to unconditionally halt the bombing of the North and resign themselves to total failure in their war of destruction.
Such are the new developments in our Party’s line of revolutionary war and conduct of war. The mapping out and development of this line has been a great achievement in the application of the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism concerning war and armed forces to the concrete conditions of our country. Our people have promoted to a higher level the traditional indomitability, the heroism and combat skill of a people who have defeated powerful aggressor armies in the course of their long history.
The soundness of the revolutionary and military lines of our Party has been demonstrated by the successes recorded on the battlefield. These lines are the very source of our indomitable strength and of all our victories.
Vietnamese military science is an advanced one, which has been outwitting the strategies and tactics of the imperialist war of aggression and the outmoded military thought of an imperialist power which, though possessed of a tremendous economic and military potential, is on the wane and will continue to weaken in the inevitable development process of history at the present time.
In the revolutionary struggle of our people for independence, for the reunification of their country and for socialism, Vietnamese military science has brought into play its far-reaching and proved its unquestionable superiority over the military thought of the imperialists, as well as its tremendous combativeness and invincible strength.
The ultimate defeat of the U.S. imperialists is a foregone conclusion. The longer they drag on the war, the heavier setbacks they will incur. But they are still very obdurate and do not want to give up their aggressive designs upon our country.
Though compelled to talk about an “honourable” settlement of the war, the U.S. imperialists are feverishly stepping up their aggression, exerting every effort to retrieve their situation by “de-Americanizing” the war step by step, and continuing their attempt to impose neo-colonialism on South Viet Nam and prolong the partition of our country. In their passive, defensive posture and serious predicament, they are doing their best to reinforce their defences, frantically shore up the crumbling puppet army in all respects, rally the forces on their payroll and breathe life into them in an attempt to bolster up the puppet Thieu-Ky-Huong administration. At the same time, they are frenziedly using B. 52s, bombs and shells and toxic chemicals to devastate the liberated zone, launching repeated military operations and stepping up the so-called “accelerated pacification” program to repress, persecute and massacre our fellow-countrymen. While drifting toward ultimate defeat the U.S. imperialists still nurture the illusion that they can check the advance of the South Viet Nam armed forces and people who in the impetus of their victories, are dashing toward final victory.
Meanwhile, in the North, they stubbornly go on with their acts of war, carrying on reconnaissance flights and provocations, perpetrating other crimes, encroaching upon the sovereignty and threatening the security of the D.R.V.N., and continuing to dispatch spies and commandos to devastate socialist North Viet Nam. For all their failures in four years of the war of destruction, they have not yet renounced their dark designs upon the North.
For the independence and reunification of the country, and for socialism, we pledge ourselves to strictly implement the teaching of President Ho Chi Minh: “So long as a single aggressor remains on our soil, we must fight on to sweep him away.” Our people throughout the country, united as one man, are resolved to rush forward to fight the U.S. aggressors till final victory.
It is the sacred duty of our people, of our nation, to completely defeat the U.S. aggressors. All cadres and fighters of the people’s armed forces show their determination to fight and to win, heighten their vigilance and resolutely fulfil all the tasks entrusted them by our Party and people.
All cadres and fighters of the anti-aircraft and air forces must be well aware of the new situation and of their new tasks, fight stubbornly together with the other arms and services of the people’s armed forces, resolutely smash all acts of war of the enemy, bring down all types of reconnaissance planes, be constantly prepared to fight, and with a strong resolve foil all the perfidious schemes of the American imperialists.
To accomplish these tasks, we must ceaselessly strengthen our anti-aircraft and air forces and help them acquire great fighting capabilities and a great combat efficiency.
We must build excellent A. A. artillery: all A. A. battalions should fight as well as, or better than, the Nguyen Viet Xuan Battalion; all A. A. units should fight as well as, or better than, the Hong Linh Unit.
We must build excellent missile units so that all its units can fight as well as, or better than, the heroic Section No 61 and No 64 or the Song Da Unit.
We must build an excellent air force so that all its units can fight as well as, or better than, heroic Company No 1 and Company No 2 or the Sao Do Unit.
We must build excellent radar units so that they can detect the enemy in good time whenever they intrude into our air space.
We must consolidate all our services, paying adequate attention to technical and logistic bases.
The standpoint of our Party on the building of the armed forces is constantly to attach the utmost importance to raising their fighting capabilities and combat efficiency. Only by so doing can we successfully fight a big force with a small one, vanquish an aggressive and numerous force with modern equipment by a not-so-large force with not-somodern equipment and get the better of an army of the topmost imperialist power which disposes of the greatest economic and military potentials in the capitalist world. Only by so doing can we promote the fighting tradition of our forefathers and grasp the spirit and content of Vietnamese military science.
The yardstick to measure the fighting capabilities of an army is the combat efficiency of its units. Should all our air force companies be able to destroy over 60 enemy aircraft as the heroic Company No 1 did, should all our missile units be able to knock out of our skies over 40 planes as did one of them, should all our A.A. artillery battalions be able to destroy over 120 aircraft as the Nguyen Viet Xuan Battalion did, even with their present number, our anti-aircraft and air forces would have fighting capabilities five, ten or more times stronger. This means that the fighting capabilities of our army would be considerably multiplied. And this is what we are exerting ourselves to achieve a realistic goal that all cadres and fighters of our anti-aircraft and air forces must attain at any cost.
First and foremost, we must grasp the military line and operational thought of the Party. This is the line of people’s war developed to a high degree where the entire people fight and are valiant fighters; this is the thought of resolutely attacking the enemy to wipe them out, of striking them without respite and on all planes, acting with initiative, secrecy, suddenness, determination, courage and resourcefulness and using a small force against a bigger one, so as to achieve ever higher combat efficiency and winning ever greater victories.
Organizationally, our troops must be well seasoned, very strong, built up and equipped in accordance with the requirements of our combat methods. They must be politically and ideologically steadfast, and thoroughly conversant with technique and tactics; they must perfect the organization of their command, be appropriately equipped, and enjoy good material and technical conditions, especially as far as arms and services with modern equipment like the anti-aircraft and air forces are concerned. The officers in particular must be highly qualified, evince revolutionary virtues, master technique and tactics, show a grim determination to fight, and prove equal to their task as commanders, capable of leading their units to victory.
Your emulation congress has highlighted a great many examples set by army units and individual fighters in combat and in training. For the congress to develop its great impact, it is necessary to review more concretely and more penetratingly the experiences of the most representative units, and from these experiences draw guide-lines and principles in order to enrich our Party’s military thought, improve our combat methods and achieve greater achievements and feats of arms. This is a very good basis to strengthen our anti-aircraft and air forces, and improve their fighting capabilities so that they can become an excellent arm, capable of defeating any enemy and effectively defending the beloved skies of our heroic Viet Nam.
A very great and heavy task faces our people throughout the country, that of making all-out efforts to bring our resistance against U.S. aggression, for national salvation, to complete victory.
Our countrymen and the liberation armed forces in the heroic South are rushing ahead like tidal waves, pushing up their attacks, and winning great victories, thus landing the American imperialists in an ever graver losing position and passive posture. For the liberation of South Viet Nam, for the reunification of our country, for socialism, and for the fulfilment of our lofty internationalist obligation, our armed forces and people in the North are exerting the greatest efforts to fight in order to defend the North, push ahead socialist construction and accomplish their sacred duty as the great rear area toward the great fighting front.
Never have the Vietnamese people been confronted with such a historic and glorious task as today.
Never have they deployed their combat strength with such an impetus.
Under the banner of the Party headed by our beloved and venerated President Ho Chi Minh, all our cadres and fighters in the people’s armed forces in general and the anti-aircraft and air forces in particular will courageously march forward together with our people all over the country in order to carry through our glorious mission and record the most shining exploits in the history of our resistance against aggression: to completely defeat the American aggressors, liberate the South, defend the North and advance toward the reunification of the country.
(1) Speech delivered at the Emulation Congress of the Anti-Aircraft and Air Forces held in early June 1969.
(2) Up to June 5, 1969 when the speech was delivered, 3,294 U.S. planes had been downed (Pub.)
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