The resistance war against US aggression, for the national salvation of our people in both parts of the country has won great victories and is entering a decisive stage.
On the South Viet Nam battlefield, although it has suffered a serious setback during the past years in both the military and political fields, the Nixon administration is still obdurately carrying out the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy. While withdrawing a large part of the US combat troops, the US imperialists are feverishly strengthening the puppet army in order to use it in place of the US troops in South Viet Nam and as an additional force under US management and command on the Indochinese battlefield. They have stepped up the “pacification” programme, carrying out sweeps, penning up the population, building a thick network of military posts, and turning South Viet Nam into a giant concentration camp, in order to keep a tight control over the population, destroy revolutionary bases and grab manpower and resources for their neo-colonialist war of aggression. They are endeavouring to maintain the Nguyen Van Thieu fascist clique in power by ruthlessly repressing all the tendencies and aspirations of different strata of the population in South Viet Nam for peace, independence, neutrality, national concord, democratic freedom and improvement of living conditions.
In the North, they are obdurately continuing acts of war, their aircraft are continuously carrying out reconnaissance flights, bombing populated areas and committing untold crimes against our people. Nixon and Laird are again threatening to resume the air and naval war of destruction with a view to preventing the great rear’s assistance to the great front line, destroying the economic and military potential of the socialist North and shaking our people’s determination to fight.
In Laos, they are intensifying the “special war”, using their planes for extermination bombing of the Lao liberated zone, stepping up the “Laotianization of the war” and bringing in a large number of Thai troops to save the severely beaten Vientiane troops and Vang Pao bandits. With these puppet and bandits they are launching counter-attacks in an attempt to stem the offensive of the Lao revolution.
In Cambodia, they are pushing forward with the “Khmerization of the war”, giving the Phnom Penh puppet regime a shot in the arm, strengthening the puppet army, carrying out the “pacification programme”, concentrating the population, using Phnom Penh puppet troops with US air support to launch criminal military operations against the people. The Nixon administration is also forcing the reactionary Thai authorities to send Thai troops to Cambodia to fight against the people of that country.
It is clear that even while they are heading for defeat, the US imperialists have not given up their schemes of aggression against our country, they are obdurately prolonging and extending the war with a view to maintaining their neo-colonialist rule over South Viet Nam and their role of world gendarme in Southeast Asia. For this purpose they are speaking of “sharing responsibilities” in accordance with the “Nixon doctrine” which only means to use other people’s blood together with US money and weapons to defend the dirty interests of the American monopoly capitalist groups. Therefore, the aggressor is still US imperialism, but the concrete hostile forces on the battlefields in our people’s war and that of all three Indochinese countries have undergone some changes. In the present stage of the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy, the puppet troops at the service of the United States, organized, equipped and trained by the Americans, provided with US-supplied modern weapons and means of warfare, including modern services and arms and enjoying US air, naval and logistics support are gradually becoming the main strategic force in the war of aggression and the main hostile force on the battlefield in the revolutionary war. The US imperialists are also striving to strengthen their modern air force and navy to attack the North of our country.(1)
Having recognized this main objective on the battlefield, our people throughout the country are determined to defeat the aggressive war of the US imperialists and their lackeys. The South Viet Nam people’s liberation armed forces in coordination with the political forces of the masses have annihilated or broken up the Saigon puppet troops, the “backbone” of the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy, at the same time smashing the “pacification programme” the source of manpower and resources for that strategy. Our people’s armed forces in the North must defeat the attacks by the US air force and navy, repulse all rash military ventures of the US imperialists, strongly defend the socialist North and contribute to fulfilling the obligations of the great rear toward the great frontline. Our people have the duty to coordinate action closely with the people of fraternal Laos and Cambodia in order to defeat the Nixon doctrine formula for the Indochina battlefronts, “reactionary puppet forces + US air force”.
In their tasks of continuing the socialist revolution and socialist construction in the North, completing the people’s democratic national revolution in South Viet Nam and proceeding to peaceful national reunification, our people will meet with many difficulties, but we will certainly win victory. Our people’s military organization must be equal not only to the urgent, immediate tasks, but also to any tasks in all circumstances, in the progress of the revolution, even after the US imperialists and their lackeys have been defeated. The people’s armed forces in the North must be strong enough to defend the socialist North, smash all acts of aggression and sabotage by the imperialists and their lackeys, serve as an effective tool of proletarian dictatorship and strengthen the North in all aspects so as to make it a powerful base for the struggle to reunify the country. The liberation armed forces in South Viet Nam must be strong enough to safeguard the gains of the revolution, preserve the independence and neutrality of South Viet Nam, defeat all schemes of the imperialists and the reactionary clique, contribute to the progress of the revolution and build a peaceful, unified, independent, democratic and prosperous Viet Nam.
Because our country has a very important strategic position in Southeast Asia, as has been said in the first part of this essay, Viet Nam has for centuries been the objective of cruel aggressors. Within a few decades, our country has been successively attacked by three imperialist powers. Even when US imperialism has been defeated, international imperialism will not give up its schemes against our country. Our nation cherishes independence and freedom, we also love peace and wish to have peace to build our country and improve our people’s living conditions in all aspects. But we must remain very vigilant. We must be strong in the fields of politics, economics and national defence — there must be a close union between economic construction and the strengthening of national defence. Whatever happens we must have a strong national defence, with powerful armed forces made up of a strong standing army and extensive armed forces of the masses, in order to protect the people’s peaceful labour, to be ready to wage a victorious war for the defence of the Fatherland against any aggressor and to protect State power against sabotaging elements from within.
In the long term, after our country has been unified, the situation will undergo great changes. Viet Nam will become a strong and prosperous country with a modern agriculture, a modern industry and advanced culture and science, with a population of from fifty to seventy million within a few decades... Our people have the necessary basis for building a strong national defence. We are capable of raising the people’s army and the arming of the revolutionary masses to a higher level in order to ensure the defeat of any imperialist aggressor.
The war for the defence of the Fatherland in our country at present, or in the future if it breaks out again, is always a just war for self-defence, taking place on our own soil. Consequently, it can make the most of the force of the entire people, the entire country, the entire nation in order to defeat the enemy. A number of conditions and circumstances of a future war for the defence of the Fatherland may be similar to those of the present war, for example the geographical conditions, the need to fight against a greater force. As an enemy who launches aggression against our country will necessarily be stronger than we, the need to use a smaller force to fight against a greater force will arise as it does today, although the balance of forces between us and the enemy may be different. As for the geographical conditions, they will remain basically the same for a long time, despite continuous transformations due to our people’s industrious labour. If another war for the defence of the Fatherland broke out, it would take place in the geographical conditions of our country, a small country with a narrow and long territory, mostly mountainous, partitioned by a large number of rivers, with some thousand kilometres of coast line, a tropical climate...
For these reasons, we may conclude that we have inherited much experience in waging wars for the defence of the Fatherland, in insurrection and liberation war, and also in military organization in the present time and in the past. This experience we are capable of using and developing in the new conditions and circumstances to build national defence by the entire people and the people’s armed forces of the socialist North, of independent and neutral South Viet Nam and of reunified Viet Nam in future. A future war for the defence of the Fatherland in our country would be a highly-developed people’s war; our people’s armed forces will have made outstanding progress in all aspects: numerical strength, the level of cadres and soldiers of all ranks and in every field of activity, equipment and technique, organizational capabilities, fighting method, fighting power.
At present, to fulfil our historic mission of completely defeating the US aggressors our people must have powerful political forces and also powerful armed forces, on the basis of a general strengthening in the political, economic and national defence fields. We must thoroughly grasp the Party line of arming the entire people, strive to develop very strong and extensive armed forces of the masses and at the same time, an outstandingly powerful people’s army, and mobilize and develop to the greatest extent our people’s forces on the military front in order to join hands with the entire people in defeating the enemy in all circumstances.
In South Viet Nam, the army and people, carrying out a simultaneous armed struggle and political struggle to defeat the US “Vietnamization of the war” strategy, are steadily pushing forward the revolutionary war in every field, closely combining armed struggle with political struggle, military offensive with uprisings, concentrated attacks with guerilla attacks, annihilation of enemy troops with extending the people’s power in all three strategic zones. At the same time as they are waging war they are developing the military and political forces and actively expanding and consolidating the liberated zone, becoming stronger while fighting.
As the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam and the High Command of the South Viet Nam Liberation Armed Forces have pointed out, to develop vigorously and extensively the masses’ armed forces at the same time as building the Liberation Army into an outstandingly powerful army and strengthening the three categories of liberation armed forces — such as the fundamental content of the strengthening of the armed forces of South Viet Nam in the present time.
On the battlefield, the US and puppet forces are falling back on a strategic defensive. With a ruthless oppression and control machinery extending from the central level to the base level, they are carrying out a barbarous fascist policy toward our people. In these conditions, with the political army which they are continuing to build and expand, the South Vietnamese people are striving to bring about a rapid growth of the masses’ armed forces, actively building up militia, guerilla and self-defence forces in all these strategic zones.
The necessity for a vigorous, extensive development of guerilla and self-defence forces goes hand in hand with the need to bring guerilla warfare to a higher level in order to join efforts in launching concentrated attacks to militarily defeat the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy; it is also linked with the need to intensify the masses’ movement of offensive and insurrection, and, by attacking with three converging prongs, to smash the “pacification” programme. The armed forces of the masses and the guerillas with the regional forces as backbone must coordinate closely with the political forces to cling to the land, using creative, flexible methods, to attack the enemy on the spot. They will decimate and annihilate the enemy in as many places as possible, disperse him, immobilize him, encircle him, and divide his forces, launch surprise attacks on key points, destroy logistics bases, cut off water and land communication lines and so contribute to defeat enemy military operations. They will check sweeps aimed at penning up the population, protect our political bases, break up or wipe out the puppet coercive apparatus in the countryside and the local reactionary armed forces and shatter the network of enemy military posts. They will preserve and increase the potential of the resistance war in all aspects, defeat the US imperialists’ wicked scheme of “making Vietnamese fight against Vietnamese”, “feeding the war with the war”.
In our people’s long revolutionary war in South Viet Nam, the armed forces of the masses play an unceasingly important role as the revolution progresses. Whenever there are political bases of the people, there are armed forces of the masses. With the revolutionary political army which is continuously expanding on the basis of the worker-peasant alliance, the South Vietnamese people are striving to strengthen the masses’ armed forces numerically and qualitatively and to give them forms of organization appropriate to their needs, so that everywhere in South Viet Nam, from the mountains to the plain, from the countryside to the towns, in the liberated zone and in the temporarily occupied zone, there are armed forces to fight against the enemy, armed forces which, together with the masses’ political forces, constitute a great force in each region and over the whole battlefield.
With the support of the people’s political forces and the masses’ armed forces, the South Vietnamese army and people are striving to build a large and powerful Liberation Army. The necessity to build a Liberation Army composed of the regular army and the regional forces is linked with the need to intensify the military struggle to develop regular warfare hand in hand with guerilla warfare, to defeat the enemy militarily and, in combination with the political struggle, to bring the resistance war to final victory.
The regular units of the Liberation Army are being developed numerically and, above all, in quality and equipment. They include the necessary services and possess a strong, highly mobile reserve force with good logistics, and a sound material and technical base, more and more skilful in carrying out operations using combined units from different services, on a varying scale and on different grounds. On the southern battlefield, regular warfare is developing steadily, with increasing force and effectiveness on a larger and larger scale, the regular troops of the Liberation Army have annihilated an important part of the Saigon armed forces. They have wiped out big enemy units, smashed the enemy’s defence lines, checked their combat methods, expanded the liberated zone and won increasingly great victories. The great victories of Liberation Army regular forces over the puppet armed forces have had a serious effect on the morale and organization of the entire structure of the puppet army and the puppet administration, dealing a heavy blow at the US imperialists’ will to wage a war of aggression, giving strong support to the political struggle and the insurrection movement of the masses, and opening great possibilities for persuasion work within the ranks of the enemy. In this way they have played an important part in changing the balance of forces, and making the trend of the war more and more favourable to our side.
The units of the Liberation Army regional forces are being strengthened so that they, together with the militia and guerilla forces, can serve as a backbone for the people’s war in the regions, increasingly raise the level of guerilla warfare and the masses’ insurrectionary movement, smash the US puppet “pacification programme”, and at the same time, effectively cooperate with the regular forces in launching concentrated attacks to defeat the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy by military means. The regional forces are being built up, so that each district, each province or town will have a good organization and an adequate number of units, together with the necessary technical units, all well trained in different methods of fighting. The regional forces must be very strong and well trained, they must fight well, and also know how to win support of the population. Now concentrating, now dispersing their forces, they are the iron fist of the people’s war in the regions. In close coordination with the militia and guerilla forces, many units of the regional forces in South Viet Nam have annihilated enemy bao an (security) and dan ve (militia) forces, wiped out chains of military posts and broken up a large number of strategic hamlets and population concentration areas. They have given strong support to the political struggle and the uprisings of the masses and at the same time have effectively coordinated action with the Liberation Army main force operating in a region.
At present, on the South Vietnam battlefield, many regions and provinces have fully grasped the line of people’s war and arming the entire people, and resolutely and creatively applied it. These have succeeded in building not only extensive and strong political forces but also strong regional armed forces including large and strong militia and guerilla forces and strong regional troops with a great fighting spirit capable of waging a brilliant fight against the enemy operating in a region. As a result, the people’s war in the regions and the offensive and insurrection movement have made further progress, gradually defeating the enemy‘s “pacification” programme and their schemes to concentrate the population and force young men into the army. They have preserved and developed in all aspects the force of the revolution.
The realities of the revolutionary war in South Viet Nam prove that the masses constitute the strong base of the revolution in all its tasks: the political forces of the masses are the strong foundation of the armed forces, the armed forces of the masses are the strong base of the revolutionary army. Therefore, to ensure considerable forces for the revolutionary war, to use to the full the great power of the people’s war, it is necessary to strive to build the political army of the revolution and, on that basis, to build the people’s armed forces composed of the armed forces of the masses and the revolutionary army, to sufficiently develop the three categories of armed forces and deploy them for a strategic offensive on all battlefields, to closely combine concentrated operations with guerilla warfare and armed struggle with political struggle and agitation work among enemy troops. Only by so doing can we have the greatest possible combination of forces to annihilate or break up the puppet army, smash the “pacification” programme, check the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy and eventually completely defeat the US imperialists’ war of aggression.
Especially now, when the US imperialists have shifted to the strategy of “Vietnamization of the war”, carrying out their machiavellian design to “make Vietnamese fight against Vietnamese”, striving to build up a puppet army with a main force and regional forces to be used as a tool to continue the war of aggression, the need to fully master the law of organizing the people’s armed forces takes on an extremely great importance.
We must have a great political force and powerful armed forces; strong and extensive armed forces of the masses and a Liberation Army of high quality and sufficient size; strong and large militia and self-defence forces, powerful regional forces to form strong and extensive local forces, and at the same time a very powerful and mobile regular army. With two forces and three categories of armed forces closely coordinating action and brilliantly playing their strategic role in the revolutionary war, unceasingly developing to a high level the armed struggle and the political struggle, regular warfare and guerilla warfare, our fellow-countrymen and combatants in the South will certainly defeat the puppet army, overthrow the puppet administration, completely defeat the “Vietnamization of the war” strategy and bring the struggle against US aggression for national salvation to final victory.
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While further prolonging the war of aggression in South Viet Nam and extending the war to the whole of Indochina, the Nixon administration has unceasingly intensified its acts of war against North Viet Nam. The US imperialists nurture many wicked designs for the present and the future against the socialist North, the great rear supporting the great front, the strong base of the revolution in the whole country. Therefore we have to make continuous efforts to build up the people’s armed forces in the North which, together with the entire people, will completely defeat the US aggressors and strongly defend the socialist North both now and in the times to come.
The North must be very strong in the political and economic fields and in the field of national defence. Therefore, we must endeavour to push forward the socialist revolution and socialist construction, continually increase the people’s political and moral unity, build and develop the economy and culture and, on that basis, consolidate and strengthen national defence by the entire people, closely coordinating economic development with national defence. Only with a strong economy consisting of a central economy and a regional economy can we have strong national defence, and wage a people’s war on a national and regional scale. We must be always ready to combat and prepare the country in all aspects so as to give ourselves freedom of movement whatever happens.
Whatever the circumstances, we must always bear in mind the following law for the military organization of our people: to arm the entire people, to arm the revolutionary masses and at the same time to build the people’s army, to combine the people’s army with the armed forces of the masses and vice versa.
We have to make great efforts to build up a modern regular people’s army and, at the same time, develop strong and extensive armed forces of the masses and strengthen all the three categories of the people’s armed forces: the regular force, the regional forces and the militia and self-defence forces. We must further consolidate the people’s armed police forces. We must have a powerful standing army and, at the same time, a very strong reserve force.
We must continue our strict application of the defence. We must gradually strengthen the material policy and regulations promulgated by the State concerning the building of the people’s armed forces and the consolidation of national defence by the entire people, and amend the existing policy and regulations in the light of future developments in our country. Great importance should be attached to the training of cadres for they will play a crucial role in the building of the armed forces and strengthening of national defence. We must gradually strengthen the material and technical bases, the logistics base, of the armed forces in the whole of North Viet Nam and in each region.
In the first place, it is necessary to step up the building of our army into a people’s revolutionary army of a really new type, a modern regular army adapted to the conditions of our country, which should serve as the backbone of the people’s military organization, in order to give strong protection to the achievements of the revolution and to our beloved Fatherland, defeat any aggressor in the present and the future and fulfil all tasks of combat, production or anything else entrusted by the Party and the people.
At present and in the near future, we must continue to build the Viet Nam People’s Army into a modern, regular socialist army, composed of a regular force and regional forces, with a standing force of adequate size and high fighting capabilities and a large, well-organized, well-trained reserve force.
Our army must be a really revolutionary, really popular army, and also a highly modern force with a modern army, air force and navy.
Our land army must have all necessary services, with a structure and a size adequate for its increasingly important combat tasks, with great fire-power and a strong assault force possessing high mobility in every kind of terrain and in all the climatic conditions of our country, capable of playing a decisive role in winning victory on the battlefield.
Our air force must be further strengthened so that it will have an adequate size and high fighting capabilities combined with creative fighting methods, in order to defend the Fatherland’s sky against the air force of any aggressor, and closely coordinate action with the army and the navy in combined operations.
Our navy must be strengthened so that it will have an adequate size and very high fighting capabilities, a continuously improving organization, increasingly modern equipment, appropriate methods of fighting on our waterways and sea, to defend our long coast-line and the abundant waterways of our country.
Firstly and for all time our army must be a truly revolutionary popular army. This is a principle of key importance in our Party’s theory on the building of the army, one that we must constantly bear in mind under all circumstances.
The fighting strength of a revolutionary army is the combined strength of the following factors: its revolutionary consciousness, the fighting spirit of the officers and men, the rational organization and the level of technical equipment of the army, the technical and tactical level of the men, the level of scientific and military art, the leadership of its officers... This strength results from the dialectical combination of men and weapons, politics and technique, military science and war means, ideology and organization.
Both theory and practice have shown that the factors making up the army’s fighting strength play an extremely important role and are very closely interrelated. Only when each factor is comprehensively developed and closely combined with the others can the army have a maximum fighting strength.
Without a fighting spirit — with poor morale — there cannot be creative revolutionary energy, active fighting, or any base to promote the strength of the material, technical and operational factors... A well-organized, equipped and trained army with a poor fighting spirit is easily defeated. High morale alone, however, cannot bring victory. If it is handicapped by poor technical equipment, an irrational military organization, and incorrect operational methods it cannot create a great fighting force, because the factor of morale has not been comprehensively developed and cannot be transformed into a huge material force capable of crushing the enemy on the battlefield.
Stressing the great impact of the factor of morale in a war, Lenin said: “In the final analysis, victory in any war depends on the spirit animating the masses that spill their own blood on the field of battle.”(2) Further he said: “Even the best of armies, even people most sincerely devoted to the revolutionary cause will be immediately exterminated by the enemy, if they are not adequately armed, supplied with food and trained.”(3)
Therefore, when dealing with the fighting strength of our army, one has to grasp the dialectical unity between the above-mentioned factors. To stress only the material, technical factor as the decisive one, and to underestimate the political, morale factor is evidently an error. Inversely, to stress only the morale factor, detached from the material base, is also incorrect. While defining the importance of the factors making up the fighting strength of a revolutionary army, we consider that the most fundamental factor is the political-morale factor, that is the consciousness of the army with regard to the revolutionary ideal, the goal of the fighting and the political aim of the war, and the fighting spirit of the officers and men. In a war, “the realization by the masses of the causes and aims of the war is of tremendous importance and ensures victory.”(4) Once they are deeply conscious of their class and national interests, ready to sacrifice themselves in the struggle for independence, freedom and socialism, and go to war with the sole aspiration and determination to triumph over the enemy, the officers and men of a revolutionary army will have tremendous energy and strength. The history of our army’s struggle and development — how, starting from nothing it grew so strong that it could defeat the cruellest imperialist aggressors of our time — bears eloquent proof of Lenin’s assertion.
Armed struggle is the most violent form of class struggle, of national struggle. A characteristic of armed struggle is that it entails bloody sacrifices. Hence, a revolutionary army must have an unshakable determination to fight and a very high spirit of self-denial. Then it can withstand all trials, overcome all difficulties and ordeals of a war, use weapons to the best, creatively apply operational methods and promote military organization so as to vanquish the enemy.
Thanks to the Party’s correct leadership and the difficulties and combats endured in the course of a protracted, arduous and violent revolutionary struggle, our army has acquired a very strong revolutionary nature and political virtue, a very high fighting spirit, which faithfully reflects the thinking, feeling and spirit of the Vietnamese working class and nation and of our present time. It consists in an absolute loyalty to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the people; an unshakable determination to fight for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, “rather sacrifice all than lose the country and be enslaved”, an ardent love for the country and for socialism, a spirit of genuine proletarian internationalism. It consists in a determination to fight and to win, a will to attack and annihilate the enemy, a valiant fighting spirit, creative mind and marvellous resourcefulness, a spirit of union and coordination, a spirit of strict organization and discipline. It consists in an ardent love for one’s fellow-countrymen and comrades, a deep hatred of the imperialists and their henchmen and of oppression and exploitation. This is the high spirit of revolutionary vigilance, always on the watch for the designs and manoeuvres of all the enemies of the class and the nation under any circumstance. This political virtue and this brilliant spirit have been assessed by President Ho Chi Minh as follows: “Our army is faithful to the Party, devoted to the people, ready to fight selflessly for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, for socialism. It fulfils any mission, overcomes any difficulty and defeats any enemy.” Here lies the overwhelming strength of our army, the source of its fighting power. This is an extremely precious asset of our army in its building and fighting at present as well as in the future. In building our army into a regular and modern one, we are determined constantly to maintain and develop this precious asset, to turn these virtues into deeply rooted qualities, into fine traditions of the Viet Nam People’s Army for all generations to come.
Now more than ever, confronted with the US imperialists’ obstinate intention to prolong their aggressive war in Viet Nam and extend it throughout Indochina, our army must consequently heighten its spirit of self-denial, its fearlessness of difficulties and sacrifices, persevere in and intensify its patriotic resistance to US aggression, and promote to the full the role, impact and function of the people’s army.
To continuously strengthen the revolutionary nature of the army, we have constantly to bear in mind and strictly apply the Leninist principles on the political building of the army. This has become a fine tradition of our army. These principles are:
Ensure absolute, direct and overall leadership of the Party over the army — the most fundamental principle;
Consolidate the Party’s organization and system of political work; constantly strengthen political work within the army;
Pay great attention to the propagation of the Party’s line, its revolutionary tasks, directives and policies. Heighten the army’s political awareness, its national and class consciousness and determination to fight and to win;
Attach great importance to the army’s full understanding of the Party’s military line and thinking, military science and military art of people’s war;
Train an army of cadres absolutely loyal to the Party’s revolutionary cause, with capacities for leadership, command and organization;
Broaden democracy, strengthen self-imposed discipline, the iron discipline of a revolutionary army;
Establish good relations between the army and the Party, the army and the revolutionary power, the army and the people, good relations inside the army as well as between our army and the armies and peoples of the fraternal countries.
With regard to the Party, our army always displays an absolute confidence in the Party’s line and leadership, freely submits to the Party’s leadership, strictly implements all Party lines, directives and policies, resolutely struggles to defend all its lines, principles and viewpoints, and successfully fulfils all tasks entrusted by it.
With regard to the revolutionary power, our army always shows a high spirit of respect and a determination to defend the revolutionary power, it works closely with the State organs and strictly implements all State lines, directives, policies and laws.
With regard to the people, our officers and men serve, respect and help them with devotion, fight selflessly to defend the people’s interests, and strictly respect the discipline of the masses.
In their internal relations, our officers and men show a high spirit of unity, singlemindedness, perfect cohesion, mutual affection, common share of good times and bad, sincere mutual aid. At the same time, they show a high spirit of obedience to the organization, strictly implement all commands, instructions and decisions of their superiors, carry out all statutes, regulations and orders of the army.
With regard to the armies and peoples of the fraternal countries, our army constantly shows a high spirit of genuine proletarian internationalism, accepts all sacrifices and difficulties, sincerely unites with the armies and peoples of the fraternal countries in the fight against the common enemy, and always considers the revolutionary cause of the fraternal countries as its own.
To promote the strength and the efficiency of the Party leadership, one must raise the level of understanding of the Party’s political and military line, raise the capacity for practical organization of the Party’s organs, cadres and Party members in the army and meet the requirement to build the people’s army into a regular and modern one so as to fulfil all the political and military tasks entrusted to it by the Party. Our Party has gathered much experience in the political and ideological building of an army, and in the building of an army essentially made up of infantry and a limited number of other services. Our Party is well on the road to solving the problems of building a regular and modern people’s army consisting of many arms and services for both the present and the future, according to the specific conditions of our country. Therefore, one of the important tasks at present is to study further so as to have a firm understanding of the laws on the building and operation of a regular and modern people’s army in our country, and to apply them correctly in working out an advanced Vietnamese military science in order to defeat the US aggressors at present and to defend the Fatherland in the future. From this basis we will perfect, develop and concretize the Party’s military line and its line on the building of a regular and modern revolutionary army.
On the basis of strengthening the revolutionary nature of our army, we must intensify its transformation into an army which is regular and modern. An army which has attained some degree of perfection and organization has a natural tendency to become a regular army. Even in the past, in our country as in many others, the problem of building a regular army has been put and solved. The more modern an army, the more imperious the need for centralization and the more urgent the problem of regularization.
As Lenin said, in fighting with a strong enemy, one must be prepared for bold actions at any time. Now that an army uses an ever more sophisticated range of modern equipment and techniques, while modern operations require extremely close and flexible coordination, unity of mind and action is impossible to realize without high centralization. Without such centralization tens of thousands or millions of men operating over a vast area cannot effect a rapid change in their combat methods, following a single will according to the developments on the battlefields, and so solve the fighting tasks in a modern war.
To make an army regular means to provide it with a homogeneous organization through statutes, regulations and orders so as to give it a uniform activity, to strengthen its organized, centralized, scientific character, to get resolute and single-minded action and close coordination between the various parts of an army in a war. Regularization goes along with the working out of statutes, regulations and orders, and their implementation.
The revolutionary army, like the armies of the exploiting classes, must be made into a regular army. However, owing to their diametrically opposed political nature, this process is completely different in its goal, content and methods. For the armies of the exploiting classes, the goal is to serve their reactionary political designs; all their statutes and regulations reflect the anti-revolutionary nature and the unequal internal relations in these armies. They are based on an enforced and rigid discipline, orders must be blindly obeyed. It is quite the opposite with the building of a regular revolutionary army. Its goal is to serve the lofty political ends of the revolution; all its statutes and regulations reflect the revolutionary nature of the army, the finest principles of building a new-type army. They are based on the political consciousness, the self-imposed discipline, the initiative and creative spirit of the officers and men for their implementation. It is this fine political base which enables a regular revolutionary army to surpass an army of the exploiting classes.
In the past years, the promulgation, revision and perfection of rules and regulations have had a great impact on the building of our army. The regulation of military service, commissioned and non-commissioned officers’ service and military grades, rules concerning internal organization, military formation, military police, military discipline, fighting regulations, the work of the general staff, political work and logistics... have contributed to reinforce centralization, intensify the army’s regular character and raise its fighting strength. In the main, these rules and regulations have become a more and more faithful reflection of the revolutionary nature of our army; they embody our Party’s military thinking, its military line and art, and its principles for the building of the army in conformity with the specific conditions of our army and our country. The realities of the war have helped us make the necessary additions and corrections and have provided us with rich experience in working out rules and regulations. Basing ourselves on the constantly evolving situation and our army’s task of building and fighting we must go on studying and improving these rules and regulations so that they are a better instrument for the task of building a regular army at present and in future. This system must encompass all the activities of our army, namely:
— Important regulations reflecting the general policies and directives of the Party and Government on the task of building the army and consolidating national defence, which should have the force of law with regard to our army and entire people.
— Rules on the establishment and equipment of the army, of its arms and services, serving as bases by which the organization of the army may be unified.
— Regulations on internal affairs, military formation, military police, military discipline, serving as bases for the organization of the regular army.
— Fighting regulations of the army, its arms and services aimed at defining the basic operational methods of the men, the sections and army corps.
— Orders on staff work, political work, logistics, education and the work of various branches.
According to our view, no amount of rules and regulations however elaborate, can encompass all the requirements of practice. The regulations only give a basic orientation for the activities of the army, they do not solve all the problems, in any place, at any time. Therefore, while stressing the strict implementation of regulation, we must constantly promote the creative spirit and resourcefulness of officers and men and avoid stereotyped answers and mechanistic thinking.
The content of the regulations reflects experience and the fighting and building needs of the army at a given time and in given conditions. Our army’s practice of building and fighting, its own capacities in various fields, as well as those of the enemy and military science and art are constantly evolving. Therefore, regulations must be continually amended and developed to give a new vitality and to be a more effective guide for the army in all its practical activities.
On the basis of drafting and gradually perfecting these rules and regulations we must continue to push ahead with the work of education within the army for their strict implementation. The implementation of rules and regulations must first of all rely on the officers’ and men’s spirit of organization and discipline, then it must be gradually built into routine and behaviour to become a new habit, the habits of the working class engaged in modern production, and not the habits of small producers engaged in scattered, unregulated handicraft production.
A problem of utmost importance for the rapid building of a regular army is to heighten the spirit of organization and discipline of the army. Lenin stressed that the building of a strict military discipline and a thorough implementation of all orders and decisions is of the utmost importance to heighten the regular character and the fighting strength of the Red Army. As Lenin pointed out: “The army must have a most vigorous discipline.”(5) “We must turn the commanding organs from top to bottom into steel arms which will execute combat orders at any cost.”(6)
The discipline of our army is the strict self-imposed discipline of a revolutionary army. This discipline reflects the revolutionary nature and the principles of ideological and organizational building for an army of the working class. It is a genuine iron discipline, a new-type discipline, a truly firm discipline unknown to any army of the exploiting classes.
Under the Party’s leadership and during the long process of building and fighting, our army has acquired a fine tradition of revolutionary discipline. This tradition of discipline has always been an important factor for all the victories of our army.
However, there are not only strong points in this discipline. Our army was born and has grown up in an backward agricultural country in the first steps of socialist building, in which the attitudes of small-scale production are still strong in all fields of social and human life. Moreover, it has matured in the fire of a protracted revolutionary war. Starting from scratch, it has developed while waging guerilla warfare and then regular warfare, operating on many battlefields and fighting for decades under the hardest, most exacting conditions... Therefore, besides their good points which are fundamental, our officers and men also have thoughts, habits and ways of living unsuited to the high spirit of organization of a modern army. We do not have as yet a very high level of military discipline conforming to the new developments in organization and equipment, and thoroughly adapted to the increasingly heavy and complex tasks of fighting and building our army.
Hence, we must continue to inculcate in our army the role and requirement of discipline for a regular and modern army; we must bring about a drastic change in the spirit of organization and discipline as well as in the administration of the army, so that the entire army strictly implements all the rules and regulations and thoroughly carries out all commands and instructions from superior authorities.
The problem we are facing is how to turn a people’s army, a revolutionary army into a regular army. That is why in the course of this process, we must satisfactorily solve the relations between concentration and democracy, between the leadership of the Party committee and the role of the commander, the solidarity between the officers and the men, between the higher and the lower echelons. We must closely combine ideological work with organizational work, closely link education and persuasion to serious training and administration, combine voluntariness with imperative duty; and distribute just rewards and punishments. We must promote the spirit of responsibility, of collective mastery among all officers and men as regards the administration of discipline and the implementation of rules and regulations. In this matter, the example given by the officers and their level of organization and administration bear a very high significance.
Along with regularization we must continue to concern ourselves with the modernization of our army. This is one requirement which has the character of a law as regards the raising of our army’s fighting strength at a time when our people have begun to build socialism and the material-technical base of large-scale socialist production, especially now when world science and technique has reached a very high level bringing great and rapid changes in the equipment and technique of armies. Thanks to modernization, our army will have an increasingly high equipment and technique to hold its own against any aggressor.
Modernization implies continual change of equipment and technique for the army, development of technical arms and services, better use of new weapons and war means by officers and men. It also implies the building of a modern national defence industry and the expansion of a modern system of communications for the army to operate in conditions of modern warfare. When modern equipment and technique are added to a sound political nature and good scientific organization, the fighting strength of our army will develop in leaps and bounds. The new man in the people’s army must have ardent patriotism, thorough socialist consciousness, high spirit of organization and discipline, and modern military knowledge.
Relying on the achievements of the technical revolution in the socialist building of the North over the past years, and on the help of the fraternal socialist countries, our army has got a material and technical base stronger than ever before. Our infantry has been equipped with very modern weapons. The arms and services of our army — ground forces, air force, navy, artillery, anti-aircraft defence, armoured units, engineering units, chemical units, signal service, transport service, have been equipped with modern weapons and war means. Along with the development of arms and services, a system of technical bases has come into being. Our officers and men have made notable progress in the use of modern weapons and war means in the specific conditions of the Vietnamese battlefield. It is clear that since the later stages of the resistance against French aggression our army has made great strides ahead as regards modernization. The great victories of our army in the patriotic resistance against US aggression cannot be separated from these new developments in equipment and technique.
However, these are only first steps. Compared with the armies of many countries in our camp and in the world, the level of modernization of our army is still low. Between our army and the enemy there still exists a discrepancy in equipment and technique. Our present patriotic resistance against US aggression as well as the defence of our country in the future require still greater efforts in modernization. This is the task and also the aspiration of our army and our people.
We must build a modern army suited to the specific conditions and perfectly adapted to the national defence requirements of our country. Therefore, we must hold firm to the Party’s political economic and military lines, and, through an understanding of the resources and specific conditions of our country, the characteristics of our enemy and the balance of forces between him and us, the military art of people’s war and the direction of development of military science and technique in the world, work out a creative solution of the problems involved in the modernization of our army.
We must keep on making improvements in the equipment and technique of our army to make it modern or relatively modern, so as to increase its firepower, impact and mobility. To this end, we must have a firm base in the development of our economy and make the most of the help of the fraternal socialist countries so as to speed up our army’s modernization.
A modern army in our times must include many arms and services. Therefore, we must establish a well balanced range of arms and services suitable for our needs. At present and for a relatively long period in the future, the ground forces will still remain the main arm of the Viet Nam People’s Army; in the ground forces, the infantry is the main service, while artillery is the main firepower. We will continue to strengthen our air force, anti-aircraft defence, navy, armoured units, engineering units, signal units, chemical units, and transport units, to establish fighting services as well as support services in a rational way so that the technical arms and services make up an increasing proportion of our army’s administrative structure, and improve their impact in the coordinated operations of modern warfare. Our army must be ready to defeat the enemy both while he uses conventional weapons and if he recklessly uses nuclear weapons.
To make its full impact in a war, a modern army must have good technique and good communications. Therefore, on the basis of a close coordination between the needs of national defence and those of the economy and between the building of a rear for the State and a rear for the army, we must speed up the building of a national defence industry and a system of communications adapted to the fighting requirement of our army and the specific conditions of our country.
This national defence industry must be able to make all sorts of repairs, turn out spare parts and additional parts to improve equipment and war material according to the tactical requirements; at the same time, it must strive to turn out certain categories of weapons and war material according to our means. We must continually expand the system of communications including roads, railways, waterways and airways, closely combine militarily important communication lines with economically important ones, and central communications with local ones to contribute to the mobility of a modern army under all circumstances.
The modernization of an army is a long process. It depends on the development of the building of the material and technical bases for socialism. Hence, on the basis of a close coordination with the economic and cultural development plans we must have a long-term plan for the modernization of the army, so as to define the orientation and the great objectives underlying the training of cadres, scientific and technical research, basic construction, etc. At the same time, we must have short-term plans to deal with specific objectives, thus advancing our army step by step.
A people’s army includes a regular army and regional forces. The latter have a very important strategic role in a people’s war. Therefore, while building our people’s army, we pay equally great attention to both.
Owing to the Party’s correct policy, in the patriotic resistance against US aggression the regional forces have undergone new developments in organization, equipment, level of fighting and command... especially in the case of the forces which have had to deal with the enemy’s war of destruction like the air-defence forces, artillery, engineering units... Many provinces, towns, districts and industrial zones have anti-aircraft units which shot down many US planes, artillery units which set fire to US vessels, sapper units which kept the traffic open, infantry units which rapidly disposed of enemy commando groups and satisfactorily fulfilled their fighting tasks. With a new fighting strength, the regional forces are making themselves ready, together with the other armed forces, to thwart all military adventures by the US imperialists and defend the land. It is clear that, compared with the regular army in the later stage of the resistance against French aggression, the regional forces are now more developed in certain fields. This has helped increase the power of people’s war in the regions. This fact shows the correctness of the decision to strengthen the regional forces, provide them with necessary services, and equip them with a number of modern weapons and war means, thus gradually making them regular and modern.
The building of regional forces must be carried out according to the principles and orientations defined above as regards the building of the people’s army. However, as their fighting task, the character of their action, their operational methods are somewhat different from those of the regular army, and as their action is linked to the locality, we must apply the principles and orientations for the building of the people’s army in a way suitable to their needs. The building of regional forces must be based on the characteristics of each locality, its military position, its fighting task, its capacities in manpower and economy, its topography, the situation of the enemy in the region... For each province, town, district, industrial zone... the size, composition, equipment, fighting method of its regional forces cannot be patterned after those of the regular army, nor can they be the same with all localities.
Even in the case of the regular army, when we carry out its regularization and modernization, we must pay enough attention to the characteristics of the fighting tasks and the operational methods of different forces acting on different battlefields to define the most suitable composition, organization, equipment and way of life of the troops avoiding all mechanical attempts at uniformity.
For the regularization of the regional forces, we must pay even more attention to the specific conditions and characteristics of the locality. Regularization must be concrete and reflect the necessity of unity and centralization at the same time as the unavoidable differences between the various regions. It is gross error to rely on the characteristics of the locality and disregard the requirements of unity and centralization, the spirit of organization and discipline, to neglect the implementation of the rules and regulations in the regional forces; inversely, it is incorrect to carry out unity and centralization in a uniform and mechanical way. On our road to modernization, we must also define its concrete requirements, ably use appropriate weapons and war means, and closely combine modern weapons and war means with relatively modern and rudimentary ones. Experience shows that up-to-date weapons unsuited to the locality are inefficient; appropriate weapons, though less modern may have a great effect. To defeat the enemy to fulfil the role of the regional forces as the backbone, the strike force of the armed struggle in the regions, and to successfully implement all tasks, these are our aims in the implementation of the principles for the building of the regional army.
At present, the provinces, cities and industrial zones in the North have a fairly large area with a population reaching 1-2 million for some. Together with the development of the centrally-run economy, our Party has advocated the development of regional economies, the building of provinces, cities and industrial zones into increasingly strong economic units. We must closely combine economy with national defence in each locality, build provinces, cities and industrial zones strong in all fields to serve as basic strategic units of people’s war in the region. The victory of the socialist revolution and building of socialism in each region as well as in the whole North has been creating increasingly great possibilities in all fields for the building and development of the regional forces.
Confronted with the need to intensify military work in the regions so as to contribute a worthy share to frustrating all military adventures of the US imperialists, defending the socialist North and fulfilling the duty of the great rear to the great front, we must actively advance the building of regional forces. The regional forces must include not only a sizable permanent force but also strong, well-organized, and well-trained reserves ready to make a rapid development of their forces when need be. We must have strong infantry units; moreover, there must be necessary services equipped with modern and relatively modern weapons and war means, well trained and having a creative fighting method, a high mobility, and a prodigious fighting strength. The regional forces must excel in regular warfare and in guerilla warfare, closely coordinate with the militia and self-defence units, while standing ready to coordinate with the regular army to exterminate the enemy and defend the localities.
With strong regional forces adapted to the conditions and fighting requirements of each locality, with strong and ubiquitous militia and self-defence units closely combined with the people’s armed security units, the people’s regional armed forces in the socialist North will acquire a new and mighty fighting strength, and people’s war in the localities will take on new and tremendous possibilities.
To make a success of building regional armed forces in particular and regional military work in general, we must pay attention to strengthening the leadership of Party committees at all levels over regional military work, consolidating regional military organs, and forming a contingent of regional military cadres. Regional military organs must be strengthened to fulfil the military tasks of each locality and to serve as general staff for the local Party committees in intensifying military work in the regions; they must guide and command the regional forces in their building and fighting; and they must guide the people’s armed forces in the regions.
We must raise the level of leadership over regional military work, keep abreast of the present and future requirements of national defence in the regions and of the increasingly great capacities of regional economic construction and development.
For the army to master modern equipment and technique, to have a full understanding and a skilful application of the principles of military art, and possess a high fighting capability, due attention must be paid to military training. This is a very important routine work in the building of an army in peace time as well as in war time, one of the decisive problems to raise the fighting quality and military preparedness of an army.
As training is aimed at defeating the enemy, it must be adapted to the military task and line, to the requirement of military art, and to the real situation of the enemy and ourselves in each period. We must be imbued with these principles: to educate the army in everything required by the war, to give comprehensive training to the army in fighting will, spirit of organization and discipline, fighting behaviour, technique, tactics, physical strength...; to raise the level of this overall training and relate it to real fighting conditions, to promote a spirit of offensive, determination and courage and the resourcefulness of officers and men in all their fighting actions.
To adapt ourselves to the requirements of modern warfare, by gaining a complete mastery over the operational thought and the military art of our army, we must train our officers and men to understand and make perfect use of all modern equipment and techniques; to understand and skilfully apply operational and tactical principles and the principles of organization and command in the coordinated operations of various arms and services. We must train our army in many fighting methods: it must be good in offensive as well as in defensive action, in mobile as in siege warfare, in coordinated as in isolated operations; in fighting on various scales, terrains and in different climates and circumstances. Our army must be ready to defeat the enemy whether they use conventional weapons or recklessly resort to nuclear or chemical weapons.
To win coordinated operations, our army must be strong in its entire structure, from top to bottom, from commanding organs to basic units, at all levels, in all branches and sections. Therefore, we must satisfactorily train each man, section and army corps; each commanding organ, fighting unit and support unit. We must take great care of the training of officers and commanding organs, and build strong and seasoned basic units.
We must continually make our army aware of the evolution of the enemy’s overall situation and ready to frustrate all his new operational schemes. We must pay particular attention to studying and creatively developing the rich fighting experiences of our army while selectively learning from the experience of the armies of the fraternal socialist countries.
In war time or in peace time, it is very dangerous to be complacent over one’s victories and neglect one’s military art. Hence, we must closely combine training with the study of military science, ceaselessly develop and perfect our military art, pay utmost attention to summing up our training experience and improving its content and methods, thus enabling our army to make continuous improvements in its excellent military art and great fighting strength to defeat the enemy.
To fulfil the task of building a regular and modern people’s army, a key problem is to form an officers’ corps which is capable and strong in every field.
This officers’ corps must have a high quality and sufficient numbers, it must meet the increasingly great requirements of the revolutionary task and reflect the constant growth of our army, making up a solid nucleus with abundant reserves and replacements. This officers’ corps must have a comprehensive and well-balanced composition including leading and command cadres, professional and technical cadres, cadres in the general staff and at the level of the base, cadres in the regular and regional army and cadres for the permanent army and for the reserve force; it must meet the peace time as well as the war-time needs, at present and in the future, of our army’s various arms and services.
To form such an officers’ corps, we must first of all master and strictly implement the Party’s line on cadres. This is the line on cadres of the working class. The working class nature of the officers’ corps is one of the fundamental contents of this line. The degree to which this problem is solved or not has a great bearing on the maintenance and development of our army’s revolutionary nature, on its firmness and constancy in all situations, on the raising of its spirit of revolutionary offensive and heroism. Whatever the situation we must grasp the Party’s line on cadres and strictly implement the class orientation and political criterion set by the Party in each stage of development of the revolution. We must constantly master the principle that, so long as there are classes, wars and armies, the problem of the class character of the officers’ corps of the armed forces must not be neglected at any price.
As cadres of a revolutionary, regular and modern army, our officers must have a firm political standpoint, a high political, military, professional and technical level, and an increasingly high cultural level. The quality of the officers must be achieved in their ability to fulfil all fighting and other tasks entrusted by the Party.
First and foremost, our officers must be absolutely loyal to the Party, to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat and to the communist ideal, imbued with ardent patriotism, and devoted to the people and the Fatherland. They must have pure revolutionary feeling, a strong spirit of revolutionary offensive with determination to fight and to win and deep hatred of the enemy. They must fight valiantly, work tirelessly, possess a high spirit of organization and discipline, a good fighting and work style, self-denial in face of hardships and sacrifices, courage and stubbornness, resourcefulness and creative spirit to fulfil all tasks under any circumstances.
Our officers must strive to have a deep knowledge in political, military, scientific, technical and economic matters with an ability to lead and command, to organize and act. They must diligently study to master the Marxist-Leninist principles on war and the army, the Party’s political and military line and its military science, and our nation’s tradition and experiences of fighting. They must try to have a deeper understanding of their enemy, selectively and creatively learn from the experiences of the fraternal socialist countries, and at the same time follow the new achievements of military science in the world. They must perseveringly strive to raise their cultural, scientific and technical level, their ability to administer and train their men, to lead and command and to organize coordinated operations of various arms and services.
The task of building a regular and modern people’s army requires of our army a corps of technically proficient and politically reliable cadres to serve as the core in the use, management, improvement and invention of modern equipment and technique. This corps of technical cadres must include all necessary branches and varied professional qualifications: middle-level and high-level cadres, engineers-in-chief and research workers; they must master modern science and technique and creatively apply them to find a satisfactory solution to the technical problems of our army while contributing to build our country’s science and technique.
We must also have a contingent of research workers with a good knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, military science and the practice of the revolution and revolutionary war in our country, in order to serve as the nucleus for research work into the development of military theory and science.
We cannot speak of the cadres of the people’s army without mentioning the contingent of reserve officers, whose important role is directly related to the position of the reserve force of the army in the war. That is why, at the same time as paying attention to the building of the contingent of cadres of the regular force, we must attach importance to building up the force of reserve cadres. These must constitute a strong force with a high quality and sufficient quantity, a comprehensive and balanced structure capable at any time of meeting the need to broaden the army or any of its branches and services. It is necessary to take pains over the organization of demobilized armymen or armymen who have been transferred to civil services and, at the same time, to adopt a consistent training program for the reserve cadres, keep an efficient system of registration, census and mobilization in the various branches and services of the State, in the factories, in schools, and in the people’s armed forces.
The law of development of the revolution as well as of the revolutionary armed forces requires that our Party closely combine veteran officers with young officers. While we must actively work to perfect the veteran and experienced officers we must make great efforts to train, perfect and boldly promote young cadres who have been steeled by combat and work, those who possess high revolutionary virtues and solid capabilities with the promise of a distinguished and long career in the army.
We must combine many measures in the building of a contingent of army cadres: training in combat and work, training and developing at school and in their existing job. At present, and in the future too, the system of army schools will play a very important role. We must strengthen, expand and consolidate the schools of the army which consist of the institutes, military colleges and full time and complementary schools of the various arms and services and military zones.
Along with the building of the regular, modern people’s army, we must endeavour to develop the armed forces of the masses as a numerous and powerful force. We must expand the militia and self-defence forces throughout the countryside and the towns, making them into a very big force with continuously improved quality and combat strength, suited to the all-round development of our country in the building of socialism and to the ever higher combat requirement of the people’s war, a war to defend our socialist fatherland in the conditions of the present time.
This force must be strong enough to serve as backbone for the entire people in the fight to defend the regions. It must give full scope to its role of a shock force in the economic development of the area and serve as a mighty reserve force for the people’s army. This force must become a really steady and powerful basis for the national defence of the entire people and for the people’s war. In combination with the people’s army it must form a mighty armed force for the socialist State, capable of defeating the US imperialist aggressors at present as well as any eventual aggressor in the future and fulfilling any tasks entrusted by the Party and the people so as to firmly preserve the revolutionary gains and defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the fatherland.
To intensify the building of the armed forces of the masses in all circumstances, in time of war as well as in time of peace, is a concentrated expression of the high revolutionary vigilance of our people. In the present patriotic resistance against US aggression, this task is necessary in order to contribute to the defence and building of the socialist North, defeating all war schemes and acts of the US imperialists. In the future, too, when the protracted and arduous resistance against the US aggressors has come to a victorious conclusion, when our people have regained complete independence and freedom and embark on national construction in peaceful conditions, and when the regular armed forces may be reduced, we will have to pay still greater attention to building up the armed forces of the masses in order to be ready to cope with all eventualities. We must closely combine economic construction with national defence, national construction with preparation to defend the fatherland.
As everyone of us knows, the armed forces of the masses are one of the two basic components of the military apparatus of our State. The militia and self-defence forces are one of the three categories of the people’s armed forces. As a revolutionary armed organization of the Party, the militia and self-defence forces must be built along the same lines, viewpoints and general principle as the revolutionary armed forces. This is a question of position and principle which must be strictly observed. As an armed organization linked with production, being at the same time the army and the people, the militia and self-defence forces are not a regular armed force and, as such, are to be distinguished from the main force and the regional army which are regular armed forces. Only by firmly grasping the differences between the militia and self-defence forces and the people’s army can we push forward the building of the armed forces of the masses and give full scope to the important strategic role of the militia and self-defence forces.
The militia and self-defence forces are the broad armed forces of the masses giving a most concentrated and direct expression to the mass character of the military organization of the proletarian State, a character growing out of the emancipation of the working class, as Engels predicted. This is the armed force with the closest and most direct link with the political forces. Its combat strength directly stems from the force of the masses in the locality where it operates. That is why, in the building of the militia and self-defence forces, it is very important to broaden its numerical strength and mobilize to the highest extent the participation of the political force of its locality.
The militia and self-defence forces are an armed force not detached from production. They take a direct part in production as well as in combat to defend production and defend the lives and property of the local population. All military activities of the militia and self-defence forces are closely linked with the productive, economic and cultural activities in the locality. They draw their strength from the comprehensive strength of productive organization. In the countryside, the strength of the militia and self-defence forces is closely associated with the strength of the cooperatives. In the towns and industrial centres, their strength cannot be dissociated from the all-round strength of the factories, enterprises, construction sites, etc. That is why, in the building of the militia and self-defence force, we must always closely combine the requirements of production with those of combat, and economic with national defence requirements. Any departure from this principle would make it impossible to build efficient militia and self-defence forces and would deprive the latter of their combat strength.
The militia and self-defence forces is the armed force most closely and directly linked with the base and locality. They are the main instrument of violence of the people’s administration at the grassroots level, organized, led and built up by the local Party organization in the specific conditions and circumstances of each locality and each base area, and growing and fighting on the spot. The fighting capacity of any militia or self-defence force is reflected in its capacity to fulfil its combat and production tasks right in its base area and its own locality. In the building of the militia and self-defence forces it is necessary to proceed from the requirements and tasks of combat and production in each locality and each base area and from the practice of the locality and base area in its political, economic, military and geographical conditions in order to work out appropriate directives and measures and avoid uniformity and mechanical attitudes.
The chief combat method of the militia and self-defence forces consists of scattered, small, guerilla-type actions, clinging to the people and sticking to the land, fighting the enemy right in their productive base and living area. They decimate the enemy force unceasingly by attacking and wiping out small enemy units, directly protecting and defending the lives and property of the local population. That is why the building of the militia and self-defence forces cannot be a simple carbon copy of the method of building the main force and regional army which are concentrated armed forces operating according to a concentrated and regular combat method, though to different degrees.
The militia and self-defence forces in North Viet Nam at present are built on the basis of a socialist system which is continuously being strengthened and developed. Therefore, we must have a firm understanding of the characteristics of the socialist system in terms of the production relations, class structure, etc., in order to give full play to the superiority of the new system on the politico-moral and organizational fields, and make full use of the new capacities offered by the material and technical bases, as well as by the all-round development of the new man among the working class and collective farmers in order to push forward vigorously with the building of the militia and self-defence forces.
First of all, it is necessary to expand to the fullest extent the numerical strength of the militia and self-defence force. This is a permanent requirement of the task of building the armed forces of the masses. Lenin has pointed out: “The victory of the revolution depends on the number of the proletarian masses and the peasants standing up to defend the revolution.”(7)
Relying on the superiority of the socialist system, we have the full capacity to organize the broadest masses of the people into local combat or combat service organizations and raise still higher the proportion of the population who are members of the militia and self-defence forces making the militia and self-defence forces really become the broad military organization of the labouring people. It is our policy to give general military education to the people with a view to preparing militarily, to a necessary and appropriate level, all our people, young and old, men and women, so that they may realize their desire of participating in the fight against the aggressors to defend the country. We shall see to it that the aggressors, if they are reckless enough to launch an all-out war of aggression against our country, will meet the riposte of not only a few hundreds of thousands or some millions but of tens of millions of people, of our entire people, from the mountains to the plains, from the midlands to the coastal areas, from the countryside to the towns, who will, like one man, stand firmly at their posts closely coordinating with the people’s army to hit back at the adversary anywhere, using whatever means and weapons available.
But the strength of the armed forces of the masses in the socialist system consists not only in their numerical strength but also in their quality. That is their organizational spirit, the level of their equipment and their operational methods and, in the first place, their political and moral strength. That is why it is necessary to firmly grasp the principle of the Party concerning the building of the revolutionary armed forces and apply it to the building of the militia and self-defence forces. We must unceasingly strengthen and intensify the Party leadership of the militia and self-defence forces, attach special importance to political work and firmly master the class line and political criteria as regards the organization of the militia and self-defence force in order to keep it as efficient and reliable instrument of proletarian dictatorship at the base level. The level of political consciousness of the militia and self-defence forces is in direct proportion to that of the labouring people. The political and ideological education of the militia and self-defence forces is inseparably linked with the political and ideological education of the entire labouring people in the locality and in the base and must be jointly carried out by the Party organization, the various mass organizations and State offices, production bases and military organs in the locality. As far as the content of this education is concerned, apart from the common requirements for every citizen, it is necessary to teach the militia and self-defence forces the task of the revolutionary armed forces in general and the militia and self-defence forces in particular. They should have a clear understanding of the military task of the locality, heighten their revolutionary vigilance, their determination to defend the country and their readiness to fight and endure sacrifices to protect the lives and property of the people right in the villages and hamlets, in the streets, in the cooperatives and factories so as to defend the people’s power, defend the locality and develop their sense of being the collective masters in the defence and building of the country.
In the organizational sphere, we must pay attention to building the militia and guerillas in the countryside and in the cooperatives as well as to building the self-defence forces and combat self-defence units in the towns and industrial centres, on the construction sites, in State farms, public offices and schools. As the development of socialist construction advances, the industrial centres and new economic centres are becoming more and more important and accordingly the percentage of workers, cadres, public servants and urban workers among the population is rising unceasingly. At the same time, profound changes are also taking place in the countryside, with the agricultural cooperatives becoming more and more consolidated with regard to the production relations and strengthened in their material and technical bases and the class of collective farmers growing and maturing more and more. This situation determines the ever more important role of the self-defence forces and the militia. At the same time, it gives importance to the need to build the self-defence forces along with the building of the militia. The self-defence forces must correctly reflect the general development and fighting strength of the working class and working people in the towns, just as the militia must correctly reflect the general development and fighting strength of the class of collective farmers, of the socialist countryside in North Viet Nam.
Our country is endowed with mountainous regions, the midlands and the plains and coastal areas. We have a vast countryside and also towns and industrial centres. Each area has its own important position in the political, economic and national defence spheres, its peculiarities in the fields of geography, population, customs and habits and also its own potential different from the other areas. We must base ourselves on the regional peculiarities to work out the appropriate tasks and orientation of the building of the armed forces of the masses. Different policies and orientations must be applied to the mountainous region and the plains, to the coastal areas and the hinterland, to the countryside and the towns and industrial centres or along the strategic communication lines.
Only in this way can the militia and self-defence forces in any locality make full use of the specific potentialities of its area in manpower, equipment, weapons and supply, in order to build seasoned local units, skilled in fighting and serving the fight in the special conditions of each locality. These will serve as a spearhead for a vigorous development of the people’s war at the grassroots level and as the shock force in the building and development of the local economy.
The militia and self-defence forces are charged with military duty as well as productive tasks or any other task in every aspect of the activity of the State machine. That is why, in building the militia and self-defence forces, we must take into full account the specific conditions of the production activity, work, study and life of the people and rely on the production bases: production brigades, cooperatives, factories, construction sites, State farms, public offices, schools, communes, villages, and street quarters. Only so can we ensure that the activities of the militia and self-defense forces are closely combined with combat, production and work in all circumstances, in time of war as well as in time of peace.
We must exploit to the fullest extent the existing and ever increasing capacities of the various sectors of the national economy and other branches of social life, and we must make a rational organization and use of the militia and self-defence forces in these branches in order to raise its combat capacity and ensure its readiness to fight and give combat support. During the war of resistance to the US war of destruction, there have taken shape in a number of towns and industrial centres various self-defence organizations in different branches such as the engineering service, building, land and river communication, postal and medical services and the other branches of activity both on land and on water. Experience has shown that if we know how to make the best use of the existing technical and specialized capacities of each branch, we will be able to divide the militia and self-defence forces into different categories with different tasks and on this basis to lay down the direction for their correct building and use and the correct organization and rational distribution of work among them. In this way, the armed forces of the masses will be provided with a new, very great, potential, able to meet the new requirements of modern war, to achieve effective combination with the regional army and the regular army and to replenish the various services and arms of the people’s army.
With regard to the equipment, proceeding from the requirements of combat and the different types of terrain, we are resolved to gradually equip the guerilla and combat self-defence forces with a number of appropriate relatively modern weapons and war means while not losing sight of the necessity to develop the primitive and improved weapons. The goal of the technical revolution in the North is to build a new material and technical basis of socialism and turn handicraft work into mechanized labour. At present the watchword “equip ourselves with whatever we have” no longer has the same content as it had in the past. If, in the past, for the militia and self-defence forces, this slogan chiefly meant the equipment of this force with primitive weapons, today it is more and more associated with the adoption of modern technique. With the new capabilities of the localities, we must pay due attention to making the fullest use of the existing relatively modern or modern weapons in the localities to equip the core of the militia and self-defence forces. However, we should in no way slight primitive or improved weapons and means. As has been clearly demonstrated by the long practice of war in our country, the primitive and improved weapons and equipment have proved very effective and created a very big force enabling them to take part in the destruction of the enemy by multiform and imaginative ways, creating a self-defence war carried out in our own land. Moreover, no country, however advanced its industrial development, can arm the whole of its people. That is why, while the core of the people’s armed forces is equipped with new and relatively more modern weapons and war means, the majority of the people still need to be equipped with primitive or improved weapons and means to fight against the enemy. Otherwise, the question of arming the entire people or arming the broad masses of the people will suffer.
It is necessary to continue stepping up the building and development of technical teams, groups or units forming special branches in the militia and self-defence forces. This is a logical step of development in the raising of the combat capacity of the militia and self-defence forces in the conditions of modern warfare when the equipment of these forces is being unceasingly improved and strengthened and when our people are pushing forward with socialist industrialization and building the material and technical basis of socialism.
As a result of the correct policy of our Party, during the years of resistance against the US war of destruction there have appeared in the militia and self-defence forces many units of anti-aircraft machineguns and artillery, ground artillery, engineering, communications and anti-chemical warfare while many combat units have been equipped with mortars and some other modern weapons. The combat efficiency of the militia and self-defence forces as well as their capacity to serve the fight has been markedly improved. In many places, the militia and self-defence forces have by themselves shot down US aircraft, set fire to US warships, quickly annihilated commando groups of the enemy and expertly manned many modern or relatively modern weapons and war means, making important contributions to the detection and deactivation of modern US bombs and land or water mines. They have repaired and built roads, bridges, air bases, and other military projects and even produced some modern technical means for the anti-aircraft, missile, communication, engineering and naval units of the army. That reality allows us to affirm that the militia and self-defence forces in socialist North Viet Nam have the full capacity to make good use of the various types of modern weapons and war means to fight the enemy and serve the fight. This capacity will increase in proportion to the ever rising cultural, technical and organizational level of our people, and is helped by the fact that we have a very big force of armymen who have been demobilized or transferred to civilian services. These are becoming the backbone of the armed forces of the masses in all parts of the country and include officers and men who have served in various arms and services of the people’s army.
We must pay great attention to the military training of the militia and self-defence forces and the entire people. Proceeding from our methods of conducting war and our military art, from the combat requirements of the localities in different conditions of the war, from our enemies in the field, from the reality of the organization, equipment and the productive activities and work of the militia and self-defence forces, it is necessary to make elaborate studies in order to determine the most appropriate content of the training programme and the method of training for the militia and self-defence forces. The training programme must ensure that the militia and self-defence forces have a spirit of offensive, firmly grasp the guidelines for combat as well as the combat methods of guerilla warfare in modern conditions, and possess a high technical and tactical level commensurate with the combat requirements in each locality. We must ensure that the militia and self-defence forces have a perfect knowledge of their locality, a high capacity for independent fighting and also the capacity to achieve close coordination with the other armed forces operating in the locality. The military training programme for the militia and self-defence forces must be linked to their production activities. Whenever possible, we should combine the raising of the combat capabilities of the militia and self-defence forces and their capacity to serve the fight with the raising of their production technique. We must seriously regard the way in which the militia and self-defence forces fight the enemy as an art and an important content of our military science, and hence pay due attention to summing up the combat experiences of the armed forces of the masses in both zones of the country. We should carry out studies in order to build and develop unceasingly the art of fighting the enemy practised by the masses’ armed forces in our country.
Hand in hand with training the militia and self-defence forces, and the reserve force, we must give importance to military education in the Party and step up popular military education among the people. To foster the military traditions of the nation for the defence of the country over many centuries of independence, our forefathers made use of many different competitions to encourage the people to improve their military art such as contests in military arts, wrestling contests, archery competitions, etc. Today we must continue this tradition. In the years to come we shall promulgate general military education among the people in order to raise their sense of national defence, improve the military standard and develop the military traditions among the entire people. We must vigorously develop the movement of military sports and physical culture, and endow it with an ever richer content commensurate with the requirements of the people’s war in our country in present-day conditions. It is necessary to have a wide dissemination of military knowledge among the people in varied forms appropriate to different age groups most of all for the young men and women. At the same time we must gradually develop mass organizations for military study and research, such as aviation, communication, chemical clubs, etc., while stepping up the movement to establish sworn-brotherhood relations between mass organizations and army units.
A modern regular army must necessarily have a well-organized and strong reserve force. The armed forces of the masses form an inexhaustible reserve of the people’s army. The building and administration of the reserve force is of paramount importance in time of war because this is the force of replenishment for the army, and in time of peace because it will prepare the country to cope with all contingencies. The reserve force must be well organized both numerically and qualitatively in order to meet the need to expand the force and replenish the infantry and the other services and arms of the people’s army. We must work out sound policies, systems and plans for the building and administration of the reserve force regarding the registration and administration of the demobilized armymen and those who have been transferred to civilian services but are still able to serve in the reserve force. We must work out plans for military exercise and mobilization so that when necessary we can quickly restore and expand our armed forces. It is necessary to have an appropriate training programme to keep the officers and men of the reserve force always abreast with the development of a modern army and modern military science and help them give full scope to their role of core of the regional armed forces and to serve in the army when necessity arises. We must pay particular attention to the management and training of a reserve force among state employees and college students. We must see to it that in the future we can determine which reserve force in what branch and locality will best replenish such and such military branch and service and such and such armed force in a given locality. For instance, reserve military engineering units should be formed within the building service, signal units within the posts and telecommunications service, medical units within the public health service, naval units within the economic branches operating on the river, in the sea and among the population of coastal or riverine areas... In this way, the officers and men newly assigned to a unit can quickly receive and master the techniques and speciality of the military arm or service to which they are detailed. Later on after a reservist is demobilized and returns to his former civil occupation he would become the nucleus of the popular armed forces at his workplace and be able to give full scope to his technical abilities and his special knowledge to boost production and raise his work efficiency. This will be very beneficial to both fighting and construction, to both national defence and economy, in time of war and in time of peace alike.
To arm the masses, in the view of our Party, does not only mean to organize, educate, train and equip the broad masses of the people but also to actively build the rear in all aspects — political, economic and national defence — to build solid platform for the people’s war at the base and in the localities.
The strength of the rear of the people’s war throughout North Viet Nam as well as in each locality depends on the successes of our people in socialist construction. That is why, in order to build a strong rear, we must strive our hardest to implement the triple revolution(8), carry out an active consolidation of the regions politically, make them prosperous economically and strong militarily. While promoting the building of the regional economy, we must have plans to have a close coordination between the need for economic construction and the need for strengthening national defence in all branches: agriculture, industry, communications and transport, posts and telecommunications, health and cultural services, building service...
It is necessary to speed up the building of fighting villages, fighting street quarters and fighting areas, forming them into a comprehensive system in order to stand prepared to meet all contingencies of war while ensuring facilities for normal production activities and the people’s life in peace time. These must be solid offensive and defensive positions for our three categories of armed forces and steady bases from which the people will fight the enemy and carry on production at the same time in the conditions of a fierce war.
Preparations must be made to provide against the worst should the enemy use nuclear weapons. The building of fighting communes, fighting villages and fighting street quarters must be made on a comprehensive basis. We must have a strong Party organization, a mighty political force of the masses, a powerful militia and self-defence forces. We must have plans to improve the terrains of battle, and work out operational plans and training programmes for regional armed forces as well as the entire population. We must make effective preparations to turn each hamlet, each village and each street quarter into a really strong bastion of the people’s war at the grassroots level and turn each province into a strategic unit of the national defence of the entire people.
In the building of the armed forces of the masses, along with the strengthening of the Party leadership at local level, and the guidance of the regional military organism, one question of prime importance is to build a strong and reliable contingent of cadres for the masses’ armed forces and the militia and self-defence forces. This contingent must respond to the constant growth of the masses’ armed forces in quantity and quality, in organization and equipment, in combat methods... and respond to the ever bigger and more complicated task of consolidating national defence and conducting a people’s war at the base level.
The cadres of the militia and self-defence force are military cadres not detached from production, doing their production task and military task at the same time, working and fighting in close connection with production activity and the people’s life at the base level. We must pay special attention to their quality and have a firm understanding of the importance of class orientation and political criteria in the building of the contingent of cadres for the militia and self-defence forces. In addition to the common requirement in political standards for all cadres of the revolutionary armed forces, the cadres of the militia and self-defence forces must also have assimilated the political lines and tasks of the Party, the political economic and military task of the locality, and be strong in their determination to abide by all resolutions of the Party Committee and the instructions of the local administration as well as all instructions and orders of the superior military organs. They must have a necessary level of military knowledge, a comprehensive understanding of the political, economic and cultural situation in the locality and a thorough knowledge of the situation at the base, able to skilfully coordinate military with economic and other tasks. They must have the ability to help the local Party Committee in directing military affairs and to assume leading and commanding roles as well as to organize the fulfilment of the tasks of building, fighting, serving the fight, supplying the front, disseminating a basic knowledge of military science among the population, building up the reserve force, carrying out the policy concerning the rear as well as all other activities for consolidating national defence in their localities.
It is through the revolutionary movements in the localities and through the practice of fighting and work that we shall choose the best men and women for the contingent of cadres. This selection should also be combined with the building of the Party and the mass organizations in the localities. It is necessary to make a rational division of work among the cadres, and actively create conditions for them to improve their standard in their respective areas of responsibility, accumulate experiences and develop to the fullest their abilities in the fulfilment of all tasks within the localities.
By firmly grasping and satisfactorily carrying out the above tasks, from the quick expansion of the militia and self-defence forces to the continuous raising of their quality in all fields — politics and ideology, organization, equipment, training, building the rear base, training the cadres — we will effectively carry out the teaching of venerated President Ho Chi Minh: “Each citizen must be a valiant fighter, each commune, village or street quarter must be a bastion, each cooperative and enterprise must be a supply base for the people’s war and, in this way, we will turn the whole of our country into a single battleground to wipe out any aggressor.”
By their victorious, heroic and imaginative fight against the most brutal aggressive forces — those of US imperialism — by their creative labour in building a new social system, our people are living the most exalting days of their national history in the era of independence, freedom and socialism for the Vietnamese fatherland.
The present resistance against US aggression for national salvation makes us recall with justified pride and a high sense of responsibility the whole history of the glorious resistance of our nation against foreign aggressors, in particular the great and victorious resistance under the Tran dynasty. At that time, our people had to confront the Yuan Mongol aggressors, the most brutal enemy of our people in ancient times, the most ruthless aggressor of mankind in the Medieval period, who had trampled upon Asia and Europe, conquered and wiped out the names of many nations from the world map. Our people, fulfilling with flying colours their sacred national task, ushered in the period of the collapse of the Yuan Mongol Empire, making a worthy contribution to the fight of the other countries and nations at that time against foreign aggression.
Today, in the new era of human history inaugurated by the Great Russian October Revolution, in the Ho Chi Minh era in our country, our people, under the leadership of our Party, have again waged and are waging a glorious and victorious resistance, this time against US imperialism, the most brutal and strongest aggressor of our nation in modern history and also the enemy number one of the whole mankind. The anti-US war of resistance for national salvation is the most glorious and greatest of all resistance wars ever conducted by the heroic Vietnamese nation against foreign aggression. This resistance is being looked upon as the focus, the front line of the world people’s movement against US imperialist aggression.
Our people are clearly and fully conscious of our sacred national task and our noble international obligation. We have the necessary determination and strength to completely defeat the US aggressors, liberate the South, defend the North and proceed to the peaceful reunification of the country. This will mark a turning point in the historical process of the collapse of the US imperialist neo-colonialism, making a worthy contribution to the revolutionary struggle of the people all over the world.
The secret of our people’s success in the 13th century, in the 20th century, as well as in the whole historical process of our victorious fight against aggressive forces much bigger and stronger than ourselves to survive and develop, lies actually in the fact that we have relied on the patriotism of the entire people. We have given full play to the strength of the whole country, and mobilized the entire nation to rise up, to combine efforts of the whole country and the entire people in the resistance and wage an insurrection of the entire people and a people’s war with the army and the armed forces of the masses as the core.
General Tran Quoc Tuan’s thought of “the whole nation joining forces” and his policy of “everyone a soldier” which dates back to the 13th century has not ceased to develop and to acquire an ever richer content, an ever higher quality and a growing strength. Today it reaches its peak with the great military thought of President Ho Chi Minh which consists in “uniting the entire people”, “the whole country fighting the aggressors” and “the 31 million of our compatriots being 31 million valiant fighters against the US aggressors”.
Nowadays, our people are guided by the political, military and international line of our Party which is a judicious, independent, sovereign and creative line. We have a vanguard social system and an ever increasing politico-moral and technico-material force. Moreover, we enjoy the active assistance of the other countries in the socialist camp and the sympathy and support of the whole of progressive mankind. In the new era, we have the invincible strength of the militant solidarity of the entire people, of the whole country, of the entire nation based on the worker-peasant alliance and placed under the leadership of the working class. We have mighty political forces and armed forces. Our people’s armed forces are composed of a regular and modern people’s army and strong extensive armed forces of the masses. We are sure to accomplish our sacred national task and our noble international obligation.
The thought of “the whole nation joining forces”, “everyone a soldier”, “the whole people uniting”, “the whole country fighting against the aggressors”, the organization of the army along the lines of “arming the entire people, combining the army with the popular armed forces” is an original feature of Vietnamese military thought, the military thought by which a small country can defeat bigger aggressors in its just fight for independence and freedom.
The principle of “arming the entire people, combining the people’s army with the armed forces of the masses and vice versa, making the armed forces of the masses the base of the people’s army and making the people’s army the core of the armed forces of the masses and building up the three categories of the people’s armed forces” is a very important part of the policy of building the people’s armed forces in particular and the military line of our Party in general, a very important part of Vietnamese military science in the present era. The determination of this organizational principle is a great and original work, a major success of our Party and people. Experience has shown that in the revolutionary struggle in general and in the armed struggle in particular, once we have a correct line, a correct resolution of the organizational problem is of primary importance for winning victory.
This principle of military organization is a precious weapon in the storehouse of national experience, especially for small nations subjected to aggression and enslavement who rise up and fight victoriously against imperialism and colonialism, for national independence, democracy and social progress. Whatever the circumstances this principle must be firmly grasped. We should closely follow the realities of society, war and the development of production, science and technology. We should learn actively but selectively from the experiences of the fraternal socialist countries and other nations in the world. In the process of the bitter struggle between us and the enemy we should always base ourselves on the concrete historical conditions and circumstances of each period to put into practice the Party military line and principles of military organization, without ceasing to promote creativeness and development, without indulging in conservatism and self-complacency, while avoiding uniformity and mechanical attitudes in order to increase the fighting strength of our entire people, vigorously develop the Vietnamese people’s war, steadily consolidate the national defence of the Vietnamese fatherland, and build ever mightier armed forces of the Vietnamese people.
Our people, our nation are resolved to forge ahead and win complete victory for the patriotic anti-US resistance in order to build a peaceful, reunified, independent, democratic and prosperous Viet Nam.
Our people, our nation will forever defend the beautiful land bequeathed by our forefathers and will forever safeguard the independence of our beloved Vietnamese motherland.
(1) This article was written in March 1972 (Ed.)
(2) Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966, p. 137.
(3) Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, p. 76.
(4) Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966, p. 137.
(5) Lenin, Collected Works, Russian edition, Political Literature State Publishing House, Fourth edition, 1950, Vol. 29, p.226.
(6) Lenin, Military Correspondence (1917-1920), Military Publishing House, Soviet Defence Ministry, 1956, p. 30.
(7) Lenin, Articles and Speeches on Military Problems, People’s Army Publishing House, Hanoi, 1970, Vol. I, p. 351.
(8) The revolution in relations of production, the technical revolution, and the cultural and ideological revolution. (Ed.)