President Ho Chi Minh - Founder and trainer of the Vietnam People's Army

President Ho Chi Minh was the one who directly founded,educated and trained the Vietnam People's Army (VPA).

President Ho Chi Minh visits a military unit in Nam Dinh (1957)

After 79 years of building, fighting and growing up, under the leadership of the Party and beloved Uncle Ho, our Army has always kept in mind and strictly followed his teachings: “Loyal to the Party, filial to the people, ready to fight and sacrifice for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, for socialism. Every task must be completed, every difficulty must be overcome, every enemy must be defeated” (1).

Building an army to protect the Fatherland and protect peace

From a very early age, President Ho Chi Minh realized that in order to successfully carry out the revolutionary cause, it was necessary to organize armed forces. President Ho Chi Minh's purpose in building the army was national self-defense: "We must strive to protect the Fatherland, protect peace, so we must strengthen national defense" (2). This shows that President Ho Chi Minh's view on revolutionary violence clearly expressed humanitarian and peaceful thoughts.

With a strategic vision, from 1925-1927, in Guangzhou (China), he opened training classes to prepare cadres for the Vietnamese revolution. In the Party's brief platform, he determined to "organize a worker-peasant army". He once affirmed: "The Vietnamese nation must be liberated. To liberate, we must fight the Japanese and French fascists. To fight them, we must have military forces". (3). Therefore, our army was born in accordance with objective laws, originating from the needs and demands of the practical revolutionary struggle of the masses, and was the result of the development process of armed organizations of the masses.

In October 1941, he directed the opening of the first concentrated military training class in Pac Bo to move towards establishing a revolutionary armed force. Here, he directly participated in training and compiled important military teaching materials such as: "Ten Disciplines"; "Guerrilla Fighting"; "Basic Military Knowledge"...

Uncle Ho visited and talked with a military unit during the resistance war against France.

Implementing his Directive, on December 22, 1944, the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army (the predecessor of the Vietnam People's Army) was born in the Tran Hung Dao forest (Nguyen Binh district, Cao Bang province). The Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army had 34 members organized into a platoon with 3 squads led by comrade Hoang Sam as Team Leader and comrade Xich Thang as Political Commissar. The speech at the founding ceremony by comrade Vo Nguyen Giap affirmed the determination of all the members: "How much hatred of the nation, how much brutality and misery are waiting for a liquidation. We are willing to use our blood and bones to do that work. We will show the entire people the only way to live, which is the way of solidarity to rise up in arms. The Liberation Army will show itself to be an army of the people, of the country, pioneering on the path of national liberation" (4).

The birth of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army was a historical necessity in the cause of national liberation of our people; a turning point in the revolutionary struggle of the nation, meeting the development requirements of the revolution at that time. This was the first time in the history of the country that there was a new type of army organized, led, educated and trained by the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh; a revolutionary army born from the people, fighting for the people, bearing the nature of the working class, the people's character, and the profound national character, fighting for the ideal goal of national independence and socialism.

Take care to build the Vietnam People's Army into a revolutionary army strong in all aspects.

President Ho Chi Minh paid special attention to building the Vietnam People's Army into a revolutionary army strong in all aspects.

Regarding organization, he believed that the Party cell must be the core of leadership, but there must also be a full range of ethnic groups, regions, and local people to facilitate the future activities of the Team.

President Ho Chi Minh determined that building the main force army must first of all be based on solid political qualities and correct revolutionary ideology, in order to be able to undertake the task of propaganda, education, and making the masses aware, confident, and follow the revolution. He emphasized that the military must obey politics: “A military without politics is like a tree without roots, useless and harmful.” (5)

He especially valued human development with the motto "People first, guns later", meaning that people are the decisive factor: "weapons are necessary, but people carrying and using weapons are more important". (6)

Regarding force building, President Ho Chi Minh advocated building a people's armed force consisting of three types of troops: the National Defense Army (main force), local troops and guerrillas. In his Directive on the establishment of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army, he stated: "We will select from the ranks of the Cao - Bac - Lang guerrillas the most determined and enthusiastic cadres and team members and will concentrate a large part of the weapons to establish the main force..., while concentrating forces to establish the first army, it is necessary to maintain armed forces in the localities to coordinate actions and provide assistance in all aspects". (7)

Later, the idea of the three-army armed forces developed, becoming a unique and creative military organization model of our Party, suitable for the fighting style and military art of Vietnam. Thereby, it effectively promoted the strength of the entire people to fight the enemy; combined guerrilla warfare with conventional warfare; fought by main force corps with the uprising of the masses; developed and creatively and flexibly applied combat tactics to destroy the enemy at all times, in all places and with all weapons, causing the most powerful expeditionary armies in the world of the 20th century to get bogged down and fail one after another in the strong and widespread people's war situation.

Regarding military art, President Ho Chi Minh required the mobilization of “concentrated forces” and considered this the basic principle of the art of war. This principle creates favorable conditions for using the few to fight the many, using the weak to defeat the strong; regarding tactics, it is necessary to “use guerrilla warfare, secretly, quickly, actively, now East, tomorrow West, coming without a trace, going without a trace” (8).

In particular, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed the decisive factor for the growth and victory of the Vietnam People's Army: "Our Army has invincible strength because it is a people's army built, led and educated by our Party" (9). Therefore, in the process of building and developing, it is necessary to strengthen the Party's direct and absolute leadership in all aspects of the Army.

President Ho Chi Minh emphasized the need to constantly build and develop forces, making the initially small army advance rapidly, becoming a powerful army. “Although its scale was small at first, its future was very glorious. It was the starting point of the liberation army, it could go from the South to the North, throughout the country of Vietnam” (10).

The nature of the Vietnam People's Army is "born from the people, fighting for the people"

Regarding the nature of the army, President Ho Chi Minh clearly stated: "Our army is the people's army. That is, the flesh and blood of the people. Fighting the enemy to regain independence and unity for the Fatherland, to protect the freedom and happiness of the people. Apart from the interests of the people, our army has no other interests" (11). It can be seen that "coming from the people, fighting for the people" is the nature of the revolutionary army, an important factor contributing to the overall strength of our army against all enemies, in all circumstances.

President Ho Chi Minh repeatedly emphasized: “The people are the foundation, the parents of the army. Political commissars must make the people trust, respect, and love the army. We must make the army trusted, respected, and loved by the people” (12). He always reminded that as the people’s army, the army must be ready to help the people, but absolutely “not touch a needle or thread of the people”, in order to “make the people love it, look forward to it when it comes, and regret when it goes”. (13)

Proud of the Vietnam People's Army, Uncle Ho also affirmed that the officers and soldiers of the Vietnam People's Army were not only good at fighting the enemy but also good at mass mobilization work, performing well the functions of a combat army, a working army and a production labor army: "Our army has also actively contributed to economic development, cultural development, and fulfilling the responsibility of a revolutionary army." (14)

Not only did he follow each step of the army's growth, cheer and encourage officers and soldiers before each victory as well as share and learn from experience before each battle that was not yet victorious, President Ho Chi Minh also wrote letters to inquire, encourage, and sympathize with the losses and sacrifices of wounded soldiers and families of martyrs... At the same time, he also gave badges, gifts, and even his savings book to the soldiers... He devoted endless love to all officers and soldiers.

Not disappointing his expectations, over the past 79 years under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnam People's Army has always been loyal to the revolutionary cause of the Party, always raised high the flag of fighting for the noble ideals of the Party, of the class, of the nation; together with the entire people, completed the cause of national liberation, class liberation, building socialism; promoted the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country; performed well the functions of a fighting army, a working army, a production army; protected the achievements of the revolution, continued to write the heroic history of the nation, and built the glorious tradition of a heroic army born from a heroic nation.

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(1), (9), (14): Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, volume 14, p.435
(2): Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, op. cit., vol. 9, p. 226.
(3), (12): Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, ibid, volume 5, pp. 370, 135
(4): Vo Nguyen Giap: Historical milestones, Literature Publishing House, Hanoi, 1977
(5), (11): Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, ibid, volume 7, pp. 217, 334
(6): Tran Thi Minh Tuyet: Ho Chi Minh's military thought, Political Theory Publishing House, Hanoi, 2015, p.143
(7), (8), (10): Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, op. cit., volume 3, p. 539.
(13): Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, op. cit., vol. 4, p.116.

(According to Baotintuc.vn)

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