General Secretary To Lam attends the ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam People's Army and the 35th anniversary of the National Defense Day, December 20, 2024_Photo: mod.gov.vn
Building a strong national defense is a consistent strategic policy of our Party and State, a very important task and content in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. Our Party always develops theoretical thinking to promptly have policies and guidelines to lead the entire people and the entire army to build a strong national defense, creating a combined strength to strengthen national defense and security; to prevent and defeat all plots and sabotage tricks of hostile forces; to successfully carry out the two strategic tasks of building and firmly defending the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam in the new situation. The developments in our Party's theoretical thinking on building a national defense in the new situation, especially since the 12th National Party Congress up to now, are reflected in the following main issues:
First, on the goal of building a national defense
Our Party identifies the top goal in building a national defense as constantly improving the country's defense strength, strengthening national defense, security, and protecting the Fatherland. The documents of the 12th and 13th National Party Congresses affirm: Building a strong national defense, strengthening national defense and security, aiming to "firmly protect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland, protect the Party, the State, the people, the socialist regime, the culture, and national interests; maintaining a peaceful environment, political stability, national security... to develop the country in the direction of socialism" (1) . In the Resolution of the 8th Central Conference of the 13th tenure on the Strategy for National Defense in the new situation, based on the viewpoints on national defense and security at the 12th and 13th Congresses, with a new mindset on national defense, the goal of building a strong all-people national defense was identified and developed more fully by our Party: protecting the cause of innovation, industrialization, modernization... Accordingly, building a strong all-people national defense in terms of potential, forces, and posture, always associated with building people's security; proactively preventing and defeating all plots and sabotage activities of hostile forces, proactively defeating all types of enemy invasion wars, firmly protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.
Second, on the viewpoint of building a national defense foundation
To successfully achieve the above-mentioned goal, our Party has put forward four viewpoints in building a national defense, including: (1). Maintaining and strengthening the leadership of the Party, the management and administration of the State in building a national defense; (2). Building a national defense to prevent and repel the risk of armed conflicts and wars of aggression; being ready to defeat wars of aggression, firmly protecting the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam in all situations; (3). Building a national defense that is comprehensive, independent, autonomous, self-reliant, self-reliant, and gradually modern; (4). Promoting the combined strength of the country, of the great national unity bloc; combining national strength with the strength of the times in building a national defense and people's security. Through the congresses, especially from the 12th Party Congress to the present, each viewpoint on building a national defense has always been supplemented and developed to meet each historical period.
Ensuring the maintenance and strengthening of the Party's leadership, the State's management and administration in building the all-people national defense is the consistent and continuous viewpoint of the Party. From the 12th Congress to the present, our Party has continued to affirm, concretize and lead the State to institutionalize the Party's absolute and direct leadership in all aspects over the cause of national defense and security as well as the cause of building the all-people national defense. The 13th Party Congress determined: "Maintaining and strengthening the Party's absolute and direct leadership in all aspects, the State's centralized and unified management over the People's Army, the People's Public Security and the cause of national defense and security" (2) .
Regarding the viewpoint of building a comprehensive, independent, autonomous, self-reliant, self-reliant, self-reliant, and gradually modernized national defense, our Party affirms: Thoroughly grasping the path of independence and self-reliance, while proactively and actively integrating internationally in building a national defense. Implementing the "four no's" policy: "not participating in military alliances; not ally with one country to fight another; not allowing foreign countries to set up military bases or use Vietnamese territory to fight against other countries; not using force or threatening to use force in international relations" (3) . At the 13th National Congress, our Party emphasized: "Combining national strength with the strength of the times, proactively and actively integrating comprehensively and deeply into the international community; Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner, and an active, responsible member of the international community" (4) . Accordingly, building a national defense of Vietnam is peaceful and self-defense; Resolve all disputes and disagreements by peaceful means on the basis of international law. Actively and proactively prevent and repel the risk of armed conflicts and aggressive wars; implement the motto of protecting the Fatherland "early, from afar", ready to defeat the enemy's aggressive wars in all situations.
Regarding the viewpoint of promoting the overall strength of the country, of the great national unity bloc; combining national strength with the strength of the times in building the all-people national defense, our Party determines to build the overall strength of the all-people national defense in terms of politics, ideology, socio-economics, culture, national defense, security, and foreign affairs; from the strength of the great national unity bloc, of the entire political system under the leadership of the Party, the management of the State, in which the people's armed forces are the core. "Continue to develop the country rapidly and sustainably; closely link and synchronously deploy tasks, in which socio-economic development is the center; Party building is the key; cultural development is the spiritual foundation; ensuring national defense and security is essential and regular" (5) .
The Party's theoretical thinking on the content of building a national defense for the cause of building and defending the Fatherland has been comprehensively developed, with many new additions. According to the Party's viewpoint, the content of building a national defense includes: building the potential of the national defense, building the national defense force, and building the national defense posture.
Third, on building the potential of national defense
The potential of the all-people national defense is the human, material, financial and spiritual capabilities at home and abroad that can be mobilized to carry out the task of national defense and protect the Fatherland. Our Party determines that building the national defense potential must be comprehensive, closely combining political, spiritual, economic, cultural, social, scientific-technological, military, security and foreign affairs potentials in a unified whole. Those potentials are built in peacetime, dynamically and effectively transformed when there is war. From the 12th Congress to the present, in the theoretical thinking of our Party, there has been a new development in building the potential of the all-people national defense. In addition to the identified potentials, the issue of building the foreign affairs potential of the all-people national defense has been added. In building economic potential, resources for building economic potential have been expanded, including building the capabilities of the economy that can be mobilized to carry out the task of national defense and security; Special attention is paid to building economic potential, developing national industry always associated with developing defense industry; mobilizing all local resources and social resources in building national defense. The document of the 13th National Party Congress clearly states: "Building and developing a modern, dual-use defense industry and security industry, both meeting the requirements and tasks of protecting the Fatherland and making an important contribution to socio-economic development; building and consolidating border, sea and island defense lines; having a mechanism to mobilize local resources and social resources for building defense and security potential in defense areas" (6) . The Party's theoretical thinking has new developments in leading the implementation of building a defense industry to serve the national defense: "Building a proactive, self-reliant, self-reliant, dual-use, modern defense industry, becoming the spearhead of the national industry; the defense industry must master advanced, modern technology, meeting the task of building a modern Army, protecting the Fatherland early and from afar" (7) .
Fourth, on building a national defense force
The Party's theoretical thinking on building the all-people national defense force (including the all-people force and the people's armed forces) also has new developments. Regarding building the all-people force, our Party emphasizes: Focusing on building a clean and strong political system at all levels and sectors from the central to local levels, including Party agencies, organizations, the State, the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations and the entire people. Building the all-people force in accordance with the socialist-oriented market mechanism, types of socio-economic organizations, conditions of each region, area and locality across the country; only then can the combined strength of the entire people be promoted in building a strong all-people national defense, strengthening national defense, security and protecting the Fatherland.
Border where the army and people are in love_Source: nhiepanhdoisong.vn
Along with building the people's armed forces, our Party advocates building the people's armed forces (People's Army, People's Police and militia) absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, the Party, the State and the people; as the core force in building the people's national defense, people's security, as well as in the cause of protecting the Fatherland. Discussing the building of the people's armed forces, the Document of the 12th National Party Congress determined: "Building the People's Army and People's Police to be revolutionary, disciplined, elite, and gradually modernized, prioritizing the modernization of a number of military branches, arms and forces..." (8) . By the 13th Congress, our Party has supplemented, developed, and more specifically defined the goals and roadmap for building and modernizing the People's Army and the People's Public Security: "By 2025, basically build a lean, strong, and elite Army and Public Security, creating a solid foundation, striving by 2030 to build a revolutionary, disciplined, elite, and modern People's Army and Public Security; strong in politics, ideology, ethics, organization, and cadres..." (9) . At the same time, our Party has made new additions and developments on the issue of building reserve forces and militia and self-defense forces: "Build a strong reserve force and strong militia and self-defense forces, widespread in all regions, areas, and at sea" (10) . The new development in our Party's theoretical thinking on building the people's armed forces - the core force of the all-people national defense - is in line with the trend of the times, the country's development situation, and meets the requirements and tasks of protecting the Fatherland in the new situation.
Fifth, on building a national defense posture
Regarding the building of the all-people national defense posture, our Party's theoretical thinking has new developments. Building the all-people national defense posture is always associated with the people's security posture; in particular, the "people's heart posture" is an important factor that our Party always pays attention to in building the all-people national defense. The Resolution of the 8th Central Conference, Session XI on the Strategy for National Defense in the new situation emphasizes and attaches importance to building political and spiritual potential, the "people's heart posture"; closely combining the all-people national defense posture with the people's security posture". The Party's 12th Congress documents determined: "Building the "people's heart posture", creating a solid foundation for building the all-people national defense and people's security" (11) . At the 13th Congress, our Party continued to affirm and further develop: "building and strongly promoting the "people's heart posture" in the all-people national defense and people's security; build and firmly consolidate the all-people national defense posture and the people's security posture" (12) . Our Party always develops theoretical thinking on building all-people national defense in accordance with the situation and tasks in the new revolutionary period. Accordingly, the planning and building of all-people national defense posture must be associated with the national master plan, regional planning and other plans. Closely combine socio-economic development with strengthening national defense and security; build military zone defense posture, build provinces and cities into solid defense areas associated with the posture, arrange armed forces in each region and strategic direction. Organize civil defense, prevent, combat and overcome the consequences of disasters and natural disasters. At the 13th National Congress, our Party determined: "establish a comprehensive security posture inside and outside the national border and in cyberspace; "special attention to cyber security" (13) ; create a solid position, strengthen national defense and security, and protect the Fatherland early and from afar./.
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(1) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2021, vol. I, p. 156
(2) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, pp. 160 - 161
(3) Ministry of National Defense: Vietnam National Defense 2019, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2019, p. 25
(4) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, p. 162
(5) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, p. 110
(6) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, pp. 158 - 159
(7) Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW, dated January 26, 2022, of the Politburo, on "Promoting the development of the defense industry to 2030 and the following years"
(8) Documents of the 12th National Congress of Delegates , Central Party Office, Hanoi, 2016, p. 149
(9), (10) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, p. 158
(11) Documents of the 12th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit. , p. 149
(12) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, p. 157
(13) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit ., vol. I, p. 280
Source: https://tapchicongsan.org.vn/web/guest/quoc-phong-an-ninh-oi-ngoai1/-/2018/1097502/nhung-phat-trien-tu-duy-ly-luan-cua-dang-ve-xay-dung-nen-quoc-phong-toan-dan-trong-tinh-hinh-moi.aspx
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