General Vo Nguyen Giap's views on building the Vietnam People's Army

General Vo Nguyen Giap was an outstanding military man, the first Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnamese revolutionary armed forces, who made outstanding contributions, contributing to many important victories that changed the history of the nation, and contributing to the development of Vietnamese military art.

General Vo Nguyen Giap visited the Air Defense - Air Force Command, December 30, 1972.

The 112th anniversary of General Vo Nguyen Giap's birthday (August 25, 1911 - August 25, 2023) is an opportunity to look back more deeply at the General's military thinking on building revolutionary armed forces, building all-people national defense..., associated with building a revolutionary, disciplined, elite, and modern People's Army, meeting the requirements of the cause of defending the Fatherland.

People's Army

According to General Vo Nguyen Giap, building the People's Army must first thoroughly understand the viewpoint of "arming the revolutionary masses and building the People's Army, combining the People's Army with the armed forces of the masses, the armed forces of the masses with the People's Army" (According to "General Vo Nguyen Giap and the resistance war against the US, saving the country", People's Army Publishing House). This is a matter of the Party's military strategy to promote the strength of the people's war, the whole people, the whole country to protect the Fatherland.

This viewpoint was clearly demonstrated through the General's advice to the Party Central Committee to develop the three types of armed forces (guerrilla militia, local troops and main force troops) in the resistance war against French colonialism, with special attention paid to the role of the main force troops; at the same time, directly organized the expansion and development of the armed forces in terms of quantity, quality, organizational scale, level and combat capability; directed the development of guerrilla warfare, closely combined with regular warfare.

The General said that the armed forces always have two basic components combined together: “one is the People's Army, including the main force and local forces; two is the mass armed forces, including the numerous militia and self-defense organizations”. In essence, this is the combination of building the core force with the broad force, the mobile force with the local force to promote the position and strength of people's war. Building the People's Army must resolve the relationship well in building the forces, not absolutizing any aspect; however, there must be a revolutionary army organized to a certain level as the shock force, attacking and destroying the enemy to encourage the masses to rise up.

This is also an aspect of the ideology of building a national defense, which is consistently and thoroughly expressed in the thinking, direction, advice and proposals to the Party and State of General Vo Nguyen Giap in his capacity as Secretary of the Central Military Commission, Minister of National Defense , Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army during the two long resistance wars of the nation. That is, building a national defense must rely on the people, promote the strength of the whole people; properly resolve the relationship between the economy and national defense; build an independent, autonomous, increasingly modern national defense, closely linked to the development of culture, education, science - technology, health, sports...

Creative solutions to military modernization problems

Realizing the important role of regularization and modernization in the task of enhancing the army's strength, right after the North started building socialism, the General directed: "Build a modern army with many arms and services, including the army, air force and navy; the army includes infantry, artillery, armor, engineering, communications, chemical defense, transportation... The main force is organized into strong corps, weapons and equipment are increasingly modern, mobility is improved, the level of joint operations between arms is increasingly advanced, and combat strength is increasingly greater. Local troops are consolidated, equipment is enhanced, and combat capability is enhanced."

During the resistance war against the US to save the country, General Vo Nguyen Giap advised the Party Central Committee and directly built and developed the army to meet the requirements of the struggle to liberate the South and unify the country. The General directly recommended to the Central Committee and directed the urgent building of the Vietnam People's Army to become more standardized and modern; sent cadres to study in the Soviet Union, China and other socialist countries to supplement forces, improve the level of command and coordination of military and service branches to prepare the framework of command cadres at the army and army corps levels; built the Air Defense - Air Force, Navy; Special Forces...

In particular, near the end of the resistance war against the US to save the country, the General proposed the establishment of main army corps (1, 2, 3, 4) to strengthen military strength to meet the requirements of large-scale joint operations, to carry out important battles, and strategic decisive campaigns. The victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign is proof that the General's proposals and viewpoints are creative, accurate, suitable for the requirements of the battlefield, and meet the objective requirements of the law of military development.

To build a regularized and modernized army, according to the General, we must build a modern army that is suitable for specific conditions and best meets the defense requirements of our country. Therefore, the process of building a regular, modern army must thoroughly follow the Party's military line, starting from the country's capabilities and actual conditions; studying factors such as combat objects, Vietnamese military art, world scientific and technological achievements... to creatively solve the problem of military modernization.

In addition, the General said that a strong army is also the result of a good resolution of the relationship between people and weapons, equipment, and technical logistics, clearly demonstrated through the harmonious combination of spiritual and material factors. Although the fighting spirit is high, but the level of technical equipment is weak, and the army is not properly organized, it cannot create strong fighting power.

Under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, our people and army have built a superior military, with unique features, reflecting the laws of armed uprising and revolutionary war. One of the main viewpoints of General Vo Nguyen Giap in building the Vietnam People's Army and building a solid national defense is the need to study military science to grasp the laws of war, plots, tricks and laws of enemy activities; grasp our methods of preparing and conducting war, promote strengths and overcome temporary weaknesses.

Therefore, from the experiences through practical struggles, we not only summarize the military art in war but also need to attach great importance to researching new issues for future national defense, laying the foundation for the development of military science, not only meeting the requirements of building a revolutionary army, building the people's armed forces but also best serving the task of defending the country.

In particular, General Vo Nguyen Giap is an exemplary model of infinite loyalty to the Fatherland, the Party, the State and the people; always upholding and strictly implementing the principle of the Party's absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Vietnam People's Army. The General focused on building an organizational system, improving the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of Party work and political work as a basis for the army to move towards regularization and modernization; always thoroughly grasping and seriously implementing Ho Chi Minh's thought on "politics is more important than military", "taking politics as the root" in building the Vietnam People's Army.

The life of more than 80 years of revolutionary activities of General Vo Nguyen Giap is associated with important historical milestones marking the development of the Vietnamese revolution. With sharp thinking, strategic vision, and profound practical experience, the General has made many meritorious and outstanding contributions to the victory of the Vietnamese revolution in the Ho Chi Minh era. Along with his great contributions to the country's revolutionary cause, the General is an exemplary model of morality and personality of a communist soldier, dedicating himself to the country and the people.

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