Firmly protect the Fatherland 'from early on, from afar'

76 years since its establishment (December 22, 1944 - December 22, 2020), under the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party, inheriting and promoting the nation's patriotism and military art, receiving the love, care and help of the people and the support of international friends, the Vietnam People's Army has always demonstrated the mettle of a revolutionary army, together with the entire people, achieving great victories in the cause of national liberation, defending the Fatherland and fulfilling international obligations.

Military modernization is an inevitable requirement.

In the new context, the forecast of the world and regional situation is still complicated and unpredictable, directly affecting the process of innovation, industrialization, modernization and international integration of our country. Therefore, building a revolutionary, disciplined, elite and gradually modernized Vietnam People's Army, especially the issue of "military modernization", is an urgent need and an important factor to firmly protect the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

The draft Political Report of the Party Central Committee submitted to the 13th National Congress of the Party clearly stated: "Building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modern People's Army and People's Public Security, in which a number of military branches, arms, and forces advance straight to modernization". On September 28, 2020, speaking at the 11th Congress of the Party Committee of the Army for the 2020-2025 term, General Secretary, President Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary of the Central Military Commission emphasized: Synchronously implementing solutions to build a regular, elite, and gradually modern Army; a number of military branches, arms, and forces advance straight to modernization; creating a solid premise to strive from 2030 to build a modern Army.

From that, it can be seen that modernizing the Army is an inevitable requirement to enhance the combat strength to firmly protect the Fatherland in all situations, to protect the Fatherland "early, from afar", without being passive or surprised.

Modernizing the Army: Building the Army Politically as the Root

The modernization of the Vietnam People's Army has always consistently implemented the policy of: Not participating in any military alliance; 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. However, the modernization of the army must begin with political sophistication, because in the relationship between people and weapons, people are always the decisive factor in the effective use of weapons and technical equipment.

Therefore, along with investing in the development of military science and the modernization of equipment and weapons, the building of an elite and modern People's Army requires giving top priority to the building of political strength, ensuring that in any circumstances, the Vietnam People's Army is absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, the Party, the State and the People; steadfast in the goal of national independence and socialism; firmly grasping and strictly implementing the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws; ready to receive and successfully complete all assigned tasks.

To achieve that, it is necessary to continue to thoroughly grasp and synchronously implement solutions to ensure the maintenance of the principle of "the Party's absolute and direct leadership of the Army in all aspects"; focus on building a strong Army Party organization in terms of politics, ideology, organization and ethics; improve the effectiveness of Party and political work activities; proactively prevent manifestations of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation", actively fight to defeat all plots and sabotage activities using the "peaceful evolution" strategy of hostile forces.

In peacetime, along with building the army politically, military training is an inevitable task to enhance strength and combat readiness as well as the process of modernizing the army. Accordingly, it is necessary to strengthen training and training for officers and soldiers to improve their understanding and proficiency in tactics and campaigns, master modern weapons and technical equipment, and have high combat coordination ability; at the same time, it is necessary to implement well the training motto: "Basic, practical, solid". In training, it is necessary to attach importance to practical training, drills in defense areas at all levels; drills in search and rescue, disaster prevention and overcoming; anti-terrorism..., ensuring that units handle situations well and complete assigned tasks well.

Select some forces and fields to "take shortcuts and get ahead"

Building the People's Army, in general, is a gradual modernization, but that does not mean implementing "step by step, evenly", but it is necessary to select a number of important forces, sectors, fields, and departments to invest in the direction of "going ahead, anticipating", moving straight into modernization. Of course, determining the scale, nature, and level of modernization must be carefully considered, based on scientific foundations, accurate forecasts, the actual capabilities of the Army, the country as well as the specific developments of the situation and especially must be based on the Homeland Protection Strategy, in order to meet the requirements of immediate and long-term tasks. With that mindset, now and in the coming years, we need to focus on investing in the navy, air defense - air force, coast guard, communications, electronic warfare, technical reconnaissance in a modern direction to raise the army's combat readiness to a new level, meeting the requirements of protecting the Fatherland in the new period.

It must be added that the goal of strengthening national defense and gradually modernizing the army is to proactively and actively prevent war from happening in the country; but at the same time, be ready to defeat the invasion war with high-tech weapons of hostile forces. In particular, the People's Army must truly be the core force for the entire people to conduct people's war, with the guiding ideology of taking land combat as the decisive factor for victory; at the same time, attaching importance to taking the initiative to conduct combat at sea and in cyberspace, to firmly protect the sovereignty and sacred territory of the Fatherland.

Promoting internal strength and international cooperation

Along with that, to modernize the army, in the new period, it is necessary to exploit all resources well, taking internal resources as the main focus in combination with taking advantage of external resources, creating a comprehensive strength. Regarding domestic resources, it is necessary to synchronously implement solutions to mobilize from many sources; at the same time, it is necessary to have a comprehensive plan and effectively combine the economy with national defense, thoroughly exploit the achievements of industrialization and modernization to serve national defense needs, and gradually modernize the army.

In particular, it is necessary to attach importance to the development of the defense industry, because Vietnam's defense industry is a component part of the national industry, developed mainly in the direction of self-reliance, while at the same time cooperating with the defense industries of friendly countries to acquire advanced technology to improve the level of science and technology.

In the process of promoting the construction and development of the defense industry, it is necessary to promote the absorption and application of achievements of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution in repairing, upgrading, manufacturing, and modernizing weapons and equipment of the Army.

Finally, to modernize the army, it is more necessary than ever to continue to promote international integration and perform well the task of defense diplomacy, contributing to enhancing the position and prestige of the Vietnam People's Army in the international arena; proactively and firmly protect the Fatherland, protect national and ethnic interests early and from afar. Strengthen bilateral cooperation, raise the level of multilateral diplomacy; prioritize relations with neighboring countries and the ASEAN region; balance relations with major countries; expand and deepen relations with potential countries, increase the level of intertwined strategic interests with other countries.

Modernizing the army is an inevitable need to firmly protect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Fatherland. Modernizing the army must be carried out systematically and synchronously, with the foundation being on building a politically strong army, along with doing well in training, building regularity, developing the defense industry, promoting internal strength and mobilizing external resources... In addition, the entire army needs to focus on effectively implementing the viewpoints, goals and tasks expressed in the Draft Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party.Strategy to protect the Fatherland in the new situation, Defense Strategy, Military Strategy, Strategy for protecting the Fatherland in cyberspace, Strategy for protecting national borders and regulations of the Law on National Defense...

Only in this way can the Vietnam People's Army promote its nature, functions, tasks and heroic traditions, worthy of being a trustworthy political force, a loyal fighting army of the Party, State and People, meeting the requirements and tasks in the new period of the revolution, contributing worthily to the cause of successfully building socialism and firmly protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland./.

Colonel, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Sau

Deputy Director, Vietnam Military History Institute