Photo for illustration (Source: VNA)
The President wrote that the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) was born from the people to fight for the people. It was founded and has been led, educated and trained by the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, and lovingly called “Uncle Ho’s soldiers”.
Over the past 73 years, the VPA has been developing strongly, joining hands with the entire Party and people to overcome a range of difficulties and challenges, recording many glorious feats of arms, repelling all enemies and contributing to the cause of national liberation and unification as well as national construction and protection.
The VPA also worked with the armed forces and people of Laos and Cambodia to fight against the common enemies for independence and freedom of each country.
After the success of the resistance war against the American imperialists, the VPA entered the fierce struggle to safeguard the country’s border and performed a noble international mission to help the Cambodia people escape the genocidal regime, leaving a beautiful image of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” among Cambodian people.
The glorious triumph of the August Revolution and the victory of the resistance wars against the French colonists and the American imperialists opened a new era for Vietnam - an era of peace, unification, national independence and socialism.
In the new period of revolution, the fine tradition of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers,” which was steeled through the resistance wars, has continued to flourish.
Guided by the Party, the VPA has focused on building the revolutionary, regular, battle-hardened and modern people’s armed forces, while firmly protecting national independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity and safeguarding the Party, State, people and socialism.
Together with maintaining preparedness for combat, the VPA has also performed well in mass mobilisation, while helping people in production, poverty reduction, natural disaster prevention and recovery, search and rescue activities and giving people access to educational and healthcare services.
The VPA has been developing political bases at grass-roots levels, reinforcing the steadfast “people-based battlefield,” especially in remote, border and island areas.
Looking to the future, the nation is eyeing promising prospects, which go along with difficulties and challenges, requiring the VPA in particular and the people’s armed forces in general to uphold their revolutionary spirit, stay vigilant and work harder to build a strong army with high combat capacity./.