A training session of new recruits (photo: Hung Hai)

The army is neither an independent political force nor a power group. Major-general Bui Phan Ky of the Institute of National Defense Strategy says the army of any country has to associate with a political force. “The Vietnam People’s Army was founded on December 22, 1944, one year before the founding of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and two years before the 1946 Constitution. President Ho Chi Minh’s direction to establish the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army, the then Vietnam People’s Army, was also at the request of the organization which was the Party. The Army originated from the Party when the Vietnamese State was not established. It’s not an exception in Vietnam but the army of a nation must be loyal to the ruling Party. Any nation has a ruling Party.” Ky said.

The Vietnamese army has been professionalized and modernized to serve two strategic tasks of building and defending the Socialist Vietnam. The army is on the side of the people, having the essence of the working class. Major – general Ky again: “To be loyal to the nation, people, and Party is the essence of the army and a compulsory duty. I believe that the army can’t be non-politicized. If the army is non-politicized, it will become a professional army hired to fight. It will become a robot army.”

Editor in Chief of the All People’s National Defense Magazine Lieutenant-general Nguyen Ngoc Hoi says a supplement to Article 70 in the revised Constitution is constitutional of an objective history that has existed for 69 years since the establishment of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army, the then Vietnam People’s Army. During that period, the Vietnam People’s Army has always been loyal to the Party, protecting the Party, nation, and people. The supplement is necessary and compatible with the requirements to build a legal foundation for the performance of the Vietnam People’s Army. It reflects progress in the Party’s strategic viewpoint toward building a socialist state governed by law. Lieutenant-general Nguyen Ngoc Hoi says: “Over the last 69 years, the Vietnam People’s Army has always been loyal to the Party based on three principles – fighting ideology, political ideology, and army organization – which abide by the Party’s guidelines. The party’s fighting targets are the army’s targets. The establishment of the Vietnam Liberation Army aimed to liberate the nation following the patriotic movement led by the Communist Party of Vietnam. The political ideology work aims to popularize the Party’s ideology within the army. Regarding the organization, the army has a command system and Party organizational system.”

Doctor Cao Duc Thai, former Head of the Institute of Human Rights at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration, says that specifying that the Army must be loyal to the Party does not lower the army, but improves the Army’s political responsibility to the regime, the nation, and the people. Doctor Thai added that loyalty should be perceived from different aspects. “Being loyal to the Party means following the Party’s guidelines on national construction and defense, including external policies, and to avoid traps set by hostile forces. It’s also being loyal to the targets of national independence in association with socialism, supporting positive factors, and preventing interest groups. It also means sharing difficulties with the Party and State in the current period.”

Maintaining the Party’s leadership over the army and strengthening the army’s political ideology will exclude hostile political parties, opportunist forces, and individuals of political ambitions from leading and controlling the army and inciting the army to get involved in subversive activities. The history of the Vietnam People’s Army shows that it’s appropriate to specify in the Constitution that the People’s Armed Forces must be completely loyal to the Communist Party of Vietnam.