Our Navy is a young armed service. Its birth was connected with our people’s sovereignty on our rivers and on our sea, with the victory of the Vietnamese nation in the struggle for independence and freedom. President Ho Chi Minh once said: “In the past, we had only night and forest. Now, we have day, sky and sea. Our coast is long and beautiful, we should know how to defend it.” Now, under the leadership of the Party and of Uncle Ho, our people have won glorious victories through various stages of hard and resolute struggle. We already have day, sky and sea. This is a very great change which brings independence and sovereignty to our land, the sovereignty on the rivers and the sea of our people.
We must defend our territorial waters and our very long and beautiful coast! This is a very glorious task entrusted to the Navy and the river and coastal forces by our Party and people. This is Uncle Ho’s teaching which we are determined to realize at all costs.
Viet Nam possesses a very long coast. In a not very large country like ours, the length of the coast and the quite well-developed network of rivers and canals are special features differing from many other countries.
The topography of our coast is complicated. There are rugged archipelagos with thousands of big and small islands such as the Ha Long and Bai Tu Long bays; there are long flat stretches of sea coast such as the coastal areas of the Bac Bo and Nam Bo deltas, and places where there are high cliffs forming closed bays such as Da Nang, Cam Ranh, etc.
Our country possesses many big rivers with outlets to the sea: the Bach Dang, Hong (Red), Ma, Lam, Gianh rivers and many others in the North; the Huong (Perfume), Tra Khuc, Ba rivers in Central Trung Bo; and the Mekong, a very big river that runs through the whole length of the Indochinese peninsula down to the Nam Bo plain where it splits up into many tributaries before draining into the sea.
Along our coastal areas and rivers there are populous centres and prosperous villages, especially along riversides and rivermouths.
Viet Nam’s rivers and sea show enormous prospects of wealth and maritime products. At the same time they constitute very convenient communication and transport lines.
Due to the country’s important position, its long coast and big rivers, the enemy from outside, in the past as well as now, have often made use of the sea and rivers to invade our country. In the course of our history, the Vietnamese nation has many times held aloft the tradition of heroic and undaunted struggle against foreign invasion on the sea and on the rivers. Since the founding of the country by the Hung Kings, our nation has performed countless heroic exploits on our land and, more especially, on our rivers and sea.
In the first battle on the Bach Dang River, Ngo Quyen routed the troops of the Southern Han. In the second Bach Dang battle, Le Dai Hanh annihilated the Sung troops. In addition there were the battles of Chuong Duong and Ham Tu on the Red River, and the third battle of the Bach Dang where Tran Hung Dao smashed the Mongol invaders, the battles of Van Don and Cua Luc where Tran Khanh Du shattered the enemy’s convoy of supply boats; the battle of Rach Gam-Xoai Mut in the South where Nguyen Hue defeated the Siamese troops, etc.
It is clear from our history that our forefathers from an early date knew how to use naval fleets to move their troops by sea and river. Ly Thuong Kiet deployed his troops by using the sea; Tran Hung Dao used both land and maritime routes for his temporary troop withdrawal along the Thai Binh and the Red River, getting out at the Ba Lat river-mouth and then entering the Ma river. Nguyen Hue made use of the sea route many times to go from Qui Nhon to Thuan Hoa, from southern Trung Bo to Gia Dinh, and from Thuan Hoa to Vi Hoang; the greater part of his military forces, and at times hundreds of elephants and cannons were transported by boats.
All these heroic exploits and creative methods of troop movement testify to the fact that in the past and at the present time, the enemy have made use of the sea and the rivers to invade our country, whereas our people have performed outstanding exploits on those important battlefronts of the country.
The intelligence and resourcefulness of our ancestors in fighting the enemy on land as well as on the sea and rivers had developed from a very early date. Our Navy has had an excellent tradition of fighting both on the sea and on the rivers. Of primary importance is the fact that whether on the sea or on the rivers, there has always been a strict co-ordination between the maritime and the land forces. Those are outstanding features of the wars for national defence and the liberation of our nation, in which we have fought the enemy on land, on rivers and on the sea.
When the French imperialists first invaded our country, we were then under a declining, feudal regime politically and economically backward, while the aggressor was a Western capitalist power. The enemy deployed their Navy and made use of the rivers and the sea to invade our country. The hole which can still be seen on the wall of the Hanoi citadel was made by a cannon-shell fired from a French war vessel. Under the Nguyen dynasty the patriotic movement and the fighting spirit were not so strong as under the Tran, the Le and Nguyen Hue. War vessels with a great tonnage and strong resistance to fire-power used by Nguyen Hue in attacks on Gia Dinh no longer existed; the vessels of the Nguyen Navy now had sailors who “while rowing had to fan themselves,” as satirically described by Western missionaries pointing to its weakness.
When the French imperialists invaded our country for the second time, we were a people’s democracy and the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam had already been founded. The social system was an advanced one, but the country’s economy was still backward as it had just been freed from the yoke of colonialist and feudalist domination. At the start, the aggressors again used their war vessels to penetrate our rivers from the sea. Our army and people mounted very heroic battles against the enemy on the rivers and on the sea such as the attack on the warship Craysac vessel in Ha Long Bay and a number of other battles on the Lo and Red rivers in Bac Bo; attacks on enemy vessels in Trung Bo; and on enemy naval bases and troops on rivers in Nam Bo, etc.
The war of resistance against the French colonialists was brought to a successful end. But our people have had to carry on the struggle against the U.S. imperialists who came to replace the French colonialists to invade our country. This time the enemy came from a country with very great military and economic potentialities. In their mind, the strength of the U.S. Air Force and Navy is invincible. To put into effect their scheme of aggression against the two zones of our country, a land tens of thousands of miles away from the United States, they have done their utmost to bring into play their own Navy in which the Seventh Fleet plays an important role.
The U.S. imperialists have used their Air Force and Navy to unleash a war of destruction. In South Viet Nam, they have striven to build and consolidate military bases along the coast and used their naval forces to carry out mopping-up operations and attacks against the coastal areas and the riversides so as to reinforce their infantry forces, blockade the sea, land their troops and transport supplies. In the course of their war of aggression against South Viet Nam, they have also tried to build up the puppet army, including the infantry, air force and navy. The puppet navy has both maritime and river forces.
It is obvious that their navy constituted an important force when they came to invade our country. It is also obvious that, unlike the situation during former wars, there is a great difference between our own technical equipment as compared with that of the enemy.
For thousands of years, our nation had to confront invading troops coming from bigger countries but these were also under a feudal system like our own and so the inequality in economy and technique of both sides was not so great. Often, the enemy were numerically superior, but our arms and equipment were equal to theirs.
At present, in our wars of resistance against the imperialist aggressors, we have the leadership of the Party, an advanced social system, and a highly conscious people. The entire people fight the enemy. But as far as arms and technique are concerned the enemy is at a more sophisticated level than we are and the inequality of naval forces is even more obvious. As everybody knows, man is the decisive factor in a war whereas arms and equipment constitute a very important factor. So, in analysing and assessing the military victories of our people in the past as well as at present, it is necessary to take into account these two factors in a comprehensive manner.
Our Navy came into being in new historical conditions. We have the correct and creative line of our Party on people’s war. Our Navy has inherited our nation’s glorious tradition, and developed our army’s heroic tradition. It enjoys love and affection of our people, the wholehearted assistance and concerted action of other people’s armed forces. As far as the men and the system are concerned we have very fundamental advantages. But as for material and technical bases, a very important aspect, we still have many shortcomings.
However, big progress has been made by our Navy throughout 15 years of building and fighting and the Navy together with the entire army and people, has achieved brilliant exploits.
We are proud of the maturity of our Navy and of the growth of the heroic Vietnamese people’s armed forces. Our Navy constitutes the core of people’s war on the fluvial and maritime front. It has contributed a worthy part, together with the army and people of the North, to the total defeat of the U.S. imperialist war of destruction and made great efforts in fulfilling the task of the great rear area towards the great heroic front. These exploits and achievements have embellished the Viet Nam Navy’s fine tradition: “Fight with valour and resourcefulness, overcome difficulties, be determined to fight and win.”
The achievements of the seamen are closely bound up with the merits and great victories obtained by the armed forces and people living along the seacoast and river banks in defending our territorial waters and seacoast.
We warmly hail the regional army, militia and self-defence forces stationed along the seacoast and river banks who have matured in all fields and in their combined actions with the navy have shot down many aircraft, sunk or set afire many enemy vessels, neutralized thousands of torpedoes, bombs and mines of various kinds and heroically held fast to the sea to produce, transport, fight and serve the fighting forces, thus greatly contributing to the common victory.
The various arms and armed services of the people’s army who have shown a high spirit of solidarity in taking up concerted actions to defeat the enemy and defend the country.
We are very proud and feel grateful to the people throughout the country for their love and support to the navy.
The people of Haiphong, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Binh, Vinh Linh and other coastal provinces, and cadres, workers and personnel from various branches and State offices have given devoted assistance to the seamen. They have created the most favourable conditions for the latter to act and fight and recorded many great achievements in their combined attacks with the navy against the enemy.
We warmly welcome the resounding military exploits of our compatriots and the Liberation Army of the heroic South. The victories of our army and people on this great front are a source of encouragement and a shining example for the people and fighters throughout the country.
We enthusiastically acclaim the great victories of the fraternal people and Liberation Army of Laos and the fraternal people and Liberation Army of Cambodia. The Indochinese people’s fighting spirit and solidarity will certainly smash every aggressive scheme of the American imperialists and their henchmen, traitors to their countries.
Besides these achievements, in the process of construction and fighting, the Navy still has weaknesses and faults which must be eliminated. The important question is that in the light of the correct and creative military line of our Party, in the reality of carrying out people’s war on the river and sea battlefield, we have known how to draw experience in all fields as a basis for improving the constructive and fighting qualities of the seamen.
First of all, it is the experience of the whole people fighting against the enemy on the sea and river battlefield with the naval force as the core, and with various forces joining in action, to defend our territorial waters and rivers.
Fighting in our own country against an enemy who is equipped with more modern techniques than we are, but has come from a faraway land to invade our territory, we have known how to strike at his strategic weaknesses. With the determination to fight, with a resourceful and creative way of fighting in which a small force can defeat a bigger one, we have won battles in which high combat efficiency was attained. That is a great success which contributes to highlight the correct and creative strategic thoughts of our Party, of a small nation which has defeated powerful imperialist countries.
One of the objectives of the U.S. imperialists was to strike at our supply lines and bases. Though the enemy used many cruel methods, mobilizing huge forces to attack us, he has finally been defeated. We have succeeded in transporting our supplies by water as well as by land. The results obtained in bringing supplies to the islands and other localities bear proof of the achievements and exploits in this field.
Concerning the task of conducting patrols and fighting the enemy, the very important thing is that we have managed to bring into play the people’s immense strength, closely combine the force of the navy with that of the regular army, the militia and self-defence units situated along the seacoast and river banks, and the artillery and anti-aircraft units of the regular army, etc., set up a strong network for the people’s war on the sea and river battlefield, and defend the people’s life and property, and our territorial waters in peace as well as in wartime.
To keep the enemy under permanent observation on the sea, we have organized the modern observation network of the navy and at the same time set up observation groups of the coastal local forces. Therefore, we have usually been masters of the situation at sea in peacetime as well as in times of great difficulties during the enemy war of destruction.
We have thwarted the enemy scheme of blockading our communication lines with bombs and mines of various kinds. The armed forces and people, with the navy as the core, have organized adequate forces and taken effective measures to neutralize enemy mines and bombs, ensuring safe movement for ships and boats. The localities and various economic branches along the seacoast and river banks have organized their own forces equipped with adequate weapons and means, both rudimentary and modern, to operate on or along the rivers and narrow channels. The specialist forces have been active mainly on the sea or greater channels, on river sections which were hardest hit or in places where conditions for resisting blockade are the more complex and difficult. To bring into play our bravery and intelligence, we have actively cleared the channels, reducing the difficulties and damage to a minimum, and restricting the bad effects caused by enemy bombs and mines.
To resist the enemy blockade, we have done our best to attack the enemy especially his ships and aeroplanes which came to drop mines.
Such experiences must be drawn continuously and widely applied.
One of the great experiences is in the combination of naval with land forces.
In the present conditions of our country, and for a long time to come, our navy is not strongly equipped with technique. Therefore it is difficult for it to fight the enemy independently. Even with a powerful naval force, when fighting the enemy on the sea and rivers we still have to combine closely the forces fighting by water with those fighting by land in the people’s armed forces. Inland bases serve as starting points, supply bases and hiding places for the forces fighting by water. It can be said that to fight the enemy on the sea and river battlefield our Navy must necessarily need forces fighting both by water and by land.
Our Navy is entrusted with the task of fighting the enemy on the sea and rivers. Our country has a long seacoast and great rivers. That is why we have to build up the Navy to defend our fatherland. Formerly, our naval force was already developed and active on the sea and rivers. Nowadays, our Navy does the same work. This task determines how our Navy should be built up and should fight.
Another very important experience is that the building up of the naval force must be closely associated with that of the armed forces stationed along the sea coast and river banks. The development of the naval force is closely related to that of the coastal localities and sea economic branches.
The local armed forces situated along the seacoast and river banks are of great importance. Attention must be given to the building up and fostering of these forces so that they will become a widespread and powerful force which can take concerted actions with the Navy in defending our territorial waters and rivers.
We have determined a correct orientation for building up the reserve of the Navy. The Navy must attach importance to recruiting people living along the seacoast and river banks or working in such economic branches as sea products and sea transport. That will afford favourable conditions for the new recruits for they are used to living on the sea or rivers. Later, when they are demobilized, those seamen who have been trained in many fields can become cadres and technicians of various branches of activities or grassroots cadres of cooperatives in the localities situated along the seacoast or river banks.
We have clearly seen the task of the Navy in economic construction. The development of our Navy and army must be associated with that of the national economy. National defence must not be separated from the economy. The Navy must join forces with various economic activities in general and those on the sea and rivers in particular. Consequently, it will not only be able to bring important contributions to the development of economic activities on the sea and rivers, but also benefit from a number of conditions for building up and developing its forces, training technical cadres and personnel, building and repairing ships and boats, founding the material and technical basis and making a plan for taking closely concerted actions whenever a war breaks out, etc.
We have satisfactorily solved a problem which has the character of a principle. That is to bring about unity and co-ordinated actions between the Navy on the one hand and other armed services, the people and different branches and localities on the other.
As regards the building up of the naval force, we have taken initial steps in determining the sections suitable for operations and combat; training a contingent of undaunted cadres, and founding a fairly good technical and material basis.
We have acquired some experience in shooting at enemy aeroplanes, taking up concerted actions with A.A. units stationed along the shore, combining the task of combat with that of camouflaging and hiding our forces. We have gained initial experience in fighting enemy ships in conditions in which our ships were small whereas enemy ships were supported by powerful air cover. Besides, we have also obtained some experience in transforming the terrain in order to preserve our forces, and conduct combat actions in all fields in wartime.
Firmly grasping the ever more comprehensive and perfected military line of our Party, continuing and developing the tradition of fighting the enemy on the sea and rivers in the new historical conditions, our army and people have brought the people’s war on the sea and river battlefield to a new stage of development and won new victories.
Recently, our Navy has recorded some exploits and achievements but they are only initial ones. We must be modest in learning, fighting and working, and try to go forward. It is necessary to rally and organize the forces of the people living along the seacoast and river banks, and build up our naval force in keeping with this orientation to make it worthy of being the nucleus force of the people’s war on the sea and river battlefield.
The war on the sea and river battlefield is waged by our people living on or beside the sea and rivers, with the naval force as the nucleus. Therefore, when speaking of the important role of the navy as the nucleus, we should know that the strength of the people and the local armed forces living on or beside the sea and rivers is an essential factor of people’s war on the sea and river battlefield. That is why in solving the questions of combat and build-up of the Navy we must strive to bring into play the powerful strength of the people and the local armed forces living on or beside the sea and rivers.
To determine the task of combat and build-up of the Navy we must rely on the following points:
Firstly, it is necessary to base ourselves on the revolutionary task of the Party and the people’s army in general, and the Navy and the other forces fighting on the sea and river battlefield in particular. The task of our army is, together with the whole people, to defend the socialist North, liberate the South and fulfil its international obligations. As part of our people’s armed forces, the Navy assumes the same task. It is a very heavy but very glorious task of our people, the people’s army and the Navy.
Secondly, it is necessary to base ourselves on the sea and river conditions of our country. A nation always lives in a certain region. The conditions of geography, mountains, rivers, sea, population, and economy and the political regime are of great importance.
For centuries, the Vietnamese people have existed and developed on this stretch of land, our country. The fact that our country is not very large, and its population not very numerous, sets off a characteristic of people’s war in Viet Nam, a small country which has defeated many more powerful aggressors.
Our country has a long seacoast, rich national resources and many rivers. For this reason we badly need a naval force, which together with the whole people must carry out the task of national defence on the sea and rivers.
Thirdly, we must rely on the development of socialist construction and the national economy. Socialism has already been established in North Viet Nam. Socialist construction has made new steps forward. The ever developing economy of our country is closely related to the building of our army and Navy. The more industry, agriculture and other economic branches develop, the quicker the shipbuilding, navigation and sea transport branches grow up and the better the material and technical conditions for developing the Navy. On that basis, the task and orientation of the Navy have been determined. Over the past years, side by side with the armed forces and people living on the seacoast and river banks, the Navy has tried hard to fulfil its task.
That is the task of defending our territorial waters and seacoast, ensuring safe movement for the ships and boats of our State and people and those of foreign countries on our territorial waters and safeguarding our people’s interests on the high seas.
In war time, the Navy has the task of fighting the enemy on the sea and rivers, smashing their raids, attacking their ships to prevent their troop landings, launching surprise attacks on their military bases situated along the seacoast and river banks, destroying their communication lines on the sea and rivers, etc.
In addition to fighting, the Navy has the duty to follow the enemy situation on the sea, to give combat support, and to ensure transport and communications on the sea and rivers. Besides, the Navy must take part in production work.
As regards the Navy’s fighting task, conclusions have been reached on a number of questions.
First of all, let us deal with the opposing forces. Throughout their history, the Vietnamese people have fought against the fleets of many invaders, from foreign feudal dynasties to the French and the US and its Saigon puppet regime. At present our Navy’s opponents are obviously the US and its puppet’s navies. And while the US imperialists are trying to carry out their “Vietnamization” of the war, we must keep a strict watch on these two opponents without neglecting either. We should also keep track of the US satellites’ navies and the navy of any other power which might come to invade our country.
In naval combat, it is also of great importance to determine the theatre of operations.
Experience has shown that nearly all the enemies who invaded our country made use of the sea and rivers to attack us. Therefore, our Navy’s battlefield is not only the sea but also the rivers.
Here the sea includes the seacoasts, the inshore regions, the archipelagoes and the high seas. In the present time when our Navy’s technical equipment is limited, great attention should be paid to fighting the enemy on the seacoasts, the inshore regions and the archipelagoes. Meanwhile, with the increasing growth of our army in general and our Navy in particular, we can extend our theatre of operations farther.
On rivers, attention should be paid to the survey of river banks and tributaries, especially at places connected with the sea and big-river banks.
In the struggle against the U.S. imperialists for national salvation our army and people in the South have sunk and damaged thousands of big and small enemy boats and warships; our army and people in the North have sunk or set on fire hundreds of U.S. and Saigon puppet warships in our inshore areas. These achievements have proved that this view of our Navy’s theatre of operations is quite correct.
While conducting people’s war on the sea and river battlefields, our Party’s thinking on strategy and fighting must be correctly and creatively applied.
First of all, is the idea of the entire people fighting against the enemy with the people’s armed forces serving as the core, and the idea of a small country defeating the aggressive army of a big country. From these two fundamental views we have worked out an original and creative military art enabling us to defeat any aggressor.
The people’s war on the sea and rivers must certainly be carried out by the entire people and, concretely, by the people living by the sea and rivers, on the sea coasts and river banks, with the Navy and other armed forces serving as the core. With a close dependence on the mainland and a good knowledge of the sea and river channels they can gain the upper hand in the fighting against the enemy. The problem is that we must organize these forces properly so that they can closely coordinate their activity so as to bring into play the strength of the people’s war on the sea and river battlefield.
For every fighter of the Navy and every combatant of our people’s army in general, to grasp thoroughly the thinking on people’s war means first of all that he must clearly realize that he is fighting for the independence and liberty of his Fatherland, for the ideal of socialism and communism, that our army and navy are from the people and fight for the people. This is a fundamental point. The other important point is that, as far as military organization is concerned, we must clearly realize the role and usefulness of the regular army and of the armed forces of the masses. The navy forms the core of the regional troops, self-defence and militia forces of the people living on the seacoasts and riversides, at the same time it must fully bear in mind that only by linking itself closely with the people can it bring into full play its fighting strength and fulfil its task. Thus the Navy should try to help the people and their armed forces in those regions to fight the enemy and defend the country.
Thanks to its creative application of Marxist-Leninist doctrine on military organization to the concrete conditions of our country our Party has great experience in arming the people and building up a people’s army with the people’s armed forces serving as its core.
Fighting practice on the sea and rivers in our country has proved the correctness of that conception. Wherever fishermen and their self-defence forces are guided, organized and well-equipped there the army and the navy can find a solid support and thus can make full use of their fighting strength.
Waging people’s war on the sea and rivers we must also clearly realize that our country is small and our economy is not yet developed, therefore our army is in general inferior to the enemy in number and in technical equipment. Our task is to combat victoriously an enemy whose army is superior in number and whose technique and armaments are much more modern than ours. This has been a characteristic of our country.
By creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of our country, bringing into play the new strength of an advanced socialist system and inheriting and continuing our nation’s tradition of fighting against foreign invaders, our people have defeated a big force with a smaller one, and used equipment and armaments which were in general inferior to that of the enemy both in quantity and in sophistication to get the better of a huge aggressive army with abundant modern armaments and equipment.
This is an important content of Vietnamese military thought. Engels, more than a century ago, pointed out that a small country could defeat a big one and that an army not very large in number and not very strong in equipment could defeat an enemy with a huge, well-equipped army. That characteristic has become a basic law in the Vietnamese people’s history of fighting against foreign aggression.
This thought must be thoroughly grasped and correctly applied in the fighting done by our Navy. With an army which is not very large in number and not very strong in technical equipment, we, and our entire people, are determined to defeat, on the sea and river battlefields of our country, an enemy which has a powerful navy and modern technical equipment.
In order to apply this thought to our military art and increasingly develop it to defeat the enemy, the most important point for our army is to bring into full play our courage, resourcefulness, determination and creativeness. Facing an enemy army many times superior in number and technical equipment we must be courageous and resolved to fight. We must be clever, resourceful and creative, we must know how to fight. Only by so doing can we translate into reality the story of the “grasshopper versus the elephant.” We must know how to defeat the enemy with a force inferior in number and armaments. This is our thinking on combat and it must be thoroughly grasped by our Navy. We must fight with dynamism and determination, flexibility, resourcefulness and creativeness and make the best use of secrecy and surprise. Only by so doing can we succeed in pitting a weak naval force against a stronger one.
Our army and people in the South, with creative combat methods, have destroyed thousands of enemy warships including 10,000-ton warships. Using appropriate means of transport on the sea and rivers we have succeeded in supplying armaments to islands and other units and regions. Also, with courageous spirit and creative methods, we have successfully removed enemy magnetic bombs and mines from our sea and rivers.
These combat methods are much in accordance with our military thought, with Vietnamese tradition. They are the results of applying proletarian principles on military science to the concrete conditions and special characteristics of Viet Nam.
As regards numbers, ours is a small nation, but in view of its fighting spirit against foreign invaders and its ability to win, it is a great nation.
With a view to working out correct direction for the building up of the navy we must base ourselves on our general tasks, on various aspects of our country, on our adversaries and on the military line and strategic thought of our Party. But as was said above, the setting up of our navy must be closely combined with the formation of the armed forces of the masses living by the sea and rivers.
The navy must be built into a service with different arms in accordance with our country’s conditions and with the navy’s own task. Attention must be paid, on the one hand, to training it into a highly qualified, loyal and courageous navy, with a high technical and strategic level, possessing proper material bases and a large contingent of competent cadres and commanders. On the other hand, efforts must be made to build up militia and self-defence forces of the people living on the seacoasts and river banks into a powerful force so as to promote the strength of the people’s war on the sea and river battlefields.
Here we shall not go into concrete details of the component forces which made up the navy, but on the whole the navy must have forces fighting on the sea and rivers and forces fighting on the ground. These two forces should be taken into account and have an adequate strength. Apart from fighting forces it needs support forces, bases, and material and technical foundations. To have a powerful navy, of course, we must go through a period of development. But the main problem is that we must know how to work out appropriate initial steps, then through actual fighting and building, sum up experience with a view to elaborating the long-term direction.
I would like to stress once again that while building up the navy, attention should be paid to the formation of regional troops and self-defence and militia forces along the sea coasts and river banks, while coordination among various services of the people’s armed forces operating on the sea and rivers must also be enhanced.
The armed forces of the masses operating on the sea coasts and river banks have shown their great capability in fighting in this theatre of operations. So far all enemy commando groups invading our soil from the sea have been wiped out by these forces. Patrols inshore and in the coastal regions are also carried out by forces of fishermen. They are the on-the-spot forces which observe the enemy’s actions, marked bomb sites, removed all enemy mines, magnetic bombs, etc. In certain regions, equipped with artillery, they have sunk or set on fire many enemy warships.
Those achievements have proved their great capability as regards the defence of the sea and rivers of our country.
The various activities carried out by sea and rivers are playing an ever more important role in our national economy and their material and technical bases are also becoming increasingly developed. Consequently the fighting strength of the regional troops and self-defence forces is continuously growing. Thus, attention should be paid to developing such forces along the coastal regions and river banks. The combination of productive work with fighting duties and the improvement of their technical level in production and their military knowledge must be satisfactorily carried out so that in peace time they are skilled producers and in war time a powerful fighting force.
Not only are they the on-the-spot fighting forces but they also form an inexhaustible reserve force for the navy. That is why the relations between the forces forming the core and the armed forces of the masses, between the regular forces and the reserve, must be intensified. Efforts must be made to give military training to the people living in those regions.
The Navy should try to enrol new men from the people living on the sea coasts and river banks. These men, trained and tempered during their time of service, will become grassroots cadres for agricultural co-operatives and other economic branches when they leave the Navy. By this means, not only will the relations between the Navy and the other forces of the masses be increased but also there will be favourable conditions for the building of the economy and national defence in these regions.
Apart from the navy, many other forces belonging to different armed services take part in fighting the enemy on the sea and river battlefields. This is why the navy must have a good co-ordination with the various arms and services, the infantry, artillery, air defence and air force, as well as with the regional troops and self-defence and militia forces of the people living on the sea coasts and river banks.
Nearly all the military regions and many of the provinces of our country have long coasts and large rivers, therefore coordination and assistance among them should be intensified and organizational relations between the navy and those regions should be gradually set up. The navy must clearly realize that it acts as the core of those localities and that it must be responsible for raising military knowledge and organizing fighting coordination among them so as to promote the all-round strength of people’s war on the sea and river battlefields.
While building up its fighting forces the navy must see to the setting up of material and technical bases. This is a problem of great importance especially for the navy, a force which consists of many different technical arms. Repair workshops, quays and ports, storehouses and dumps, etc. must be built. Special attention must be paid to the transformation of terrain and the building of projects. Only by so doing can the navy have a solid support.
The navy’s material and technical bases are closely linked to the economic and defence potential of the country. One can have a powerful army only when one possesses a great economic and defence potential. Therefore the combination of economy with national defence in the setting up of the navy is a problem of great importance. As long as this problem is correctly solved the building up of the navy will meet with favourable conditions.
Production work is one of the important tasks of our army. The present task of our navy is also to participate as a shock force in production work, to protect and help fishermen in their work. Our army is both a fighting and a productive force. To take part in production, to build up the economy in order to produce more wealth for the country and so lighten the contribution of the people: this is appropriate to the function of the army, suitable to the condition and capability of the Navy. To take part in production contributes to training our naval force in productive labour and in preparation for combat and to strengthening the material basis for this armed service.
By joining in production, helping the people and strengthening the relations with the marine branches of the economy, the navy is building a firmer and firmer solidarity between itself and the people. The more the Navy associates itself with the people’s life the better it can understand the situation of building up the militia, and self-defence force. At the same time, it will better co-ordinate with the marine and coastal branches of the economy in effectively creating material and technical bases, repairing equipment, training cadres, and transforming the standing force of the Navy into the reserve.
By so doing we have helped to develop our economy and created conditions for building up the Navy.
In order to carry out these tasks, ever since our navy was founded it has paid special attention to Party work and to political activities. The Party committees and cells and the political organs always have a full grasp of our Party’s political and military line and policies and have instilled into the cadres and men an understanding of the revolutionary situation and tasks as well as the concrete tasks of their respective services, arms and units. It is through practice and trial that Party members, officers and men of the Navy, imbued with the spirit of valiant combat, have resourcefully overcome every difficulty. They have fulfilled their tasks of combat and production in tough and complicated situations and especially, they have ensured solidarity with other arms and services, with every branch of State activities and with the localities. We must use such strong points to the full and further strengthen Party activities and political work among the armed services. We must link political work with our military task, and master military thought, science and technology in order to ensure that our armed service fulfils its duties, both in building and in combat.
With regard to the building up of the Party, Party organs at all levels, especially those at the base, are being unceasingly consolidated in conformity with the special organizational and combat characteristic of our Navy. The quality of Party members has improved steadily; the proportion of Party members among the masses is quite high and they are fairly well distributed among the various branches and units. In the campaign “to raise the quality of Party members and admit new members into the Ho Chi Minh batch,” we should continue to pay further attention to the building up of the Party so as to strengthen the leadership of the Party branch.
Another problem of great importance, a key problem in the Navy’s development is the training and fostering of a contingent of cadres. We have paid attention to every aspect of this question.
Generally speaking, the political and organizational level and military and professional standards of our Naval officers are growing continuously thanks to their close contact with the realities of fighting. Nevertheless our cadres’ standard is not, at present, sufficient for the requirements of building up the service. That is why we should try to raise our political and ideological as well as professional and military level still further in order to build up a really strong contingent of military cadres for our country’s Navy. Special attention must be paid to the training and fostering of command cadres, cadres of different branches and high-level technicians. To train a contingent of qualified cadres, who combine a firm political understanding with a good technical level, and can master general military science together with advanced naval techniques, is both a most fundamental requirement, and, at the same time, an indispensable condition for the building up of our Navy.
As a means of heightening the level of our cadres, the work of research, the summing up of our activities, and the military schools play an important role. Our Navy has a research institute and has directed its research activities to practical subjects. We have also analysed past experiences. We must continuously improve our research institute and step up the work of research and analysis. We must make a deep study of naval matters in general as well as of our own Navy’s combat methods, fighting means and organizational orientation and step up training so as to enable our Navy to have a contingent of cadres armed with modern military knowledge. All these are very important for our Navy’s organization and combat and will considerably help it to make greater advance.
This is a brief survey of the main problems facing our Navy in combat and organization. It is also very relevant to coastal and river localities and branches of activity operating on the rivers and the sea.
In the struggle against an enemy whose economic and military potential is far greater than ours, our people, under the leadership of our Party, headed by our great President Ho Chi Minh, are determined to fight for the safety of the country, and have created original, resourceful and skilful ways of combat. Our engagements on the rivers and sea have shown that great determination and resourcefulness.
It is necessary to give a profound study to the above problems and to sum up in good time the experiences of building up our forces for naval combat. These are concrete contributions to enrich our Party’s military line, to bring into full play the fighting capacity of our people on the river and sea battlefields, and to make our Navy stronger and stronger, worthy to act as the core of the people’s war on our Fatherland’s sea and river battlefields.
(1) Speech delivered at the ceremony commemorating the 15th founding anniversary of the Navy (1970).