The self-defense militia is a strategic force in our people’s armed revolutionary struggle.
Comrades, during the process of leading the extremely perilous and glorious armed struggle for national liberation, our party’s line of waging a people’s war and building the people’s armed forces has emerged and developed, achieved more and more brilliant successes, and become increasingly creative. These successes of our party are the successes of the correct application of the principles of Marxism-Leninism concerning revolutionary war and the building of the revolutionary armed forces in accordance with the actual situation of our country.
The people’s war viewpoint is a basic viewpoint in our party’s Marxist military line. This viewpoint originated from the just nature of the revolutionary war and from the realization of the decisive role of the masses in the development of history.
In the present age, the people’s war must be waged by all people under the leadership of the working class, and we must insure that all people are mobilized and armed. The strength of a people which is completely armed makes possible the holding of an absolutely superior position in people’s war to defeat the aggressive wars of all enemies. This strength has led our people to brilliant successes in the high tide of anti-Japanese national salvation resistance and in the resistance against the French imperialists, and has brought glorious successes to our people in both parts of the country in the present anti-U.S. national salvation task.
To insure that all people are mobilized and armed, the people’s armed forces must be used as the key force. The people’s armed forces consist of three categories of troops: main-force units, regional troops, and self-defense militia. In speaking of people’s war, it is impossible to omit any of these three categories. It is impossible to omit the main-force units, and it is impossible to omit the regional troops and the massive self-defense militia forces. In leading the armed revolutionary struggle, our party has paid the greatest attention to using the three categories of troops and has attached great importance to firmly maintaining relations, unity, and harmony among these three categories of troops.
In the instructions concerning the formation of the Vietnamese Liberation Armed Forces propaganda team, President Ho pointed out that “since our resistance is a resistance of all people, it is necessary to mobilize all people and arm all people. Therefore, in concentrating forces to form the Vietnamese Liberation Armed Forces propaganda team, it is necessary to maintain the armed forces in the localities, to coordinate actions, and to provide mutual assistance in all fields. On the other hand, the main-force units have the duty to guide the localities’ armed teams, assist in training them, provide them with weapons if possible, and make them grow increasingly.”
During the resistance war against the French colonialists, the creation of three categories of troops had been clearly manifested. Our party skillfully used each category of troops and coordinated the three categories of troops in accordance with the requirements of the revolutionary war.
The main-force army is grouped into regiments and divisions and with strategic tasks throughout the country. Regional forces are built into platoons and companies or battalions with combat missions in localities. They join the self-defense and militia and guerrilla forces in waging guerrilla warfare or fight in coordination with the main-force units.
The self-defense militia and guerrilla forces are the armed forces closely related to production and organized in hamlets, villages, city wards, and factories. They are responsible for serving, together with local forces, as a core force for the national movement to fight invaders and for coordinating with local forces and main-force units in preparing for wars as well as in combat.
It is clear that the existence of the three kinds of forces is very consistent with the law of development of people’s war and of the people’s armed forces. Each of the forces plays a definite role in the war.
Particularly with regard to the self-defense and militia forces, our party has asserted: they are a strategic force throughout the armed revolutionary struggle in our country. President Ho said: “The self-defense and militia and guerrilla forces are the forces of all of our people. They are an invincible force, an iron wall of the fatherland. Any enemy, no matter how cruel and ruthless he may be, who lays a hand on this force or iron wall will be smashed to pieces (Ho’s letter to men and women self-defense and militia and guerrilla members throughout the country in 1947--Hanoi radio). This was proven by the protracted, arduous armed struggle of our people under party leadership, a struggle which developed from jungles and mountains to the swampy areas in the country and during which our people used rudimentary weapons, including outmoded rifles and pointed bamboo sticks, to fight the French and chase the Japanese away.
A--Self-defense units and combat self-defense units were the first form of the revolutionary armed forces in our country.
The revolutionary armed forces of our people came into being in the revolutionary struggle movement of all of our people, especially the majority of the masses of workers and peasants. In 1930 and 1931, the first self-defense units appeared in the Soviet Nghe Tinh movement. They were the forerunners of the future armed forces of our people. Our party’s first resolution on military matters dealt with the formation of worker-peasant self-defense units, the worker-peasant army.
Later, at the beginning of World War II, when preparations for an armed uprising became a very urgent task for the revolution, self-defense units and combat self-defense units were activated in the revolutionary bases in the jungles and mountains and were gradually expanded to other large areas throughout the country, from the rural areas to the cities. The national salvation units, the Vietnam liberation troops propaganda units, and the Ba To guerrilla units came into being one after another.
Afterward, during the resistance movement against the Japanese in 1945, based on the guerrilla warfare launched throughout the country, a government was formed in the liberated areas. The party’s armed forces were unified into an army called the Vietnam Liberation Army. After the success of the August revolution, the self-defense and militia forces became very strong compared with past years and this created favorable conditions for developing quickly the ranks of the liberation troops and building them into a regular army, which is now the people’s army, for the democratic republic state. Thus, the self-defense and guerrilla units were the first forms of the revolutionary armed forces in our country.
B--The self-defense and combat self-defense forces were the shock forces which joined the people in waging the general uprising, leading the August revolution to success.
The self-defense and combat self-defense forces were activated on the basis of steady and strong political organizations of the masses and were developed in the revolutionary movement of the masses. Therefore, they grew up very quickly and played a very important role throughout the armed revolutionary struggle. These units became the essential forces responsible for protecting the basic organizations of the party and the masses. They effectively assisted the people in their political struggle, waged limited guerilla warfare, joined the people in conducting partial uprisings, overthrew the enemy government in localities, established the people‘s government, and built revolutionary bases.
In the August 1945 general uprising, the self-defense and combat self-defense forces throughout the country played an effective shock role. Together with the Vietnam Liberation Army, they coordinated their armed struggle with the political struggle of millions of the masses who rose up with revolutionary violence to win power throughout the country. We all know that the liberation army was still small at the time while the self-defense and combat self-defense forces developed very broadly in the entire country. Therefore, in many places including such major cities as Hanoi, Hue, and Saigon, the self-defense and combat self-defense forces played the role of shock armed forces in leading, together with the revolutionary masses, the uprising to victory.
This reality proved that if there had not been clandestine self-defense and combat self-defense organizations during the period of preparations for the armed revolt, the limited guerrilla warfare and partial uprisings could not have been waged to drive the enemy into a seriously critical situation. It also proved that if the self-defense and combat self-defense forces had not been developed broadly throughout the country and if the liberation troops had not existed, there could not have been coordination between political violence and armed violence to achieve great success in the August revolution. Thus, right at the beginning of the armed uprising, the self-defense and combat self-defense forces played a very important strategic role.
C--The self-defense and militia forces and local units were essential forces which waged guerrilla warfare in the areas behind enemy lines and protected our large rear area during the protracted resistance war against the French imperialists.
Guerrilla warfare is one of the two basic forms of people’s war and plays a very important strategic role in our people‘s national liberation war. It is a practical and lively manifestation of the movement to arm the people to fight a professional aggressive army with great military strength and strong equipment and weapons.
Prosecuting guerrilla warfare is a very effective form of struggle designed to mobilize, organize, and train the masses to become unyielding and staunch combatants to fight the aggressors, defend villages, and protect the country. Guerrilla warfare relies on the militant solidarity and heroism of the people who use rudimentary weapons and lively, inventive, and resourceful tactics to create a continuous offensive position in order to fight the enemy everywhere. This causes him to be overwhelmed in an ocean of armed resistance fighters, impairing his morale, wearing down his strength, and driving him into strategic passiveness and into a tactical crisis.
The self-defense militia and guerrilla forces and local units are essential forces for waging a guerrilla warfare. Their strategic role is closely related to the strategic position of guerrilla warfare.
In the anti-French imperialist resistance, self-defense militia and guerrilla forces were the largest armed forces. They did not, however, dissociate themselves from production but constantly clung to the land and the masses to fight the aggressors, protect villages, and counter the enemy’s mopup operations and terroristic acts, thus frustrating the enemy plot to use war to breed war and to use Vietnamese people to fight Vietnamese people. Self-defense militia and guerrilla forces assumed the task of eliminating dishonest people and bandits, wearing down and destroying enemy potential, and attacking enemy rear bases. With rudimentary weapons such as swords, knives, sticks, arrows, bows, homemade rifles and bullets, mines, spike-strewn trenches, and even stones and bricks, self-defense militia and guerrilla forces succeeded in devising versatile, skillful fighting methods, and thus caused the enemy to go without sleep, lose his appetite, and be surrounded by an inescapable steel net.
Self-defense militia and guerrilla forces are also core forces to mobilize, organize, and train all people to engage in killing the enemy, thus giving guerrilla warfare a boundless, latent strength and the ability to wear down and destroy the enemy everywhere. The strong guerrilla activities of the militia forces and regional troop units in the enemy rear have enabled the main-force units to launch big campaigns to destroy much of the enemy potential and have succeeded in building many base areas used as positions of departure for our main forces to attack the enemy in his own dens.
Self-defense militia and guerrilla forces have also played an extremely important role in the protection of our rear. In any war, a steady and strong rear is always a decisive factor in permanent victory. Since the role of the rear is important, the enemy has always plotted to sabotage our rear with every political, economic, and military scheme. Using up-to-date mobile means, the enemy has often sent commandos and bandits to harass our rear, massacre people, destroy property, spread false rumors, and create difficulties for us.
Faced with the enemy plots, our people’s armed forces must naturally have positive countermeasures. Since the main-force units cannot be deployed everywhere, self-defense militia and guerrilla forces as well as regional forces continue to be important forces for the effective protection of the rear.
In the anti-French resistance in free zones, self-defense militia forces effectively fulfilled the task of countering the enemy and eliminating dishonest people and at the same time served as shock forces in production, supply, and transportation for the frontline. As self-defense militia and guerrilla forces are present everywhere--even though the enemy may unexpectedly set foot in certain areas in our rear where there is no great number of main-force units--the enemy continues to be surrounded, intercepted, attacked, worn down, and annihilated. We see clearly from this that the strategic role of the self-defense militia forces is closely associated with the strategic position of the rear.
D--Self-defense militia are an essential, basic-level authoritarian instrument of the people’s government. Born of the people and embracing elite elements of the people, essentially the basic worker-peasant masses, self-defense militia and guerrilla forces as well as main-force units and regional units, who are children or brothers of laboring people and who are enlightened and educated by the party, not only have a high sense of patriotism but are also firmly class conscious.
Self-defense militia forces are an essential instrument of the people’s government at the basic level for carrying out authoritarianism to cope with domestic adversaries and foreign aggressors and to protect national interests and the people’s democratic interests. Through the entire process of the revolutionary armed struggle of our people, self-defense militia forces have proved to be very loyal to the nation and the laboring people and have joined the people in fighting to annihilate the imperialist enemy and his lackey, the Vietnamese traitors.
In the enemy rear areas self-defense militia forces have resolutely annihilated collaborators and eliminated dishonest people, thus contributing effectively to firmly protecting and consolidating the government. In free zones self-defense militia forces and people’s security forces have taken steps to maintain order, insure peace, and happiness for hamlets and villages, repress reactionaries, and serve as core forces for strict implementation of the lines and policies of the party and government.
Self-defense militia forces have trustworthily played the role of supporting peasants and laborers in the struggle to achieve democratic revolution in the movement to reduce land rent and interest rates, to improve ricefields and land, and to fulfill the slogan “Land to the tillers.”
Self-defense militia forces have been increasingly trained in the class struggle. Their ranks have been ever more consolidated. The national spirit and sense of class enlightenment have been ever more enhanced. As a result, like main-force units and regional units, self-defense militia and guerrilla forces are completely trusted, loved, and helped by our people. Because of this, self-defense militia and guerrilla forces have constantly developed and matured while advancing on their glorious path of struggle.
E--The self-defense militia forces is an efficient cooperating combat force and an inexhaustible force supplementing the regular and local forces.
During the resistance against the French imperialists millions of male and female self-defense militia members and guerrillas helped exterminate the enemy and protect hamlets and villages, thus making great contributions to the common victories. The self-defense militia and guerrilla forces directly cooperated with the regular force to fight and exterminate the enemy or with the local force to step up guerrilla activities, thus forcing the enemy to disperse his forces and providing conditions for our regular forces to exterminate an important part of the enemy forces in an advantageous way. The self-defense militia force also efficiently served the regular force in combat and helped satisfy the great, complex demands of the battlefield.
The self-defense militia force assumed the tasks of mounting guard, safeguarding secrets, insuring the safety of operations and billeting of the regular force, insuring the repair of roads and bridges and the supply of ammunition and food, insuring the transport of wounded soldiers, and so forth.
Concerning preparations for combat, the self-defense militia force, owing to its thorough knowledge of the local situation and roads, supplied the regular force with reliable guides and with accurate documents on the topography and the situation of the enemy. The self-defense militia force also satisfactorily fulfilled the task of eliminating the traitors and cruel agents and developing the victories after each great operation.
Being an armed force in direct contact with the bases, the self-defense force actively protected the people’s lives and property, safeguarded manpower and wealth for the resistance, and created favorable conditions for the building and development of a large concentration of forces comprising the regular and local forces. Through combat and the fulfillment of tasks the trained and educated self-defense militia force became an inexhaustible and precious source of manpower for the centralized forces providing them with soldiers and officers with good political qualities and rich combat experience.
The self-defense militia forces was constantly a reserve force for the development of the centralized forces. This point was very important. Our centralized forces could grow only on the basis of having a powerful reserve force, of which the self-defense militia force was the core. The growth and development of the regular and local forces obviously were due to the important contributions of the self-defense militia force. Although later the regular and local forces assumed an increasingly important role on the battlefield, the strategic role of the self-defense militia force did not diminish.
Recalling the brilliant and glorious history of the self-defense militia force, we are greatly confident in and proud of the great achievements of our party, headed by President Ho, in leading the revolutionary war and building the revolutionary armed forces. As stated above, historic experiences prove that to victoriously wage revolutionary war it is necessary to mobilize, arm, and train all the peoples so that they can participate in fighting the enemy. To arm all the people, it is necessary to have the people’s armed forces of which the three categories of troops are the core.
In our country the building of the three categories of troops is the law pertaining to the organization of the armed forces for people’s war. The self-defense militia force is one of the three categories of troops and has assumed a very important strategic role during the entire process of the armed struggle for successfully carrying out the revolution, during the period of preparations for armed uprising, during the August general uprisings, and during our people’s great resistance against the French imperialists.
Because of its strategic role, its great achievements, and its exceptional growth, our self-defense militia force has all the qualifications of an armed force worthy of being one of the three categories of troops of our heroic people’s armed forces.
We can say that in speaking of the people’s war one must necessarily speak of the strategic role of the self-defense militia force. Speaking of the people’s war and at the same time underestimating the self-defense militia force’s role is a very erroneous, empty view. That is why it is necessary to clearly realize the strategic role of the self-defense militia force. This correct realization has an important meaning regarding the task of reinforcing the armed forces and consolidating national defense in the north, as well as regarding the task of stepping up the anti-U.S. national salvation resistance of our people throughout the country.