Rear Admiral Pham Van Quang and delegates visited and encouraged officers and soldiers of Song Tu Tay island. (Photo: Thuy Lien)

After the victory of the resistance war against the French colonialists, to manage and protect the newly liberated northern sea area, on May 7, 1955, the Ministry of National Defense decided to establish the Coastal Defense Department (the predecessor of today's Vietnam People's Navy).

In a new development step, on January 24, 1959, the Ministry of National Defense - Commander-in-Chief issued Decree No. 320/ND-A to establish the Navy Department on the basis of the Coastal Defense Department. January 24, 1959 became the traditional day of the Navy Political Department and the Navy Political Department today.

Faced with the requirements of the new phase, on January 3, 1964, the Minister of National Defense issued a decision to upgrade the Navy Department to the Navy Command.

Since its establishment, through the stages of development, along with the process of consolidating and building forces, the Navy Political Department has always promoted its role and responsibility, thoroughly grasped and performed well the functions of advising, directing and guiding the organization of Party and Political activities, contributing to maintaining the Party's leadership and political orientation in building and implementing the tasks of the Navy.

With the spirit of daring to fight, knowing how to fight and determined to defeat the American invaders, the young Vietnam People's Navy achieved victory in the first battle on August 2 and 5, 1964, contributing to defeating the escalating war of destruction in the North by the American imperialists.

With the determination to "Fight the enemy and advance, open the way to advance", Navy officers and soldiers are the leading, core and direct suicide force to detect, dismantle, find features, manufacture detection equipment; neutralize thousands of mines and magnetic bombs; open routes and clear the way to connect the river and sea traffic from the great rear in the North to the great front line in the South.

That is the will and spirit of "All for the front line", accepting all sacrifices and hardships of the officers and sailors of the Ship Without Number, bravely and intelligently overcoming storms, storms and the enemy's strict siege and blockade to open the legendary Ho Chi Minh sea route, effectively supporting the battlefield in the South.

As the Yet Kieu of the Ho Chi Minh era, the Navy Special Forces created a unique fighting style of "deep penetration, dangerous attack, great victory" to attack the enemy on the Cua Viet - Dong Ha battlefield, sinking, damaging, and destroying many means of war, destroying many enemy forces, creating resounding victories.

During the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, the Political Department proactively advised, directed, and guided the effective implementation of Party and Political activities for the forces, did a good job of political and ideological work, mobilized cadres and soldiers to participate in combat, took over enemy naval bases, prevented the enemy from retreating towards the sea, and seized the opportunity to attack and liberate the Truong Sa archipelago and the islands in the Southwest sea, contributing to the great and complete victory of the nation.

Thoroughly implementing the ideology of "Helping friends is helping ourselves", in the war to protect the southwestern border and save the Cambodian people from genocide, the unit contributed to helping friends gain independence and revive the country of pagodas.

Carrying out the task of protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland and building a revolutionary, disciplined, elite and modern Vietnam People's Navy, the Political Department has closely followed the situation and tasks of the Service, proactively, sensitively, creatively, advised and proposed to the Party Committee and the Service Command many policies and decisions to build the Service politically strong, improve the overall quality and combat strength, and firmly protect the sovereignty of the seas and islands of the Fatherland.

Over 65 years of building, fighting, winning and growing up, generations of cadres, employees and soldiers of the Navy Political Department have always demonstrated their steadfast political will, absolute loyalty to the Fatherland, the Party, the State and the People; closely following the base and activities of the troops, performing well the function of advising and directly directing and guiding the implementation of comprehensive and effective Party and political work, worthy of the role as the soul and lifeblood of the Service, contributing to building the glorious tradition: "Loyalty, steadfastness; Solidarity, exemplary; Proactiveness, creativity; Successful completion of tasks".

In the new period, the Political Bureau determined to focus on implementing well a number of key solutions, mainly:

Firstly , continue to focus on raising awareness and responsibility of Party committees, commanders, officers and soldiers of agencies and units of the Political Bureau regarding their positions, roles, functions and tasks in the new period; promote the tradition and highest role and responsibility in building the Political Bureau and carrying out assigned political tasks.

Focus on building a team of cadres and soldiers, especially cadres and employees who always have strong political will, pure moral qualities, love for the profession, love for the unit, and are determined to strive to perform well all assigned tasks.

Each cadre, party member and mass of the Political Bureau must be truly a vanguard in politics and ideology, absolutely loyal to the Party, the Fatherland and the People; steadfast in revolutionary goals and ideals; uphold the spirit of solidarity and unity in will and action, and be exemplary in thoughts, words and deeds.

Second , focus on consolidating and perfecting the organization in the direction of being lean, compact, strong and modern, meeting the requirements of building and performing the tasks of the Army in the new situation.

Continue to consolidate and improve the organization and staffing of the Political Department, departments, functional agencies and affiliated units towards streamlining the organization and staffing; in accordance with the characteristics, nature and requirements of the tasks of the Service in the new period; maximize the role of building a politically strong Service.

Building a team of leading, key and assistant cadres with sufficient quantity and high quality; having leadership thinking, sharp advice and proposals in the assigned fields; having comprehensive knowledge, proficient in expertise and profession; having practical skills and experience, having enough heart, vision and intelligence to meet the requirements of assigned tasks.

Third , pay special attention to improving the quality and capacity of the team of leading, key and assistant cadres of the Political Department's professional agencies to meet the requirements of the task.

It is necessary to innovate thinking in planning cadres of the Political Bureau, focusing on vertical planning, combining rotation to create resources between agencies and units in accordance with the title standards of the team of cadres in charge and assisting in professional sectors.

Pay attention to the level of awareness, knowledge, skills, professional experience, and expertise in Party work and political work, especially the skills and experience in thoroughly grasping, directing, and grasping basic practices to concretize, advise, propose, direct, guide, and organize implementation according to each professional sector.

Fourth , continue to innovate the working methods, styles, and manners of cadres, employees, agencies, and units to meet the requirements of building a lean, strong, revolutionary, disciplined, elite, and modern Army.

Focus on innovating research methods and styles, thoroughly grasping and closely connecting with the practical situation of the Service and units. Correctly and accurately identifying the contents that need to be implemented, focusing on solving them; advising and proposing practical, timely and effective policies and solutions.

Fifth , promote tradition, step up the emulation movement to win towards building exemplary and typical agencies, units and the entire Military Region, associated with building exemplary Party committees, Party organizations and Party chapters of the Military Region, worthy of the trust and love of the Party Committee, the Command and officers and soldiers of the entire Army.