People's Army of Vietnam
The People's Army of Vietnam, officially the Vietnam People's Army, or the Vietnamese Army, the People's Army or colloquially Bộ đội, is the national military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the armed wing of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. The PAVN is the backbone component of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces and includes: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Border Guard and Coast Guard. Vietnam does not have a separate and formally-structured ground force or army service. Instead, all ground troops, army corps, military districts and special forces are designated under the umbrella term combined arms and belong to the Ministry of National Defence, directly under the command of the CPV Central Military Commission, the Minister of National Defence, and the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army.
During the French Indochina War, the PAVN was often referred to as the Việt Minh. In the context of the Vietnam War, the army was referred to by its opposition forces as the North Vietnamese Army, serving as the military force of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This allowed writers, the U.S. military, and the general public, to distinguish northern communists from the southern communists, called the Viet Cong, or more formally the National Liberation Front. However, both groups ultimately worked under the same command structure. The Viet Cong had its own military forces called the Liberation Army of South Vietnam. It was practically considered a branch of the PAVN by the North Vietnamese. In 1976, following the political reunification of Vietnam, LASV was officially disbanded and merged into the so-called NVA to form the existing incarnation of PAVN, serving as the national military of the unified state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Etymology and symbols
Etymology
After multiple reorganizations during the final days of World War II and subsequently First Indochina War, Viet Minh's primary armed wing was formally named Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam by President Ho Chi Minh and his administration in 1954, and since then, the name has become the sole official designation for the mainline military forces under the governments of the former Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the contemporary Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is usually translated into English as the People's Army of Vietnam, however, there are more recent consensus and standardization by official Vietnamese narratives to use Vietnam People's Army as the uniformed English designation. The name shares the common "People" theming with many communist forces, and according to President Ho, this naming is to emphasize the military's morality of being "from the People, fight for the People, and serve the People."The usage of the word "Army" in English translations has caused confusion by making people mistakenly identifying the Vietnam People's Army to be the land service branch of the combined Vietnam People's Armed Forces, just like how the United States Army is the principal land service of the United States Armed Forces. While VPA itself is already the entired combined military force and is indeed a part of the People's Armed Forces, in Vietnam, the Armed Forces is the umbrella designation to call the national uniformed services that consist of the military, the police, and the militia. In other words, Vietnam's "Army" is equivalent to most of the nations' "Armed Forces" or "Defence Forces", and in practice being similar to the Red Army, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, the People's Liberation Army of China, and to some extent, the Army of the Czech Republic. VPA's land warfare arms have not been organized under an actual "Ground Force" service branch, which would be comparable to many countries' "Army".
Symbols and identification
According to codified regulations from the Government of Vietnam, the VPA emblem is "circular, with a shaded golden star in the middle, surrounded by two golden rice ears on a bright red background; below the two rice ears is a half golden cogwheel, with a golden outer rim" and will be employed by all VPA service branches and components, except Vietnam Coast Guard using slightly modified variants. There are different variants for different levels of usage from combat uniforms to service dress and full ceremonial, as well as versions for general officers, with all of them respecting the cited symbolism.The VPA military flag is the "red banner with golden star" national flag of Vietnam defaced with the motto Quyết thắng added in yellow at the canton, having the unit's formal name or designation to be inscribed below the golden star in ceremonial occasions. Vietnam does not issue any distinctive unit colors, formation patches or shoulder sleeve insignia besides the units' inscribed military flags, shoulder patches indicating the service branches, as well as physical collar tabs indicating the service branches, combat arms and ranking.
Most VPA armored vehicles are decorated with "roundels", to be a red circular field with a central yellow five-pointed star, bordered by a thick yellow ring. Meanwhile, most military aircraft are also designated with the similar roundels, however added with a pair of yellow-bordered red wing devices.
History
Before 1945
The first historical record of Vietnamese military history dates back to the era of Hồng Bàng, the first recorded state in ancient Vietnam to have assembled military force. Since then, military plays a crucial role in developing Vietnamese history due to its turbulent history of wars against China, Champa, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.The Southern expansion of Vietnam resulted in the destruction of Champa as an independent nation to a level that it did not exist anymore; total destruction of Luang Prabang; the decline of Cambodia which resulted in Vietnam's annexation of the Mekong Delta and wars against Siam. In most of its history, the Royal Vietnamese Armed Forces was often regarded to be one of the most professional, battle-hardened and heavily trained armies in Southeast Asia as well as Asia in a large extent.
Establishment
The PAVN was first conceived in September 1944 at the first Revolutionary Party Military Conference as the Information, Communication and Education Unit of the Liberation Army to educate, recruit and mobilise the Vietnamese to create a main force to drive the French colonial and Japanese occupiers from Vietnam. Under the guidelines of Hồ Chí Minh, Võ Nguyên Giáp was given the task of establishing the brigades and the Propaganda Unit of the Liberation Army came into existence on 22 December 1944. The first formation was made up of thirty-one men and three women, armed with two revolvers, seventeen rifles, one light machine gun, and fourteen breech-loading flintlocks. It fought the PAVN's first ever engagement at the Battles of Khai Phat and Na Ngan against French soldiers in late 1944. The United States' OSS agents, led by Archimedes Patti – who was sometimes referred as the first instructor of the PAVN due to his role - had provided ammunitions as well as logistic intelligence and equipment. They also helped train these soldiers, who formed the backbone of the Vietnamese military to successfully fight the Japanese and other opponents. For instance, the PAVN's July 19, 1945 attack at Tam Dao internment camp in Tonkin saw 500 soldiers kill fifty Japanese soldiers and officials, freeing French civilian captives and escorting them to the Chinese border. The PAVN also fought the Japanese 21st Division in Thai Nguyen that year, and regularly raided rice storehouses to alleviate an ongoing famine.There was another separate communist army called the National Salvation Army which was founded and commanded by Chu Văn Tấn on 23 February 1941.
The Propaganda Liberation Army merged with the National Salvation Army into the Vietnam Liberation Army on 15 May 1945. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed in Hanoi by Ho Chi Minh and Vietminh on 2 September 1945. Then in September, the army was renamed the Vietnam National Defence Force. At this point, it had about 1,000 soldiers. On 22 May 1946, the army was called the National Army of Vietnam. Lastly, in 1950, it officially became the People's Army of Vietnam.
Võ Nguyên Giáp went on to become the first full general of the PAVN on 28 May 1948, and famous for leading the PAVN in victory over French forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and being in overall command against U.S. backed South Vietnam at the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.
French Indochina War
On 7 January 1947, its first regiment, the 102nd 'Capital' Regiment, was created for operations around Hanoi. Over the next two years, the first division, the 308th Division, later well known as the Pioneer Division, was formed from the 88th Tu Vu Regiment and the 102nd Capital Regiment. By late 1950 the 308th Division had a full three infantry regiments, when it was supplemented by the 36th Regiment. At that time, the 308th Division was also backed by the 11th Battalion that later became the main force of the 312th Division. In late 1951, after launching three campaigns against three French strongpoints in the Red River Delta, the PAVN refocused on building up its ground forces further, with five new divisions, each of 10–15,000 men, created: the 304th Glory Division at Thanh Hóa, the 312th Victory Division in Vinh Phuc, the 316th Bong Lau Division in the northwest border region, the 320th Delta Division in the north Red River Delta, the 325th Binh Tri Thien Division in Binh Tri Thien province. Also in 1951, the first artillery Division, the 351st Division was formed, and later, before Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, for the first time in history, it was equipped with 24 captured 105mm US howitzers supplied by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The first six divisions became known as the original PAVN 'Steel and Iron' divisions. In 1954, four of these divisions defeated the French Union forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, ending 83 years of French rule in Indochina.The French Foreign Legion had been deployed to combat the Vietnamese insurgency during the First Indochina War. However, some of the legionnaires, such as Stefan Kubiak, deserted after witnessing torture of Vietnamese peasants at the hands of French troops and began fighting for the Việt Minh, volunteering to join the PAVN.