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Further Reading

People's Army of Vietnam

Since Vietnam fought against the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in 1978–89, it has demobilized about 500,000 troops and cut military spending. Still, Vietnam has one of the region’s largest and most powerful militaries. Furthermore, the People’s Army of Vietnam remains politically influential, and many senior officers have obtained leadership positions in the Central Committee and Politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP). The military’s prestige stems from its formidable track record against such major world military powers as France, the United States, and China and its deep roots in society.

PAVN (People's Army of Vietnam) is the formal name given to all elements of the Vietnamese armed forces; hence the designation PAVN (or People's) Navy and PAVN (or People's) Air Force. This usage is traceable to the 1954 Geneva Agreements under which the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was permitted to keep such armed forces as it already possessed. To adhere to the letter of the agreements, DRV leaders immediately created a navy and air force, but listed these new services as part of PAVN. Separate naval and air forces with distinct military identities evolved over the years, however, and traditional interservice rivalries quickly began to assert themselves.

From their earliest days, the Vietnamese communists organized their armed forces into three basic categories described informally as "types of troops." Within the first category, the PAVN Regular Force ("main force troops"), are the army, the navy, and the air force. In 1987 the army consisted of about 1.2 million officers and enlisted personnel; the navy, about 15,000; and the air force, about 20,000. The second grouping, the Regional Force (or "territorial troops"), is organized geographically and consists chiefly of infantry units with limited mobility. In 1987 it totaled about 500,000. The third category, the PAVN Militia Self-Defense Force (or "local troops"), is a semi-mobilized element organized by community (village, urban precinct) or economic enterprise (commune, factory, worksite). In 1987 it numbered about 1.2 million.

In 1987, the PAVN command structure was divided geographically into four military theaters and nine military regions or zones, including a Capital Military Region around Hanoi and Quang Ninh Province Special Region. It was also divided tactically into military units ranging in descending order from corps to divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, companies, platoons and squads. The military-theater designation was introduced in the midst of a postwar buildup when PAVN increased its regular force from 400,000 to about 1.2 million members and its divisions from 25 to 51 (38 infantry divisions and 13 support or economic construction divisions). The number of PAVN corps was also increased from six to eight. Creation of the military theater and the military corps was designed to facilitate what was called the combined arms strategy, meaning larger and more complex military operations that might include use of indigenous military forces from Cambodia and Laos. A corps ranged in size from 30,000 to 50,000 troops and normally consisted of 4 infantry divisions plus service and support elements.

Military service is compulsory, usually for two years. In late 2001, Vietnam reinstated the requirement that women register for military service. However, barring an emergency mobilization, they are unlikely to be called up. Mandatory military service for women had been abandoned in 1975 at the end of the nation’s civil war. Although nearly a million citizens become eligible for military service each year, many of the young people do not enter the military due to tertiary education and going into business to support the ailing economy.

The army's status as the dominant force is embodied within the revolutionary mandate of the Communist Party of Vietnam to govern and therefore will not be challenged by the air and naval services. However, as Vietnam's strategic environment becomes increasingly complicated due to China's push to become the dominant country within Asia, along with the constant build-up of military capabilities among regional powers, there will most likely be greater emphasis on the country's ability to define and protect its often distant offshore claims.

In order to protect these claims, there will be neccessary improvements in their air and naval forces. To meet this air and naval-based requirement, Vietnam has been making some moves towards modernization and improvement, however, due to financial constraints and other priorities these moves are often little more than symbolic. Additionally, the army leadership is unlikely to stand idly by if it percieves these moves as detrimental to its own material and financial needs. Because of this, the present army priority of maintaining disproportionately large regular and militia forces will most likely remain and the air force and navy's capabilities will continue to be of limited strength.