The army cryptographic branch appeared immediately after the birth of our nation. As Uncle Ho said, "Cryptography must be secret, swift, and accurate." The army cryptographic branch strove to endure, to be worthy of the esteem of the Party. "In many decades past we fought bandits – we understood, and knew positively, that those were most important times, that our most secret problems could not be revealed."[102] In forty-five years of continuous building and fighting, under the command leadership of the Central Military Committee, the Ministry of National Defense, the General Staff, and of the echelons in the army, and the guidance of the Central Cryptographic Section, with respect to professional technical guidance, the army cryptographic branch was tempered in revolutionary struggle, and, with each passing day, grew up, "having taken part very significantly in the protection of secrecy to strengthen us to gain the victory."[103] Having come through two wars – against the French and against the Americans – the history of the building and fighting and maturing of the army cryptographic branch was tempered and found satisfactory in every respect, receiving from the Ministry of National Defense of our nation the golden words: "LOYAL, DEDICATED, UNITED, DISCIPLINED, CREATIVE."
With their mission and function – namely, to protect the nation's cryptographic secrecy, to ensure the secrecy of the contents of command leadership transmitted via cryptographic techniques – from the very outset, in revolutionary struggle as today in the building and protection of the Socialist Vietnamese Nation, the cadre and personnel of the army cryptographic branch have always carried deep in their hearts FIDELITY – to the nation, to the people, to the Party – prepared to struggle and to sacrifice for the combat objective and for the protection of secret matters involving the Party and the army.
From a very few cadre at the outset, entrusted by the army with the mission of performing the cryptographic task, the PAVN cryptographic branch built the ranks of professional technical cadre and personnel of the army's specialty branch with the quantity and quality to respond to the requirements of the revolutionary mission. These are the cadre and warriors who have been tested in combat service, in assignments all over the theaters of war, growing day by day in the level of the specialty and in absolute trust in the leadership of the Party, determined to safeguard and resolved to implement the victory policy and ideological viewpoint of the Party. These are the warriors of the PAVN, who embody the glorious essence, "Faithful to the Party, faithful to the nation, respectful of the people," whatever the situation, but also determined to fight and to serve and to swiftly transmit each message of command leadership from the various echelons of the army.
Cryptographic cadre and personnel are always firm in politics, enduring and overcoming every difficulty and test, always cultivating and training in revolutionary qualities and virtues, bound to and united with the organization, not one minute away from the combat objective of protecting secrecy, in order to fight and win out over the enemy in their silent battlefront. In the process of building and fighting, they produced countless examples of sacrifice of life and readiness to sacrifice life because of the mission – courageously fighting and wiping out the enemy, skillfully dealing with the concealment and destruction of cryptographic materials, or, when captured by the enemy, having to endure third degree treatment, yet refusing to talk and to disclose secret matters.
Dedication – that is the virtue prized highly in the tradition of those performing the cryptographic task. From new comrades entering the branch to comrades with decades in the branch, all of them hold high the [sense of] political responsibility, know to place value on the social class and the people [dân tôc] above all else, before all else: cryptographic cadre and personnel gladly forsake personal tastes and wishes, voluntarily finding peace of mind in long-term service in the branch, well aware of being "unsung warriors" on the battlefront of keeping secrets; enduring hardships, overcoming difficulties, devoted and doing their best in research, creativity, and in building the branch in every respect. In routine times, as when going into battle; on mobile operations, as well as in emergency situations; days and nights of campaigning – work stacked up, requiring immediate attention – conditions in which materials were in short supply – illness, etc., army cryptographic cadre and personnel continued to be passionately absorbed in their work – forgetting to eat – forgetting to sleep, sticking to their studies, serving in combat, determined to ensure thereby that the arteries of command of the Party and of the army were fully in hand, secret and timely.
In the front lines as in the rear lines; in small, dispersed units as in large, concentrated units; in distant sea islands as on the mainland; in the enemy regions as in rear bases – wherever – insofar as the army cryptographic cadre and personnel, it was a silent battlefront, yet very urgent and not infrequently decisive. In order to have the right stuff to carry out the mission, army cryptographic cadre and personnel strove to study and train with respect to every aspect, with the slogan, "the amount of training produces skill; total absorption produces talent."
Industriously persevering, taking pains to ponder and seek out and bring into play innovativeness, improving technique to enhance the productivity and quality of the task – these are the manifestations of the dedication quite readily seen in each cryptographic cadre and warrior.
In obedience to the teachings of Uncle Ho, when he visited a cryptographic cadre and personnel development class in the Viet Bac combat sector [chiêń khu] during the war of resistance against the French, "The fellows doing cryptography must be secret and of one mind," the army cryptographic branch unceasingly turned its mind to building and consolidating unification. Unanimity with respect to ideological viewpoint and direction of the mission, as well as the guidelines and methods of the technical-professional task had changed into strength and unity of action from top down, so that, in whatever circumstances, the army cryptographic branch would realize victory in every mission.
In the branch – first and foremost at the basic level of cryptography, between cadre and personnel – not only deeply attached to one another with respect to ideals and revolutionary aims, but also deeply attached to one another in sentiment and collegiality – the cadre and personnel were like siblings, sharing the bitter and the sweet, sharing the good things in the daily specialist task, constantly creating favors for friends and keeping tough things for oneself. In the assignment or in ordinary life, the army cryptographic cadre and personnel constantly took care of the unified relationship to aid one another. This was the very beautiful style of the army cryptographic cadre and personnel.
Bringing into play the tradition of unity, the army cryptographic branch constantly stuck tightly to the leadership of the committees and commands at the various echelons, closely bound to the organizations in the command system at the various echelons, taking the initiative to build ties and close associations with friendly units, with the branches, and with allied organizations, so that together they could ensure the mission. Imbued with the international line of the Party and the teachings of Uncle Ho, that helping friends was helping oneself, with ardent love of country and pure international sentiment, our army cryptographers were fighting and giving their lives, shoulder-to-shoulder with their cryptographer friends in the Laotian army and Cambodian army: because of the revolutionary work of our friends, our army's cryptographic branch had helped in the building of the cryptographic branches of the Laotian and Cambodian armies, helping them to grow up and be self-sufficient in every respect.
Maintaining discipline is a feature of the army cryptographic branch that is fully satisfactory in every respect, an element in ensuring the trust of the ranks of cadre and personnel and of cryptographic technique, ensuring unity in thought and action, a strength of the whole branch. Perceiving clearly the characteristic nature of their task, the army cryptographers constantly settled on the importance of the problem of building standing operating procedures and implementing task discipline, in order to raise the sense of organization and discipline of the cryptographic cadre and personnel in every activity. The branch constantly educated and fostered in the cadre and personnel a sense of revolutionary vigilance and the spirit of discipline, paying particular attention to on-the-job workstyle and activities consistent with the nature of the mission of the cryptographic task: Voluntarily adhering strictly to the rules and regulations that had been set, not letting out secrets to anybody lacking the need-to-know; secretive and cautious in speech and work, in relations and connections, and struggling without compromise against manifestations of undisciplined freedom and lack of truthfulness and straightforwardness. Simultaneously striving to build and make routine the professional guidance and unity of administration throughout the army cryptographic branch, thereby creating a unity of all with respect to ideological awareness in content, line, and task methodology.
Faced with the requirements of the revolutionary mission, faced with the schemes and plots of the enemy, on the battleline of cryptographic secrecy, the army cryptographic branch proceeded to regularize and, step by step, to modernize the basic technical material, and the education, training, and bringing into play of tradition in order to raise vigilance, and the maintenance of discipline took on important significance. This was also a means of guarding oneself the best in resisting the enemy and ensuring that the building of the cryptographic branch was clean, strong and solid.
Firmly grasping and applying the Party's line of independence and sovereignty, the army cryptographic branch brought into play to a high degree the spirit of self-reliance, becoming stronger through one's own efforts, laboring to create and build the Branch, expressing the revolutionary spirit of attack, bringing into play the sense of socialist patriotism, along with the intelligence and creative capacity of the cadre and personnel of the entire branch.
As a secret, technical, scientific branch, carrying the characteristic traits of every distinct nation, thus having clearly defined sound ideology and having creativity in organization and application, we raised the spirit of "dare to think, dare to act," seeking to create, coordinate and apply the intellectual factors with the technical, scientific achievements, along with the experiences of real-world action over a long and arduous time in war and in peace, so as to research and create principles, methods, and forms of cryptographic technique and the art of organization and use to serve the army at a level that never ceased to move forward, struggling to defeat every means of signals intelligence [thu tin mā thám] on the part of the enemy, thereby expanding science and technique.
Taking legitimate pride in the history of building and fighting while growing up, and the glorious tradition of the army's cryptographic branch in the past forty-five years, the army cryptographic cadre and personnel/warriors swear to hold fast and strive to bring into play their fine traditions, never ceasing to strive to train in revolutionary quality and level of output in every aspect, taking part in bringing about the victory resolution of the standing Committee of the Central Military Mairs Party Committee with respect to the mission of building the army cryptographic branch in the new phase, to serve outstandingly in the mission of building and guarding the socialist Vietnamese nation.