Constitution Chapter Four: Defence of the Socialist Vietnamese Motherland

Article 44
The entire people shall endeavour to defend the socialist Vietnamese motherland and ensure national security.

The State shall consolidate and strengthen national defence by the entire people and the people's security, the people's armed forces being regarded as the core, and shall develop to the full the aggregate strength of the country to defend the national territory.

All State organs, economic bodies, social organisations and all citizens shall fulfil all their national defence and security obligations as laid down by the law.

Article 45
All units of the people's armed forces must show absolute loyalty to the motherland and the people; their duty is to stand ready to fight to safeguard national independence and sovereignty, the country's unity and territorial integrity, national security and social order, to safeguard the socialist regime and the fruits of the revolution, and to join the entire people in national construction.

Article 46
The State shall build a revolutionary people's army which shall be a well-trained regular army to be gradually modernised; it shall built up powerful reserves and self-defence militia by combining national construction with national defence, the strength of the people's armed forces with that of the entire people, the strength of the traditional unity against foreign aggression with that of the socialist regime.

Article 47
The State shall build a revolutionary people's police which shall be a well-trained regular force to be gradually modernised; this police shall rely on the people and shall serve as the core of a popular movement to safeguard national security and social order, political stability and the citizen's freedoms and democratic rights, the lives and properly of the people and socialist property; it shall seek to prevent all crimes and shall fight against them.

Article 48
The State shall develop to the full the people's patriotism and revolutionary heroism, educate the entire people in matters of national defence and security, enact a regime of military service and rear-area policies, build up the national-defence industry to ensure proper equipment for the armed forces. It shall harmonise national defence with the economy and vice versa, seek to ensure proper material and spiritual living conditions for officers and soldiers, national-defence workers and employees. It shall build powerful people's armed forces and unceasingly reinforce the country's national-defence potential.

VN Embassy : Learn about Vietnam : Politics : Constitution : Chapter Four