After the victory of the resistance war against the US for national salvation, in response to the requirements of army building and national defense in the new period, it is necessary to build a contingent of military cadres and military personnel of the Party and State who should have comprehensive knowledge of socio-economic, national defense and security, have high intellectual thinking capacity, and perform military practical activities on par with their tasks. In order to carry out the task of training and fostering a contingent of senior military cadres and promptly summarizing the war experience, to develop a theoretical system of military art and science to meet the requirements of the task of building and defending the Army. In the new period, the Ministry of Defense decided to establish the Senior Military Academy, which is currently the National Defense Academy.
On July 25, 1975, the Central Military Commission issued a Resolution on the establishment of the Senior Military Academy. In compliance with the Resolution of the Central Military Commission, on February 21, 1976, the Ministry of National Defense issued Decision No. 38/QD-QP on the establishment of the Senior Military Academy under the Ministry of National Defense. The decision defining the mission of the Academy is: “Fostering and training senior officers of the armed forces; participating in the study of military science issues; assisting friend countries to train senior military cadres”.
Lieutenant General Le Trong Tan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff was appointed to concurrently hold the post of Director of the Senior Military Academy.
On February 25, 1976, Chief of the General Staff issued Decision No. 28/QD-TM provisionally stipulating the organizational structure of the Senior Military Academy, including the Academy’s head, 6 agencies and 16 faculties.
Regarding the Party organization, the Central Military Commission temporarily appointed the establishment of the Joint Party Committee of the Academy, led by Comrade Le Trong Tan as the Secretary.
On June 25, 1976, Chief of the General Staff issued Decision No. 146/QD-TM, promulgating the official organizational structure of the Senior Military Academy, including amending and adjusting a number of points of the Decision. No. 28/QD-TM, namely: to rename “Academy Head” into “Academy Board of Directors”, “Education Department” into “Training Department”; to implement "The executive board of the student management wings" which include: The executive board of complementary wing, the executive board of training wing, the executive board of the international wing.
From 8 to 11 November 1976, the first Congress of the Academy's Party Committee was solemnly conducted with 72 official delegates. The Congress is an important political activity of the Academy, marking the basic completion of the Academy's organizational structure and the Academy's determination and ability to successfully complete the assigned missions.
On January 3, 1977, the Senior Military Academy solemnly held the Opening Ceremony of the first course (Supplementary Course I). General Vo Nguyen Giap, Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense attended the Opening Ceremony. Adressing the ceremony, the General stated: “The mission of the Senior Military Academy in the long term is to train our senior military officers according to a basic, comprehensive and systematic program. .. The establishment of the Senior Military Academy is an important event in the construction of our People's Army towards regularization and modernity in the new period. Although founded after other academies, but because it is the highest academy of our army, its mission is very arduous, its future is very glorious. Our senior military cadres from now on must pass through this Academy, therefore the Academy’s every step forward will have a positive effect on the entire army…”.
The Opening Ceremony of the Class of Senior Officers Course 1 is an important historical event of the Senior Military Academy that began the mission of training and fostering senior cadres for the army. The event affirmed the new development and completeness of the military education and training system of our army, was a new development step in research and training on Vietnamese military art theory. Since then, January 3 annually has been identified as the National Defense Academy's Foundation Day.
On August 30, 1978, in order to continue to consolidate the organization of academies and research institutes, the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission issued Resolution No. 294-NQ-QUTW on merging the Senior Military Academy and the Institute of Military Science, renaming into the Senior Military Academy in order to further promote the missions of scientific research and senior cadres training and fostering.
On February 26, 1979, Chief of the General Staff directly assigned the Academy to build a complete framework for the 5th Army Corps. Also on this occasion, the Ministry of National Defense mobilized a number of cadres and lecturers of the Academy to set off to build the 6th Army Corps. Obeying the instructions and orders of the superior, the Standing Committee of the Party Committee thoroughly grasped the tasks, determined the leadership measures, organized the implementation with determination to ensure the right time and enough quantity and good quality, making everyone thoroughly understand the missions. After just one week of preparation work, nearly 100 officers and soldiers were excited to go to receive the task. In war conditions, the Academy is both a place of training - education, scientific research, and at the same time strengthening the contingent of senior cadres for the whole army to meet the requirements of combat missions.
On December 16, 1981, Minister of National Defense issued Decision No. 423/QD-QP to rename the Senior Military Academy into the Senior Military Academy.
The mission of the Academy is determined as: “Training officers of command and staff at the operational-strategic level is the key mission; at the same time, continuing to provide short-term training for commanding officers and senior advisers of the combined armed forces, and military and local military scientists...". To carry out the new task, the Academy changed its training direction, from training division-level commanders of the joint service (training by posts) to training at the senior level of education, at the operational-strategic level.
In order to meet the requirements of national defense and security tasks in the new period, the period of industrialization and modernization of the country, building and defending the Fatherland of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, on December 20, 1994, the Government of The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has issued Decree 188/CP on the establishment of the National Defense Academy on the basis of the Senior Military Academy. The Decree clearly states: The National Defense Academy is directly under the Government and is a training center, fostering senior cadres of the Party, the State and mass organizations, conducting military scientific research. It is directly managed by the Ministry of National Defense under the Government’s assignment. The State agencies, according to their functions, are responsible for participating in the construction of the Academy. The National Defense Academy's activities are governed by the distinct regulations set by the Prime Minister. The National Defense Academy’s missions comprise training and fostering senior command and staff officers at the operational and strategic levels; the local defense major; the contingent of instructors and lecturers, military scientific research cadres; training students of master and PhD degrees in military science in conformity with the State's diploma regulations; Fostering national defense knowledge for key cadres at provincial and equivalent levels, key cadres of the Party, the State and central mass organizations; conducting research on military science and military art; performing international cooperation in training and fostering senior military cadres.
On December 22, 1994, Comrade Nong Duc Manh, Politburo member, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam paid a visit to the National Defense Academy, attending the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Foundation of the Vietnamese People's Army, the Entire People’s National Defense Day (December 22, 1944). At this ceremony, the Prime Minister's Decree on the establishment of the National Defense Academy was announced. Adressing the ceremony, Comrade Nong Duc Manh stated: “Our State's decision to establish the National Defense Academy is to implement a right policy, of great significance. It is both an honour but also a great responsibility of the Party, the State and people entrusting to the National Defense Academy. The mission of the Academy is not only to train senior commanding officers of the army according to new requirements, but also to foster defense knowledge for senior officials of the Party, the State, the central and local mass organizations in order to meet the requirements of the task of building the all-people national defense and building the people's armed forces according to the defense and military guidelines of the Party and State, making an important contribution to the sound implementation of the task of building the people's armed forces building and defending the Fatherland of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”.
The establishment of the Vietnam National Defense Academy represents the development of new thinking on military tasks and national defense of the Party and the State, meeting the requirements of the new situation. The birth of the Vietnam National Defense Academy marked a new maturity in terms of training content and quality of the Academy; being the result of many years of building and accumulation of knowledge and experience in training highly qualified military personnel in the Vietnamese people's army, a continuation of the development process from the High-ranking Military Academy, the Senior Military Academy; at the same time, it is a step to complete the development of the military education and training system of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
On November 7, 1995, the Prime Minister promulgated "Regulations on organization and operation of the National Defense Academy", consisting of 06 chapters and 18 articles. This is the legal basis for the Academy to execute organization, to build training contents and curriculums, to conduct scientific research and to build the Academy in the new period. In parallel with the training courses for senior military personnel, the Academy implemented a process of elaborate preparation in all aspects to open a training course in defense and security knowledge according to the guidelines of the Party and the State.
On June 8, 1998, the National Defense Academy solemnly held the Opening Ceremony of the Course I. Comrade Le Kha Phieu, General Secretary of the Central Committee, the Vietnamese Communist Parry and many delegates from the Party, the State, the central mass organizations, Ministry of National Defense attended and directed the course. Adressing the opening ceremony, the General Secretary stated that: "Fostering national defense and security knowledge for leaders of provinces, cities, branches and mass organizations at the central level is an important policy of the Party and State, in order to actively implement the personnel strategy in the new period, the period of industrialization and modernization of the country along the socialism path, closely combining the two tasks of national construction and defense. Representation of members of the Politburo, the Central Military Party Committee and central agencies in the opening ceremony today have demonstrated the interest of the Politburo, the State and the Central Military Party Committee to the this guideline..."
Since then, the National Defense Academy has fully implemented the four tasks defined by Decree 188/CP of the Government. Recorded achievements have contributed to renewing thinking and improving governmental management capacity of national defense and security for key cadres at all levels, branches and localities throughout the country, and at the same time directly contributed to the successful implementation of national defense and security tasks and the Fatherland protection, creating a stable socio-political environment for nation building.
On April 10, 1999, the Minister of National Defense issued Directive No. 463/CT-BQP on organizing the transfer of the task of training divisional cadres from the National Defense Academy to the Army Academy. This is a very important and necessary decision for the mission of training and education at the operational and strategic level of the National Defense Academy, focusing on researching new issues at the strategic level, especially the contents of the strategic plan, contents on fostering knowledge of defense - security for senior officials of the Party and State.
On September 10, 2001, the Academy held the Opening Ceremony of the first training course at the operational and strategic level with the goal of training leaders and commanders with strategic visions in politics, military, mastery of the Party's military and defense lines and views; attaining the ability of critical thinking and action to assume leadership and command posts in operational and strategic level units and bodies; being capable of disclosure, proposal organization to solve major problems of the current and future armed forces' construction and operations.
On July 18, 2003, the Ministry of National Defense issued Decision No. 673/QD-TM on the organization and staffing of the National Defense Academy. Accordingly, the new organization and staffing of the Academy includes: The Academy's President’s Board (President and Vice Presidents ), by April 2006, according to the Resolution No. 51 of the Politburo, the Academy has a Commissar and a Deputy Commissar.
The executive sector includes: Department of Education - Training, Department of Politics, Administrative Office, Department of Logistics - Techniques, Institute of Military Arts and Science, Post-Graduation Division, Military Science Information Division, Division of Testing and Assurance of Education - Training Quality.
The training sector consists of 10 faculties: Faculty of Strategic Study, Faculty of Operational Study, Faculty of Local Defense, Faculty of Reconnaissance, Faculty of Arms, Faculty of Services, Faculty of Marxism-Leninism, Faculty of Party and Politics work, and Faculty of Command and Staff and Faculty of Logistics - Techniques.
The student management sector includes: Campaign – strategy-Operation Wing, Post-Graduation Wing, National Defense Wing and , International Wing.
From October 11 to 13, 2005, the National Defense Academy was assigned by the Ministry of Defense to organize the 9th International Conference "Heads of Defence Universities/Colleges/Institutions Meeting (ARF) in Hanoi". As the President of the Conference, the Academy has managed the conference process as planned, handled the problems well, prepared the conference place, accommodation, and visiting places thoughtfully, reasonably, safely and highly appreciated by the attending countries.
On December 26, 2006, the Academy undertook the acceptance test and organized the inauguration ceremony of the cultural work of Uncle Ho's monument which depicted the 1950 Border campaign. The work shows ideological, educational, and aesthetic qualities, and is highly artistic, suitable to the position and role of the National Defense Academy in the cause of national construction and defense and was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Ministry of Culture and Information for its artistic value.
On January 3, 2007, the Academy solemnly celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Foundation Day and was awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces during the renovation period. Comrade Nguyen Minh Triet, Politburo member, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam attended and presented this noble award.
Since 2008, the Academy has been assigned by the Ministry of National Defense to open a training course for multinational international defense officials. This is one of the new and difficult tasks to the Academy, because the trainees are officials with very high education and professionalism in many fields, especially in defense and military affairs; At the same time, students come from various countries with different political institutions, including those that directly launched the war or were allies in the war to invade Vietnam, such as France, the United States, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Korea... After a period of preparation work, on March 4, 2008, the Academy held The First Course Opening ceremony training international defense officials from 14 countries, marking a new development in training and foreign relations of the Academy.
On September 20, 2009, in Hanoi, the National Defense Academy of Vietnam held a twinning ceremony with the Defense Academy of Cayson Phomvihan of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
On January 3, 2017, the Academy solemnly held the 40th Anniversary of the Foundation Day and received the First Class Independence Medal, attended and presented the Medal to the Academy at the Celebration, Comrade Tran Dai Quang Politburo member, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam emphasized: “The National Defense Academy, with the role as a center for training and fostering senior cadres of the Party and the State and the military plays a very important part in the "stem work" of the Party, and at the same time has been setting new and increasingly heavy requirements, which is both the honour and responsibility of the Academy in the new period".
As implementation of Conclusion No. 25-KL/TW, dated December 28, 2017 of the Secretariat, Instruction No. 15-HD/BTCTW, dated July 9, 2018 of the Central Organizing Committee and the Decision of the Ministry of National Defense that assigned the Academy to train and complete advanced political knowledge. After a period of preparation work, on October 1, 2018, the Academy opened the first course of the Completion of the advanced political knowledge. Up to now, the Academy has trained 5 completion courses and 04 training courses of advanced political knowledge for nearly 1,000 students, ensuring high quality, making an important contribution to the building of the Party, government, mass organizations. And socio-political bodies, maintaining political stability and well performing the tasks of socio-economic development associated with national defense and security at agencies, bodies and localities.
Thoroughly grasping the Party's Resolution on building organizations and forces that are refined, strong and compact, with integrated quality, strength, and increasing combat readiness; implementing the resolution of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission on the reorganization and promulgation of the schedule of organization and staffing of the National Defense Academy, on April 17, 2020, the Minister of National Defense issued Decision No. 1254/QD- Defense Department on the reorganization of the National Defense Academy (peacetime). On the basis of the decision of the Ministry of National Defense, the Chief of the General Staff issued the 1842 the organization and staffing together with the Decision No. 264/QD-TM, dated April 18, 2020 on the organization and staffing of the National Defense Academy (in peace time). Basically, the agencies, faculties and sectors remain the same as before, except transferring and merging a number of departments, offices and divisions between agencies and faculties to ensure compliance with practical requirements.
Since its establishment, the Academy has trained and fostered over 400 classes with 18 training majors and 53 kinds of trainees. Tens of thousands of senior cadres have graduated from the Academy, including more than 1,000 comrades being promoted to Army generals, more than 500 comrades becoming members of the Party Central Committee, many comrades holding high-level responsibilities of the Party, the State and the Army.
Along with the training of senior military personnel, the Academy has successfully completed the task of training military Art and Science researchers. It has trained 913 masters, 473 doctors, 187 associate professors and professor, 14 professor in military science, there are comrades who have become leading scientists in the field of military art and science.
Since 1998, the Academy has well organized for 84 training courses on national defense and security knowledge with over 5,000 senior officials of the Party and the State who are under the central management. The national defense and security knowledge training courses at the Academy have contributed to improving the awareness, responsibility, theoretical thinking and organizational capacity of senior officials of the Party and State in the leadership process, directing, administering and participating in planning policies on building the national defense-security posture, making an important contribution to maintaining political security, social order and safety for the country in the course of international integration and sustainable development.
As the leading military science and art research and development center of the Army and the country, the Academy always follows the change of practice and theory, has actively researched nearly 1,000 scientific projects at all levels, including nearly tens national-level projects, hundreds of defense ministry-level and branch-level projects; nearly 900 ministerial-level documents and over 5,000 Academy-level documents have been compiled and studied; many projects and documents are of high scientific value and practical significance, especially the project "The Strategy to defend the Fatherland in new conditions" was excellently evaluated, contributing to the development of Vietnam military science and art, advising the Party and State on many issues of strategic significance in terms of military, national defense, and protection of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the new period.
As implementation of the Party and the State's foreign policy and the policy of international cooperation in training senior military cadres, the Academy has completed 81 training courses for over 700 senior military officers. Laos, Cambodia, Cuba and the armies of some countries in the world, including nearly 80 flag officers; successfully organized 05 training courses for international defense officials for over 100 students from 34 countries around the world. At the same time, the Academy has received and worked with hundreds of delegations from many countries and sent hundreds of delegations of officials to various countries around the world to visit, study and exchange academic issues; it has actively participated in the regular forum of heads of academies, universities and defense research institutes of ARF member countries.
The Academy regularly focuses on building a strong Academy Party Committee in terms of politics, ideology, ethics, organization and staff, associates with building a regular, advanced, exemplary and sustainable Academy. The Academy Party Committee always maintains the leadership orientation for all activities of the Academy, strictly abides by the principle of democratic centralism, and constantly improves the comprehensive leadership capacity and combat power of Party organizations. The entire Party Committee of the Academy is absolutely loyal to the Party, the Fatherland and the People; strong in politics, ideology and organization. It is indeed a fortress of political stability, idealistic goals, creativity in implementing the Party's guideline, and excellent completion of all assigned missions.
