"The Vietnamese side highly appreciates the important role played by China in international and regional affairs, and will continue to give top priority to the development of relations with China and push the relations between Vietnam and China and the two militaries to a new level."
This is the promise made to China by Viet Nam's highest-ranking general, Defense Minister Phan Van Giang, when he attended the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing; in the past, we only saw the leaders of Viet Nam's party and government departments often say this, but in the Viet Nam military, Senior General Phan Van Giang mentioned for the first time that relations with China should be given top priority, reflecting to a certain extent the importance that General Phan Van Giang attaches to Sino-Vietnamese military relations.
What is embarrassing is that it was this Viet Nam's vice-national general who participated in the Sino-Vietnamese border battle when he was young, and it can really be said that he fought inextricably in the year of dancing elephants, and suddenly learned to pursue good-neighborliness and friendship in the year of Huajia.
Senior General Phan Van Giang's U-turn stems from his rising military and political status in Viet Nam.
Born in October 1960 in Thai Nguyen Province in northern Viet Nam, Phan Van Giang joined the army at the age of 18 and joined the 346th Division, the ace unit of the 1st Military Region of Viet Nam, as a soldier in the 4th Battalion of the 677th Regiment.
It's just that what Pan Wenjiang didn't expect was that not long after he stepped into the barracks, he ushered in the biggest challenge in his life - the Sino-Vietnamese border self-defense counterattack.
Because Viet Nam pursued a one-sided strategy between China and the Soviet Union after Le Duan came to power, completely hugged the thigh of the Soviet Union, fought with China, constantly harassed China's border areas on the land border, and constantly encroached on the mainland's islands and reefs in the South China Sea at sea, forcing the mainland to launch a border self-defense counterattack against Viet Nam on February 17, 1979.
The 346th Division of the 1st Military Region of Viet Nam, where Phan Van Giang is located, is precisely the target of the PLA's violent beating, because the 346th Division is stationed in Cao Bang Province, a military town in northern Viet Nam, which is the target of the PLA Eastern Front combat group.
The 346th Division, also known as the "Gaobei Division", has 246 Regiment, 677 Regiment, 851 Regiment, and 188 Artillery Regiment, and this unit has participated in the Viet Nam War of Resistance against France and the Viet Nam War of Resistance against the United States, and has rich combat experience, but the PLA just likes to play "ace troops", using its own good tactics, not fighting frontal battles with the 346th Division of the Vietnamese Army, but adopting the tactics of large-scale interspersed cutting and outflanking, and directly hitting the 346th Division in the southeast and northwest.
So much so that a few days after the war began, the 346th Division was basically destroyed by our army, and the commander of the 346th Division, Senior Colonel Huang Bianshan, had to hide in a certain corner and cat, and did not escape until the main forces of our army withdrew from Viet Nam.
It can be seen that Pan Wenjiang, who has only been in the army for six months, suffered a fatal defeat in his first actual battle.
However, although Phan Van Giang failed to make combat achievements in the course of fighting against China, this did not prevent him from making steady progress in the Viet Nam military circles in the future.
Eight months after the end of combat operations, in November 1979, Phan Van Giang went to the Cultural School of the 1st Military Region of Viet Nam and the Viet Nam Tank-Armored Officer Academy for further study, and after three years of systematic study, Phan Van Giang successfully grew from a Viet Nam soldier to an officer of the grassroots units of the Vietnamese Army, and was appointed as the platoon commander of the 3rd Company of the 1037th Battalion of the 312th Division of the 1st Military Region of Viet Nam, thus starting his career as an officer for more than 40 years.
In the past half century, through his own efforts, Phan Van Giang has served as a company commander, deputy battalion commander, regiment commander, and it can be said that he has served at every level of the Viet Nam army, and has been promoted all the way to the posts of commander of the 312th Division, commander of the 1st Army, and even commander of the 1st Military Region.
The most important thing is that the senior commanders of Phan Van Giang's combat units are all elite units of the Vietnamese army.
For example, in November 2003, Phan Van Giang served as the commander of the 312th Division of the 1st Military Region of Viet Nam, which was the trump card of Viet Nam's army and was known as the "ever-victorious division"; in the War of Resistance against France, the 312th Division was the main attacking force, and the commander-in-chief of the Viet Nam People's Army, Vo Nguyen Giap, was nicknamed the "Tiger of Dien Bien Phu".
In June 2010, Phan Van Giang served as the commander of the 1st Army of the Vietnamese Army, known as the "Decisive Corps", and the 308th, 312th, and 390th Divisions under his jurisdiction were all the elite main forces of the Vietnamese Army.
The real senior leadership position of the Vietnamese army is still in the 1st Military Region, because after Phan Van Giang stepped down as commander of the 1st Military Region in April 2016, he was promoted to the deputy defense minister of Viet Nam and concurrently served as the chief of the general staff of the Vietnamese army, and in September 2017, he was awarded the rank of Viet Nam general.
Viet Nam's Ministry of National Defense and General Staff are similar to Russia's military command structure, and the General Staff is only a subordinate unit of the Vietnamese Army's Ministry of National Defense, and usually the Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Army is also the first deputy minister of Viet Nam's Ministry of National Defense, which is not only the office of the Viet Nam Military Commission, but also the highest military command organ and administrative leadership organ of the Vietnamese Army.
That is, from that moment on, it means that Phan Van Giang has truly entered the ranks of the top leadership of the Vietnamese army.
Phan Van Giang served as the deputy of Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lie for 5 years, and finally became a regular member, and was promoted from deputy defense minister and chief of general staff to defense minister in April 2021, officially becoming the highest-ranking general of the Vietnamese army.
Taking over the post of Viet Nam's defense minister, Phan Van Giang will traditionally receive three titles.
First, Viet Nam's defense ministers will be promoted to the rank of general. The seven defense ministers before Phan Van Giang were all without exception, so he was also promoted to Viet Nam's highest-ranking general three months after becoming the defense minister of the Vietnamese army, while the deputy defense minister and chief of the general staff was still a general.
Second, Viet Nam's defense ministers will be elected to the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Since the Viet Cong began to lead Viet Nam, all the Vietnamese defense ministers in each term, without exception, have been elected as members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam and become vice-state generals, which is consistent with the Minister of Public Security of Viet Nam.
Third, Viet Nam's defense ministers will all serve as deputy secretaries of the CPV's Military Commission. According to the rules of Viet Nam's military leadership system, the Ministry of National Defense of Viet Nam is the highest administrative organ and command organ of the Vietnamese army, while the Military Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam is the highest decision-making organ of the Vietnamese army, and the No. 1 person of the Communist Party of Vietnam often concurrently serves as the secretary of the Military Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam, as was the case with the recently deceased Nguyen Phu Trong, who realized unified leadership and command of the entire army of Viet Nam through the Ministry of Defense of Viet Nam during his lifetime, so the Minister of Defense, as deputy secretary of the Military Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam, can be regarded as the supreme deputy commander of the Vietnamese army.