Giap received no formal military training, joking that he attended the military academy "of the bush."
At Dien Bien Phu, his Viet Minh army surprised elite French forces by
surrounding them. Digging miles of trenches, the Vietnamese dragged
heavy artillery over steep mountains and slowly closed in during the
bloody, 56-day battle, which ended with French surrender on May 7, 1954.
"If a nation is determined to stand up, it is very strong," Giap told
foreign journalists in 2004 before the battle's 50th anniversary. "We
are very proud that Vietnam was the first colony that could stand up and
gain independence on its own."
The general drew on his Dien Bien Phu experience to create the Ho Chi
Minh Trail, a clandestine jungle network that snaked through
neighboring Laos and Cambodia to supply his
troops fighting on southern battlefields.
Against U.S. forces with their sophisticated weapons and B-52
bombers, Giap's forces again prevailed. But more than a million of his
troops perished in what is known in Vietnam as the American War.
"We had to use the small against the big — backward weapons to defeat
modern weapons," Giap said. "At the end, it was the human factor that
determined the victory."
Historian Stanley Karnow, who interviewed Giap in Hanoi in 1990,
quoted him as saying, "We were not strong enough to drive out a half
million American troops, but that wasn't our aim. Our intention was to
break the will of the American government to continue the war."
Giap had been largely credited with devising the 1968 Tet Offensive, a
series of surprise attacks on U.S. strongholds in the South by Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese forces that came during Lunar New Year
celebrations. Newer research, however, suggests that Giap had been
against the attacks, and his family has confirmed that he was out of the
country when they began.
The Tet Offensive shook the United States' confidence, fueled
anti-war sentiment and prompted U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson to
announce that he would not seek re-election. But it took another seven
years for the war to be won.
On April 30, 1975, tanks of the liberation forces smashed through the front gates of Saigon's Presidential Palace, then known as Independence
Palace, (and now known as Reunification Palace), and the Saigon government surrendered unconditionally.
"With the victory of April 30, 1975, slaves became free men," Giap said.
"It was an unbelievable story."
It came at a price for all sides: the deaths of as many as 3 million liberation fighters and civilians, an estimated 250,000 South Vietnamese troops
and 58,000 Americans.
Throughout most of the war years, Giap served as defense minister,
armed-forces commander and a senior member of Vietnam's ruling Communist
Party, but he was slowly elbowed from the center of power after Ho's
death in 1969. The glory for victory in 1975 went not so much to Giap as to
Gen. Van Tien Dung, chief of the general staff.
Giap lost the defense portfolio in 1979 and was dropped from the
all-powerful Politburo three years later. He stepped down from his last
post, as deputy prime minister, in 1991.
But despite losing some favor with the government, the thin, white-haired
man became even more beloved by the Vietnamese people as he continued to
speak out in his old age. He retired in Hanoi as a national treasure,
writing his memoirs and attending national events — always wearing green
or eggshell-colored military uniforms with gold stars across the
shoulders.
He held press conferences, reading from handwritten notes and
sometimes answering questions in French, to commemorate war
anniversaries. He invited foreign journalists to his home for meetings
with high-profile visitors and often greeted a longtime American female
AP correspondent in Hanoi with kisses on both cheeks.
He kept up with world news and offered a piece of advice in 2004 for Americans fighting in Iraq: "Any forces that wish to impose their will on other nations will certainly face failure," he told reporters.
Giap received a parade of foreign dignitaries, including friend and
fellow communist revolutionary Fidel Castro of Cuba. In 2003 the pair
sat in Giap's home, chatting and laughing beneath a portrait of former
Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
One of the general's former nemeses, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert
McNamara, visited in 1995.
At age 97, Giap took a high-profile role in a debate over the
proposed expansion of a bauxite mine that he said posed environmental
and security risks, in part because it was to be operated by a Chinese
company in Vietnam's restive Central Highlands. He also protested the
demolition of Hanoi's historic parliament house, Ba Dinh Hall. Both
projects, however, went ahead as planned.
Giap celebrated his 100th birthday in 2011. He was too weak and ill
to speak, but he signed a card thanking his "comrades" for their
outpouring of well wishes. And even then, he continued to be briefed
every few days about international and national events, said Col. Nguyen
Huyen, Giap's personal secretary for 35 years.
Late in life, Giap encouraged warmer relations between Vietnam and
the United States, which re-established ties in 1995 and have become
close trading partners. Vietnam has recently looked to the U.S. military
as a way to balance China's growing power in the disputed South China
Sea.
"We can put the past behind," Giap said in 2000. "But we cannot completely forget it."
Slightly edited from The Associated Press
General
Vo Nguyen Giap, who died Friday aged 102, was considered one of
history's greatest military strategists and was the architect of
Vietnam's stunning battlefield victories against France and the United
States.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/pages/default.aspx
Legendary general Vo Nguyen Giap was known for
scripting Vietnam's victory in wars against France and US.
VIDEO (5:28): Film footage of the General, and interview with Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst during the U.S.-Vietnam War.
President Ho Chi Minh and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, in 1957.
From Melbourne Age newspaper, September 5, 2013:
An outpouring of grief has swept Vietnamese social media and internet
sites over legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap whose brilliant guerilla tactics defeated both the French and American armies,
hastening the collapse of colonialism in Asia.
‘‘Rest in peace the hero of the people. You will always be
our greatest general,’’ was typical of the tributes that swamped the
internet.
‘‘He’s a mythic, heroic figure for Vietnam,’’ said Carl
Thayer, a Vietnam expert and emeritus professor at the University of
New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
John McCain, the former US presidential candidate and navy
pilot who was shot down and held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said
the feisty commander was a brilliant strategist ‘‘who once told me that
we were an honourable enemy’’. {Perhaps Giap was just being polite to his guest?! - Bruce}
Vietnamese historian Phan Huy Le said Giap, who masterminded
the defeat of the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in northern
Vietnam in 1954, was ‘‘one of the most talented military strategists and
most famous generals, not just in Vietnam, but in world history.’’
The Dien Bien Phu victory where Vietnamese fighters hauled
their artillery into jungle hills in an outstanding logistical feat and
pounded French forces below led to Vietnam’s independence.
Giap’s guerillas then defeated US-backed forces, including
Australians, in what is known in Vietnam as the ‘‘American War,’’
reuniting a war-ravaged country in 1975...
QĐND - Saturday, October 05, 2013, 19:45 (GMT+7)
General
Vo Nguyen Giap, *103, has passed away in Hanoi due to old age, said a
special communiqué released by the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central
Committee (CPVCC), the National Assembly, the President, the Government,
the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee and the CPVCC’s Military
Commission on October 5.
The communiqué said the General died at the Central Military Hospital 108 at 6:09 PM on October 4.
General
Giap, real name Vo Giap (alias Van), was born in Loc Thuy commune, Le
Thuy district, the central province of Quang Binh on August 25, 1911.
He
served as a Politburo member, Secretary of the CPVCC’s Military
Commission, Standing Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National
Defence, Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnamese People’s Army and a
National Assembly deputy from the first to seventh tenure.
During
his revolutionary life spanning over 80 years, the General rendered
significant services to the Party and the nation. As an eminent student
close to President Ho Chi Minh, the first General and Commander-in-Chief
of the Vietnamese People’s Army, he was loved and respected by the
people and international friends and a pride of generations of officers
and soldiers nationwide.
General
Giap was awarded the Party and State’s Golden Star Order, the Ho Chi
Minh Order, the 70-year Party membership badge and many other noble
orders and medals both at home and abroad.
His
death is a great loss to the Party, the State, people and army, the
communiqué said, adding that a State funeral will be held for the
General.
Source: VNA
NOTE: * In Viet Nam, it is customary to count a person's age as 1 at birth.
People's Army Newspaper Online:
Many Latin American countries have praised General Vo Nguyen Giap following the news on his death...
There, loose between two typed pages, was a yellowed business card, with
"VO NGUYEN GIAP" in bold, his role in italics, and "Home Minister"
hand-written below. Vo Nguyen Giap's signature is on the back of the
card along with an official stamp in the required red.
A new historical biography penned by an American professor uses
comprehensive research and first-hand accounts to uncover the
motivations and tactical genius of the revered Vietnamese General Vo
Nguyen Giap.
Despite not yet being in high school, two youngsters in Muong Phang
are already top of the class when it comes to sharing their commune's
rich history. Duc Thach and Vien Su report.
The close relationship between Gen Vo Nguyen Giap
and veterans is portrayed by photographer Nguyen Trong Nghi in an
exhibition which opened in the capital yesterday.
The military mastermind
behind victories against the French and American forces in Viet Nam,
General Vo Nguyen Giap, yesterday received Party and State leaders on
the occasion of his 100th birthday.
Viet Nam's 3D animated film
on the revolutionary war against French colonialists, featuring the
legendary military commander General Vo Nguyen Giap, is finished after
more than two years.
Vo Nguyen Giap is
acknowledged as one of history's great generals and in honour of his
100th birthday today, Viet Nam News publishes excerpts written by Viet
Nam People's Army Colonel Ho Ngoc Son that help explain his military
genius.
