Gen Vo Nguyen Giap Dies

[Edward Campbell]

ABC News is reporting that Legendary Vietnam Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap Dies. The story say that Gen Giap, aged 102, "died Friday evening in a military hospital in the capital of Hanoi where he had spent close to four years growing weaker and suffering from long illnesses." The story add, correctly, that, "the so-called "red Napoleon" stood out as the leader of a ragtag army of guerrillas who wore sandals made of car tires and lugged their artillery piece by piece over mountains to encircle and crush the French army at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The unlikely victory, which is still studied at military schools, led not only to Vietnam's independence but hastened the collapse of colonialism across Indochina and beyond ... [and] Giap went on to defeat the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government in April 1975, reuniting a country that had been split into communist and noncommunist states. He regularly accepted heavy combat losses to achieve his goals."

 

Gen Giap as a combat commander (in the 1950s, I think)                                          Gen Giap in his later years

 

[CougarKing]

Doesn't his career rival that of China's Marshal Lin Biao as well?

 

[Edward Campbell]

Fair point, S.M.A. but I think Gen Giap's achievements and influences stand on their own. Giap fought, with little support, against two modern, sophisticated, rich Western invaders and he defeated both. He is worthy of study and respect.

 

[CougarKing]

Giap fought, with little support, against two modern, sophisticated, rich Western invaders and he defeated both.

Isn't it three Western-style invaders if you count the Japanese? Wasn't he already active with the Viet Minh's predecessor group against the Japanese occupation of most of French Indochina during World War II as well?

Initially the Viet Minh fought with captured Japanese weapons during the French reoccupation campaigns in Indochina from the 1945 onwards, if I can recall correctly. China's PLA did the same under Marshal Lin Biao by taking surrendered Japanese armour, artillery and small arms in Manchuria.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Isn't it three Western-style invaders if you count the Japanese? Wasn't he already active with the Viet Minh's predecessor group against the Japanese occupation of most of French Indochina during World War II as well?

Yes, indeed he was, but I think the significance of the Japanese victories in 1941/42 was that they registered all over the world and reminded people that the Europeans and Americans were not invincible and inspired some leaders, like Ho Chi Mnih and Giap to risk everything. I think the fact that the Japanese were Asians, not Western, was of great importance.

 

[Infantryman2b]

Although a western enemy, definitely deserves the proper respect for what he was able to accomplish.  Im sure insurgents and guerrilla armies out there study his tactics to fight a much better equipped and trained force.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Although a western enemy, definitely deserves the proper respect for what he was able to accomplish.  Im sure insurgents and guerrilla armies out there study his tactics to fight a much better equipped and trained force.

And we should study him as well - to understand what a poor, poorly equipped, inadequately trained force can accomplish under resolute, even ruthless leadership.

 

[Infantryman2b]

Agreed E.R Campbell.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Playing with the words of Giap as I recall, "I don't care if 100,000 ex-generals have to die, people die all the time, but I would rather eat French sh*t for 100 years, than Chinese sh*t for 1,000.

He was amazingly skillfully, but his value of human cost of the equation gave him an edge that for the most part we were not willing to do and he knew it.

 

[pbi]

Playing with the words of Giap as I recall, "I don't care if 100,000 ex-generals have to die, people die all the time, but I would rather eat French **** for 100 years, than Chinese **** for 1,000.

He was amazingly skillfully, but his value of human cost of the equation gave him an edge that for the most part we were not willing to do and he knew it.

A great leader of our times, no matter what you think about his politics. His quote above reminds us that Vietnam's traditional enemy is not necessarily the West at all: it has always been China.