Remembering vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, dead at 102

Photo by Flickr user Prachatai

Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who confounded and humiliated both the French and American armies, is dead at 102. Nicknamed “red Napolean,” Vo Nguyen Giap was Vietnam’s greatest living military hero, world famous for developing tactics and techniques of modern guerilla warfare.

Born in 1911 the son of a poor scholar, Vo Nguyen Giap did not at first appear destined for a military career. He started out as an underground journalist and member of the Indochina Communist Party, fleeing to China in 1939 to escape persecution by the French colonial government. While there, he met up with Ho Chi Minh, who would later become the president of North Vietnam, and would serve as Giap’s mentor and friend until Minh died in 1969. The two returned to Vietnam’s jungles in 1941 to lead a revolt against French colonial rule, with Giap training an army of revolutionary peasant soldiers. During this time, Giap developed his own form of guerilla warfare, which would serve as one of his most lasting legacies.

For Giap, guerilla warfare was “the war of the broad masses of an economically backward country standing up against a powerfully equipped and well-trained army of aggression.” Although his form of guerilla warfare was adapted from Mao Zedong’s theories, he stressed the need for extreme flexibility and winning the hearts and minds of the populace. So that, in Giap’s words “Every inhabitant is a soldier, every village a fortress.”

In 1954, Giap defeated the French colonial army at the battle of Dien Bien Phu,which ended French colonial rule in Vietnam. During the ensuing conflict between North Vietnam and the U.S.-backed South Vietnam, he was North Vietnam’s commander in chief, using guerrilla tactics against American and South Vietnamese troops to horrific effect. After 10 years of war that left 58,000 Americans and at least 3 million Vietnamese dead, North Vietnam defeated South Vietnam, driving out America’s interests from the country in the Fall of Saigon.

According to American journalist and historian Stanley Karnow, these victories place him “in the pantheon of great military leaders” with the Duke of Wellington, Ulysses S. Grant and General Douglas MacArthur.

After the Vietnam War, Vo Nguyen Giap’s influence faded; he lost his post as defense minister five years later and eventually left politics in 1991. However, his status as a foe of imperialism still made him a figure of high demand, with world leaders like Lula Da Silva from Brazil, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and South African President Thabo Mbeki all seeking him out.

Vo Nguyen Giap died in a Hanoi Military Hospital after a long illness. He is survived by his wife Dang Bich Ha, and four children.

H/T Marc Sollinger