Vietnam’s modern history is the greatest tribute to the implacable Gen. Vo Ngueyn Giap, a revolutionary with no formal military training who drove the Armies of two major powers — France and the United States — out of the homeland he zealously worshipped.
Vietnam’s modern history is the greatest tribute to the implacable Gen. Vo Ngueyn Giap, a revolutionary with no formal military training who drove the Armies of two major powers — France and the United States — out of the homeland he zealously worshipped. As defence minister after being sidelined as Army commander, Giap had the honour of keeping at bay China, yet another member of the UN’s Permanent Five. A lieutenant of Ho Chi Minh in a figurative sense, Giap picked up military strategy from none less than Mao Zedong. The West may have criticised his maniacal disregard of his own Army’s huge losses while he was set on proving the enemy’s vulnerability. But it was this strategy that presented the brutality of war that ultimately pushed the Americans into pulling out of what became an unwinnable war. The brilliance of his guerrilla tactics places Giap alongside the 20th century’s greatest generals. The highly-educated ideologue had much to contribute beyond the battlefields that brought him so much honour. A student of politics and economics and a teacher of history, Giap later even became convinced of the free market system’s efficacy that he avidly espoused just as he promoted the importance of America as an ally while always being wary of Chinese influences. At heart, he knew the importance of keeping the tillers of the soil on his side. He was one of the great patriots in an increasingly globalised world who will be fondly remembered as a legend of Vietnam.
