Võ Nguyễn Giáp
25 August 1912-
General Võ Nguyên Giáp
Place of birth	Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam
Years of service	1944–1980
Rank	Senior General
Commands	Viet Minh People's Army of Vietnam
Battles/wars	First Indochina War Second Indochina War

General Võ Nguyên Giáp (born circa 1912^[1]) Vietnamese general and statesman. Principal wars: First Indochina War (1946-1954) and Second Indochina War (1960-1975). Principle battles: Lang Son (1950); Hoa Binh (1951-1952); Dien Bien Phu (1954); Tet Offensive (1968); the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive) (1972); and the final Ho Chi Minh Campaign (1975). Giap was also a journalist; served as Interior Minister of in President Hồ Chí Minh's Viet Minh government; was military commander of the Viet Minh; commander of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN); Defense Minister; and Politburo member of the Lao Dong Party. August 25 is the 237th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (238th in leap years), with 128 days remaining. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links Vo_Nguyen_Giap_Vietnam. ... Quang Binh (in Vietnamese Quảng Bình  ) is a province in the North Central Coast of Vietnam. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... The Viet Minh (abbreviated from Việt Nam ộc Lập ồng Minh Hội, League for the Independence of Vietnam) was formed by Ho Ngoc Lam and Nguyen Hai Than in 1941 to seek independence for Vietnam from France. ... The Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) is the term used by the Vietnamese for their armed forces. ... Combatants French Colonialists Việt Minh Strength 500,000  ? Casualties 94,581 dead 78,127 wounded 40,000 captured 300,000+ dead 500,000+ wounded 100,000 captured The First Indochina War (also called the French Indochina War, the French War or the Franco-Vietnamese War) was fought in Indochina... The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos (See Secret War) and in bombing runs (Rolling Thunder) over North Vietnam. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Combatants French Colonialists Việt Minh Strength 500,000  ? Casualties 94,581 dead 78,127 wounded 40,000 captured 300,000+ dead 500,000+ wounded 100,000 captured The First Indochina War (also called the French Indochina War, the French War or the Franco-Vietnamese War) was fought in Indochina... The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos (See Secret War) and in bombing runs (Rolling Thunder) over North Vietnam. ... Dien Bien Phu (Điện Biên Phủ) is a small town in northwestern Vietnam in the province of Điện Biên. ... Combatants Republic of Viet Nam United States of America Republic of Korea Commonwealth of New Zealand Commonwealth of Australia National Front for the Liberation of South Viet Nam (Viet Cong) Democratic Republic of Viet Nam Commanders William Westmoreland Võ Nguyên Giáp Strength 50,000+ (estimate) 85,000+ (estimate... The Eastertide Offensive was a military campaign in the Vietnam War. ... Combatants Vietnam Peoples Army National Liberation Front Army of the Republic of Vietnam Commanders General Van Tien Dung President Nguyen Van Thieu (Until April 5) Strength 300,000+ (est. ... Hồ Chí Minh (Chinese : 胡志明) (help· info) (May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman, who later became Prime Minister (1946-1955) and President (1955-1969) of North Vietnam. ... The Viet Minh (abbreviated from Việt Nam ộc Lập ồng Minh Hội, League for the Independence of Vietnam) was formed by Ho Ngoc Lam and Nguyen Hai Than in 1941 to seek independence for Vietnam from France. ... The Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) is the term used by the Vietnamese for their armed forces. ...

The Making of A Revolutionary

Võ Nguyên Giáp was born in the village of An Xa, Quảng Bình province. His father and mother, Vo Quang Nghiem and Nguyen Thi Kien, worked the land, rented some to neighbors, and lived a relatively comfortable lifestyle. At 14, Giáp became a messenger for the Haiphong Power Company and shortly thereafter joined the Tân Việt Cách Mạng Đảng, a romantically-styled revolutionary youth group. Two years later he entered Quốc Học, a French-run lycée in Huế, from which two years later, according to his own account, he was expelled for organizing a student strike. In 1933, at the age of twenty-one, Giáp enrolled in Hà Nội University. Quang Binh (in Vietnamese Quảng Bình  ) is a province in the North Central Coast of Vietnam. ... Haiphong (Vietnamese: Hải Phòng, Chinese 海防, HÇŽifáng) is the third most populous city in Vietnam. ... High School also refers to the highest form of classical riding, High School Dressage. ... Tu Hieu Pagoda   (化 in chữ Nôm) is the former modern capital of Vietnam. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Ná»™i)  , estimated population 3,058,000(2004), is the capital of Vietnam. ... Representation of a university class, 1350s. ...

Giáp was educated at the University of Hanoi where he gained a bachelor's degree in political economy and a law degree. After graduation, he taught history for one year at the Thang Long School in Hanoi. During most of 1930s, Giáp remained a schoolteacher and journalist, writing articles for Tien Dang while actively participating in various revolutionary movements. He joined the Communist Party in 1931 and took part in several demonstrations against French rule in Indochina as well as assisting in founding the Democratic Front in 1933. All the while, Giap was a dedicated reader of military history and philosophy, revering Napoleon I and Sun Tzu. Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) is located in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... Sun Tzu (孫子 also commonly written in pinyin: Sūn Zǐ) was the author of The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy (for the most part not dealing directly with tactics). ...

Võ Nguyên Giáp & Nguyen Thi Quang Thai

Võ Nguyên Giáp was arrested in 1930 and served 13 months of a two-year sentence at Lao Bao Prison. During the Popular Front years ins France He founded Hon Tre Tap Moi, an underground socialist newspaper. He also founded the French language paper Le Travail (on which Pham Van Dong also worked). He married Nguyen Thi Quang Thi, another socialist in 1939. When France outlawed communism during the same year, Giáp fled to China together with Phạm Văn Đồng where he joined up with Hồ Chí Minh, the leader of the Vietnam Independence League (Việt Minh). While he was in exile, his wife, sister, father & sister-in-law were captured and executed. Image File history File links Tuonggiapvabathai. ... Image File history File links Tuonggiapvabathai. ... Popular Fronts comprise broad coalitions of political and other groups, often made up of oppositioners or left wingers, and often united against particularly stringent circumstances. ... Pham Van Dong (March 1, 1906 – April 29, 2000) was an associate of Ho Chi Minh. ... Hồ Chí Minh   (Chinese: 胡志明; May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman, who later became Prime Minister (1946–1955) and President (1955–1969) of North Vietnam. ... The Việt Minh (abbreviated from Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ðồng Minh Há»™i, League for the Independence of Vietnam) was formed by Hồ Chí Minh in 1941 to seek independence for Vietnam from France as well as to oppose the Japanese occupation. ...

He returned to Vietnam in 1944 and between then and 1945 he helped organize resistance to the Japanese occupation forces. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, The Japanese decided to allow nationalist groups to take over public buildings while keeping the French in prison as a way of causing additional trouble to the Allies in the postwar period. The Việt Minh and other groups took over various towns and formed a provisional government in which Giap was named Minister of the Interior. The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis Powers during the Second World War. ...

In September, 1945, Hồ Chí Minh announced the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Unknown to the Việt Minh, President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin had already decided the future of post-war Vietnam at a summit meeting at Potsdam. They agreed that the country would be occupied temporarily to get the Japanese out, the northern half would be under the control of the Nationalist Chinese and the southern half under the British. Harry S Truman (May 8, 1884–December 26, 1972) was the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953); as Vice President, he succeeded to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Clement Atlee, Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945 The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. ...

After the Second World War, France attempted to re-establish control over Vietnam. In January 1946, Great Britain agreed to remove her troops and later that year, the Chinese left Vietnam in exchange for a promise from France that she would give up her rights to territory in China.

The First Indochina War

Main articles: Democratic Republic of Vietnam, First Indochina War, and Battle of Dien Bien Phu

The Việt Minh at first negotiated with the French and played them off against the Chinese, preferring the return of the French to Chinese control of the country, as Vietnam had a long history of Chinese occupation. Fighting eventually broke out between the Việt Minh and French troops on 19 December 1946. At first, the Việt Minh under General Giáp had great difficulty in coping with the better trained and equipped French forces. The Việt Minh fled deep into the rural areas of the mountainous north in order to survive. The situation improved in 1949 after Mao Zedong and his communist army defeated Chiang Kai-Shek in China. The Việt Minh now had a safe base to which they could take their wounded and train new soldiers. More importantly, the Việt Minh now had access to almost unlimited quantities of weapons and other military supplies. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa), also known as North Vietnam, was founded by Ho Chi Minh and was recognized by China and the USSR in 1950. ... Combatants French Colonialists Việt Minh Strength 500,000  ? Casualties 94,581 dead 78,127 wounded 40,000 captured 300,000+ dead 500,000+ wounded 100,000 captured The First Indochina War (also called the French Indochina War, the French War or the Franco-Vietnamese War) was fought in Indochina... Combatants France, Vietnam (loyalist), Hmong mercenaries. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ...   (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) (also Mao Tse-Tung in Wade-Giles transliteration) was a Chinese Marxist military and political leader, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to victory against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People’s Republic of... Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the 1925 death of Sun Yat-sen. ...

The war degenerated into a stalemate. While the Việt Minh could not be defeated in the remote countyside (eg. Lang Son and Cao Bang), every attempt they made to attack the more densely populated areas of French-occupied Vietnam was a disastrous failure (eg. Hoa Binh). By 1953, the Việt Minh controlled several remote areas of northern Vietnam, and through these they were able to receive large amounts of aid from the newly-founded People's Republic of China. The French, however, had a firm hold on the Red River Valley in the north and most of the south. When it became clear that France was becoming involved in a long-drawn-out war, the French government tried to negotiate an agreement with the Việt Minh. They offered to help set up a national government and promised that they would eventually grant Vietnam its independence. Hồ Chí Minh and the other leaders of the Việt Minh did not trust the word of the French and continued the war. 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Vo Nguyen Giap & Ho Chi Minh

French public opinion continued to move against the war. There were five main reasons for this: (1) Between 1946 and 1952 many French troops had been killed, wounded or captured; (2) France was attempting to build up her economy after the devastation of the Second World War. The cost of the war had so far been twice what they had received from the United States under the Marshall Plan; (3) The war had lasted seven years and there was still no sign of an outright French victory; (4) A growing number of people in France had reached the conclusion that their country did not have any moral justification for being in Vietnam; (5) Parts of the French left supported the goals of the Việt Minh to form a socialist state. Image File history File links Tuonggiapvahochutich. ... Image File history File links Tuonggiapvahochutich. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Map of Cold-War era Europe showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. ...

While the Việt Minh constantly failed in their attempts to capture the main areas of Vietnam, they expanded the war and forced the French into battles on unfavorable terms by attacking remote areas such as Laos. General Henri Navarre, the French commander in Indochina, was forced to redeploy large numbers of forces from their safe zones in order to protect Laos. In December, 1953, Navarre set up a defensive complex at Ðiện Biên Phủ, which attempted to block the route of the Việt Minh forces trying to attack neighbouring Laos. He surmised that in an attempt to reestablish the route to Laos, Giáp would be forced to organise a mass attack on the French forces at Ðiện Biên Phủ, whwere they would be crushed in a conventional battle. Henri Navarre (1898 - 1983) was the commander of French forces in Indochina during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in the First Indochina War. ... Dien Bien Phu (Điện Biên Phủ) is a small town in northwestern Vietnam in the province of Điện Biên. ...

Navarre's plan worked and Giáp took up the French challenge. While the French dug in at their outpost, the Viet Minh were also preparing the battlefield. Giáp brought up members of the troops from all over Vietnam. By the time the battle was ready to begin, Giáp had 70,000 troops surrounding the French positions, five times the number of French troops enclosed within.

Employing recently obtained anti-aircraft guns and 105mm howitzers from China, Giáp was able to restrict severely the ability of the French to supply their forces. The anti-aircraft and artillery fire neutralised the French artillery, denied them the use of the airstrip and forced them to inaccurately drop supplies from high altitude to the besieged troops. Instead of launching a frontal assault on the French, Giap chose to surround the outpost and ordered his men to dig a trench system that encircled the French. From the outer trench, other trenches and tunnels were dug inwards towards the centre. The Viet Minh were now able to move in close to the French troops defending Ðiện Biên Phủ.

When Navarre realised that he was trapped, he appealed for help. The United States was approached and some advisers suggested the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the Việt Minh but this was never seriously considered. Another suggestion was that conventional air-raids would be enough to scatter Giáp's troops. U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, refused to intervene unless the Britaish and other Western allies agreed. Churchill declined, claiming that he wanted to wait for the outcome of the peace negotiations taking place in Geneva, Switzerland before becoming involved in escalating the war. Dwight David Eisenhower (also known as Ike) (born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American soldier and politician. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German:   //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich), and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ...

On 13 March 1954, Giáp launched his offensive. For fifty-six days the Việt Minh siezed position after position, pushing the French until they only occupied a small area of Ðiện Biên Phủ. Colonel Piroth, the artillery commander, blamed himself for the destruction of French artillery superiority. He told his fellow officers that he had been "completely dishonoured" and committed suicide with a hand grenade. The French surrendered on 7 May. Their casualties totalled over 7,000 men and a further 11,000 were taken prisoner. The following day the French government announced that it intended to withdraw from Vietnam.

The Second Indochina War

Main articles: Vietnam War, Tet Offensive, Easter Offensive, and Operation Linebacker II

Giáp remained commander-in-chief of the People's Army of Vietnam throughout the Second Indochina War. During the conflict he oversaw the expansion of PAVN from a small self-defense force into a large conventional army, equipped by it's communist allies with the latest in sophisticated weaponry. Giap was mainly responsible for the massive casualties incurred by NLF and PAVN troops during the Tet Offensive of 1968. Although this attempt to spark a "General Uprising" against the southern government was a costly military failure, it turned into a significant political victory by convincing the American politicians and public that their committment to South Vietnam could no longer be open ended. Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Combatants Republic of Viet Nam United States of America Republic of Korea Commonwealth of New Zealand Commonwealth of Australia National Front for the Liberation of South Viet Nam (Viet Cong) Democratic Republic of Viet Nam Commanders William Westmoreland Võ Nguyên Giáp Strength 50,000+ (estimate) 85,000+ (estimate... The Eastertide Offensive was a military campaign in the Vietnam War. ... Operation Linebacker II was a United States military operation during the Vietnam War. ...

Peace talks between representatives from the U.S., the Republic of Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the NLF began in Paris in January, 1969. President Richard M. Nixon, like President Lyndon B. Johnson before him, was convinced that a U.S. withdrawal was necessary, but five years would pass before the last American troops left South Vietnam. National motto: ??? Official language Vietnamese Capital Saigon Last President Duong Van Minh Last Prime Minister Vu Van Mau Area  - Total  - % water 173,809km² N/A population  - Total  - Density 19,370,000 (1973 est. ... The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa), also known as North Vietnam, was founded by Ho Chi Minh and was recognized by China and the USSR in 1950. ... National Liberation Front (NLF) flag NLF prisoner The National Front for the Liberation of Southern Vietnam (Vietnamese Mặt Trận Giải Phóng Miền Nam Việt Nam), also known as the National Liberation Front (NLF) and as Front National de Libert... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). ...

Giap on the cover of Time magazine during the 1972 Easter Offensive

In October 1972, the negotiators came close to agreeing to a formula to end the conflict. The plan was that the last U.S. troops would withdraw from Vietnam in exchange for a cease-fire and the return of American prisoners held by Hànội. It was also agreed that the governments in North and South Vietnam would remain in power until new elections could be arranged to unite the whole country. Although the Nguyen Hue Offensive during the spring of 1972 was another costly failure, PAVN was able to gain a foothold in territorial South Vietnam from which to launch future offensives. Image File history File links Giap. ... Image File history File links Giap. ... The Eastertide Offensive was a military campaign in the Vietnam War. ...

Although U.S. troops would leave the country, PAVN troops could remain in their positions in the south. In an effort to put pressure on both North and South Vietnam during the negotiations, President Nixon ordered a new series of air-raids on Hà Nội and Hải Phòng. The DRV accepted the terms of the agreement and, on 27 January 1973, Nixon agreed to sign the Paris Peace Accords that had been proposed in October. Haiphong (Vietnamese: Hải Phòng, Chinese 海防, HÇŽifáng) is the third most populous city in Vietnam. ... Signing the peace accords. ...

Victory in Vietnam

Main articles: Ho Chi Minh Campaign and Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The last U.S. combat troops left in March, 1973. It was an uneasy peace. Due to the forthcoming unification elections, both sides began to grab territory that would have either benefitted themselves or deny areas to the enemy. By 1974, serious fighting had broken out between PAVN occupation forces in South Vietnam and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The ARVN held its own successfully during this stage of the fighting. Combatants Vietnam Peoples Army National Liberation Front Army of the Republic of Vietnam Commanders General Van Tien Dung President Nguyen Van Thieu (Until April 5) Strength 300,000+ (est. ... The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was a military component of the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as South Vietnam). ...

South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu appealed to Nixon for continued financial aid. Nixon was sympathetic but the U.S. Congress was not, and the move was blocked. At its peak, U.S. aid to South Vietnam had reached $30 billion a year. By 1974 it had fallen to $1 billion. Starved of funds, Thiệu's government had difficulty even paying the wages of it's army and desertions became a problem. On the other side, PAVN received billions of dollars in new equipment from the Soviet Union. President Nguyen Van Thieu Nguyen Van Thieu, (April 5, 1923 – September 29, 2001) was a former General and President of South Vietnam. ...

The spring of 1975 saw the launching of a series of limited PAVN offensives under the command of General Van Tien Dung]]. The success of these drives (launched on a limited scale to test whether the U.S. would once again come to the aid of the Thieu regime) prompted Hanoi to attempt to seize all of South Vietnam before the onset of the monsoon season. The Ho Chi Minh Campaign was a massive conventional operation which utilized armour and heavy artillery. After important areas such as Da Nang and Hue were lost in March, panic swept through the ARVN and it's high command. President Thieu attempted to abandon the northern half of the nation while pulling his troops back to defensive positions in the south. It did not work.

PAVN forces captured the capital of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Soon afterwards the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established. In the new government Giáp maintained his position as Defense Minister and was made Deputy Prime Minister in July 1976. He was removed from this post at the Defense Ministry in 1980 and was also removed from his position in the Politburo in 1982.

General Giáp has also written extensively on military theory and strategy. His works include Big Victory, Great Task, Peoples Army, Peoples War, "Ðiện Biên Phủ, and We Will Win.

Quotes

"Any forces that would impose their will on other nations will certainly face defeat."

Notes

1. ^ There is debate as to what his birthdate is. Most Vietnamese sources give his birthdate as August 22, 1911. However, this is disputed. Most western sources give circa 1912.

August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

References

• Currey, Cecil B., Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap Remembers, in Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2003 (see link below).
• Currey, Cecil B., Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.
• Dupuy, Trevor N., Curt Johnson, and David L. Bongard, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books, 1995.
• Giap, Vo Nguyen, The Military Art of People's War. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.
• Military History Institute of Vietnam, Victory in Vietnam: A History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954-1975. Trans. by Merle Pribbenow. Lawrence KS: University of Kansas Press, 2002.

External links

• CNN Interview
• General Giap Biography
• National Liberation Front
• SENIOR GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP REMEMBERS Fall 2003 by Currey, Cecil B