Who is he?
Vo Nguyen Giap was a famous Vietnamese general who led North Vietnamese revolutionary forces to victory against the French at Dien Bien Phu, effectively ending French colonial rule in Indochina, and later against the United States during the Vietnam War. A teacher before joining the nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh, General Giap had no formal military training.
During the World War II years, Giap became a close confidante of Ho Chi Minh, who later appointed him head of the Vietnam Independence League, or Viet Minh, and subsequently the communist North Vietnamese army. Following the Vietnam War, Giap became minister of defense, and subsequently vice minister of science and education of the reunified Vietnam.
Vo Nguyen Giap. Source: Prachatai’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.
Why is he in the news?
On October 4, Giap died of natural causes at age 102 in a military hospital in Hanoi. Giap was one of the last survivors of a generation involved in the communist revolution, and is highly regarded in modern Vietnam as one of the country’s revolutionary fathers. A state funeral procession will be held before he is buried in his home province of Quang Binh on October 12.
What can we expect?
Although General Giap gained most of his respect from his military career, his legacy is not limited to Vietnam’s struggle for independence and autonomy. In his later years, Giap became an outspoken critic of the Vietnamese government for allowing destructive bauxite mining in the country’s Central Highlands. He also expressed concerns about China’s growing influence in his country, and became a supporter of further economic and social reforms. Giap will live on as the patriarch of Vietnam’s emerging environmental movement, and will be fondly remembered by generations of Vietnamese to come.
