Vo Nguyen Giap - Biography

Vietnamese military leader, born in Quang Binh Province, NC Vietnam. He studied law at Hanoi University, joined the Vietnamese Communist Party, and trained in China. He led the Viet Minh army in revolt against the French, leading to the decisive defeat of their garrison at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. As vice-premier and defence minister of North Vietnam, he masterminded the military strategy that forced the US forces to leave South Vietnam (1973) and led to the reunification of Vietnam in 1975. He was a member of the Politburo from 1976 to 1982.

Võ Nguyên Giáp
25 August 1911-
General Võ Nguyên Giáp
Place of birth	Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam
Allegiance	Vietnam People's Army
Years of service	1944–1980
Rank	General
Battles/wars	First Indochina War Vietnam War

General Võ Nguyên Giáp (Chinese: 武元甲; born circa 1912) is a Vietnamese four-star general, who was the military leader of the Việt Minh guerrilla group under Hồ Chí Minh's political leadership, and of the Vietnam People's Army in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and later Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Biography

Võ Nguyên Giáp was born in the village of An Xa, Quảng Bình province.

Giáp was educated at the University of Hanoi where he gained a bachelor's degree in political economy and a law degree. He joined the Communist Party in 1934 and took part in several demonstrations against French rule in Vietnam as well as assisting in founding the Democratic Front two years later.

Võ Nguyên Giáp was arrested in 1930. When France outlawed communism in 1939, 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).

Between 1942 to 1945 Võ Nguyên Giáp helped organize resistance to the occupying Japanese Army. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, The Japanese forces in Vietnam 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.

In September, 1945, Hồ Chí Minh announced the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Unknown to the Việt Minh, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin had already decided what would happen to post-war Vietnam at a summit meeting at Potsdam.

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

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. At first, the Việt Minh under General Võ Nguyên Giáp had great difficulty in coping with the better trained and equipped French forces. The Việt Minh fled deep into the rural areas of Vietnam to survive. While the Việt Minh could not be defeated in the remote countyside, every attempt they made to attack the more densely populated areas of Vietnam was a disastrous failure. 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. When it became clear that France was becoming involved in a long-drawn-out war, the French government tried to negotiate a deal with the Việt Minh. Hồ Chí Minh and the other leaders of the Việt Minh did not trust the word of the French and continued the war.

French public opinion continued to move against the war.

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 Navarre, the French commander in Vietnam, was forced to redeploy large numbers of his forces from their safe zone in order to protect Laos. In December, 1953, General Navarre set up a defensive complex at Ðiện Biên Phủ, which would block the route of the Việt Minh forces trying to attack neighbouring Laos. Navarre surmised that in an attempt to reestablish the route to Laos, General Giáp would be forced to organise a mass attack on the French forces at Ðiện Biên Phủ.

Navarre's plan worked and General Giáp took up the French challenge. The Viet Minh were now able to move in close to the French troops defending Ðiện Biên Phủ.

While these preparations were going on, Giáp brought up members of the Việt Minh from all over Vietnam.

Employing recently obtained anti-aircraft guns and howitzers from China, Giáp was able to restrict severely the ability of the French to supply their forces in Ðiện Biên Phủ.

The United States President, Dwight Eisenhower, however, refused to intervene unless he could persuade Britain and his other western allies to participate.

On March 13, 1954, Giáp launched his offensive. For fifty-six days the Việt Minh pushed the French forces back until they only occupied a small area of Ðiện Biên Phủ.

The French surrendered on May 7th. The following day the French government announced that it intended to withdraw from Vietnam.

Võ Nguyên Giáp remained commander-in-chief of the Việt Minh throughout the Vietnam War. Peace talks between representatives from the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the NLF had been taking place in Paris since January, 1969. The plan was that U.S. troops would withdraw from Vietnam in exchange for a cease-fire and the return of 566 American prisoners held in 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.

Though the U.S. troops would leave the country, the North Vietnamese troops could remain in their positions in the south. In an effort to put pressure on North Vietnam during the negotiations, President Nixon ordered a new series of air-raids on Hà Nội and Hải Phòng.

The North Vietnamese accepted the terms of the agreement and so in January, 1973, Nixon agreed to sign the peace plan that had been proposed in October.

The last U.S. combat troops left in March, 1973.

President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu of South Vietnam appealed to President Richard Nixon for continued financial aid. At its peak, U.S. aid to South Vietnam had reached $30 billion a year. On the other side, the army of North Vietnam received billions of dollars in new equipment from the Soviet Union.

General Giáp has been known as a writer whose titles include "Big Victory, Great Task", "Ðiện Biên Phủ" and "Once Again We Will Win."