Võ Nguyên Giáp
Vietnamese general and communist politician (1911–2013) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Võ Nguyên Giáp (Vietnamese pronunciation: [vɔ̌ˀ ŋʷīən jǎːp]; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a general of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), communist revolutionary and politician. Regarded as one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century,[1][2] Giáp led Vietnamese forces to victories in successive wars against Japan, France, and the United States. He served as military commander of the Việt Minh and later the PAVN from 1941 to 1972, as minister of defence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and later the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1946–1947 and from 1948 to 1980, and as deputy prime minister from 1955 to 1991. He was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Võ Nguyên Giáp | |
---|---|
Secretary of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party | |
In office 1946–1978 | |
Succeeded by | Lê Duẩn (as General Secretary) |
Commander-in-chief of the People's Army of Vietnam | |
In office 2 March 1946 – 30 April 1975 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Tôn Đức Thắng (as President of Vietnam) |
Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam (Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Ministers of Vietnam) | |
In office 20 September 1955 – August 1991 | |
President | |
Prime Minister | |
Succeeded by | Phan Văn Khải |
Minister of Defence | |
In office 1948–1980 | |
Prime Minister |
|
Preceded by | Tạ Quang Bửu |
Succeeded by | Văn Tiến Dũng |
In office 11 May 1946 – 8 May 1947 | |
Prime Minister | Hồ Chí Minh |
Preceded by | Phan Anh |
Succeeded by | Tạ Quang Bửu |
Personal details | |
Born | (1911-08-25)25 August 1911 Lệ Thủy, Quảng Bình, French Indochina |
Died | 4 October 2013(2013-10-04) (aged 102) Hanoi, Vietnam |
Political party | CPV (1931–1992) |
Spouses |
|
Children | 5 |
Alma mater | Indochinese University |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Vietnam |
Branch/service | People's Army |
Years of service | 1944–1992 |
Rank | Army general |
Battles/wars | |
Awards | |
Vietnamese alphabet | Võ Nguyên Giáp |
Born in Quảng Bình province to an affluent peasant family,[3] Giáp participated in anti-colonial political activity in his youth, and in 1931 joined the Communist Party of Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh. Giáp rose to prominence during World War II as the military leader of the Việt Minh resistance against the Japanese occupation,[4] and after the war led anti-colonial forces in the First Indochina War against the French. He won a decisive victory at the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which ended the war.[5] In the Vietnam War, Giáp led the PAVN against South Vietnam and the United States. Giáp was commander of the army during the 1968 Tet Offensive and 1972 Easter Offensive,[6] after which he was succeeded by Văn Tiến Dũng, but remained defense minister through the U.S. withdrawal and final victory against South Vietnam in 1975.[7] Giáp oversaw his final campaigns in the successful Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978[8] and the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War.[9] He resigned as defense minister in 1980 and left the Politburo in 1982. Giáp remained on the Central Committee and as deputy prime minister until 1991, and died in 2013 at age 102.
Giáp is regarded as a mastermind military leader. During the First Indochina War, he transformed a "rag-tag" band of rebels to a "fine light-infantry army" fielding cryptography,[10] artillery and advanced logistics[11] capable of challenging the larger, modernised French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Vietnamese National Army.[12] Giáp, who in the 1930s had studied law and worked as a history teacher, never attended any courses at a military academy, nor had any direct military training prior to WW2.[13] A highly-effective logistician,[12] he was the principal architect of the Ho Chi Minh trail, the logistical network between North and South Vietnam which is recognised as one of the 20th century's great feats of military engineering.[14]
Giáp is often credited with North Vietnam's military victory over the United States and South Vietnam.[1] Recent scholarship cites other leaders as more prominent, with former subordinates and later rivals Dũng and Hoàng Văn Thái later having a more direct military responsibility.[15] Nevertheless, he was crucial to the transformation of the PAVN into "one of the largest, most formidable" mechanised and combined-arms fighting force capable of defeating the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in conventional warfare.[12]