Legendary general laid to rest

>> General Giap rests in peace in hometown
>> Nation mourns for General Vo Nguyen Giap
>> Vo Nguyen Giap - a General of great talent

Last Sunday saw Vietnam’s legendary top-ranking general Vo Nguyen Giap interred on a hill overlooking a beach and an island in his native central province of Quang Binh.

Earlier, his national funeral was organised by the party and the government, and attended by Vietnam’s leadership, international organisations and the public.

All public buildings, and many private residences throughout the country had funeral flags flying at half-mast throughout the October 12-13 national mourning period. Sixty general-ranking officers stood by the coffin. The funeral procession was broadcast live on TV and radio.

The funeral ceremony took place at Hanoi’s National Funeral House on Tran Thanh Tong street. October 12 saw delegations paying tribute to the general. The first delegations to pay tribute to the general included the Vietnam Communist Party’s Central Committee, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee, State President, Vietnam’s Fatherland Front Committee, the Party Central Committees’ Military Commission, General Giap’s family members, leaders and former leaders of the party and the state.

The second delegations included high-ranking leaders of foreign countries, Hanoi’s Party Central Committee, People’s Committee and Fatherland Front Committee, the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Public Security. There were also international delegations and a delegation of Vietnamese veterans.

In the morning, the funeral saw delegations from cities and provinces, ministries and agencies.

In Quang Binh, where General Giap was born, and in Ho Chi Minh City, funeral ceremonies were also organised.

At 7am of October 13, the funeral commemoration began with Nguyen Phu Trong, Party General Secretary and head of the state’s funeral commission, delivering a funeral oration in praise of General Giap’s great contributions to Vietnam’s history.

Following the Hanoi funeral ceremony and procession, General Giap was carried to his homeland on an aircraft.

Nearly one million people were reported to have queued throughout the last week with bunches of yellow flowers and packets of incense in their hands to pay their last respects at General Giap’s private residence on Hanoi’s Hoang Dieu street. Many were seen with tear-streaked faces after paying tribute to Giap at a family altar inside the house.

The revered general, who masterminded triumphs over France and the US, passed away on October 4, aged 103.

“I last meet General Giap at 2.30pm on October 4, 2013, just three hours before he passed away,” said Minister of Defence Phung Quang Thanh.

“I have learned many things from him. Bearing in mind General Giap’s advice and together with the Party Central Committees’ Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence, we are pledged to always staying united and continuing our advisory role for the party and the state on national military and defence.”

“The whole army is committed to being a firm bloc united in will and actions, which will continue serving people’s interests. Peoples’ army and police and militiamen vow to continue being a key force to protect the Vietnamese country, keeping an environment of peace, stability, solidarity and friendship with neighbouring countries and people from countries around the world, for the country’s socio-economic development,” he vowed.

“May he rest in peace,” said Jean-Pierre, a French tourist who was queuing up to pay his respects at General Giap’s house in front of Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum in Hanoi. “General Giap is quite famous in France. I studied French history, including Vietnam’s victory over the French.”

Jean-Pierre’s grandfather fought in Vietnam and Jean-Pierre’s visit to Giap’s house followed his four-day trip to Dien Bien Phu, where French troops were defeated.

“My grandfather is too old to come to Vietnam. Yesterday he told me via telephone that I must come here to pay tribute to General Giap, on behalf of him and other French soldiers who fought in Vietnam,” Jean-Pierre said.

The revered general

General Giap’s death has prompted condolences from political figures around the world, who recognised his huge influence on 20th century geo-politics and military strategy.

Stanley Karnow famously claimed General Giap to be “the peer of Grant, Lee, Rommel and MacArthur in the pantheon of military leaders,” in his historical work named “Giap Remembers.”

The Art of War, focusing on great commanders of the modern world, listed General Giap in the top places among 100 most brilliant military strategists of the world, while delving into the tactics which led to Vietnam’s victories over the French and Americans.

In Cuba, veteran journalist Marta Rojas regarded General Giap as both a brilliant military strategist and a modest, simple, kind-hearted and humane man.

John Prados, one of the US’s top historians with dozens of books on Vietnam’s wars such as The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, said: “General Giap was especially influential in shaping the world’s existing order. He is a prominent figure for the history of the world.”

The winner of wars

Crowned as Vietnam’s first top-ranking general in 1948 when he was 37, General  Giap is globally lauded as a military genius for his guerrilla tactics which defeated both the French and US armies and for being a self-taught general, having received no formal military training.

The hero started his military career in 1944 with 34 guerrillas including three women. The precursor to the Vietnam People’s Army led the struggle against the occupying French and Japanese.

From these humble beginnings, the Viet Minh developed into a popular movement which defeated the French army at Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954, hastening the collapse of colonialism across Indochina and beyond.

General Giap then led the Vietnamese army to force the US to leave Vietnam in 1973, paving the way for Vietnam to defeat the US-backed South Vietnamese government in April 1975 and reunifying the whole country.

Born on August 25, 1911 in Le Thuy district of Quang Binh, he attended local schools before joining a clandestine nationalist movement at the age of 14. In 1933, he enrolled in the University of Hanoi and then gained degrees in politics, economics and law, before working as a journalist and a teacher of history.

He became Minister of Home Affairs in 1945 and served as Minister of Defence from 1946 to 1980. He was also standing Deputy Prime Minister in between 1955 and 1980, and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, which is now the government, from April 1981 to December 1986.