Vo Nguyen Giap

Who is Vo Nguyen Giap?

Võ Nguyên Giáp was the foremost military commander of modern Vietnam and one of the most influential generals of the twentieth century. Born in Quảng Bình province, he trained as a history teacher and lawyer before joining the anti-colonial movement, and he helped Ho Chi Minh build the armed forces of the Viet Minh from a tiny guerrilla band into a national army. As commander-in-chief he masterminded the 1954 siege of Dien Bien Phu, where Vietnamese forces hauled heavy artillery through mountainous jungle to encircle and defeat the French garrison, ending French colonial rule in Indochina. He later directed North Vietnamese strategy during the long war against the United States and its allies, including the planning behind major offensives. Largely self-taught in military science, he became internationally renowned for combining people's-war doctrine, logistics and political mobilization. He died in Hanoi in 2013 at the age of 102.

Sources: Cecil B. Currey, 'Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap' (1997) · Võ Nguyên Giáp, 'Dien Bien Phu' (memoir, English ed. 1964)