Vo Nguyen Giap

(1910– )

   Vo Nguyen Giap was a communist Vietnamese military commander who led the Vietnam People’s Army in victories over the Japanese, French and Americans. Born in Quang Binh province in Vietnam, he was a political activist from an early age. He wrote for various radical journals in the late 1930s and was active in various communist organizations before fleeing Vietnam and joining Ho Chi Minh in China in 1939. In 1944 Giap was responsible for creating and organizing what became the Vietnam People’s Army. In 1945 he became minister of defense of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and he was commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People’s Army in the wars against France and the United States. From 1951 to 1982 he served on the Vietnamese Workers’ Party Politburo.

   Giap wrote extensively on revolutionary warfare, and drew heavily on the work of Mao Zedong. He noted the crucial role of the peasantry and the importance of coordinating the political and the military struggle, claiming to combine the lessons of the Russian and Chinese revolutions in a unique Vietnamese approach.