October 18, 2013
A Fitting Tribute to General Giap: A Great Soldier and Patriot
By Mahendra Ved | mahendraved07@gmail.com –The New Straits Times
A BORN SOLDIER: Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap defeated four major powers in a span of four decades
I AM disappointed about the absence, so far, of a fitting tribute to the Vietnamese military hero, General Vo Nguyen Giap, who died on October 4, age 102.
India has a fairly large community of scholars and strategic thinkers, with civil and military backgrounds. It cannot miss discussing one of the greatest generals of the last century who successively defeated the Japanese Imperial land forces, the French colonial army, the United States and, as defence minister, beat back the invading Chinese PLA in 1979.
To defeat one major power would be a lifetime’s achievement. To defeat four of them in a span of four decades is unimaginable.
Most members of that community would have lived through the 1960s and 1970s, if not earlier, reading the exploits of Giap, even if they came to them as distorted, white-washed versions of a defeated West.
Those politically aware would remember the slogan “aamar naam tomar naam, sonar naam Vietnam”, expressing solidarity with the heroic struggle the Vietnamese people waged.
Jawaharlal Nehru had befriended Ho Chi Minh. India had angered the West and much of Southeast Asia by supporting the Vietnamese.
That era has gone. Battle lines have been re-drawn many times. Vietnam itself is the best example of a people who have moved on.
As they make their presence felt in the Southeast Asian region, the Vietnamese would be reminded of how Giap made common cause with the Americans in the early part of World War 2 to defeat the Imperial Japanese forces, but resisted the Western powers after that war ended.
Giap was a born soldier who admired Napoleon. While at school, he learnt details of each of the Napoleonic campaigns. The irony was lost when the “Red Napoleon” — short like his hero, but not podgy — defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Giap’s victory, several historians say, sounded the death knell for Western colonialism worldwide.
“If a nation is determined to stand up, it is very strong,” Giap said on the battle’s 50th anniversary. “We are very proud that Vietnam was the first colony that could stand up and gain independence on its own.”
Two decades later, after a long struggle that destroyed Vietnam with napalms and chemicals, Giap became the first commander to have overseen the defeat of the American military machine.
Ask any 50-plus American how Vietnam hurt then, and continues to torment them.
Giap’s feat remains unprecedented. After Ho Chi Minh, he was the only other recognisable symbol of Vietnamese resistance. Back in 1967, an American airman whose plane was shot down recalls the visitor: “He stayed only a few moments, staring at me; then left without saying a word,”
That US Navy airman, later US Senator John McCain, recalls that 30 years later, he requested a meeting with Giap. “Both of us clasped each other’s shoulders as if we were reunited comrades rather than former enemies.”
Western analysts have grudgingly acknowledged Giap. They argue that he could allow heavy casualties among his men because he represented a totalitarian system. No doubt, tiring the enemy with patient attrition was one of Giap’s basic tactics. But only popular support and a high level of commitment could have helped Giap win his many campaigns.
The fact remains that a substantial part of the three million Vietnamese who perished were the victims of American carpet-bombing and chemical warfare.
Giap was adept at using the terrain to his advantage. His swoop, hit and run made him a guerilla warrior of repute, and compared with Mao Zedong and Che Guevara. But he went well beyond jungle warfare, engaging his stronger and better equipped adversary in major battles, conducting broad offensives. They did mean heavy casualties, but for Giap, the “cause” was supreme.
He was a nationalist who took help from far and wide — the Russians, the Chinese, the Cubans, among others — but resisted any interference from Moscow or Beijing.
After winning the war against the US, Giap became something of a peace-monger. His attitude did not always sit well with the power brokers in Hanoi. He was gradually sidelined. But the old soldier never completely faded away.
He was named Defence Minister and, a year later, Deputy Prime Minister. But his influence with the Communist Party never matched his own popular standing. Following his departure from the defence ministry in 1980, he was removed from the Politburo in 1982. He remained deputy PM and served on the Central Committee until 1991.
Some analysts say that his fiery temperament and his greater devotion to uniting Vietnam than to the global anti-capitalist cause stymied his rise.
Why Vietnam remains the only country to defeat the US? Giap’s response: “I’d say that Vietnam is rare. As a nation, Vietnam was formed very early on, because the risk of aggression from outside forces made all the tribes to band together… And then there was constant battle against the elements, against the harsh winter conditions. In our legends, this struggle against the elements is seen as a unifying factor, a force for national cohesion. This, combined with the constant risk of invasion, made for greater cohesion and created a tradition — a tradition that gave us strength.”
Indian economist and university don Yoginder K. Alagh, who hosted Giap in 1998, recalls: “Like many Asian leaders, he admired India and its fight for independence. We have so much to learn from each other, he told me.”
Another Indian analyst Bharat Karnad, while applauding Giap, regrets that India is not what Vietnam is.
“… visceral antipathy to being dictated to by anyone and the undiluted fighting spirit of its people has marked out Vietnam’s singularity. I have been advocating that India should make Vietnam its strategic pivot — arming it, equipping it, with every strategic armament, including the Brahmos cruise missile, and anything else Hanoi wants, to keep China occupied east of Malacca, and off our backs.”