General Vo Nguyen Giap - the Eldest Brother of the Vietnam People's Army

With great dignity and enormous contributions to the national revolution and the Vietnamese army and people, General Vo Nguyen Giap is admired and respected by officers and soldiers of the whole army and honoured as “the eldest brother” and “the People's General", stated Minister of Defence General Phan Van Giang.

Minister Giang, who is also a member of the Politburo and the Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission, made the statement in his article entitled ‘General Vo Nguyen Giap - the Eldest Brother of the Vietnam People's Army’, released on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of General Vo Nguyen Giap (August 25, 1911-2021).

In his article, the defence minister highlighted General Giap’s direct contributions to establishing, training, and developing the Vietnam People’s Army as well as his significant contributions to the development of military theory of the People's War in Vietnam.

Accordingly, following President Ho Chi Minh’s direction, the Vietnam Liberation Army Team, the first major unit of the revolutionary armed forces and the predecessor of the Vietnam People's Army, was established on December 22, 1944, with 34 soldiers, led by Comrade Vo Nguyen Giap.

While serving as the commander of the revolutionary armed forces, he commanded and promote the key role of the armed forces, together with the entire Party and people, to successfully conduct the 1945 August Revolution.

During the national resistance war against the French, the general served as the commander of many strategic campaigns, with the most prominent being the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in 1954, which forced the French colonialists to sign the Geneva Agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Indochina.

Later, in the national salvation war against the US, the general contributed to organising the structure of the army in the southern front, and building the regular, elite, and modern Vietnamese People's Army.

Minister Giang underscored that under the direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese army successfully completed its key forces in fighting against foreign invaders. The appointment of General Giap as the one to establish, train, and develop the Vietnamese army demonstrated the absolute trust and strategic vision of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh.

The defence minister also quoted French professor of history Georges Boudarel’s compliment of General Giap's strategic talent: “Vo Nguyen Giap was a prominent military strategist, a talented general, an outstanding figure of modern history in Vietnam and the world in the 20th century..., one of the greatest military geniuses of the 20th century and of all time.”

In addition, General Vo Nguyen Giap also made significant contributions to the development of military theory of the People's war in Vietnam.

During his military career, the general always made bold, decisive, sharp and sound decisions, forcing the enemy to engage in passive resistance. What made the world admire him more was that the self-taught general studied real wars to perfect his knowledge of the art of warfare.

Austrian journalist and historian Benard Fall wrote: “…the West may find it difficult to produce a worthy match for him [General Giap] in the foreseeable future."

Vo Nguyen Giap's military theory was the acquisition and creative application of the Vietnamese people’s fighting experience against foreign invaders, in combination with the world's military doctrine, Marxist-Leninist military doctrine, and Ho Chi Minh's military thought as well as his real-life experience. General Vo Nguyen Giap's military viewpoints made an important contribution to the development of Vietnamese military theory in the new revolutionary period.

Throughout his revolutionary life, General Vo Nguyen Giap always observed the Party’s guidelines and attached great importance to building a transparent and strong Party organisation, educating morality and revolutionary virtue and enhancing the fighting ability of soldiers.

The general was the Commander-in-Chief, who shared the pain of every soldier's wound and mourned over every soldier’s sacrifice. In the eyes of the Vietnamese people and international friends, he was a virtuous and talented leader, a brilliant practical activist, a resilient revolutionary soldier who devoted his whole life for the country, people, and army.

Concluding his article, Minister Giang stressed that studying and following the general’s example, military officers and soldiers will continue to promote the heroic tradition of the Vietnamese army and exert more efforts to successfully complete the assigned tasks. In the immediate future, the army is determined to take the vanguard role in suppressing the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to maintaining a peaceful life for the people.