General Vo Nguyen Giap in the eyes of Westerners

“Success lulls weak souls but encourages strong souls to continue moving forward,” the saying of French philosopher Maximilien Robespierre is often quoted by Western press and scholars when referring to the strong personality of General Vo Nguyen Giap, who is often praised as the “chief architect” for the victory of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign that “resounded throughout the five continents and shook the earth.”

General Vo Nguyen Giap in the eyes of the West

The Dien Bien Phu victory on May 7, 1954 caused a great shock to the West. Decades after this great victory, scholars, observers and even the Western press have tried to find an answer to the question of how General Vo Nguyen Giap could defeat an enemy that was considered dozens of times stronger than him and equipped with much more modern weapons.

In particular, the Dien Bien Phu stronghold was once affirmed by French General Henri Navarre as an "impregnable fortress", when this stronghold group, which only spanned about 2.5 km2, concentrated up to 16,000 troops and a huge ammunition reserve: about 100,000 rounds, up to 12 105 mm guns, 4 155 mm guns, 24 mortars... and had tanks, planes, and artillery support. General Navarre was even confident that Dien Bien Phu would be "a machine that crushed all Viet Minh attacks".

General Navarre's overconfidence was shattered by the strong will and brilliant military strategy of General Vo Nguyen Giap. Although they tried to analyze his art of guerrilla warfare and compare it with great names in this art such as Che Guevara or Fidel Castro, Western military experts affirmed that the difference between General Vo Nguyen Giap and others was too great and "it will be difficult to have a second Vo Nguyen Giap in the world's military history".

The difference of General Vo Nguyen Giap is that he was called “Red Napoleon” by Western military experts. It is a great respect when his name is compared with the Emperor with the most glorious military achievements of France - where his generals were defeated by him in a famous war. This rarely happens even with the world's top military generals and shows the great mark of General Vo Nguyen Giap during the Dien Bien Phu Campaign.

Comrade Dien Bien Phu

The military genius of General Vo Nguyen Giap is even more special if we know that he had no battle experience when he founded the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army (the predecessor of the Vietnam People's Army) in 1944 with only 3 squads, 2 crossbows, 17 rifles and 14 machetes.

Before that, the General was a History teacher with a special interest in world military history. He was very passionate and knowledgeable about the famous battles of the world's leading generals, including Napoleon Bonaparte.

His profound understanding of world military history helped the General outline correct military strategies, suitable for the simple army in the early days of the revolution, to win one victory after another, forcing the French army to retreat to the Dien Bien Phu base.

Workers used bicycles to serve the Dien Bien Phu campaign (documentary photo).

This strategy of General Vo Nguyen Giap inherited the military viewpoint of President Ho Chi Minh, skillful in the method of "using the few to fight the many, using the weak to defeat the strong, using primitiveness to defeat modernity".

Western military analysts also greatly admired General Vo Nguyen Giap's "extremely realistic" strategic vision when he decided to change from "fight fast, win fast" to "fight sure, win sure" at the crucial moment of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, changing the battlefield situation, bringing victory to our army.

However, there are still generals who were defeated by General Vo Nguyen Giap and gave unacceptable reasons to justify their "hard to swallow" defeat. One of them is American General William Westmoreland. General Westmoreland believes that the reason General Vo Nguyen Giap was able to win so many victories was because he was "willing to sacrifice a large number of his soldiers". According to General Westmoreland, "if he were an American general, Mr. Giap would hardly be able to maintain his position for a week".

However, this view has been flatly rejected by Western military scholars. According to the world's leading Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, even if we do not take into account the huge difference in weapons used in the war, the losses that the Vietnamese army suffered in the wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, including the campaigns led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, are completely acceptable.

Our troops crossed Muong Thanh bridge, attacking the central area of ​​Dien Bien Phu, on the afternoon of May 7, 1954. Photo: VNA

Some other military experts quoted a famous American saying to "hit back" at General Westmoreland: "Independence never comes naturally."

Thus, it can be seen that the military genius of General Vo Nguyen Giap created the great Dien Bien Phu victory, a victory that not only delighted the people of the colonies around the world but also the powerful imperialist and colonialist countries of that time.

International military analysts, despite controversy over some of General Vo Nguyen Giap's decisions at certain points in the campaign, still agree that his genius was that he clearly understood who his enemy was, what their advantages were, and how to make them lose those advantages.

They also agreed that, by "defeating the best military geniuses in the very battle they arranged, General Vo Nguyen Giap completely deserves to be called Comrade Dien Bien Phu"./.

Tran Khanh