General Vo Nguyen Giap's thoughts and research by Professor Phan Huy Le

Today (June 27), in Hanoi, a memorial service was held for Professor Phan Huy Le (he passed away on June 23) - an outstanding historical researcher. On this occasion, the reporter had a conversation with Professor - Doctor of Science Vu Minh Giang, who was a student and a long-time collaborator of Professor Phan Huy Le.

General Vo Nguyen Giap.

Sir, as a student and collaborator of Professor Phan Huy Le for many years, what special contributions do you think Professor Le has made that people always consider him as the "four pillars" in the field of History?

- It can be said that Professor Le is the pinnacle of scientific research with many special features. First of all, Professor Le is a historian born to summarize the research results of himself and the historical community at home and abroad. The professor has had very large works of a summarizing nature, for example, researching Vietnamese military history and elevating it to the level of military art.

He once helped General Vo Nguyen Giap research Vietnamese military art. In this research work, there are great ideas such as military is not just a matter of war but the creations of a nation for its survival, therefore it is a cultural category. Looking at military as a field of culture and art is a very new feature.

Professor Phan Huy Le.

Professor Phan Huy Le's book "History of Vietnamese Culture - Approaching the Parts" has just won the Ho Chi Minh Prize. It is a work with great conclusions and summaries.

Another special thing about Professor Phan Huy Le is that he has effectively adopted new research methods in the world into Vietnam. The professor is a social scientist but is very passionate about using technical equipment, using calculation, quantitative, statistical methods... From there, the professor has made many contributions to research, for example, land registers. Talking about land registers, there are tens of thousands of copies, how can they be described in the traditional research style, but must be statistically, quantitatively, and put into computers. That said, it can be seen that Professor Le is a person who has made great contributions in applying new equipment and new methods to research.

The division of this stage and that field for research is inevitable in science, but it is very necessary to have a comprehensive and interdisciplinary view, in which Professor Le is considered the leader. He is the founder of Vietnam Studies in Vietnam, which later had a great influence on the world. He stood up as the head of the organizing committee, together with his students and colleagues, to organize 4 international conferences on Vietnam Studies. From there, he gathered researchers on Vietnam around the world.

Why is Professor Le considered one of the "four pillars"? There is another special feature. He is a symbol of Vietnamese Historians in the international arena. Wherever Professor Le goes, people look at Vietnamese history in a different way. The international prestige of a scientist is not only to bring glory to that individual scientist, but also to help international friends recognize the science and history of our country.

Can you elaborate on how Professor Phan Huy Le helped General Vo Nguyen Giap research military science?

- General Vo Nguyen Giap found a partner to help him research Vietnamese military art from a cultural perspective, that was Professor Phan Huy Le. I was fortunate to be chosen by Professor Le to work with him on the research.

Here, the great idea of ​​General Vo Nguyen Giap is that we must see the war to defend the country as a cultural creation of the Vietnamese people. What is cultural creation? When it comes to culture, the most complete and comprehensive definition is all the things created by humans for the purpose of existence and development of their community. To exist and develop, we must produce material wealth to serve life, create cultural values ​​for enjoyment, create religious institutions to convey faith, create regulations and norms to force society to comply in order to have order...

Returning to the issue, General Vo Nguyen Giap's profound vision is this: We are a nation that always has to deal with foreign invaders, must always devote our energy, time, and intelligence to survival, so is that culture? Looking at our nation's military creativity from a cultural perspective, that is, cultural creativity for life, then the issue is profound.

From there, we can explain the people's war, explain the creativity that reached its peak in the war to defend the country. And from there, we come to a corollary (a proposition directly deduced from a certain axiom, in relation to that axiom) that without looking from a cultural perspective, we cannot explain the victories that are considered as legends of our nation.

In our nation's history, a typical example is the resistance war against the Mongol-Yuan invaders in the 13th century. It can be seen that the Mongol-Yuan army invaded all over the Eurasian continent, winning wherever they went, even the Great Song Dynasty could not cope.

A small country like ours was able to defeat the Mongols. They fought three times and still lost, and lost miserably. Is it because our military talent is superior? It can be argued that this is the creation of a nation that must be approached from a cultural perspective to be seen.

With this direction, the research on historical pages related to the resistance against foreign invaders, then summarizing them into Vietnamese military art by Professor Le and his colleagues is a new discovery, a great contribution to the treasure of Vietnamese knowledge.

Professor, Doctor of Science Vu Minh Giang.

The book "Some strategic battles in national history" is one of the results of this research, sir?

- The book "Some strategic decisive battles in the history of the nation" written by Professor Phan Huy Le and other scientists is a summary. The book said that in order to completely extinguish the enemy's will to invade, our nation must have a strategic decisive battle. But how to avoid being crushed by the invaders' strength at dawn, how to avoid the enemy at dawn? That is not just a trick, an art from a military perspective, but to avoid it, we must have people, we must bring the whole nation into the resistance.

General Vo Nguyen Giap saw from afar, that conclusion is not new. In the history of the nation, there is a story when Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan was seriously ill, King Tran Anh Tong asked for a strategy to defend the country when the invaders came. Hung Dao Vuong had a saying that summed up the victory: Our nation defeated the fierce enemy because the top and bottom were of one mind, brothers were in harmony, and the whole country contributed its strength. There was not a single sentence about military books, about generals and soldiers, about weapons. What is unity of mind, brothers and sisters, and the whole country contributing its strength? That is culture.

Thanks GS!

Professor, People's Teacher Phan Huy Le, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Arts (French Republic), was born on February 23, 1934 in Thach Chau commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province.

Professor Phan Huy Le used to be:

- President of Vietnam Historical Science Association (1988-2016)

- Honorary President of Vietnam Historical Science Association.

- Former Chairman of the Council of Science and Training, Hanoi National University

- Former Director of the Center for Vietnamese Studies and Cultural Exchange

- Former Head of Department of Ancient and Medieval Vietnamese History, Faculty of History

- Former Head of Oriental Studies Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

- Head of the National Social Science Project to Research and Compile the History of Vietnam.

He was awarded: Ho Chi Minh Prize, State Prize for Science and Technology; Second Class Independence Medal, First, Second and Third Class Labor Medal; Academic Palm Medal (French Republic), Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize (Japan).