Giap, Vo Nguyen (1910– )

Vietnamese military leader and communist politician. When Ho Chi Minh formed the Vietminh in 1941 in China, Giap organized the army that returned to Indochina in 1944 to fight the Japanese and liberated Hanoi on 19 August 1945. As commander-in-chief of a guerrilla force of 60,000, he led the struggle against the French colonial forces, conclusively defeating them at Dien Bien Phu on 7 May 1954. With the growth of US influence in South Vietnam, Giap sent North Vietnamese troops to help the Vietcong (the National Liberation Front), and he took direct control of communist military operations in South Vietnam in 1967, launching the Tet Offensive in February 1968. He was responsible for the defeat of the US army in 1973.

Born in Quangbiln Province, then part of the French protectorate of Indochina, Giap joined the Communist Party in 1930. With a doctorate in law from the University of Hanoi 1938, he fled to China when the party was banned in 1939, and became military aide to Ho Chi Minh. When Vietnam was partitioned in 1954, he became commander-in-chief of the North Vietnam army. His training manual on guerrilla warfare 1960 was published in English as People's War, People's Army (1962). He was minister of national defence and deputy prime minister of Vietnam 1976–80.