Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, legendary vietnamese freedom fighter, turns 100

[José]

Võ Nguyên Giáp (born August 25, 1911) is a retired Vietnamese officer in the Vietnam People's Army and a politician. He was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War (1946–1954) and the Vietnam War (1960–1975). He participated in the following historically significant battles: Lạng Sơn (1950); Hòa Bình (1951–1952); Điện Biên Phủ (1954); the Tết Offensive (1968); the Easter Offensive (1972); and the final Hồ Chí Minh Campaign (1975).

He was the most prominent military commander besides Hồ Chí Minh during the war and was responsible for major operations and leadership until the war ended.

Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Võ Nguyên Giáp in 2008

Võ Nguyên Giáp (left) and Hồ Chí Minh in Hà Nội, October 1945

This picture taken in March 1954 shows General Vo Nguyen Giap (4th R-black top) explaining operation plans to his aids next to a military map at his PC in Dien Bien Phu. Second only to Ho Chi Minh as the most revered figure in Vietnam's recent history, Giap's only military lesson came from an old encyclopeadia entry describing the mechanism of hand grenades. But despite his lack of formal training, the former history teacher went on in 1954 to secure victory at Dien Bien Phu, the battle that ended French rule in Indochina, and precipatated nearly two decades of US involvement in Vietnam. Vietnam will mark 13 March 2004 the 50th anniversary of the start of the siege of Dien Bien Phu, the epic battle that precipitated the collapse of French colonial rule in Indochina.

After visiting the Cu Chi tunnels, the general takes a nap under bamboos (1996).
​

Photo from Getty Images

VietNamNet - Never-published pictures of Legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap | Never-published pictures of Legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap

 

[daveman]

Clean up when you're done.

 

[José]

Clean up when you're done.

At least I choose my heroes carefully, which is more than I can say about you, daveman.

You're a grotesque caricature of a mentally retarded super patriotic american clown who's never seen a US soldier's asshole he didn't want to lick to help him save on toilet paper no matter how unjust and immoral his "service" was.

 

[Sallow]

Clean up when you're done.

At least I choose my heroes carefully, which is more than I can say about you, daveman.

You're a grotesque caricature of a mentally retarded super patriotic american clown who's never seen a US soldier's asshole he didn't want to lick to help him save on toilet paper no matter how unjust and immoral his "service" was.

No please..don't hold back.

Mild jabs always deserve overwhelmingly disgusting insults as a retort.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Giap attacked the right people and new how to use them to his advantage

The American liberal flopped like a frenchman even though we had not lost a single battle and they lost 10 times the people we did.

I wonder if Jane Fonda got an invite?

 

[ginscpy]

A hero of the far-left

 

[whitehall]

The "legendary fighter" was defeated in every battle in VietNam. If it wasn't for Giap's support by Walter Cronkite and the rest of the American liberal media he would have faded away in obscurity after the TET offensive.

 

[José]

A hero of the far-left

No, a hero of every decent human being who believe in the principle of the right to self-determination of peoples.

The same principle invoked by the american people when they put in power a slave owner named George Washington.

Giap's communist belief is as irrelevant to the issue at hand as Washington's racist, classist and sexist ideas.

 

[José]

Originally posted by whitehall
The "legendary fighter" was defeated in every battle in VietNam. If it wasn't for Giap's support by Walter Cronkite and the rest of the American liberal media he would have faded away in obscurity after the TET offensive.

What whitehall conveniently “forgot” to tell you, member of the USMB, is the fact that Cronkite’s disillusionment with the Vietnam clusterfuck happened only after he witnessed a single vietcong hold his position for hours under unimaginable heavy artillery and air fire before finally succumbing to his injuries.

Conkrite said after the episode:

“OK, that’s it... Let’s pack our bags and get the hell out of here.”

There are hundreds of “whitehalls” in Russia today.

“If we did this, if we did that we’d have won in Afghanistan, blah, blah, blah...”

The only thing America would get if the country decided to stay in Vietnam is 200.000 dead GI’s instead of 58.000.

 

[José]

Originally posted by Two Thumbs
The American liberal flopped like a frenchman even though we had not lost a single battle and they lost 10 times the people we did.

OOHHH, MY GOD!!!!

The US/Red army were not militarily defeated by the vietnamese/afghan flea!!

Now that's a huge military prowess worth bragging about!!

If the people of Vietnam and Afghanistan had anything remotely similar to the US/Soviet military behemoth the war wouldn't have lasted two months!!

And this is not a disparaging remark about the US/Russian army. Had the roles been reversed and Vietnam/Afghanistan, two military superpowers had invaded an impoverished, pathetically weak US/Russia, the american and russian soldier would also display the same extraordinary bravery and commitment to the liberation of the country.

I'm not portraying american soldiers in a bad light when I say they'd be crushed in Vietnam with a more level playing field, this is just a psychological reality of warfare.

As a rule of Two Thumbs when soldiers fight for their homeland, instead of being the invaders, they walk that extra mile, they give everything they got.

 

[José]

Originally posted by Sallow
No please..don't hold back.

Mild jabs always deserve overwhelmingly disgusting insults as a retort.

Sallow, are you sure you even read daveman’s post??

“Clean up when you're done.”

Since when “José is sucking Gen. Giap’s cock/giving Giap a blowjob” is a “mild jab”??

If this remark fits your definition of a “mild jab” I don’t want to get any boxing lessons from you : )

 

[José]

Speaking of “mild” jabs, this is the rep comment I just got from GHook93:

Go back to Mexico Wetback!

tsk, tsk, tsk...

I have said numerous times and I’ll say it again:

GHook is a textbook example of the fundamental importance of “tough love” in the upbringing of a child.

I’d give everything for the chance to travel back in time to his childhood and beg Mr. GHook Sr. to beat the crap out of little Ghook to avoid the failed adult we have now.

Now the damage is done. He’s a 30 something grown up man, married with children and no amount of physical punishment will be able to straighten him out.

It’s a shame : (

 

[whitehall]

Originally posted by whitehall
The "legendary fighter" was defeated in every battle in VietNam. If it wasn't for Giap's support by Walter Cronkite and the rest of the American liberal media he would have faded away in obscurity after the TET offensive.

What whitehall conveniently “forgot” to tell you, member of the USMB, is the fact that Cronkite’s disillusionment with the Vietnam clusterfuck happened only after he witnessed a single vietcong hold his position for hours under unimaginable heavy artillery and air fire before finally succumbing to his injuries.

Conkrite said after the episode:

“OK, that’s it... Let’s pack our bags and get the hell out of here.”

There are hundreds of “whitehalls” in Russia today.

“If we did this, if we did that we’d have won in Afghanistan, blah, blah, blah...”

The only thing America would get if the country decided to stay in Vietnam is 200.000 dead GI’s instead of 58.000.

How does an American reporter get close enough to an enemy position to witness a single VC allegedly holding his position under artillery and air fire? It doesn't matter anyway. VC soldiers were nothing but cannon fodder and the closest Cronkite got to combat was his fat ass watching VC films probably supplied by Jane Fonda.

 

[whitehall]

By the time the series of battles known as the Tet offensive ended in 1968 the VC lost an estimated 50,000 troops and the US lost around 9.500. It was a decisive victory for the American Military and the VC was finished. Cronkite flew to VietNam, put on a helmet and flack jacket pretending he was under fire and told America thet Tet was a "stalemate". Instead of celebrating a victory LBJ tearfully threw in the towel and told the world he had enough. At that moment the utter defeat of VC forces was turned around and Giap went from the goat (facing execution?) to the hero thanks to Walter Cronkite.

 

[rightwinger]

The guy was an amazing general who fought forces much more powerful. Horribly underrated by US command

 

[rightwinger]

By the time the series of battles known as the Tet offensive ended in 1968 the VC lost an estimated 50,000 troops and the US lost around 9.500. It was a decisive victory for the American Military and the VC was finished. Cronkite flew to VietNam, put on a helmet and flack jacket pretending he was under fire and told America thet Tet was a "stalemate". Instead of celebrating a victory LBJ tearfully threw in the towel and told the world he had enough. At that moment the utter defeat of VC forces was turned around and Giap went from the goat (facing execution?) to the hero thanks to Walter Cronkite.

Once again caught up in the kill statistics. That kind of proved to be useless during the war

Do you really think 9500 US casualties in one battle is acceptable as long as we kill more of them?

 

[Trajan]

what interesting is a number of majors on up who had been that rank and above during the conflict and retired from high positions have written memoirs that have drawn little interest.

Mark Moyer's Triumph Forsaken being one of the few who have extensively used those memoirs etc. to explain the early years especially. One of the biggest take aways was, and remains our biggest mistake; allowing Diem to be over thrown and assassinated.

Giap knew the enemy he was fighting having cut his teeth vs. the Japanese and french and did what was necessary, Ho's apocryphal canard- "you will kill ten of ours and we will kill one of yours and it is you who will tire of it", proved prophetic, tragically so.

 

[Sallow]

Originally posted by Sallow
No please..don't hold back.

Mild jabs always deserve overwhelmingly disgusting insults as a retort.

Sallow, are you sure you even read daveman’s post??

“Clean up when you're done.”

Since when “José is sucking Gen. Giap’s cock/giving Giap a blowjob” is a “mild jab”??

If this remark fits your definition of a “mild jab” I don’t want to get any boxing lessons from you : )

He didn't say that at all.

 

[whitehall]

According to Hanoi the V.C. lost about 1,100,000 troops during the war and lost every major battle. Why the American left wants to prop up the legacy of general Giap is anyone's guess.

 

[Sallow]

what interesting is a number of majors on up who had been that rank and above during the conflict and retired from high positions have written memoirs that have drawn little interest.

Mark Moyer's Triumph Forsaken being one of the few how have extensively used those memoirs etc. to explain the early years especially. One of the biggest take aways was, and remains our biggest mistake; allowing Diem to be over thrown and assassinated.

Giap knew the enemy he was fighting having cut his teeth vs. the Japanese and french and did what was necessary, Ho's apocryphal canard- "you will ten of ours and we will kill one of yours and it is you who will tire of it", proved prophetic, tragically so.

Even the most cursory study of Vietnamese history would have shown that they were and are fiercely independent and have been fighting colonalization for centuries.

Really sad chapter in this country's history.