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Jump to ratings and reviewsWant to ReadBuy on AmazonRate this bookGeneral Võ Nguyên Giáp's Hardest Decision: Điện Biên Phủ, January 1954

Võ Nguyên Giáp, Hoang Minh Phuong, Phu Huy Le ...more

3.88Want to ReadBuy on AmazonRate this book"The Hardest Decision" by General Vo Nguyen Giap;"The Mugwort Compress on General Giap's Forehead" by Colonel Hoang Minh Phuong;"The Change in the Plan of The Decisive Factor in the Dien Bien Phu Victory (Excerpts)" by Professor Phan Huy Le;"Military Intelligence and General Giap's 'Hardest Decision'" by Lady Borton & Le Do Huy

115 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

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Võ Nguyên Giáp

51 books43 followersFollowFollowGeneral in the Vietnam People's Army and a politician. Giap is considered one of the greatest military strategists of all time. He first grew to prominence during World War II, where he served as the military leader of the Viet Minh resistance against the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. Giap was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War (1946–54) and the Vietnam War (1960–75). He participated in the following historically significant battles: Lạng Sơn (1950), Hòa Bình (1951–52), Điện Biên Phủ (1954), the Tết Offensive (1968), the Easter Offensive (1972), and the final Ho Chi Minh Campaign (1975).Giap was also a journalist, an interior minister in President Hồ Chí Minh's Việt Minh government, the military commander of the Viet Minh, the commander of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), and defense minister. He also served as a member of the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers' Party, which in 1976 became the Communist Party of Vietnam.He was the most prominent military commander, beside Ho Chi Minh, during the Vietnam War, and was responsible for major operations and leadership until the war ended.

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3.885 stars3 (37%)4 stars1 (12%)3 stars4 (50%)2 stars0 (0%)1 star0 (0%)Search review textFiltersDisplaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviewsProfile Image for Jim Barber.Jim BarberAuthor 6 books12 followersFollowFollowFebruary 13, 2020My interest in the Vietnam War comes as no secret to my friends. I've read countless pieces of nonfiction and fiction about the war--from blow-by-blow accounts of various battles to fictional sagas dating from colonial times to the end of the war in 1975. The North Vietnamese general Giap has long fascinated me. He probably gets more credit than he deserves, but like him or loathe him, he made some shrewd decisions throughout his life. When I visited Vietnam in 2017, I was determined to find a bookstore with an English translation of a book about Giap. I would have preferred a biography but all I could find was this short paperback at a bookstore in Hanoi. Essentially, the book recounts the last-minute decision Giap made in 1954 to halt a planned major attack on French forces at Dien Bien Phu. Driven by Ho Chi Minh's mandate to fight only if he was certain of winning, Giap decided the Vietnamese military's "Fast Strike, Fast Victory" plan was doomed to failure and would result in a French victory. Just hours before the attack was to begin, Giap withdrew his troops so they could regroup, retrain and pursue a strategy of "Steady Attack, Steady Advance." Helped by strategic positioning of Vietnamese forces and artillery--and mistakes by French leaders--Giap's troops launched a massive artillery bombardment of the French positions and mounted a ferocious ground attack that resembled the trench warfare of World War I. A two-month siege led the French forces to surrender, dealt the death blow for colonialism in Southeast Asia and branded Giap as a military genius.Essentially, this is the same story told from four different perspectives. The first is from Giap himself and is an excerpt from his memoir of the Dien Bien Phu fight. The second is the perspective of his interpreter for Chinese military advisers during the conflict, and the other two are scholarly accounts. By far, Giap's account is the best. The interpreter's account feels almost like a word-for-word rehash of Giap's story, but it does offer a few anecdotes.On the whole, this was average for military history. It was published on the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and is basically a Cliffnotes version of what happened. Given I would have been more interested in Giap's thoughts on the war with the United States, this was more than enough on this particular subject for me. If you're looking for the best account of Dien Bien Phu, then read "Hell in a Very Small Place." Also check out "Khe Sanh: Siege in the Clouds" to see a similar--note I said, 'similar'--story about the American experience in Vietnam.I tried to work in a side trip to Dien Bien Phu when I visited Vietnam in 2017 but wasn't able to make it work. My daughter and I did visit Khe Sanh, and it was still an eerie place to be more than 50 years after that infamous battle.Profile Image for Jordi Sellarès.Jordi Sellarès313 reviews29 followersFollowFollowMay 24, 2017En destaco sobretot l'estudi introductori, especialment interessant per situar Dien Bien Phu en el seu context i per entendre'n la seva rellevància posterior com a hit de la lluita anti-colonial.La segona part, escrita pel propi General Giap, és una crònica política, pamfletària, sobre les fases del conflicte. M'ha agradat tot i que et quedes amb ganes d'entrar en el tema amb més profunditat.
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