Letrong Giap (Earth-200111) - Marvel Database - Fandom

In 1954, Giap was a Captain in the Viet Minh, serving in the 13th Infantry Regiment of the 199th Signals Company. He led his men against the French military forces occupying Vietnam and it was during this time that he encountered Nick Fury who was part of a CIA mission to help the French hold the territory. Giap's men were successful in killing the French forces Fury was allied with. At this point, Fury, heavily concussed and disoriented from the battle, was told by Giap that Vietnam does not belong to the French or to the United States and was allowed to leave peacefully, perhaps to spread the message to his superiors in the CIA.

Fury would next encounter Giap in 1970. By this time, Giap was a North Vietnamese Army General known for defeating U.S. forces time and again. Fury was dispatched on a mission to assassinate Giap with the aid of U.S. Marine sniper Frank Castle. Unfortunately for Fury, Giap's men discovered him and Castle and imprisoned them. Giap planned to link the CIA to drugs being moved into Vietnam from Cambodia; the resulting backlash would end the war much quicker. Fury and Castle escape, with Castle grabbing his rifle and picking off scores of Giap's men from a hilltop. Fury himself goes after Giap, but is held at gunpoint. Giap questions why Fury would want to prolong such a horrible war, but before any kind of understanding is met, Castle shoots Giap through the neck, apparently killing him. His base of operations was later bombed by U.S. Air Force jets, with Fury and Castle barely escaping in time. Miraculously, Giap survived the bullet to the neck and the bombing, but was put in a coma for a month.[1]

In 1999, after attending the Smithsonian's Conference on Cold War Historical Studies in Washington D.C., he would greet Fury at the Vietnam War Memorial. Giap discussed the aftermath of the war with Fury, stating that although America lost in Vietnam, it did not become the prosperous country they hoped it would be under communism. He told Fury that despite sacrificing so much of his humanity to wage war, it ultimately did not pay off the way he hoped it would. Giap shakes Fury's hand, wishing him the best.[1]

Author Michael Goodwin met Giap at either the 1999 conference or another Smithsonian conference which inspired Goodwin to think about writing his first book.[2] After his book Valley Forge, Valley Forge was published in the 00's,[3] Goodwin interviewed Giap to get his (and North Vietnam's side) of the war, to understand why circumstances would create The Punisher, and in turn his interview with Giap prompted Goodwin to interview the remaining members of Frank Castle's first command.[4]

Personality[]

Giap was a skilled strategist and a great leader to his men, leading them to victory over American forces time after time. He was a patriotic man, resenting the French and American governments for thinking they had a right to control Vietnam. He believed that Vietnam should be a strong, independent nation free of foreign political influence. Despite his role as a soldier, he was not fond of war. He explains to Fury that the war has made him do many horrible things that he regrets, but that he did those things in the hopes that it would benefit his country.

In his later life, Giap became somewhat disillusioned with his country as Vietnam never became the worker's paradise that communism promised. Instead, he feels it became every bit as brutal to its own people in peacetime as it was to its enemies in war.