Accession Number:
ADA141243
Title:
Unravelling the Giap Myth
Descriptive Note:
Student essay
Corporate Author:
ARMY WAR COLL CARLISLE BARRACKS PA
Personal Author(s):
Report Date:
1984-04-01
Pagination or Media Count:
33.0
Abstract:
Vo Nguyan Giap has been compared to the likes of Rommel and Napoleon and is included in the Army War Colleges listing of Classical and Contemporary Military Strategists. The basis of this fame is Giaps leadership of the Viet Minh in their victory over the French in the Indochina War. Books, periodicals and unpublished works were researched in gathering data. In general, these were limited to selections which focused on the Indochina War against the French, rather than no later works covering the Vietnam War. It was, after all, against the French where the Giap myth was begun and developed. The conclusions drawn from the research are that Giaps fame as a tactician and strategist were exaggerated, that neither his tactics nor his strategies were new or imaginative. Giaps greatest ability was an organizer of the masses in a total effort behind the war. Giap successfully combined the roles of civil organizer, politician and battlefield leader in achieving his victory over the French.
Descriptors:
Subject Categories:
- Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics