A great man has died

General Vo Nguyen Giap

General Giap.
Who defeated the French at Dien Bien phu
and forced a political defeat on combined
forces in the Vietnam War
In fairness to the combined forces [largely American]
they won every major land battle that was fought
in the Vietnam War including the Tet Offensive.
They were indeed military victorious but lost the
political initative.
--------------------
General Giap is over100 years old and doing just fine.
A small village in North Vietnam,
Is where the Great Generals life began,
In village huts with muck packed floors,
The French commanded, made the laws.
An Xa village was quite unknown,
For hundreds of years rice was grown,
Goats, animals, moved around,
Muck, dung covered the ground.
But young Giap wasn't the same,
Inside his head was an excellent brain,
He didn't like the French in command,
It wasn't their culture it wasn't their land.
Off to Hoa to school he went,
On intellectual progress he was bent,
At just 13 his nationalist mind,
Was causing trouble a mature kind.
This precocious child the French noticed,
The Surete added him to their list,
Not knowing then he would bid them adieu,
At the battle of Dien Bien Phu.
A degree in economics he would attain,
His countries freedom his earnest aim,
Military tactics he studied with zeal,
The intelligence to master, turn for real.
At Dien Bien Phu he made his name,
A place in government he did attain,
With Directive 15, the North made its claim,
Unification was their ultimate aim.
So General Giap was placed in command,
The mandate, to unite and free his land,
Political adventure the stuff of dreams,
Only unification, by military means.

All through the sixties the battle raged.
To setpiece battle the North rarely engaged,
A guerilla campaign Giap wanted and got,
Time was irrelevant in his little plot.
But time was important on the American scene,
American dead on the TV screen,
After Tet they knew it was lost,
Giap had won at enormous cost,
Vietnam is free as ever its been,
Whether its better remains to be seen,
The best laid plans of mice and men,
They did put humpty together again.
jobee
The great man has died
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