General Vo Nguyen Giap and the memories of "Dien Bien Phu

The Dien Bien Phu victory (May 7, 1954) is a golden page in the history of the Vietnamese nation. One of the most important books written about this historical event is the memoir "Dien Bien Phu - A historical rendezvous" by General Vo Nguyen Giap. History lovers will find there documents and information to understand more about the "famous victory in five continents, shaking the world" of the Vietnamese people, and at the same time have a general view of a special historical period of the nation. And there, readers will see the military genius of Vo Nguyen Giap through the historic decision - changing from the motto "fight fast, win fast" to "fight steady, advance steady"!

Dien Bien Phu - Historical Rendezvous is written in a simple style, harmoniously combining the reproduction of details and events with the expression of General Vo Nguyen Giap's thoughts, feelings and contemplations about the country and people. What is special is that although it is a work of war memoirs, referring to historical events, figures... but thanks to the delicate and lyrical writing style, the memoir (memory) of General Vo Nguyen Giap is still extremely attractive. The fierce battles associated with the places: Him Lam, Doc Lap, Ban Keo, Muong Thanh, Hill A1..., the strategic calculations from both sides, the enemy and us; the victorious smiles and the tears of sorrow... are all reproduced in a simple, authentic and natural way through each page. Above all, following General Giap's memories, readers can see that it was the political strength and spirit of the nation that helped Vietnam overcome difficulties and win the Dien Bien Phu campaign.

Although it is a memoir, in Dien Bien Phu - Historical Rendezvous , readers can easily see that General Giap rarely talks about himself. Instead, he talks a lot about the wise leadership of the Politburo, of Uncle Ho, about his comrades, about the heroic Vietnamese people. From the battle-hardened commanders such as Hoang Van Thai, Le Trong Tan, Vuong Thua Vu, Le Quang Ba, Nguyen Huu An, Hoang Cam... to the privates, all are mentioned by the general with pride and respect. According to General Vo Nguyen Giap, when assigning him the task, Uncle Ho only said briefly: "This battle is very important, we must fight to win. Only fight if we are sure of victory, and only fight if we are not sure of victory." Therefore, when entering the campaign, close to the day of the shooting, through grasping the reality, realizing that the enemy situation had changed a lot, our army had "very few factors for victory", he was very thoughtful and worried. “Every day, I realized more clearly that we could not fight quickly. Uncle Ho's advice before leaving and the Central Resolution at the beginning of the year echoed in my ears: "We must win, not lose, because losing means losing all our capital...". After a sleepless night, on the morning of January 26, 1954 (the expected opening day of the campaign), in a meeting of the Party Committee of the Front, after a very democratic discussion, the Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army, Vo Nguyen Giap, decided to change the way of fighting, from "fighting quickly, winning quickly" to "fighting steadily, advancing steadily". In reality, this was a wise and historic decision, changing the situation on the battlefield, bringing the Dien Bien Phu battle to complete victory on May 7, 1954. 6,200 French expeditionary troops were destroyed and captured on the battlefield. The impregnable citadel of imperialism had been broken. The bell signaling the end of colonialism had rung... The French colonial government had to sign the Geneva Accords, ending end the war, recognize the independence of the three Indochinese countries.

American historian Cecil B. Currey named his book about General Vo Nguyen Giap "Victory at all costs". However, with the memoir Dien Bien Phu - Historical Rendezvous , readers can see that General Giap was not a general who commanded troops regardless of everything to achieve the final result. On the contrary, he always thought and calculated to achieve victory with the least loss. "I belonged to each regiment, each battalion, each main company, knew the company, platoon and soldier cadres who had made outstanding achievements. It was clear that everyone who set out this time was ready to sacrifice to win. But the mission of the campaign was not only to win, but also to preserve valuable assets for the long-term war...", the general recalled. As General Tran Van Tra said, General Vo Nguyen Giap was "a Commander-in-Chief who knew the pain of every soldier's wound, knew how to regret every drop of blood of each warrior".

Reading the memoirs of Dien Bien Phu - Historical Rendezvous , we can also see that Vietnam is a peace-loving nation, and General Vo Nguyen Giap is a very humane general. The clearest evidence is that during the fiercest days of the battle at Dien Bien Phu, soldiers captured a cargo box dropped by an airplane, which contained a letter and two novels from De Castries' wife to her husband. Knowing that, General Giap asked the unit commander to find a way to send them to De Castries. Immediately after the battle ended, he went to each bunker to meet the wounded French soldiers, mobilized military medics to coordinate with French medical staff to treat them, and allowed French planes to land to transport seriously wounded soldiers to Hanoi for treatment. That was a rare humane way of behaving, a continuation of the spirit of peace of the Vietnamese people, as when Nguyen Trai advised Binh Dinh King Le Loi to grant 500 boats for the defeated generals of the Ming army to return home.

70 years have passed since the historic day of May 7, 1954. Dien Bien Phu - The historical rendezvous of General Vo Nguyen Giap has become a classic book for those who want to learn about the Dien Bien Phu battle, and more broadly, about the first Indochina war. With this book, readers not only have access to authentic and vivid historical sources, but also recognize the spiritual portrait, cultural stature, and great character of General Vo Nguyen Giap - who has become a part of Vietnamese history in the 20th century!

Dien Bien Phu Memories - A Historical Rendezvous by General Vo Nguyen Giap (performed by writer Huu Mai) is nearly 500 pages long and was first published by the People's Army Publishing House in 2000. The name of the memoir comes from General Giap's famous saying: "Dien Bien Phu is a rendezvous that history has reserved for wars of aggression in today's era". As soon as it was published, the memoir attracted the attention of historical researchers and the public because the author is General Vo Nguyen Giap - Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army, who directly commanded the Dien Bien Phu campaign, a battle that has gone down in the history of human warfare. In 2004, the work was translated into English by American writer and journalist Lady Borton and published in many countries around the world.

THANH NGUYEN

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