The Vietnamese Battle of Điện Biên Phủ against France (with support for France from the United States and support for Việt Nam from China) lasted fifty-five days and nights, from March 13 through May 7, 1954. In his memoir, ĐIỆN BIÊN PHỦ: Rendezvous with History, General Võ Nguyên Giáp describes his “hardest decision as a military commander”: On January 26, 1954, General Giáp abandoned the plan (“Fast Strike, Fast Victory”) for a battle lasting three nights and two days. He immediately ordered withdrawal of Vietnamese frontline infantry forces and artillery encircling the French cluster of entrenched camps to their training sites. That same day, he reframed the strategy as “Steady Attack, Steady Advance” for the battle that history knows.
This book contains General Giáp’s own description of his “hardest decision as a military commander” and three documents with some overlapping material: Colonel Hoàng Minh Phương (1928-2013), Võ Nguyên Giáp’s Chinese interpreter, describes the conversation on January 26, 1954 between General Giáp and Wei Guoqing, head of the delegation of Chinese military advisors, regarding General Giáp’s “hardest decision.” Interpreters must have knowledge of the subject matter they are interpreting, and they must have strengthened powers of concentration and memory. Interpreters hear it all. And they remember. These factors make interpreters an excellent source of personal accounts about historical incidents.
Research into Chinese materials by Professor Phan Huy Lê (1934-), president of the Vietnamese Association of Historians since 1990, shows that Wei Guoqing had arrived separately at the same conclusion as General Giáp about the need to change strategy. Wei Guoqing had telegraphed his misgivings to Beijing on January 24. Wei Guoqing did not share his thoughts with General Giáp. However, Wei Guoqing quickly agreed with General Giáp two days later, even though he had not received an answer from Beijing. The answering telegram from Beijing arrived on January 27, after General Giáp had implemented his “hardest decision.”
In “The Hardest Decision,” General Giáp re-creates the Party Committee for the Battle’s contentious discussion on the morning of January 26, 1954. That scene makes “The Hardest Decision” perhaps the most interesting of Võ Nguyên Giáp’s writings.
Ngôn ngữ: tiếng Anh
Khổ sách: 14 x 20,5cm
Số trang: 120 trang
