Legendary Vietnam Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap dies

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vo Nguyen Giap, the brilliant and ruthless self-taught general who drove the French out of Vietnam to free it from colonial rule and later forced the Americans to abandon their grueling effort to save the country from communism, has died. At age 102, he was the last of Vietnam's old-guard revolutionaries.

Giap died Friday evening in a military hospital in the capital of Hanoi where he had spent close to four years growing weaker and suffering from long illnesses, a government official and a person close to Giap said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because his death had not been formally announced.

The was no word of the death in state-controlled media late Friday, but the news had spread widely in Facebook and other social media.

Giap was a national hero whose legacy was second only to that of his mentor, founding President Ho Chi Minh, who led the country to independence.

Historian Stanley Karnow, who interviewed Giap in Hanoi in 1990, quoted him as saying: "We were not strong enough to drive out a half million American troops, but that wasn't our aim. Our intention was to break the will of the American government to continue the war."

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-world/20131004/AS--Vietnam-Obit-Giap/

General Harry Summers once said to General Giap, "You do realize we beat you on the battlefield every time."

Giap replied, "Yes, but what does that matter?"

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

General Harry Summers once said to General Giap, "You do realize we beat you on the battlefield every time."

Giap replied, "Yes, but what does that matter?"

Giap was a hell of a Soldier

Ho Chi Minh City should be named Giap city

If not for Giap I suspect Vietnam would still be a French rubber plantation and the South would still have a corrupt puppet government

Dien Bien Phu was a classic military kick ####### story

Edited October 4, 2013 by The conciliator