Customer Reviews

Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap

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Vietnam history is one of invasion, going back a thousand years. Chinese, Khmer, French, Japanese, and finally the Americans. The Vietnamese have struggled with all of these. If one puts Vietnamese history into this context, one starts to realize that there is no other story like the Vietnamese saga.

General Giap is a figure that must be studied by any serious student of warfare history. Giap was a arduious student of Napoleon, very serious, totally dedicated to his cause. While the fighting spirit and mettle of the Viet Minh cannot be understated, Giap's victory at Dien Bien Phu was nothing short of spectacular, using his army of barefoot soldiers. His grasp of logistics, and his sense of flexability on the battlefield are unsurpassed in modern warfare. His victory gave hope to colonial peoples all over the world, and signaled the end of colonialism. He proved the indiginous people could defeat a modern, powerful army. He fought the riches, most technologically advanced nation ever known to a standstill.

I have totally enjoyed Cecil Curry's book on Giap. Curry's book does not try to glorify the man, nor does he make him out to be an evil communist. He simply tries to tell his story, and why Giap is the genius he is. Also, Curry goes into the excesses of the Vietnamese communist, as well as that of the French, Vietnamese oposition, and the Americans: He never tries to gloss over anything. Curry has some interviews with Giap, which makes the book even more interesting.

This book should be read by anyone who loves military history, whether professionally or not. Any officer in any army could learn something here. Love him or hate him, Giap was a formidable foe, both to his foreign enemies, and those at home. History will remember Giap, and Curry's book will be the definitive source on his story for a long time to come.

Vo Nguyen Giap's story is a remarkable one. This is a man that, with no formal military training, built a crack Army from scratch. He also led that same Army to victory over two major World Powers, namely, France and the USA. The author of this book succeeded in writing one of the best biographies I have read. The author is impartial and fair. You will be delighted by the artful writing of the author. Overall, this is a very entertaining and informative book.

This is a biography of General Vo Nguyen Giap, the founder and general of the North Vietnamese Army. I found his history to be interesting, especially his education and the foundation of the Vietnamese Army during the revolution against the French after World War II. The revolution against the French began before the end of World War II under the tutelage of the United States as part of the war effort against the Japanese. The United States then deserted Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap - as we have so many "allies" since! Will we learn or will we desert our "allies" in Afghanistan and Iraq? The author did have some difficulties with the writing of the time frame of the Vietnamese Conflict involving the United States - he couldn't decide who was the enemy.

Mr. Curry's prose flows easily and enjoyably through the twists and turns of General Giap's life up to 1996. Curry's emphasis on the political aspects of warfare that dominate the outlook of the communist Vietnamese military and its overseers is appropriate. Curry does not hide that he finds Giap, in many respects, a sympathetic character. Neither does he shrink from pointing out the mistakes Giap made or the blood on Giap's hands. There is also a sprinkling of Giap's own writing, which is so tortured and hackneyed it was criticized (with good reason) by his own comrades. The quotes will not disappoint commie-speak aficionados. I noticed some surprising factual errors and strange translations that somewhat undermine what otherwise seems to be a well-researched and documented book. Curry seems a bit frustrated that Giap has towed the party line so faithfully and been so unwilling to criticize it. Would that the book had been written in 2004 after Giap's supposed protection of General Tran Do when Do became openly critical of communist party rule.

Giap cannot be considered but a genius of war, capable of hurting the great American superpower by using small war tactics and a resolve to stay the course. I found the research compelling even thogh this is indeed a pro-Giap study. I highly recommend this book for being sympathetic to a non-western and anti-American (militarily anyway) figure. It is easy to read, altrhough somewhat lacking in concrete biography. And it is good at explaining tactics.

General Giap a military genius?

Hardly.

The North Vietnames won at Diebienphu in 1954 because of a massive supply of armaments, particularly artillery supplied by the Chinese and the USSR,laboriously trekked through the jungle and set in tunnels after the Chinese fashion. Not to speak of French rigidity and the U.S. refusal, wholly justified, to drop an atomic bomb on the North Vietnamese.

The North Vietnamese conducted a decades long ""guerrila struggle," beginning in 1955, that consumed the lives of tens of thousands of their fighters, finally to conquer in 1975 by a massive conventional attack mounted by 400 tanks and powerful artillery concentrations--after antagonistic press coverage had forced the US withdrawal.

Some genius!

Currey obviously fawns on Giap. Currey has shown no criticil analysis at all in either confirming or refutting Giap's claims. He simply passes them on. At times one cannot tell whether one is reading Currey or Giap.