The Military Art of People's War: Selected Writings

by Võ Nguyên Giáp, Russell Stetler (Editor)

This collection includes the major writings of General Giap, who, on the evidence of his record as well as his theoretical work, has long been recognized as one of the military geniuses of modern times. The book includes writings from the 1940s to the end of the 1960s and is presented here with a valuable historical introduction by Russell Stetler.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, War, Military History

332 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1970

About the author

General in the Vietnam People's Army and a politician. Giap is considered one of the greatest military strategists of all time. He first grew to prominence during World War II, where he served as the military leader of the Viet Minh resistance against the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. Giap was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War (1946–54) and the Vietnam War (1960–75). He participated in the following historically significant battles: Lạng Sơn (1950), Hòa Bình (1951–52), Điện Biên Phủ (1954), the Tết Offensive (1968), the Easter Offensive (1972), and the final Ho Chi Minh Campaign (1975).

Giap was also a journalist, an interior minister in President Hồ Chí Minh's Việt Minh government, the military commander of the Viet Minh, the commander of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), and defense minister. He also served as a member of the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers' Party, which in 1976 became the Communist Party of Vietnam.

He was the most prominent military commander, beside Ho Chi Minh, during the Vietnam War, and was responsible for major operations and leadership until the war ended.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a little hard to read because it is a compilation of writings by General Giap put together by another author. The book has a rather repetitive nature. I actually put it down after getting about 3/4 through and about a year later picked it up again and slogged through to the end. I'm a veteran of the US Navy and have many friends and relatives who are veterans of the Vietnam war. I have always been interested in the Vietnam war and have watched all the popular movies on the topic. This book was enlightening as my first exposure to a Vietnamese perspective on the war. My takeaway is that the American version of these events told us that we we're saving a country from communists. This book tells a story of Vietnam's fight for unification and sovereignty, through hundreds of years of war with the Chinese, Japanese, French and Americans. Not a real easy read, but enlightening.

[Jacob Foster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Offers a fascinating look into the life and experiences of general Giáp and help contextualize Americas role in Vietnam as only a small part of a much longer story of national liberation. The prose itself, however, is extremely dense and propagandistic. Much of the narrative and text are simply repeated revolutionary slogans which can often hint at much greater stories left unsaid (“liquidating landowners” for example). Overall would not recommend the book in its entirety, but the chapter on the battle of Dien Bien Phu was particularly fascinating and is a lengthy excerpt than everyone - especially military officers - should read. The introduction was also included a valuable summary of General Giáp’s life which is fascinating and underemphasized in his more political writings

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

good!

[Michael Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dien Bien Phu, madame... Dien Bien Phu... history doesn't always repeat itself. But this time it will. We won a military victory over the French, and we'll win it over the Americans, too... The Americans will lose the war on the day when their military might is at its maximum and the great machine they've put together can't move any more. That is, we'll beat them at the moment when they have the most men, the most arms, and the greatest hope of winning. Because all that money and strength will be a stone around their neck. It's inevitable."

Beautiful, cogent analyses from the military mind who won three people's wars against three genocidal empires: France, Japan, (France again with US aid), and the US. There are poignant descriptions of living in the mountains during guerrilla warfare with "uncle" Ho Chi Minh, some passages reading like prose from Hemingway's For Whom the Bells Tolls. Giap repeatedly emphasizes having the correct scientific socialist line, adapted to the concrete historical and material conditions in Vietnam, and then applied in political and military struggle. He also repeatedly emphasizes that people's war is a total war, incorporating all sectors of society, contributing and sacrificing, and how a people's war in one place, Vietnam, dialectically links to the strength of the socialist bloc and national liberation and class struggles in other parts of the world. Lastly, he emphasizes land-to-the-tiller agrarian reform as not only a post-revolutionary policy for economic construction, but a practical counter-recruitment strategy against the enemy regime during the course of the war itself.

[Liam · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I had realised that this book was merely a collection of condensations of Vo Nguyen Giap's books & other publications, most of which I already own and have already read, I would not have bothered with it. The three short interviews, two of which were conducted by the notorious communist "journalist" Wilfred Burchett, are so loaded with Marxist-Leninist jargon that they are effectively useless as military history. The only use I can think of for this book would be as an introduction to the thought of General Giap for someone who does not have access to the actual works excerpted. A great disappointment, for which I am glad I only paid $5.00- thanx again, Mr. King!

*This is one of several books formerly held by the Catlin Library of the Detroit News, which was sold, at least in large part, to John K. King Books (roughly two blocks down Lafayette Street in down town Detroit), from whom I purchased it.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book at the height of the Vietnam War in an effort to understand what was going on from the North Vietnamese point of view. This is an excellent book on military strategy and resistance fighting, which illumines not just the Vietnam conflict, but also much of what must have occurred during the American Revolutionary War. In these pages, Giap highlighted the history of occupation in Vietnam over the centuries, and its inability to withstand crushing colonial forces. He also eloquently explained the psyche of the Vietnamese people, which enabled them to persevere. Very highly recommended.

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read while bedridden on the hospital. One of the best accounts of the Vietnam War from the eyes of the Vietnamese people's chief strategists - Vo Nguyen Giap.