Reflections on the death of General Giap of Vietnam

Reflections on the death of General Giap of Vietnam

I hate banalities. I don't think I am afflicted with banalities. Profanities and sentimentalities, yes; but never banalities. The recent death of General Giap at an improbable age of 102 triggered a flood of commentaries, one of which was of such insufferable banality that I threw up my breakfast after I waded through the horrible, middle-school English level commentary redolent of boring bromides, and bereft of beautiful, beatific thoughts. 

The "writer" questioned why the western press didn't mention post-war rumors that asserted that Giap was not involved in the 1968 Tet Offensive and the Spring 1975 take-over of South Vietnam from the communist North. So what? Giap's life and achievements were great enough even if he was not involved with these military campaigns. 

The French say we can glean the character of a person through what and how he uses words. Le style, c'est l'homme. The above writer's words indicate that he is a pitiful human consumed with banalities and pettiness, and possessing no ability to learn from great examples right in front of his eyes. Maybe the writer constitutionally is so petty and feeble that he is incapable of seeing greatness and emulating from that. 

Regardless of what you think and feel about Communist ideology---and Giap was a communist---in fairness, in reflecting upon Giap's life, I cannot help having the following observations:

1. Giap was a patriot. With his education, he could have easily secured a safe and easy life in the colonial Vietnam. Instead, he risked his life to fight against the French invaders and colonizers. At the end of his life, he openly challenged the VC ruling elite, of which he was no longer a part, about their wisdom of allowing China, the ancient and implacable foe of Vietnam, to open bauxite mining operations in the militarily strategic Central Highlands of Vietnam.

2. He was largely a self-taught military strategist and an ardent student of history. All self-respecting intellectuals recognize the importance of really knowing history. Only fools and half-assed, half-educated, deluded college graduates fail to pay attention to history. Without a firm grasp of history, we don't know where we came from, where we are, and where we are likely to go. Without a good understanding of philosophy, we don't know how to think and how not to be enslaved by religious and political charlatans and hustlers. 

3. Giap managed to live until a very ripe age of 102. He must have done something right. At any rate, he made a name for himself and history will remember him. No matter how we judge him as a human being, one thing we could not deny is that he answered the call of his conscience and the love for his country, and he elected to fight against the hated French colonizers who raped and bled Vietnam in order to enrich themselves and France. Right now, Vietnam is facing the existential threat from the ancient and implacable foe China, how many of us Vietnamese are willing to risk our lives to fight against the rapacious and evil Chinese, as Giap did against the French? 

Wissai
October 5, 2013