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Death of a Vietnamese Hero
Vietnam's General Vo Nguyen Giap was popularly known as the "Red Napolean". A pioneer of modern guerrilla warfare, his role in the Vietnamese armed forces' stellar victories over the colonial militaries of Japan, France and the United States inspired millions in the global South in their own anti-colonial struggles. A tribute.
This article was fi rst published last week on the internet in the Web Exclusives section of EPW.
In the early days of October news came from Vietnam of the death of General Vo Nguyen Giap, at the age of 102. Second in reverence only to Ho Chi Minh, General Giap came to symbolise the success of what has come to be more recently defined as asymmetrical warfare. At the outset of the modern Vietnam independence struggle, the Viet Minh numbered in the hundreds and increased from small-scale guerrilla units to more conventional large-scale battle formations, defeating in turn the French colonial occupation forces and the mighty United States (US) and its neocolonial puppets.
Socialist Rebel
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