Looks sharp! Who was he?
General Giap was one of the 20th century’s foremost military commanders. He made his name commanding the military wing of the Viet Minh during the Second World War, before becoming commander-in-chief of the People’s Army of Vietnam.
Born: 1911
Nationality: Vietnamese
Occupation: commander in the People’s Army of Vietnam; Minister of Defence; Deputy Prime Minster of Vietnam
Key qualities: strategy, activism, charisma
Greatest achievement: being the first general to defeat the United States in war
Died: 2013
So what did he fight for?
Vietnamese independence. France colonised the whole of the Indochinese Peninsula between 1862 and 1945, using the agriculturally rich territory as a base from which to export raw materials for the benefit of the French colonial empire.
