VietNamNet Bridge – More than 340 veterans who took part in the Dien Bien Phu campaign met in HCM City on August 20 to celebrate General Vo Nguyen Giap’s 100th birthday (August 25).


 

Dien Bien Phu campaign’s veterans took photo with General

Vo Nguyen Giap’s daughter, Ms. Hoa Binh (middle).


Colonel Hoang Minh Phuong, 84, former assistant of General Giap, said that it is the great happiness of not only the General, but also his family enjoyed great happiness of veterans of the Dien Bien Phu campaign.

 

“Without the general’s lucid decision to change the fighting tactics in the Dien Bien Phu campaign, all of us here would have died,” colonel Phuong said.

 

Phuong said he became General Giap’s assistant since 1950, at the Dien Bien Phu campaign, when he was only 22. He said goodbye to the General after the country’s unification in 1975. He sees the General again whenever he goes to HCM City.

 

Reminiscing the Dien Bien Phu campaign, colonel Phuong said that on January 25, 1954, General Giap did not sleep to think of the fighting tactics. The next day’s tomorrow, colonel Phuong saw the General rolled absinth leaves around his head. Phuong asked: “Do you have a headache?” General Giap answered: “I’ve not stopped thinking of the rapid-attack rapid-winning tactic for 11 days. I could not sleep last night. The battle is starting this afternoon be we are not sure to win. Now you see the chief of the consultative group to ask them to work early. I’ll try to convene them to pull artilleries out to prepare for the steady attack steady move policy.”

 

Colonel Phuong cannot forget a memory: once he was busy translating documents until 4am. He overslept 6.30am while General Giap’s flight was scheduled at 7am. He hurriedly went to the airport. He thought for sure that General Giap would blame him for the lateness, but the General did not reproach, and said: “You did not sleep to translate documents last night? I have to seek a wife to manage you strictly otherwise you will stay up late like this and it is not good for health.”

 

“The General always shows interests in his inferior and he considers us as his bosom friends. We love and respect him like the eldest brother,” Phuong said.

 

Colonel Phuong (second from the right) presented a sand painting by artisan

Y Lan to General Giap's daughter.


Attending the meeting with veterans in HCM City, General Giap’s daughter – Hoa Binh was very moved by veterans’ sentiments to her fathers.

 

“Before I flew to HCM City, I told my father about this meeting. He told me to give his best regards to all of you,” she said.

 

The General’s daughter said that her father had said that the greatest happiness of a commander is side by side with his soldiers in the front, and he always remembers sacrificed soldiers.

 

On behalf of 350 veterans, colonel Phuong presented a congratulation letter to General Vo Nguyen Giap. “We wish you to be healthy to live with descendants furthermore to witness the country’s changes,” the letter writes.

 

PV