Word: giap
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Violating His Own Precepts. Such explicit counsel would seem to run counter to Giap's oft-expressed public warning that North Viet Nam is ready to fight for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years to defeat the U.S. in Viet Nam. And there is also much in Giap's new strategy that flies in the face of his own guerrilla doctrine of warfare. One of his maxims is to fight only when the odds are overwhelmingly in his favor and success is certain, a precept that his troops violated nearly everywhere they struck in the course of his general offensive...
...argument within the Hanoi hierarchy on how to meet the allies' growing momentum, Giap, true to his own maxims and proven experience against the French, argued for an abandonment of large-scale or big-unit fighting and a return to guerrilla warfare in the south that might last for 10 or 20 years. His chief opponent and longtime rival, General Nguyen Chi Thanh, wanted to stick with big-unit warfare. Thanh had the advantage of being closest to the action as head of all Communist operations in South Viet Nam from his headquarters northwest of Saigon along the Cambodian border...
Then Thanh died last summer, and no successor appeared in South Viet Nam. Instead, Giap disappeared from Hanoi, even missing the 23rd anniversary party on Dec. 22 of the founding of his own army. The best evidence is that he has set up a headquarters just north of the DMZ, determined, even if it is against his own instincts, to make big-unit war work against the U.S. He has said, in effect, to the Politburo: If this is what you want to do, I'll show...
...first phase of his campaign was pure Giap: trying to draw U.S. forces to the periphery of South Viet Nam, into isolated areas where they had little to gain and lives to lose. He did much the same thing to the French in 1952 and 1953. Last week's series of urban attacks was a radical departure, but it has some logic and some advantages. A major element in U.S. strength is mobility in the air; if enough damage could be done to airfields and aircraft, that element would be sharply reduced. Fighting inside cities also nullified much...
...first time since the U.S. committed itself to combat in Viet Nam, the Communist foot soldier was thus able to fight during the week with little fear of shells and bombs, rifleman .o rifleman. Giap knew that he would take huge losses, but he hoped that the cost in allied lives would also be great; he has long since proved that he considers one American life worth five of his own in the campaign to weary the U.S. of the war. That, too, characterized his war against the French, where at Dienbienphu he even budgeted 100% casualties?and took...