General Vo Nguyen Giap by LTC John C. Levanter

Author:LTC John C. Levanter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

GIAP IS TESTED

By mid-1946 the time had come for Giap to receive his real test as a general. War moved closer and he had to determine the method by which the war as to be conducted. The situation necessary to support nationwide guerrilla warfare was already in existence—the French were unpopular, nationalism was a powerful factor in the minds of most Vietnamese, and the Viet Minh had the organization necessary to compel a great proportion of the population to begin fighting for these goals. Although the political organization needed much expanding and strengthening, the months of confusion in 1945 had given the Viet Minh such a splendid opportunity for developing a national structure that a French policy of suppression was likely to add more supporters to the Viet Minh than it removed.

The major tactical political problem facing Giap was whether a national front should be formed which would embrace all of the anti-French parties, or whether the Viet Minh alone would conduct the war. The Viet Minh was in such a position of strength by 1946 that the later course seemed to Giap to afford the best solution. He was in a unique position to exploit his power and to break the power of the non-Communist parties. He went about this design with a degree of subtlety, attempting to coerce all Vietnamese parties into the Lien Viet or Popular National Front. Of course all power within this front was held by the Viet mina and any party which refused to join and Lo submit to its authority was publicly branded as reactionary and treacherous and was dealt with accordingly by the terrorist teams of the Viet Minh.

By the end of 1946 Giap had secured the internal political unification of North Vietnam under the Viet Minh’s terms. Although the military situation was less satisfactory, his army had grown from 30,000 to 60,000 men between June and November 1946 the Viet Minh was not able to build its forces as rapidly as the French.{30} There was great difficulty in getting further military supplies and the Viet Minh had nowhere to turn for assistance. The United States would not consider doing business with the Viet Minh government; the Nationalist Chinese were otherwise engaged as Mao Tse-Tung’s Red China had problems of its own; little could be gained for the Viet Minh by waiting longer; Giap had made a big decision and received Ho’s approval; it was back to guerrilla warfare.

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