General Vo Nguyen Giap and the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army Team
in Tan Trao (Photo: Archive)
(VOVworld) – Local people in Tan Lap hamlet, Tan Trao commune, Tuyen Quang province set up an altar on Monday to pay tribute to General Vo Nguyen Giap.
Tan Trao is a place where the General stayed and worked from May to August 1945 to prepare for the August general uprising to seize control of the government. Under a Tan Trao banyan tree, on August 16th, 1945, General Giap read the first military order, then led an attack to seize Thai Nguyen town, and finally marched toward Hanoi. That same month, at the first national congress in Tan Trao, General Giap was elected to the National Liberation Committee led by President Ho Chi Minh.
Nong Thi Thu of Tan Trao commune, Son Duong district, Tuyen Quang province, stands by souvenirs about General Giap
A special ceremony took place in Paris on Monday to commemorate General Giap and mark 40 years since the signing of the Paris Agreement. Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Chi Dung said the General’s death is a great loss for the Vietnamese Party, Government, and people. Secretary of the French Communist Party Pierre Laurent said General Giap’s military leadership made history, won the war, restored peace to the nation. He explained further
“General Giap can be happy because after his death the values he spent all his life struggling to protect will continue to spread. The French Communist Party and peace lovers would like to share this loss with the Vietnamese people. Today, the Humanitarian newspaper ran a special page of stories about General Giap as a way to memorialize him.”
These days, overseas Vietnamese are also finding ways to commemorate the general. Nguyen Thi Nuong, a Vietnamese living in Vientiane, said:
“We were born and grew up in Laos and want to return home to pay tribute to General Giap but it’s impossible. We would like to console his family, and his hometown for losing the legendary general. We will always remember the country and the general.”
In Cambodia, a state funeral will be held by the Vietnamese Cambodian People Association so the Vietnamese community there can pay tribute to General Vo Nguyen Giap.