Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who masterminded the defeat of French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu and the Tet Offensive that turned many Americans against the Vietnam War, has died at 102.
Giap, whose legacy in Vietnam is second only to Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary communist leader, died Friday at a hospital in the capital, Hanoi, a government official tells news agencies.
The general is ranked by historians as among the greatest military leaders of the 20th century. His 1954 defeat of French forces garrisoned at the northwestern province of Dien Bien Phu is considered a classic of guerrilla siege.
After the U.S. became involved in the conflict in the 1960s, Giap was responsible for key campaigns against American forces, most famously a massive assault against the U.S. and its South Vietnamese allies during the 1968 Tet Lunar New Year celebrations. The Tet Offensive, although a military defeat for the North, nonetheless helped turn American opinion against the war, npr informs.
