<B>Legendary Vietnamese general Giap dies at 102</B> By CNN Staff updated 4:59 PM EDT, Fri October 4, 2013 CNN) -- Vietnam's legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap, whose guerrilla tactics defeated the French and American armies, has died aged 102. In 1954, Giap led the communist force in one of his most famous victories -- a 55-day seige of French forces at Dien Bien Phu, in the north of the country. The siege ended when the French troops, worn down by constant artillery barrages and unable to resupply by air, surrendered on May 7, 1954. That defeat saw the French withdraw, followed by the partitioning of Vietnam. Giap was the North's defense minister during the Tet offensive against U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in 1968. The surprise attack during the Vietnamese New Year festival targeted dozens of cities in South Vietnam, and both sides suffered heavy casualties before the offensive was repulsed. The Tet offensive is considered as a turning point in the conflict, with the United States soon reducing the number of its troops in Vietnam as the U.S. public increasingly turned against the war. The fall of Saigon fuelled his near mythical status overseas as a master strategist and inspired liberation movements everywhere. U.S. Sen. John McCain, who as a Navy pilot was held prisoner by the North Vietnamese for more than five years after his plane was shot down, marked Giap's death on Twitter Friday. "Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap has passed away -- brilliant military strategist who once told me that we were an 'honorable enemy,'" McCain tweeted. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/04/world/asia/vietnam-general-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 I think McCain wanted a rematch...
War can be won, similar to winning trades, if you have the resources to withstand drawdowns wait until things turn in your favor. This general could send waves of fighters in suicidal type assaults and eventually wear out the enemy. Same way Grant won the Civil war. Attack, lose 50,000 men attack again lose 50,000 men keep doubling down until you win.
Putting some actual numbers to those "heavy casualties" on both sides one can see it was quite lopsided.(see link below) The VC were crippled from that point forward and never played much of a part again. Actually it was a total victory for the U.S., but Comrade Cronkite deemed it otherwise. What Gaip knew is that all he had to do was wait. The North was more determined than we were, and much more willing to make the human sacrifices. http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/vietnam/tet.htm
Why is the media celebrating an enemy of our country who was responsible for tens of thousands of our countrymen being killed? Of course, the liberals of that time, traitors like John Kerry the democrat leadership and the media, considered the NVA their allies and the U. S. Army their enemy. They desperately wanted us to lose, so that the hated Nixon could be humiliated. So Giap was their hero.