A Critical Analysis of the Operational Performance of General Vo Nguyen Giap 1940–1954
A critical analysis of the operational performance of General Vo Nguyen Giap 1940–1954
Major Stuart Pascoe, Australian Army
The struggle must build, however slowly. The way to win is by small defeats, one after another until the coup de grace.1
Vo Nguyen Giap Introduction 1. General Vo Nguyen Giap has been described as one of the most successful Generals of the 20th century,2 and his ultimate success certainly supports this. His campaign began with no more than academic support for a communist ideal, and ended in the forced expulsion of a colonial power.3 His command responsibilities were broad and his challenge great, spanning the Vietnamese revolution and French occupation. Giap possessed a difficult nature. He was an idealist, a politician, and importantly did not always succeed in battle.4 An overall assessment of Giap’s leadership is a complex proposition. 2. The aim of this paper is to critically examine the operational performance of General Vo Nguyen Giap during the years 1940 to 1954. 3. The paper focuses on Giap’s campaign against the French and utilises the Hersey-Blanchard Situation Leadership Model (SLM) as the medium to examine his leadership effectiveness. The paper commences with an outline of his background, before detailing the command requirements made of him during the campaign. The Hersey-Blanchard model is explained, and then compared against Giap’s leadership method. From teenage activist to general 4. Vo Nguyen Giap was born to a peasant family in 1911. At that time Vietnam was almost entirely a rural nation. Aside from the cities of Hanoi and Saigon, population concentrations were based on small villages serviced by provincial capitals. Villages were most often small clusters of homesteads, and were particularly concentrated in the vicinity of the two major rivers in the nation, the Mekong in the south and the Red in the north. Vo Nguyen’s village, An-Xa was located in QuangBinh province.5 This was one of the poorest regions in
Major Stuart Pascoe, Australian Army
The struggle must build, however slowly. The way to win is by small defeats, one after another until the coup de grace.1
Vo Nguyen Giap Introduction 1. General Vo Nguyen Giap has been described as one of the most successful Generals of the 20th century,2 and his ultimate success certainly supports this. His campaign began with no more than academic support for a communist ideal, and ended in the forced expulsion of a colonial power.3 His command responsibilities were broad and his challenge great, spanning the Vietnamese revolution and French occupation. Giap possessed a difficult nature. He was an idealist, a politician, and importantly did not always succeed in battle.4 An overall assessment of Giap’s leadership is a complex proposition. 2. The aim of this paper is to critically examine the operational performance of General Vo Nguyen Giap during the years 1940 to 1954. 3. The paper focuses on Giap’s campaign against the French and utilises the Hersey-Blanchard Situation Leadership Model (SLM) as the medium to examine his leadership effectiveness. The paper commences with an outline of his background, before detailing the command requirements made of him during the campaign. The Hersey-Blanchard model is explained, and then compared against Giap’s leadership method. From teenage activist to general 4. Vo Nguyen Giap was born to a peasant family in 1911. At that time Vietnam was almost entirely a rural nation. Aside from the cities of Hanoi and Saigon, population concentrations were based on small villages serviced by provincial capitals. Villages were most often small clusters of homesteads, and were particularly concentrated in the vicinity of the two major rivers in the nation, the Mekong in the south and the Red in the north. Vo Nguyen’s village, An-Xa was located in QuangBinh province.5 This was one of the poorest regions in
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