PEOPLE'S WAR PEOPLE'S ARMY - Marxists Internet Archive

117 Pages·2014·0.72 MB·English

PEOPLE'S WAR
PEOPLE'S ARMY
By Võ Nguyên Giáp

VõNguyênGiáp
People’sWar,People’sArmy /VõNguyênGiáp
Originaltitle:Chiến tranh nhân dân,quân đội nhân dân
FirstpublishedinEnglishbyForeignLanguagesPublishingHouse,Hanoi,1961.
PublishedbytheMarxistsInternetArchive(www.marxists.org), 2014.
PEOPLE'S WAR
PEOPLE'S ARMY
By Võ Nguyên Giáp

CONTENTS
Forewordtothe1961English-language
Edition ………………………………… 1
TheVietnamesepeople'swarofliberation
againsttheFrenchimperialistsandthe
Americaninterventionists(1945-1954) ………………………………… 3
People'swar,peoples army ………………………………… 17
Thegreatexperiences gainedbyourParty
inleadingthearmedstruggleandbuilding
revolutionaryarmedforce ………………………………… 33
DienBienPhu ………………………………… 77

Foreword to the 1961 English-language
Edition
We are very pleased to publish the English translation of a series of articles by General
Vo Nguyen Giap, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Viet
Nam Workers' Party, Vice-Premier and Minister for National Defence of the Democratic
RepublicofVietNam,Commander-in-ChiefoftheVietNamPeople'sArmy.
In these articles, the author introduces the liberation war waged by the Vietnamese
people, the features of that war, and deals with the reasons for victory : mobilisation of
the entire people, setting up of a people's army, merging of all patriotic organisations and
people into a united national front, clear sighted leadership of the Party of the working
class. It lays particular stress on the problem of organisation and direction of the
revolutionary armed forces of Viet Nam. In a word, it is the combination of experiences
gained by the Vietnamese people in the course of a long struggle against colonialism, for
national independence, struggle which ended in 1954 with the brilliant Dien Bien Phu
victoryandthesigningoftheGenevaAgreements.
Publicationofthisbookismosttimely.
It is true that since the end of World War II, the maps of Asia, Africa and Latin America
have been subject to radical changes, other countries will soon be independent and
colonialism is unquestionably doomed to collapse. It is no less true that great obstacles
still stand in the way of the peoples struggling for their liberation. The Algerian war has
just entered its seventh year. The so-called "U.N. action" in the Congo has turned out to
be an imperialist plot against Lumumba's motherland. Cuba is subject to daily
provocations by the U.S.A. Half of Viet Nam's territory is still under the heel of a new
typecolonialism"madeinU.S.A."
We hope that all our friends who, like us, are still suffering from imperialist designs and
threats will find in the "People's War, People's Army" what we ourselves have found:
furtherreasonsforconfidenceandhope.
FOREIGN LANGUAGESPUBLISHINGHOUSE
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