THE title of this book comes from the poetry haunted Vietnamese people's title for Senior General Giap, the victor of the 30 year struggle against American, French and Japanese armies. Incredibly, he is still alive. Never a name like Ho Chi Minh, shouted by American students in anti war riots, Giap remained shadowy, a hate figure to many, an omniscient grey eminence to others.
He is now a white haired, 86 year old icon, whose status was gradually reduced after 1975; another Communist regime heeding Marx's warning about "Bonapartism"?
Giap lives contentedly with an aide, a car and a personal doctor. He and his wife are "often attended by children and grandchildren in that comfortable house with its memories, treasures and busts of Marxist leaders".
John Calvin was a British consul in Hanoi. His book assumes some familiarity with the campaigns in Vietnam and Laos.
There are three incredibly dysfunctional maps. Two are untitled, none has a scale. Many places mentioned in the text cannot be found - indeed, one may have to go to two maps for placenames mentioned in the same paragraph. Hanoi is not marked on one of them, and the Red and Black Rivers are lettered in near unreadable type. One finds place names in the text spell differently in the maps. Life is too short; buy a good map with this book.
All this said, the book is balanced. Colvin describes Vietnam well - the small but lovely cities, the great rivers, the "heartrending beauty" of the women, the misty mountains and limestone peaks. "All Algeria for one hectare of Vietnam" a French Para once said to this writer. The sense of loss still haunts those who have served and fought and loved there.
The attempt to return to presecond World War colonialism was hopeless. Colvin gives credit to the troops and commanders in the doomed and desperate fighting which ensued. The Foreign Legion, cut off in outposts or holding out in delaying actions, fought bravely, stubbornly and professionally. So too did Vietnamese, Moroccan and Laotian troops at places now forgotten. Led by some outstanding officers, they exacted a heavy price from Giap's human wave assaults. France "lost 91,000 men ... and five St Cyr cadet classes by 1954".
Mr Colvin believes that General de Lattre de Tassigny "was the equal, if not the military superior of Giap . . . unlike Giap he lacked the support of a totalitarian government indifferent to public opinion at home". De Lattre's leadership style electrified the troops in 1950. In six months he inflicted over 20,000 casualties on Giap.
But cancer was devastating him; the death in action of his only son hit him hard. He died in a year. Colvin says that only de Lattre could have persuaded his government to grant Indo China a proper independence. After him came smaller men, and Dien Bien Phu.
The American campaigns which followed are well described.
Like the early Israeli generals, Giap showed that high intelligence and commitment could substitute for deficiencies in military education. He made expensive mistakes, but his strategy and tactics were well thought out and ultimately successful. The first 30 pages of Lieut Gen Phillip Davidson's Vietnam at War give a clearer picture of Giap's military development, but Colvin is better on the political ideas.
Vietnam now has huge internal foreign investment, diplomatic relations with America, and a developing market economy. But one hears that massive infrastructural damage has still to be repaired. {CORRECTION} 96053000015
