A truly legendary man. His ideas on guerilla warfare are effectively standard operating procedure for insurgent groups since the 1960’s. Even the Taliban before the 2008-onwards offensive talked about how it was going to use Giap’s ideas.
While the Americans later said they “won every battle but lost the war” Giap in one of his memoirs “People’s War People’s Army” wrote “Successes in many small fights added together gradually to wear out the enemy manpower”. In many ways a very conservative approach to slowly bleed the US. But which in the end proved very effective, especially since there was a lot of commanders in the North Vietnamese ranks who wanted to go the route of a conventional warfare.
Looking back now in hindsight it is obvious if they went the conventional warfare route they would have been wiped out.

Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | Oct 4 2013 17:34 utc | 3

no. 4–

For a good obituaries of Giap there is this piece by the right-wing UK Telegraph which is surprisingly positive about his achievements.

Perhaps only because it makes the French look bad, lol
no. 2–

The list is long and growing, Marcos, Reza Shah, Noriega, Somoza, Peron, FW de Clerk, little Turtle…

Add Mubarak. Now if we could only add Netanyahu to the list . . . . .

Posted by: sleepy | Oct 4 2013 19:48 utc | 5

Honors and praise to general Giáp!
Honors and praise to him and his men who put a million bamboo splints into zusan warmongers. Where our, oh so brave leaders today do not dare so much as saying “No” to yet another attack on yet another innocent country, general Giáp and his men drove out not one but two arrogant and decadent “world powers”. Even more valuable, he broke them psychologically and drove them into acting as the barbarians and cowards they were and are.
Honors and praise to general Giáp!

Posted by: Mr. Pragma | Oct 4 2013 19:55 utc | 7

Sorry, he was a communist who hated Americans, and was an inspiration to all backward, American-haters in swamps the world over. Nice!

Posted by: David | Oct 4 2013 20:15 utc | 9

David, you are obviously a very dull witted person. What are you doing here?

Posted by: DM | Oct 4 2013 20:57 utc | 11

asian lady1: Ohh, you know Davit?
asian lady2: Ahh, he gudt looking boy.
davit,
you almost got it right, it’s more like American-policy-watchers and American-exceptional-ism-watchers, besides any other injustice. I know, when you point something out, it surely must be that you’re a hateful person. Please have a good look in the mirror

Posted by: c | Oct 4 2013 21:46 utc | 13

that is just a falsehood. never has a general been so conscious of his soldiers, regular & irregular
nyt does that because, as in jurisprudence it has never possessed a jurist of the first order, except perhaps, frankfurter or marshall, it has never possessed a real general. their boy wonders are just glorified psychopaths without any real skill while the russians had at least a dozen, rokossovski, vatutin, tcukov, zhukov, the young jewish general who was killed in the attack on prussia & others, real genius’s that were learning from practice, others & books
i think the battle of the bulge was a bad joke by hitler going – boo – & watch them shit their pants, which they did, in their tens of thousands
there is now no bourgeois historian who would countenance that any of the british or american generals had any intelligence whatsoever. then & now? they were as i have said many times – men in minature while men like giap or rokossovski are still enigmas except for the fact that they won, & won convincingly

Posted by: remembererringgiap | Oct 4 2013 22:49 utc | 15

What I love about all these commie countries and “anti-imperialist” jerks is their countries transform into capitalistic–and even freedom loving peoples. Russia, Viet Nam, China. This pinko-commie-vietcong dude is taking a one-way trip to hell. Maybe Oliver Stone will do a movie hagiography on him! Baaahhhh.

Posted by: David | Oct 4 2013 22:52 utc | 17

17;If Giap had come to America,laid waste to its land and people,instead of the actual vice- versa,you might have a point.Instead you reveal your idiocy,and deep deep bias.
I wonder,given our history with Vietnam,that they don’t harbor anti Americanism in spades,the Vietnamese.

Posted by: dahoit | Oct 4 2013 23:25 utc | 19

RIP giap you will go down in history wth men like pemingway as being generations ahead of your time in your grasp of gurilla tactics, you will be missed

Posted by: ryan | Oct 5 2013 0:05 utc | 21

I can only wish Giap a fond passing. A hugh figure, who I disliked in my youth, but grew to respect through introspection as I aged. My part in the Vietnam theater was small, but much regretted, as one can feel after being fooled. Giap was a true patriot.

Posted by: ben | Oct 5 2013 0:11 utc | 23

@ryian- pemingway?
@giap – RIP
interesting insight on the relationship between nationalism and antimperialism in an interview in the Cbs series “the people’s century (1998-1999):

Q: Why do you think Vietnam is almost the only country in the world that has defeated America? Why only Vietnam?
Giap: Speaking as a historian, I’d say that Vietnam is rare. As a nation, Vietnam was formed very early on. It is said that, in theory, a nation can only be formed after the arrival of Capitalism — according to Stalin’s theory of the formation of nations, for instance. But, our nation was formed very early, before the Christian era. Why? Because the risk of aggression from outside forces led all the various tribes to band together. And then there was the constant battle against the elements, against the harsh winter conditions that prevail here. In our legends, this struggle against the elements is seen as a unifying factor, a force for national cohesion. This, combined with the constant risk of invasion, made for greater cohesion and created a tradition — a tradition that gave us strength.

Posted by: claudio | Oct 5 2013 0:37 utc | 25

Many of these guys are just foreigners who reflexively hate the United States… no just for our empire/military, but our film, exports, commercial products, intellect, freedom.

If what you vomit here is any measure of zamerican “intellect” – and it certainly is – only mentally deranged people (like those in charge of zuk) could possibly have any kind of envy.
“empire/military” – that were unable to achieve victory against a brutally weakened country with no adequate weapons to defend themselves.
“intellect” – >= 85% of the zusa “soldiers” (read: primitive, criminally inclined cowards) wouldn’t be able to roughly point at the location of the countries they terrorize.
“freedom” – as seen in the brutal suppression of the occupy movement; or in the wanton murders of veterans.
About the only limit to zamericans self-delusion is their severe lack of intelligence, education and culture.

Posted by: Mr. Pragma | Oct 5 2013 0:45 utc | 27

Right now Dave is stuck in the LZ waiting for a chopper.

Posted by: dh | Oct 5 2013 0:50 utc | 29

Someone correctly pointed out upthread (prolly r’Giap) that amerika has never had a truly genius military leader or tactician.
The answer as to why is obvious when you consider it. That is amerika has never had to fight a war in defense of its homeland.
The first battles against the 100th generation indigenous citizens cast amerikans in the role of invader.
The war of independence was a fight over who got to control the tax revenue not a fight for survival.
Later on in the war between the agrarian capitalists & the industrial capitalists no one was really fighting for their homeland – just fighting for a particular bunch of sell out politician’s lies.
Every battle or war since then has been a war of aggression fought in other people’s homelands, consequently the leadership role is taken by professional killers, contract hitmen whose job is to make money for their employer by killing in the most cost efficient manner so it is unlikely that a farmer or a scholteacher is gonna turn the plough share into a sword & become an inspired & passionate military strategist.
It is always a little sad when a society is forced to offer up a general Giap, because it indicates the straightened situation the leader’s society in in.
On the other hand it does illustrate the soundness of that society and the culture from which it springs, that a great military leader does appear.
There is another important and unmentioned (in the amerikan media) aspect of Giap’s greatness.
He was all about liberating his homeland & not about just replacing foreign oppression with his own brand of domestic oppression.
Giap worked with Nguyễn Sinh Cung (Uncle Ho), not against him hoping for himself to become the bossfella.
Compare that to amerika where every half-assed bean-counter of a general dreams of ‘running amerika just like my last command’ or whatever.
Those of us who live in ‘western nations’ which depend upon historical revisionism to maintain the facade, miss out on some wonderful & heroic stories of how men & women fought the invaders.
In the years I spent lurching around the Pacific providing technical assistance to indigenous cultures requiring insight into whitefella scams and perfidy, I heard many tales of heroes who sometimes appeared from nowhere to aid their people.
Of course not all were school teachers etc some were traditional leaders.
One of my favourites is a tangata whenua chieftain named Rewi Maniapoto whose courage & humanity had me scrambling across old battlefields as a 9 year old schoolboy.
There were many persistant stories about him passed down in tangata whenua oral histories. One persistent one concerned Rewi’s siege strategy. Rewi learned the hard way that the englander army would avoid battle whenever possible, preferring to starve opponents out even where it meant the slow death of thousands of women and children.
Rewi Maniapoto perfected the design of the battle Pa. ( A Pa is a Maori village which would be placed on a hill for security whenever possible. The original Pa designs were susceptible to cannon and/or lengthy siege.)
There were a couple of instances where Maniapoto had the englander army surrounded & under siege but Rewi refused to consider ‘giving them a dose of their own medicine’ by keeping up protacted siege to starve em out.
Rewi supplied the englanders with food, water, medicine & ammunition saying he would rather lose & die honourably than win with dishonour. “let this be decided by battle”.
So one can be crass & say, “no wonder the englanders won’ but I guess Rewi like Giap, had worked out that survival of a culture, a belief system, is much more important than winning a battle by becoming just like that which you abhor.
So General Giap, in the words of Rewi Maniapoto
” ‘Ka whawhai tonu mātou, Ake! Ake! Ake! – We will fight on for ever and ever!'”

Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 5 2013 2:23 utc | 31

amerika has never had a truly genius military leader or tactician.
The answer as to why is obvious when you consider it. That is amerika has never had to fight a war in defense of its homeland.

While I think that debs is right there I’d like to extend it by sth. that debs in a more indirect way said: It’s about culture.
Of course, zusa is at a grave disadvantage there considering the social strata and the genetic pool its inhabitants where extracted from and put on ships. On the other hand those specimen were well selected for a purpose, namely to do the ugly groundwork for their sponsors.
Interestingly debs story also hints at another important factor: honour, an immensily important ingredient for any army as well as any military leaders. Not only does honour work as a safeguard for society but it also influences thinking and strategy.
To make it short, it can be said that in the end it comes down to intelligence vs. massiveness and bestiality, to credibility and to social and political “fertility” after the war.
In fact, this can be seen with both israel and zusa (and formertimes zuk). They all were “superpowers” be it on a regional or a global scale but their demise was built-in from the beginning and so was the destruction beyond military operations whereever they went.
Putin doesn’t win because he has better weapons (although he certainly has) and not even because his military isn’t a bunch of primitive, bestiality prone cowards (although that is true) – it is because Putin is intelligent where obama is simply calculating, because Putin is respectful – also in his thinking – where obama is an arrogant jerk whose superfifical smile (and “values”) are but a cheap mask, because Putin and his country and people have a solid cultural foundation where obama and his fellow zamerican thugs major cultural achievement are hamburgers and drive-ins.
israel again is the essence of everything that defines zusa. They had a life and hope-spending dream for hundreds of years “If only we had our own country” and they didn’t understand the obvious: That country wouldn’t turn out to be their new beginning – it will turn out to be their grave, it will be the hole in which this abomination will perish. zusa will quite probably survive is some broken down version; not because of any quality in itself but because of human qualities of their victims – and zusa insignificance for this planet.
Ceteru censeo israel delendum esse.

Posted by: Mr. Pragma | Oct 5 2013 3:29 utc | 33

Giap’s military achievements speak for themselves.
His greatest contribution to Humanity, however, was making obvious the fact that colonial powers go into battle believing too much of their own bullshit. Taking that as a starting point, one can produce an over-simplified history of the Vietnam War.
France, which ‘saved’ embryonic USA from Britain, decided to colonise and subjugate Vietnam by military might alone and failed dismally. The US, which ‘saved’ the World from the Nazis (‘forgetting’ the contribution of Russia and others), watched the French being outsmarted by apparent inferiors, and decided to blunder into Vietnam to show the World how to …. be outsmarted by apparent inferiors.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2013 3:49 utc | 35

Giap has never been anti-American. That is a misconception. The Vietnamese leadership is a very enlightened and highly educated group of people.
Wikileaks cable

SUBJECT: STILL LUCID AT 97: GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP TALKS EDUCATION WITH THE AMBASSADOR
…
On April 25, the Ambassador met Vietnamese national hero and Ho Chi Minh’s chief military strategist, General Vo Nguyen Giap, at the General’s Hanoi home. Due to his age and frail health, Giap receives visitors only infrequently. In seeking this meeting with the General, our note underscored the Ambassador’s desire to discuss bilateral educational exchanges. Giap has been outspoken about the need for reform of Vietnam’s educational system, most recently last year issuing a public letter calling for systemic reform (Reftel).
…
The General began by noting that the United States and Vietnam are enjoying peaceful relations, with Vietnam now hosting a fourth post-war American ambassador. Giap relayed that he met with most of the Ambassador’s predecessors, who “demonstrated goodwill” towards Vietnam. Giap implored the Ambassador to bring the overall relationship to an even higher level. He said the GVN has achieved a lot of late and is “trying hard” in all areas. The Ambassador responded that he shares the General’s desire for better relations and pointed out that he is committed to doubling the number of Vietnamese students who study in the United States.
…
The GVN is focused on improving its educational and scientific capabilities so the country can join the ranks of the developed countries, Giap said. Hanoi has progressed in the education area, but much needs to be done, he added. The increase
in the number of Vietnamese exports heading to the United States is just an “initial development” in the relationship and economic ties are bound to grow, he offered. Giap said the most important thing — pointing his finger in the air for emphasis — is the “human element.” The Communist Party has made improving Vietnam’s educational system its number one priority, he stated.
¶6. (SBU) The United States and Vietnam could talk a lot, but “deeds are more important than words,” the General continued. He asked that the Ambassador pay special attention to education because what has been done so far to get Vietnamese students to study in America “has not been sufficient.” Although a large number of Vietnamese students are enrolled at U.S. educational institutions, this is just a start, he added. He averred that a U.S. university should establish itself in Vietnam. Perhaps it could be a joint U.S.-Vietnamese university, he said.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 5 2013 5:29 utc | 37

38) :-)) losing US hearts and minds on the way?

Posted by: somebody | Oct 5 2013 6:29 utc | 39

40) From the article you linked to

On 7 May, coincidentally less than twenty-four hours before the scheduled opening of the talks on Indochina in Geneva, Dien Bien Phu fell to the Viet-minh. The siege lasted for fifty-five days. The French suffered 7,184 casualties, including 1,142 dead and 1,606 missing; Viet-minh losses were 7,900 dead and more than 15,000 wounded.

That does not sound “human wave strategy”, more of equal fight.
Also this

In a recent article, Giap admitted to having postponed the attack because “we were not 100% certain of victory.” He was distressed mainly by the fact that most gun/cannon emplacements were exposed and easy to spot and, therefore, “would become targets of enemy air strikes and artillery bombardments.” In a recent article, Giap admitted to having postponed the attack because “we were not 100% certain of victory.” He was distressed mainly by the fact that most gun/cannon emplacements were exposed and easy to spot and, therefore, “would become targets of enemy air strikes and artillery bombardments.”

So it was a careful plan, not something that got changed midway from human wave to trenches.
It is also more likely that protraced warfare was the plan all along as the outcome was timed (and achieved) for the Geneva conference.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 5 2013 8:12 utc | 41

“…Mr Pragma, your hatred of Americans really comes through when you start attacking the alleged cultural vacuousness of an entire country…”
Mr Pragma is not attacking all Americans; as his references to “ships” and “gene pools” shows, he is particularly sneering at the descendants of forced labourers, from slaves, through coolies and peons to indentured servants, who form such a large part of the American People. This is merely racism of the kind endemic among ignorant and uncultured people.
The truth is that Russia was in these respects very similar to the United States in that most of its people are also recently descended from bound labourers such as serfs, those who had “left their countries for their countries’ good,” prisoners, religious minorities and so on.
All men are equal and the descendants of slaves and serfs tend to be a little more conscious of the dangers of elitism and the disgrace of human trafficking than others, which gives them, culturally, advantages.
General Giap, whose name will always be recalled where the wretched of the earth gather to improve matters, knew these things. So did most Russians then, before the spivs stole the people’s inheritance.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 5 2013 13:31 utc | 43

Cultural vacuousness is one of America’s greatest strengths; all things to all people and there is a sucker born every minute.

Posted by: Gareth | Oct 5 2013 13:57 utc | 45

“…Mr Pragma, your hatred of Americans really comes through when you start attacking the alleged cultural vacuousness of an entire country…” Mr Pragma is not attacking all Americans… Posted by: bevin | Oct 5, 2013 9:31:35 AM | 43

He isn’t? well, he should be. There are innumerable ways to do it. To begin with, USAians have no moral or geographical right whatever to call themselves ‘Americans’, thereby implying with every breath that only they, not the little brown humanoid life-forms to the south or the british-owned androids to the north, are members of the properly human species. In the second place, it is noticable that even in this supposedly advanced age, it is impossible for a USAian politician to confess publicly to not believing in ‘God’, because if they do, they will be driven out of public life. In the third place, and underlying the second, is the fact that since the real god of USAia is private property, anyone with radical views about that is liable to be shot, incinerated, locked up for the rest of their natural life, or tortured with electricity until they recant or perish, whichever comes first. And in the fourth place, as I mentioned earlier today on another thread, the USA has now become the largest and most aggressive fascist state in the world, which should surely cause those who still possess minds of their own to attack it with the utmost vigour.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Oct 5 2013 15:03 utc | 47

Gee whiz Mr. Pragma, you sure do know how make a guy feel like defending something he really has no interest in defending.
Ah, but that’s how it goes. The holocaust victims make the next holocaust. The world goes round and round.
The fact is that the people of the US is the same as all over. The good and the bad.
As for a Russian who wants to talk about “gene pool” and “social strata” well… I guess the lessons of Nazi Germany just didn’t sink in. Of course I won’t be so gauche as to blame that on the “Russian gene pool” or anything so stupid.

Posted by: guest77 | Oct 5 2013 15:47 utc | 49

Remembering Giap

Posted by: cloned_poster | Oct 5 2013 18:46 utc | 51

The reign of quantity, yes. Are you a fan of René Guénon?

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Oct 5 2013 19:09 utc | 53

Ah. I suppose I only thought of him because of the way you talked about quantity. But also, ages ago, when I was describing one form of the doctrinaire right wing, I mentioned Evola, who was a follower of Guénon but also a sort of heretic. The two of them together comprise the basis of the whole Traditionalist right wing, which is not large but is influential worldwide, in one variant or another.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Oct 5 2013 20:19 utc | 55

“I’m not trying to cover myself. I *do* detest zamericans (is it really necessary to say “most of …”? *Of course* not all, *of course* there are intelligent and fine humans there, too; does one really need to mention that each time?”
I would suggest that yes, one does need to mention it each time. Maybe that’s my political correctness coming out. It seems the simplest albeit extremely important bit of social nicety that certainly great men like Putin and Chavez know to perform and are serious about, so why not you too?
The battle over Syria was not won because the Russians have a better gene pool or come from a “finer” social strain. It was won because the Russians had the right position and the willingness to back it up… and the whole world could see it.

Posted by: guest77 | Oct 5 2013 21:58 utc | 57

“There are no laws in my country defining “anti-americanism” as a crime”
Of course not. You have to live in the United States to be leashed to such a law. And don’t you dare rail against Israel, either, if you don’t want to be labeled as a “enemy combatant”. Damned terrorist supporters, anti-semites, one and all. Thank God for the Patriot Act and the NSA!

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Oct 5 2013 23:06 utc | 59

Debs said: “amerika (sic) has never had a truly genius military leader or tactician.”
I respectfully disagree, however I will not use the occasion of this thread, a memorial to General Giáp, to engage in a pissing contest about my ancestry.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 6 2013 5:33 utc | 61

Rest in peace General Giap!
A few months ago, I was speaking with a friend who is deeply interested in British politics, especially the British Labour Party. He mentioned that he read, in an obscure book on the history of Labour, that in 1945 Pr. Atlee helped restored French colonial rule of Vietnam, by using Japanese POWs to put down the Vietnamese independent movement! This was done by Atlee as he could not bare to think an imperial European power losing her imperial domains as this will have an domino affect on Britian’s empire. Apparently this little
known fact is kept outside of “normal” British history books and hence not many people are aware of it.
There isn’t much on the internet – but I did find this:
http://www.kaiserman.carandol.net/Chapter12_Vietnam.html

Posted by: Irshad | Oct 6 2013 14:44 utc | 63

“Great” military leaders are a curious phenomena in human culture. They almost universally inspire respect, the reason for that being that no individual can succeed as a war leader unless they share these certain characteristics… They are generally extremely intelligent and deeply thoughtful. They tend to be persons who have developed deep and complex personal philosophies around questions of morality, honor and the human condition. They make terribly difficult decisions, often involving the deaths of thousands of the soldiers to whom they are responsible. Officers who succeed in the chaos and difficulty of war are persons of very high integrity and character. They must be, because the process of war itself very quickly deals with the weak, the vain, the users, the useless, and the pretenders. The great generals almost always seem to combine a very focused will and extreme self control with deep humility and a basic distaste for the effects of war and of its necessity. Giap was clearly a great General Officer of this rare stamp. Dien Bien Phu will remain one of the greatest battles of the twentieth century and be studied by historians for years. Tet was also, though it suffered errors in execution, jn the end an astonishing campaign/victory. Particularly telling was the way Giap almost casually toyed with Westmoreland (sadly almost a textbook example of an inferior officer) in the months leading up to Tet; I refer to the bizarre events being played out around Khe Sanh. Someone earlier mentioned his contribution to the development of asymmetric tactics and to the proof that even vast technological superiority is not any guarantor of success in warfare. This man was a great General Officer of the the true rare type, as well as a patriot, a defender of his people and culture. For some reasons, not all entirely rational, these men still inspire us. I will take issue with the comment that The United States had no great generals and point, at least, to R.E Lee and Andrew Jackson. There are contemporary accounts of the Battle(s) of New Orleans available on the net which show Jackson fighting a brilliant guerrilla action against a professional, highly trained and technically superior force. Anyway, farewell Vo Nguyen Giap, Well Done. Respect.

Posted by: Z-Dane | Oct 7 2013 1:32 utc | 65

Irshad, great link

Posted by: claudio | Oct 7 2013 6:57 utc | 67

This is Ramzy Baroud’s take:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-02-071013.html

Posted by: bevin | Oct 7 2013 20:36 utc | 69

contruing “commonality” with Wallace might be wrong, but it doesn’t smear anyone

Posted by: claudio | Oct 7 2013 22:13 utc | 71

Your doctrine, Mr Pragma, would hold that the average Russian citizen was responsible for the excesses of both soviet and tsarist regimes.

Bullshit.

The only Russians who need to be told this are the proto-fascists who regard the current regime there as an improvement on its predecessors.

The “regime” as you malevolently call it has way more democratic legitimacy than the zusa regime. And it still enjoys solid majority support – not at last because the Russian government, rather than starting wars and running terror operations, does what citizens in most western countries can only dream off; the Russian governments cares about and works for the Russian citizens.

General Giap was a communist

So what? First and foremost he was a man serving his people.

who dedicated his service to the wretched of the earth, including the late and heroic Mr Wallace who served more than three decades in solitary confinement because he was on the same side as the “vietcong.”

Wow. What a wanton mix of crap.
Gen. Giáp dedicated his service to his country, his people.
Whether Mr. Wallace was heroic or not is a matter of view; in any case he can’t be compared to Gen. Giáp. Now, don’t get me wrong, I respect Mr. Wallace and I’m getting angry when thinking what the zamerican regime has done to him, that they stole most of his life, that lowest-life creatures were allowed to treat him like that. But that doesn’t make him someone like Gen. Giáp (nor is it reasonable to put the Black Panther fight into one pot with the Vietnamese fighting against zusa terror (which to no small degree was implemented by black troups)).
I do, btw, based on what I have read so far from you, not see you in any position to lecture me in military and related matters.
You are, of course free to perceive the world any way you like and to make your views known. You are, however, not free to attack others here for having different, and often considerably better founded, views.

Posted by: Mr. Pragma | Oct 8 2013 5:36 utc | 73

“Pm-mo all about subjectivsm and triumph of the will” Madonna showed the world what po-mo was, decades ago. Strike a pose?

Posted by: wicky wacky | Oct 8 2013 9:50 utc | 75

To give some specific examples: Andy Warhol was po-mo, and so were the Velvet Underground. Leonard Cohen was po-mo. William Burroughs & Brion Gysin were po-mo. And Kenneth Anger was very po-mo.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Oct 8 2013 10:10 utc | 77

“But that doesn’t make him someone like Gen. Giáp (nor is it reasonable to put the Black Panther fight into one pot with the Vietnamese fighting against zusa terror (which to no small degree was implemented by black troups)).”
The point, Mr Pragma, is that Giap was just like any other honest man. To compare him with Wallace is to elevate out of the ranks of Generals and other killers into the ranks of those who fight against injustice and evil- as most Generals do not.
As to the Russian government, I do not doubt for a moment that it is as legitimate, probably considerably more legitimate, as that of the USA.
But the point that you make, again, That US “terror (which to no small degree was implemented by black troups))” is, as I indicated, analagous to blaming the drafted-for-life muzhik soldiers of the Tsars, for the excesses of the Russian Imperial armies.
I am of course supposing that you are aware that there were such excesses and that it would be wrong to blame the rank and file soldiery for them. I could be wrong on both counts.
Incidentally the arguments “Bullshit!” and “Wow. What a wanton mix of crap” may past muster as examples of idiomatic proficiency but they do not actually constitute replies to the points that I made. And they certainly do little to support the idea that your views are so well founded that they require no explanation.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 10 2013 0:35 utc | 79