A few weeks ago, an extraordinary Vietnamese war hero and a great friend of mine passed away at the age of 102. I used to play tennis with him until he was about 90 years old. Unsurprisingly, as a former tennis champion of Vietnam of the late eighties, the much older Đặng Văn Việt often beat me.
Dang Van Viet’s book on the first major victory over the French colonial army [Source: Felix Abt] 
Felix Abt’s copy personally signed dedication. [Source: Felix Abt]
Long before I was born he became the youngest colonel in the Việt Minh (now People’s Army of Vietnam) and served under the legendary general Võ Nguyên Giáp whom I also was honored to meet.
As a young man, Giáp had worked in his peasant family’s rice fields to make enough money for his education; this helped him earn a bachelor’s degree in law. In 1941 Hồ Chí Minh and his close comrades, including Giáp, an early member of the Communist Party, set up the Vietnamese Independence Movement (“Việt Minh”) in Vietnam which was then a French colony.
Three years later Giáp gathered together a tiny group of 31 men and 3 women armed with flintlock rifles as the armed wing of the Việt Minh, which he turned within a few years into a formidable guerilla force and then into a successful unconventional conventional army.
Under his command the Vietnamese military defeated both the French and the invading U.S. armies. Giáp, who was remembered by his fellow university students as a highly intelligent individual, had thoroughly studied countless writings on warfare, from Sun Tze to Napoleon including the teachings from brilliant Vietnamese military leaders of the past.
This self-educated martialist became himself a brilliant strategist and tactician and made himself a reputation as a self-taught guerilla leader of the early 1940s, an outstanding strategist of the 1950s and onwards, and as one of the world’s greatest military leaders whose books and teachings are being studied in military academies around the world.
Giáp’s book on the Điện Biên Phủ battle, ending French colonial rule. [Photos courtesy of Felix Abt] 
Giáp’s book with his personally signed dedication. [Photos courtesy of Felix Abt]
Giáp was also the military mentor and coach of my friend Đặng Văn Việt who stemmed from a prestigious family of mandarins. His ancestors were generals from the Trần dynasty which defeated the Mongolians in the 13th century.
Family members were scholars and ministers during different dynasties. His father was appointed minister by President Hồ Chí Minh in his first government. As a fierce patriot, Đặng Văn Việt gave up his studies at the faculty of medicine in Hanoi to join the Việt Minh in 1943 at the age of 23 in order to fight the foreign intruders and he quickly became the Việt Minh’s youngest colonel.
General Võ Nguyên Giáp entrusted him with some of the most difficult military tasks. Colonel Việt was put in charge of the regiment that inflicted the first great defeat in 1950 on the French colonial army (according to Yves Gras’s “Histoire de la guerre d’Indochine”, Denoël 1992) along the colonial number four highway at the Chinese border.
During this border campaign, more than 5.500 French soldiers were wiped out in seven days. The defeat was a huge shock to France and a game changer: The Việt Minh had just shown that it evolved within a rather short span of time from a small ragtag band to skilled guerilla fighters to an army that could also successfully engage in conventional warfare.
Đặng Văn Việt offered me his book on this historical battle, which constituted the prelude to France’s final defeat at Điện Biên Phủ just four years later and the end of its colonial rule.
Though his commander General Giáp and President Hồ Chí Minh acknowledged his patriotism and extraordinary service to the country, he wasn’t promoted to General. Officers from the workers’ and peasants’ classes had to be given priority in the People’s Army of Vietnam, which means he wasn’t eligible with his feudal class background.
Đặng Văn Việt told me that he fully embraced this principle, and went on to study construction engineering and to make a career in the construction industry.
Through all the years, he maintained a very close relationship with General Giáp, whom he held in high esteem, until his former mentor passed away in 2013.
Rest in peace, my unforgettable friend!
CovertAction Magazine is made possible by subscriptions, orders and donations from readers like you.
Blow the Whistle on U.S. Imperialism
Click the whistle and donate
When you donate to CovertAction Magazine, you are supporting investigative journalism. Your contributions go directly to supporting the development, production, editing, and dissemination of the Magazine.
CovertAction Magazine does not receive corporate or government sponsorship. Yet, we hold a steadfast commitment to providing compensation for writers, editorial and technical support. Your support helps facilitate this compensation as well as increase the caliber of this work.
Please make a donation by clicking on the donate logo above and enter the amount and your credit or debit card information.
CovertAction Institute, Inc. (CAI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your gift is tax-deductible for federal income purposes. CAI’s tax-exempt ID number is 87-2461683.
We sincerely thank you for your support.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s). CovertAction Institute, Inc. (CAI), including its Board of Directors (BD), Editorial Board (EB), Advisory Board (AB), staff, volunteers and its projects (including CovertAction Magazine) are not responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. This article also does not necessarily represent the views the BD, the EB, the AB, staff, volunteers, or any members of its projects.
Differing viewpoints: CAM publishes articles with differing viewpoints in an effort to nurture vibrant debate and thoughtful critical analysis. Feel free to comment on the articles in the comment section and/or send your letters to the Editors, which we will publish in the Letters column.
Copyrighted Material: This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. As a not-for-profit charitable organization incorporated in the State of New York, we are making such material available in an effort to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.
Republishing: CovertAction Magazine (CAM) grants permission to cross-post CAM articles on not-for-profit community internet sites as long as the source is acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original CovertAction Magazine article. Also, kindly let us know at info@CovertActionMagazine.com. For publication of CAM articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: info@CovertActionMagazine.com.
By using this site, you agree to these terms above.
About the Author
Felix Abt is the author of “A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom” and of “A Land of Prison Camps, Starving Slaves and Nuclear Bombs?”
He can be reached via his Twitter account.
While the MSM condemns the use of ivermectin, the most populated state in India just declared they are officially COVID free after promoting widespread use of the safe, proven medicine. In addition to this, Ivermectin attaches to covid spikes and prevents them from binding to ACE2. Get Ivermectin while you still can ivmpharmacy/com