PM Pham Minh Chinh and other delegate offer incense and flowers to
General Vo Nguyen Giap (Photo: VGP)
On December 21, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh led a delegation to offer incense and flowers to General Vo Nguyen Giap in the central province of Quang Binh on the occasion of his 110th birth anniversary.
Paying respect to the “eldest brother” of the Vietnam People's Army, the legendary General of the Vietnamese nation, and the world famous General, the delegation expressed their gratitude to the late General, who devoted his whole life to the glorious revolutionary cause of the Party and nation.
On the same day, a ceremony to position a bust of the brilliant military strategist, who was also called the “Eldest Brother” of the Vietnam People’s Army, at the relic site of the headquarters of the 1954 Dien Bien Phu Campaign, the northwestern province of Dien Bien. The This campaign was commanded by General Giap and put an end to the French colonial rule in Vietnam and Indochina as a whole.
The bronze bust, 86cm in height and about 80kg in weight, is a small replica of his sandstone bust on Son Ca Island in the island district of Truong Sa, Khanh Hoa province.
Also on December 21, a poem and photo exhibition opened at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi to provide visitors an insight into the historic Dien Bien Phu victory, the daily life of General Giap, and people’s sentiment for him.
The event features 110 poems by teacher, poet, and journalist Nguyen Thi My Dung, who have written many articles and poems about the general for more than 20 years. The poems are accompanied by photos taken by the Vietnam News Agency, journalist Dung herself, and photographer Colonel Tran Hong.
The same day, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union inaugurated a commemorative site dedicated to Youth Volunteer Company C283 in Thanh Trach commune of Bo Trach district, the central province of Quang Binh - the hometown of General Giap.
Professor Nguyen Huu Duc, former Deputy Director of the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, said during wartime, Quyet Thang hamlet of Thanh Trach commune was the target of many air attacks by the US military to destroy the route for transporting food and weapons from the north to the south, and many young volunteers of the C283 company had died in the attacks.
On this occasion, many other commemorative activities have also been organised, including handing over houses and savings accounts to war veterans and former youth volunteers, presenting gifts to veteran revolutionaries and families of revolution contributors, and visiting the Heroic Vietnamese Mothers and veterans in Dong Hoi city of Quang Binh province.
General Vo Nguyen Giap, whose real name is Vo Giap (alias Van), was born in Loc Thuy commune, Le Thuy district, Quang Binh province in 1911. He passed away in Hanoi in 2013 at the age of 103.
He once served as a Politburo member, Secretary of the Central Military Commission, Standing Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence, Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnamese People's Army and a National Assembly deputy from the first to seventh tenures.
The General, whose military career starting with his appointment to lead the first Vietnamese revolutionary army unit with only 34 soldiers in 1944, led the Vietnamese people's army from victory to victory during the resistance war against French colonialists and then American imperialists./.