Leaders congratulate General Giap on 102nd birthday

Vietnamese leaders visited General Vo Nguyen Giap to congratulate the General on his 102nd birthday.

Yesterday, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong and State President Truong Tan Sang visited the Military Hospital 108 in Hanoi where General Vo Nguyen Giap is being treated to congratulate the great General on his 102nd birthday falling on today (25 August, 1911 – 25 August, 2012).

File photo of General Vo Nguyen Giap met with war veterans.

On the same day, minister, head of the Government Office Vu Duc Dam was assigned by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to visit the General and wished him good health.

Yesterday afternoon, Colonel Nguyen Huyen, assistant at the Office of General Vo Nguyen Giap told Dan Tri newswire that “at 102 years old, the health of General Vo Nguyen Giap is stable. These days, many state leaders came to congratulate the General on his birthday. Everyday, the General discusses important news of the country”.

In the past week, dozens of delegations visited general Giap’s house for the occasion.

One day before, on August 23, a delegation of leaders from Hanoi, led by Politburo member and Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, Pham Quang Nghi, visited and presented gifts to revolutionary veterans in Hanoi, reported Nhan Dan.

The delegation also visited General Giap and congratulated him on his birthday.

Meanwhile, 102 photos selected from a collection of 500 featuring general Giap is on display at the Exhibition House (93 Dinh Tien Hoang Street, Hanoi) at the exhibition titled “General Vo Nguyen Giap with Veterans”.

The 102 photos on display express the gratitude of photographer Nguyen Trong Nghi, a wounded veteran and Agent Orange victim, to the General. These photos were taken by Nghi from 1999 to 2005.

General Giap is the longest-living person in the military history of Vietnam. He is the most outstanding military leader beside President Ho Chi Minh. He became a general when he was 37.

General Giap led and won seminal battles like the one at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Tet Offensive in 1968, and the Ho Chi Minh Campaign in 1975.

The book Great Military Leaders and Their Campaigns by Jeremy Black published in the UK in 2008 lists Giap among the 59 greatest military leaders of all time along with Mao Zedong and Genghis Khan.