Part 2: The simple but very knowledgeable Commander-in-chief
PANO - For Norwegian historian Stein Tonnesson, his meetings and talks with General Vo Nguyen Giap are unforgettable. At the launch ceremony of his book “Vietnam 1946: How the war began” in November 2009, the historian shared his memories of General Vo Nguyen Giap with the reporter of the People’s Army Newspaper.
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| General Vo Nguyen Giap received foreign military attachés in Vietnam in 2009 |
Stein Tonnesson said that his first meeting with the legendary general was at a get-together of Vietnamese veterans at the Revolutionary Museum. At that time, he had an honour to sit beside General Giap.
The Norwegian friend was surprised to witness the General and other senior military officers attentively listening to poems composed and performed by veterans who had suffered from various wounds of war. General Vo Nguyen Giap’s love and respect for his comrades left a deep impression on this foreign historian’s mind.
Stein Tonnesson’s second meeting with General Vo Nguyen Giap was in 1992 at the Government Guest House. In this interesting meeting, as Tonnesson said, they spoke in French and he asked the General who had launched the first attack in 1946, because in his opinion, the French had provoked the war first. In reply, General Vo Nguyen Giap affirmed that Vietnam had initiated the first attack. Later on, he and the Vietnamese general had further discussions to make clear the inevitability of that war.
During the talk, General Giap was sometimes bothered by the Norwegian historian’s lack of certain historical knowledge. The historian had to apologize, explaining that the knowledge gap was a result of his poor Vietnamese language.
General Giap immediately turned to one of his assistants and asked why these books were not yet translated to foreign languages to enable foreigners to further understand Vietnam. Acknowledging the young assistant’s embarrassment and his own excessive words, General Giap told the historian that to do research on Vietnam he should have a good command of Vietnamese language. General Giap revealed that when he was the same age as the historian, he had lived in Viet Bac Zone and learned the languages of 4 different ethnic minority groups. He could also compose poems in these languages.
General Giap, apologizing about the personal question, asked Stein Tonnesson whether he was single or married. Stein Tonnesson told him that his married life was so happy that he could not divorce to marry a Vietnamese girl to study Vietnamese language.
The Norwegian historian was also honoured to attend the meeting at the Government Guest House between General Vo Nguyen Giap and the former US Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, in the presence of many domestic and international reporters. They had waited there for a while before General Vo Nguyen Giap imperturbably entered the room and sat down. Approaching General Giap, US Secretary McNamara said he had waited for such a meeting for a long time and wanted the Vietnamese side to admit their wrong policies.
General Vo Nguyen Giap calmly stood up and confirmed that the Vietnam War was a war in which the US invaded Vietnam, and Vietnam had to defend its national peace and independence. “There was nothing wrong in its policies. The fault must be in your policies”, General Giap stressed.
In 2005, Stein Tonnesson got another chance to meet with the first Commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People’s Army. At that time, the Vietnamese General could no longer hold debates and deliver long speeches as he had done in his meeting with the former US Secretary of Defence McNamara, but the General did love peace. However, Stein Tonnesson recalled that General Giap had always stressed the importance of peace and the necessity of upholding peace for Vietnam and other countries in the world. That made him respect General Vo Nguyen Giap even more.
Translated by Mai Huong
Đăng ký: VietNam News
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