Transcript of interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap, 1996
- COLD WAR 29/5
- Item
- 1996 May
Typescript transcript of interview with Vietnamese Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, relating to the Vietnamese victory over the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, 1954; the Geneva peace conference between Vietnamese and French delegations to end the Indo-China War, 1954; the partition of Vietnam on the seventeenth parallel of latitude, 1954; the creation of the Viet Cong to oppose the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, President of the Republic of Vietnam, 1960; the conflict in South Vietnam between President Diem's armed forces and the Viet Cong, 1960-1963; the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a supply line between North and South Vietnam, May 1959; the first deployment of US ground forces to Vietnam, 1965; the economic and military support given to North Vietnam by the USSR and the People's Republic of China, 1965-1975; the official visit by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to Hanoi, North Vietnam, 1964; the belief that the Vietnam War was a proxy conflict between the superpowers, 1965-1975; the rumour that John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State, 1953-1959, offered France US atomic bombs to use in Indo-China following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, 1954; speculation on the possible use of US nuclear weapons in Vietnam, 1965-1975; the Battle of Khe Sanh, Jan-Apr 1968; the importance of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the North Vietnamese war effort, 1959-1975; the Battles of Thanh mountain, Van Tuong and Na Trang, [1965]; the US bombing of North Vietnam, Mar 1965-Nov 1968, and 1972; the Tet offensive, Jan-Feb 1968; the Vietnamese victory against the USA and South Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War, 1975; Giap's opinion of US Presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969, and Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974, and of Robert Strange McNamara, US Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968, and Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger, US Secretary of State, 1973-1977; the impact of the Vietnam War on the future foreign policy of the USA, 1975-1996. 38pp (two versions)