Vietnam plans to hold a national funeral for General Giap
Vietnam announced plans to hold a national funeral for independence hero General Vo Nguyen Giap in the first official statement on the death of the brilliant military strategist.
Vietnam yesterday announced plans to hold a national funeral for independence hero General Vo Nguyen Giap in the first official statement on the death of the brilliant military strategist.
Giap, who died on Friday aged 102 and who was lauded as a genius for guerrilla tactics that defeated both the French and American armies, will be honoured with two days of national mourning, the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party said.
"A national funeral has been decided for General Giap," said the statement, released some 24 hours after the self-taught soldier died. A national funeral is the country's highest honour - above a state ceremony.
His body will lie in state at the national funeral house in Hanoi on the coming Saturday, the Central Committee statement said, before being buried the following day.
Giap, second only to late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh as modern Vietnam's most revered figure, was the founding father of the Vietnam People's Army, whose guerrilla tactics inspired anti-colonial fighters worldwide.
The self-taught soldier attained almost mythical status, securing victory over the French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, the battle that ended Paris' rule in Indochina, and then masterminding the fight against the United States until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.