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War Hero in Vietnam Forces Government to
Listen
By SETH MYDANS Published: June 28, 2009
General Vo Nguyen Giap, who led Vietnam to victory over both France and
the United States.
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam’s great war hero, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, has
stood up to defend his country once again, this time against what he
says would be a huge mistake by the government: a plan to allow a vast
mining operation run by China.
Now 97, General Giap is the commander who led his country to victory
over both France and the United States. He has emerged as the most
prominent voice in a popular protest that is fighting the secretive
workings of Vietnam’s Communist leaders.
In an unusual step, the government has taken note of his criticisms
recently and appears to be making at least gestures of response, saying
it will review the project’s environmental impact and slow its full
exercise.
The project, approved by the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo in
late 2007, calls for $15 billion by 2025 to exploit reserves of bauxite
— the key ore in aluminum — by some estimates, the third largest in the
world.
Already the state-owned Chinese mining group Chinalco has put its
employees and equipment to work in the remote Central Highlands under
contract to the Vietnamese mining consortium Vinacomin, which is aiming
for aluminum production of up to 6.6 million tons by 2015.
General Giap and other opponents say the project will ruin the
environment, displace ethnic minorities and threaten national security
because of an influx of Chinese workers and China’s growing economic
leverage.
The dispute draws together several issues in today’s Vietnam: its
emulation of China’s environmentally adverse model of industrial
development, a tentatively evolving relationship between the closed
government system and its citizens and a visceral distrust among many
Vietnamese of China, their big neighbor to the north.
As the outlines of the project have emerged, scientists, academics,
environmentalists, veterans and some religious leaders have come
together to challenge what the prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, has
called “a major policy of the party and the state.”
Apart from environmentalism and economics, the theme that runs through
blogs and public opinion is a deep-rooted fear of China. Vietnam was
China’s tributary state for a thousand years and was invaded by China in
1979. The two countries continue to joust for sovereignty in the South
China Sea.
The chairman of state-owned Vinacomin, Doan Van Kien, dismissed critics,
saying in an interview that they have “different opinions because they
don’t have enough information.” Mr. Kien insisted that any environmental
damage would be contained, that the local population would be adequately
cared for and that the Chinese would not be taking over the Central
Highlands.
Asked how it felt to have been on the opposite side of the general, Mr.
Kien, the Vinacomin chairman, said, “I don’t dare to comment. General
Giap is a national hero. But I have to tell you, the general is nearly
100 years old. We have to respect him, but now we are under the
leadership of the present government and Communist Party.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/asia/29iht-viet.html?ref=global-home
Vo Nguyen Giap, il Napoleone
vietnamita
ROMA (ANSA 2008-04-28) - ''Giap, Giap, Ho Chi Minh'', era uno degli
slogan urlati degli studenti del Sessantotto un po' intutto il mondo. E
molti di loro non sapevano neanche chi fosse quel Giap.
Vo Nguyen Giap, che oggi ha 96 anni e, almeno fino a poco tempo fa, era
ancora in buona salute, è nato il 25 agosto 1911 nell'allora Indocina
francese. Da giovane, negli anni dell'Università (studiava Diritto ad
Hanoi) aderisce al neonato Partito comunista e poi si rifugia in Cina.
Torna in Vietnam per organizzare la resistenza contro i giapponesi, poco
prima della fine della guerra. Dopo la guerra è il principale
responsabile militare della lotta del Viet Minh, l'organizzazione di
resistenza nazionale già attiva contro i giapponesi e ora indirizzata
all'obiettivo di combattere il dominio coloniale francese.
Il suo successo maggiore sarà la vittoriosa battaglia di Dien Bien Phu,
un lungo e sanguinoso assedio concluso con uno scontro frontale. Il 7
maggio 1954 la Francia era sconfitta. Il Vietnam veniva diviso in una
parte Nord, comunista, e una Sud, filooccidentale. Quando gli Stati
Uniti intervengono dando inizio alla guerra del Vietnam, Giap è ministro
della Difesa del Vietnam del Nord e responsabile delle operazioni
militari. E' sua l'iniziativa geniale dell'offensiva del
Tet, ma è anche
sua la pianificazione della resistenza e della guerriglia, paese per
paese e casolare per casolare.
Anche dopo la morte di Ho Chi Minh, storico leader delVietnam comunista,
Giap resta ministro della Difesa e anzi, a causa delle sue posizioni non
dogmatiche, cade parzialmente in disgrazia. Nel 1980 si dimette da
ministro e due anni dopo esce anche dal Politburo. Nell'Ufficio politico
rientra nel 1986 per svolgere una discreta attività diplomatica. Andrà
in missione in Cina, a Cuba e in molti altri luoghi, tra cui, nel 1994,
anche in Italia, in visita privata di 5 giorni.
Nel 1984, il Consiglio delle scienze britannico ha definito il generale
vietnamita come ''uno dei dieci geni militari della storia''. |
