[Buddha-l] Western reporter's memoir about General Vo Nguyen Giap --article & photos

[Jo]

I'm posting this for those of us who opposed the Vietnam War. I think it's
good to see how the Vietnamese (northerners at least) ordinary folks as well
as veterans and decorated military men view their war of liberty from
colonials.
Some photos in links on this VietnamNet Bridge issue show a long line of
Buddhists heading to pay their last regards. Seen among photos at this link:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/86784/thousands-of-people-pray-at-g
eneral-vo-nguyen-giap-s-grave.html 


Joanna
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Article dated 08/10/2013 

Article reprinted in VietnamNet Bridge, no doubt with permission from Huff
Post where it first appeared, by Catherine Karnow, journalist wife of famous
journalist of the American (Vietnam) War, Stanley Karnow. General Giap died
Oct 4th (I think it was) at age 101. This issue of VietnamNet Bridge, with
articles on his funeral and posthumous hero worship by thousands who
travelled to his burial place, indicates how much of a hero he was to the
northern Vietnamese. Some Saigonese don't consider him a hero. The split
between north and south is still alive in many ways. 

Start article:
Catherine Karnow, the only Western reporter who was permitted to exclusively
interview General Vo Nguyen Giap and follow him to Dien Bien Phu in 1994,
has special memories of General Giap. Karnow wrote about her meeting with
General Giap on Huffington Post last year, in an article titled
"Photographing a Vietnamese War Hero." The following is the article.

August 25 marked the 101st birthday of General Vo Nguyen Giap, probably the
greatest living general alive today. At this moment the General lies in a
hospital where he has been for almost two years. General Giap master-minded
the famous battle of Dien Bien Phu, which won Vietnam's independence from
the French, in May of 1954. He was also responsible for Vietnam's winning
the war against the Americans, when South Vietnam fell to the Communists in
April 1975. The French called him the "snow-covered volcano" for his white
hair and fiery composition...........
Karnow interviewed him when he returned to Dien Ben Phu with veterans in
1994. This article reports on her interview with him at that time.

Includes some of Karnow's photos. This anthropologist appreciates her photo
of some 'Black Tai' women who were there. As I recall, they are called
'Black Tai' because of their black skirts and hats.