Võ Nguyên Giáp (25 August 1911 to 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese General in the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and a politician. Giáp first grew to prominence during the end of World War II, when he was appointed as the military leader of the Việt Minh in their resistance against the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. Giáp was a crucial military commander in Vietnam’s two defining wars: the First Indochina War (1946-1954) agasint French colonial rule and the Second Indochina War (1955-1975) against the Republic of Vietnam and America, participating in several historically significant battles: Lạng Sơn (1950), Hòa Bình (1951–52), Điện Biên Phủ (1954), the Tết Offensive(1968), the Easter Offensive (1972), and the final Hồ Chí Minh Campaign (1975).
