Ho Chi Minh is credited as being the political leader who liberated Vietnam. He achieved this by first ending French colonial rule in 1954, then his strategies led to victory in the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese in 1975. When he was born in 1890, French Indochina had just formed from Cambodia and Vietnam; Lao was added later. Many Vietnamese leaders looked for ways to end colonialism but none had made substantial progress. From observing previous methods, Ho designed his All-People’s War model.
Ho’s model comprised the three strategic fronts of political, propaganda and the military, linked by the Revolutionary Infrastructure. This infrastructure generally included ‘Communist Party cells’, which were then linked together by advanced ‘couriers’ using courier corridors, and ‘guards’. This covert administration became a comprehensive shadow government with all the associated services there to support, control and expand a ‘shadow nation’.
The objective was to fight a protracted war of attrition. Nevertheless, Ho knew that total victory could only be achieved through conventional units with symmetry on the battlefield with his enemy. To establish these conditions, the model was used to build Ho’s fighting units and diminish the strength of the opposing army. Then, at a strategic moment, his military leaders could inflict one swift death blow on the conventional units of his enemy, so forcing them into unconditional surrender.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 117-utgaven av History of War.
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COUPS & CHAOS
How the French armed forces lost the war in Algeria and almost destroyed French democracy in the process
BATTLE OF ALGIERS
When the Front de libération nationale FLN) took its war to the streets of the capital, France’s military responded with merciless wrath
THE RISE OF ALGERIAN RESISTANCE
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ROOTS OF REVOLUTION
A century of French occupation led to a genocide in Algeria that provoked one of the bloodiest showdowns of the modern age
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Phillips O’Brien discusses how this quintet of national leaders impacted the course of the Second World War
Great Battles FLODDEN
On the morning of 9 September 1513, King James lV of Scotland stood atop Flodden Hill with what seemed an insurmountable advantage over the English. Yet by the day's end he would lay slain and his army shattered
FERDINAND 'THE BLOODY'
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AIRBORNE UNDER SIEGE ARNHEM
For nine days the heroic 1st Airborne fought desperately, waiting vainly for relief that never came
SCANDINAVIA UNDER ATTACK
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