comrade_mufasa
28th April 2005, 18:15
Top Cuban Official Meets Vietnam General
Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:08 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By MARGIE MASON
Two old communist revolutionaries from different sides of the globe embraced in Hanoi and reminisced about their struggles for independence Thursday, nearly 30 years to the day after Vietnam ousted the Americans and reunified the country.
Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, 93, opened his home to Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro, younger brother and designated successor of Cuban President Fidel Castro, for a chat that included challenges both nations have faced from the United States.
http://newsimages.adelphia.net/ap_photos//HAN10104281301.jpeg
Castro, 74, lifted Giap's 5-year-old grandson and posed for a photo before giving Giap a copy of the general's own book on military strategy, which has been translated into Spanish and is used in Cuban military schools.
"When I was here 39 years ago, I met with president Ho Chi Minh, you were also present. I promised to Ho Chi Minh that I would come back to visit Vietnam when the south was liberated. The Cuban people considered the liberation of south Vietnam as their victory," he said.
Giap was Vietnam's military mastermind and used guerrilla warfare to defeat the French and then the Americans. He remains the most revered figure in Vietnam after the late Ho Chi Minh.
The old friends had a lively conversation below a placard of Castro's older brother.
"Comrade Fidel, like Gen. Giap, never stops working. He always tells us to fight and to think the same as Gen. Giap," Castro said.
In turn, Giap thanked Castro and his government for their support during the Vietnam War.
"Our victory in the 10,000 day struggle, winning over the French colonialists and then America was due to the assistance of friends, including the Cuban people. The Vietnamese people always remember Fidel's saying: 'For Vietnam, Cuba was willing to donate their blood.'...Thank you for keeping your promise to visit Vietnam," he said.
The Cuban delegation waited for Giap to autograph his memoirs and jockeyed to be photographed with the man behind the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the Tet offensive against the Americans in 1968.
Giap asked whether Fidel Castro had recovered after a tumble last year following a speech in Cuba. Castro assured him that his brother was fine and that the president sent his best regards.
As Castro was leaving, he grabbed an American journalist out of the crowd and said, "I'm a friend of Gen. Giap's. ... Tell (U.S. Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld and (President) Bush not to invade Cuba." He pointed to Giap and then to the ground and gestured that such an attack would result in the same ending as it did in Vietnam.
It was Castro's first time in Vietnam since 1966, when the war was raging. He will attend celebrations in the former Saigon on Saturday for the 30th anniversary of the war's end.
Vietnam and Cuba are two of the few remaining communist countries in the world. The nations have maintained strong ties.
Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:08 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By MARGIE MASON
Two old communist revolutionaries from different sides of the globe embraced in Hanoi and reminisced about their struggles for independence Thursday, nearly 30 years to the day after Vietnam ousted the Americans and reunified the country.
Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, 93, opened his home to Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro, younger brother and designated successor of Cuban President Fidel Castro, for a chat that included challenges both nations have faced from the United States.
http://newsimages.adelphia.net/ap_photos//HAN10104281301.jpeg
Castro, 74, lifted Giap's 5-year-old grandson and posed for a photo before giving Giap a copy of the general's own book on military strategy, which has been translated into Spanish and is used in Cuban military schools.
"When I was here 39 years ago, I met with president Ho Chi Minh, you were also present. I promised to Ho Chi Minh that I would come back to visit Vietnam when the south was liberated. The Cuban people considered the liberation of south Vietnam as their victory," he said.
Giap was Vietnam's military mastermind and used guerrilla warfare to defeat the French and then the Americans. He remains the most revered figure in Vietnam after the late Ho Chi Minh.
The old friends had a lively conversation below a placard of Castro's older brother.
"Comrade Fidel, like Gen. Giap, never stops working. He always tells us to fight and to think the same as Gen. Giap," Castro said.
In turn, Giap thanked Castro and his government for their support during the Vietnam War.
"Our victory in the 10,000 day struggle, winning over the French colonialists and then America was due to the assistance of friends, including the Cuban people. The Vietnamese people always remember Fidel's saying: 'For Vietnam, Cuba was willing to donate their blood.'...Thank you for keeping your promise to visit Vietnam," he said.
The Cuban delegation waited for Giap to autograph his memoirs and jockeyed to be photographed with the man behind the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the Tet offensive against the Americans in 1968.
Giap asked whether Fidel Castro had recovered after a tumble last year following a speech in Cuba. Castro assured him that his brother was fine and that the president sent his best regards.
As Castro was leaving, he grabbed an American journalist out of the crowd and said, "I'm a friend of Gen. Giap's. ... Tell (U.S. Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld and (President) Bush not to invade Cuba." He pointed to Giap and then to the ground and gestured that such an attack would result in the same ending as it did in Vietnam.
It was Castro's first time in Vietnam since 1966, when the war was raging. He will attend celebrations in the former Saigon on Saturday for the 30th anniversary of the war's end.
Vietnam and Cuba are two of the few remaining communist countries in the world. The nations have maintained strong ties.