Legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap

General Vo Nguyen Giap receives Chilean President Michelle Bachelet who is on an official visit to Vietnam, November 17, 2006. (Photo: VNA)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez pays a courtesy visit to General Vo Nguyen Giap at his house, August 1, 2006. (Photo: VNA)

Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and First Vice President of the Council of the State and the Council of Ministers Raul Castro pays a courtesy visit to General Giap, Hanoi, April 28, 2005. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap meets with French President Jacques Chirac who is on a friendship visit to Vietnam, November 12-15, 1997. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap, former Minister of Defence, welcomes former US Secretary of Defence Mc. Namara, November 19, 1995. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap visits Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training centre in Russia, July 1980. (Photo: VNA)

General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Kaysone Phomvihane and Lao President Souphanouvong receive General Vo Nguyen Giap, Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, in Vientiane, April 30, 1981. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap, Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, and Russian Marshal Ustinov review guards of honour in Moscow, March 10, 1977. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap, Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister, leads the Vietnamese Defence Ministry’s delegation to visit Poland’s naval force on the Baltic Sea, April 21, 1977. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap and leaders of the Central Military Commission keep a close watch on the developments of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign in 1975. (Photo: VNA)

General Vo Nguyen Giap, Commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People’s Army, attends a parade at Ba Dinh Square. (Photo: VNA)

Command of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign: President Ho Chi Minh (centre), General and Commander-in-chief Vo Nguyen Giap (right), and members of the command (Photo: VNA archives)