The paper wrote: “General Giap shocked the world with his peasant army's victory over the French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; a success that was critical to Vietnam's emergence as an independent nation, and which ended French rule in Indochina.”

“He's a mythic, heroic figure in Vietnam”, said Carl Thayer, an Australia-based scholar of Vietnam.

General Giap is second in the nation's affections only to late founding father Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's most revered figure.

Thayer called Giap the country’s “hero,” whose victories the ruling party sees as providing a nationalist foundation for their rule.

Born on August 25, 1911, in the central province of Quang Binh, Giap was not formally trained as a soldier, but studied law and political economy before joining President Ho Chi Minh in the struggle for national liberation.

His fighting spirit continues to motivate Vietnamese people today, the paper added.

Journalist Pietro De Gennaro of Italy’s Manifesto newspaper also wrote an article about General Vo Nguyen Giap, saying he is a symbol of the heroic and unyielding spirit of the Vietnamese people in their struggles against foreign invaders.

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