[expectation]

One thing that bothers me about some of the obituaries that I've read was how he was a hardline communist. In the US, we've been somewhat indoctrinated with this US vs THEM mentality and so during the cold war, it was Capitalist vs Communist mentality- so for some people in the US and Overseas Vietnamese-Americans like myself, he gets a lot of hate. Him and Ho Chi Minh tried to reach out to the US when it was colonized by the French to break free. Of course, you guys know how that worked out so they did what they had to do to get any bit of resources and they went over to Communism only to gather any allies, sympathizers, manpower to gain independence.

Fact is, they were the type of men that grew up somewhat privileged and educated by the French but was so sick of getting dicked around that they sacrificed their standings and looked for any means possible to stop being bullshitted around and as ruthless as it was, you can't argue the end result of it today.

Add to the fact that he harbors no ill will against the Americans and to the South Vietnamese (such as my dad) who fought against him and had every reason to hate him. I hate to use the word "man up" but I think this is the absolutely correct time to use that term to describe the character of General Giap.

I'll give my pops a call tomorrow and I'll have some more detailed stories to share.