Giáp Văn Cương (1921–1990) was an Admiral of the

Vietnam People's Navy The Vietnam People's Navy (VPN; ), internally the Naval Service (), also known as the Vietnamese People's Navy or simply Vietnam/Vietnamese Navy (), is the naval branch of the Vietnam People's Army and is responsible for the protection of the ...

. He participated in both the

first Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...

and the

second Indochina War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

Early years

Giáp Văn Cương was born on 13 September 1921 in Bảo Đài commune, Lục Nam district,

Bắc Giang province Bắc Giang �ak˧˥:zaːŋ˧˧was a former Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Northeast (Vietnam), Northeast region of Vietnam. History Its oldest name was Kinh Bắc (京北, "north fcapital"), a sub-division has ever included two ...

of the Tonkin Protectorate,

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initial ...

Military career

Operation Masher Operation Masher, also known as Operation White Wing, (24 January—6 March 1966) was the largest search and destroy mission that had been carried out in the Vietnam War up until that time. It was a combined mission of the United States Army, Arm ...

, Cương led the PAVN 3rd Infantry Division fighting against a combined force of the U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division and the ARVN 22nd Infantry Division. Although suffering losses of a third of personnel and dozen tons of reserved rice and salt, he preserved the division's fighting strength while making the allied force paid a high price on personnel and helicopter losses. In the fourth month of Operation Wheeler/Wallowa, Col. Lê Hữu Trữ, commander of the PAVN 2nd Division was killed alongside his staff, Col. Cương was transferred from the position of chief of staff of B1 Front to replace Trữ. In 1974, he was promoted to Major General, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the

Vietnam People's Army Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. In 1977, he was appointed Commander of the Vietnam People's Navy. In 1988, he was promoted to Admiral, the first Admiral of the Vietnam People's Navy.

References

People from Bắc Giang province 1921 births 1990 deaths Generals of the People's Army of Vietnam Vietnam People's Navy Vietnamese admirals Communist Party of Vietnam politicians North Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War {{Vietnam-mil-bio-stub