Vietnam People's Army

The People's Army of Vietnam was founded on December 22, 1944 as the Armed Propaganda Brigade for the Liberation of Vietnam, a tiny founding force of just 34 personnel led by Vo Nguyen Giap under the direction of Ho Chi Minh, and was formally renamed Quan doi Nhan dan Viet Nam, the People's Army of Vietnam, in 1954 under a guiding principle of serving as a force from, for and in service of the Vietnamese people. As the Viet Minh, the young army defeated French colonial forces at the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, ending eighty-three years of French colonial rule in Indochina, and as the North Vietnamese Army it went on to fight the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975, conducting major operations including the 1968 Tet Offensive and finally capturing Saigon on April 30, 1975 to unify the country under Communist rule. General Vo Nguyen Giap, who became the army's first full general in 1948, remained its preeminent commander across both the French and American-era wars, and after 1975 the People's Army continued to fight in border clashes with China and in military operations in Cambodia and Laos through 1991. Today the People's Army functions as Vietnam's unified national military rather than one service among several, organized under the Communist Party's Central Military Commission into Ground Force, Navy, Air Defence-Air Force, Border Guard and Coast Guard branches alongside specialized artillery and cyber commands.