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Hmmm... An urban legend according to this:

It's very important to check sources

NewsMax.com ran a story on Feb. 10 titled, "Gen. Giap: Kerry's group helped Hanoi defeat U.S."

The story claimed, "In his 1985 memoir about the war, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap wrote if it weren't for organizations like Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Hanoi would have surrendered to the U.S. — according to Fox News Channel war historian Oliver North."

North's claim has been repeated as gospel in numerous articles, blogs, commentaries and pseudo-news reports, despite the fact the Giap memoir is bogus. According to WashingtonDispatch.com columnist Greg Lewis, who researched the alleged quotation, "No such volume exists."

Lewis wrote, "A few weeks ago in a column about Kerry, I referred to what has turned out to be an `urban legend.' Specifically, based on a `news' item that appeared on NewsMax.com, I repeated a reference to a volume of memoirs supposedly published by North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap in 1985 as the source of an assertion by Colonel Oliver North. After a reader requested a reference to Giap's 1985 `Memoirs,' I did research that convinced me no such volume exists. For that matter, I haven't been able to verify through Fox News that Colonel North actually made the comments he is said to have made and which I repeated."

In the past, Gen. Giap is alleged to have made similar statements about Jane Fonda and Walter Cronkite, though there is no verifiable evidence that he ever did. Revisionist historians take note. Check your sources, no matter how much you want to believe the lie.

Walter F. Wouk, Cobleskill

http://www.thedailystar.com/opinion/letters/2004/04/lt0416.html

I don't know, myself. Off a-googling I will go.

The VVAW has scored a "gotcha" point, apparently. From the VVAW at http://www.vvaw.org/faq/

The suggestion that VVAW lengthened the war comes from convicted arms dealer, perjurer, and media personality Oliver North. In a cited quote from North (Greg Lewis, "Fellow Travelers, Useful Idiots, and Other Innocents", Washington Dispatch, 2/19/2004), North alleges that Giap in a 1985 book stated that John Kerry and VVAW lengthened the war and insured the ultimate Vietnamese victory. Giap published no 1985 book. THERE IS NO SUCH QUOTE in either of General Giap's two post-war publications (Vo Nguyen Giap, Unforgettable Months And Years, Southeast Asia Program, Dept. of Asian Studies, Cornell University, 1975 or How We Won the War (coauthored by Van Tien Dung) RECON Publications, 1976).

This particular slander on VVAW and Kerry was disseminated on the Internet from a column in the Washington Dispatch by Greg Lewis, February 19, 2004. (Complete article: http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_8129.shtml) In reaction to responses to his original column, on March 2, 2004, Greg Lewis retracted his initial accusation against Kerry with: "A few weeks ago in a column about Kerry, I referred to what has turned out to be an 'urban legend.'

Specifically, based on a 'news' item that appeared on NewsMax.com, I repeated a reference to a volume of memoirs supposedly published by North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap in 1985 as the source of an assertion by Colonel Oliver North. After a reader requested a reference to Giap's 1985 "Memoirs," I did research that convinced me no such volume exists. For that matter, I haven't been able to verify through Fox News that Colonel North actually made the comments he is said to have made and which I repeated. My apologies to Colonel North and to WashingtonDispatch.com readers for including inadequately verified material in my piece on Kerry."

Complete article: http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_8268.shtml

If the VVAW has this one right, lets not dig the pit deeper.

Newsmax does it again?

When Giap met Slam Marshal in 74, Marshal told him "Whenever US forces met PAVN forces in a head to head battle, the US won."

To which Giap replied, "True..... but meaningless."

The letter may be true. Giap may never have credited Kerry, especially considering the DPRV's hesitance to credit Americans with anything good.

But that does not change the reality that Kerry and his ilk were a huge asset for Ho and Giap.

Kerry was and is a traitor. He is also a coward for this actions in leaving the field after 3 very minor wounds.

Notice I did not use those adjectives, such as coward and traitor in the past tense only.

To wash yourself in the blood of wounded and dead Americans for your own political advantage creates a stain on the soul and character that time does not erase.

Okay, I havent actually read the book but here are two intriguing reviews on amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0916894010/qid=1088912262/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-3812331-7790528?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

"Nor is this the book in which Gen. Giap supposedly stated that groups such at the Vietnam Veterans Against the War gave the North the resolve to carry on."

And Conflicting with that is...

"Especially, enlightening is where Giap said that organizations such as "Viet Nam Vets Against the War" (started by John Kerry) gave the North courage and resolve."

It might be worth a couple of bucks to pick it up used and give it a read.