Editing Võ Nguyên Giáp (section)

==== Interwar years ====
After the [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Peace Accords]], Giáp moved back into Hanoi as the [[North Vietnam]]ese government re-established itself. He expanded and modernised the army, re-equipping it with Soviet and Chinese weapons systems. On 7 May 1955, he inaugurated the [[Vietnam People's Navy]] and on 1 May 1959, the [[Vietnam People's Air Force]].<ref name="Macdonald, Peter 1993 p.169">Macdonald 1993, p. 169.</ref> During the late 1950s Giáp served as Minister of Defence, Commander in Chief of the [[People's Army of Vietnam]] (PAVN), Deputy Prime Minister, and deputy chairman of the Defence Council.<ref name="Macdonald, Peter 1993 p.170">Macdonald 1993, p. 170.</ref> In terms of his personal life, he was also able to move back in with his wife, from whom he had been separated for eight years during the war. She was working as a professor of history and social science at that time.<ref name="Macdonald, Peter 1993 p.169"/> Together they raised two boys and two girls. In the little spare time he had, he said in interviews that he occasionally enjoyed playing the piano, as well as reading Goethe, Shakespeare and Tolstoy.<ref name="Macdonald, Peter 1993 p.170"/>

During the late 1950s the top priority of the re-established Vietnamese government was the rapid establishment of a socialist economic order and Communist Party rule. This involved collectivisation of agriculture and central management of all economic production.<ref>Macdonald 1993, pp. 171–172.</ref> The process did not go smoothly and it led to food shortages and revolts. At the 10th Plenum of the Communist Party, 27–29 October 1956, Giáp stood in front of the assembled delegates and said:

{{quote|Cadres, in carrying out their antifeudal task, created contradictions in the tasks of land reform and the Revolution, in some areas treating them as if they were separate activities. We indiscriminately attacked all families owning land. Many thousands were executed. We saw enemies everywhere and resorted to widespread violence and terror. In some places, in our efforts to implement land reform, we failed to respect religious freedoms and the right to worship. We placed too much emphasis on class origins rather than political attitudes. There were grave errors.<ref>Macdonald 1993, p. 174.</ref>}}

The departure of the French and the partition of Vietnam meant that the Hanoi government only controlled the north part of the country. In South Vietnam there were still several thousand guerillas, known as [[Viet Cong]] (VC), fighting against the government in Saigon. The Party Plenum in 1957 ordered changes to the structure of their units and Giáp was put in charge of implementing them and building their strength to form a solid basis for an insurrection in the South.<ref>Macdonald 1993, p. 181.</ref> The 1959 Plenum decided that the time for escalating the armed struggle in the South was right and in July that year Giáp ordered the opening up of the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]] to improve supply lines to VC units.<ref>Macdonald 1993, pp. 181–182.</ref>