The Vietminh soldiers were physically tough, able to travel as much as twenty miles a day. They had the most primitive footwear, often only rubber sandals cut from tires, but “our feet are made of iron,” the soldiers used to say. Like the Chinese who had fought the Americans in Korea, they traveled lightly, carrying only their weapons, some water, and some salt. Giap would eventually be viewed as one of the two or three greatest military strategists of the twentieth century, but General Salan regarded him, in effect, as a noncommissioned officer who had not even been to a military staff
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