to sign a peace treaty in 1973 and carry out a gradual
American withdrawal from South Vietnam. Neverthe-
less, the North Vietnamese continued to aid their Viet-
cong allies in the south, which resulted in the collapse
of the South Vietnamese army by early 1975. That year,
Giap was replaced as the chief North Vietnamese strate-
gist by his rival, General Nguyen Chi Trahn. He was
therefore not in command when the South Vietnamese
government disintegrated, and the North Vietnamese
captured Saigon on 30 April 1975, ending a war that
had lasted for 40 years.
In the years after the North’s victory, Giap was
shunted aside and forced from his position as minister
of defense. In March 1982, he was removed from the
Vietnamese Politburo at the Fifth Communist Party
Congress. Despite this, he remained as deputy prime
minister until 1991, when he retired. Renowned world-
wide for his expertise in guerilla warfare, he is regarded
as a national hero.
References: “Vo Nguyen Giap” in Dictionary of the
Vietnam War, edited by Marc Leepson (New York: Web-
ster, 1999), 435–436; “Giap, Vo Nguyen,” in The Ox-
ford Companion to Military History, edited by Richard
Holmes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001),
362; Duiker, William J., “People’s Army of Vietnam
(PAVN)” and “Vo Nguyen Giap” in Historical Diction-
ary of Vietnam (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press,
1989), 138–139, 198–199; Maclear, Michael, The Ten
Thousand Day War: Vietnam: 1945–1975 (New York:
Avon Books, 1981).
Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Mikhail See kutuzoV,
mikhail illarionoVich golenishcheV.
Gordon, Charles George (“Chinese” Gordon)
(1833–1885) British general, colonial administrator
Born in Woolwich, England, on 28 January 1833,
Charles Gordon was the fourth son and ninth of 11
children of British general Henry William Gordon. His
education was limited: At a young age, he accompanied
his family to the island of Corfu, then returned to En-
gland and spent some time at Taunton Grammar School
before he entered the Royal Military Academy at Wool-
wich in 1848, when he was 15. After graduation, in June
1852 he was given a commission in the Royal Engineers
at the rank of second lieutenant. Initially posted to Cha-
tham, he was transferred to Pembroke Dock in Wales to
work on fortifications there.
When the Crimean War began in 1854, Gordon
volunteered for service in that conflict. Sent to the re-
gion in December 1854, he saw action at Sevastopol
and took part in the assault on the Redan (8 September
1855). For his services, Gordon was awarded the French
Legion of Honor. In April 1859, he was promoted to the
rank of captain and posted to the command of the Royal
Engineers at Chatham in England.
When the Second Opium War broke out in 1860,
Gordon was sent to Asia, where he served under the
command of Sir James Hope Grant, saw action when
Beijing (Peking) was seized, and was present when the
Chinese emperor’s summer palace was burned by the
invading forces. For his service in this conflict, Gordon
was promoted to brevet major.
When the so-called Taiping (T’aiping) Rebellion
broke out in 185l, the ruling Qing (Ch’ing) leader asked
Gordon to end the insurrection. Gordon commanded
the force to end the uprising, led by the fanatical Tien
Wang. Working with American troops under General
Frederick Townsend Ward, Gordon and his men pro-
tected the city of Shanghai and stormed the city of
Singpo (Ts’ing-p’o). When Ward was killed in action,
the local Chinese provincial governor asked for a replace-
ment, and Gordon was named. He remained in China,
where he helped to establish the “Ever Victorious Army,”
a mixture of English and Chinese troops. The Taiping
Rebellion finally ended when his forces captured the city
of Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1864.
Over the next several years, Gordon was promoted
to a series of positions, including serving as the gover-
nor of Equatoria (Southern Egypt) from 1873 to 1876
and governor general of the Sudan (1877–79). In 1884
the viceroy, or khedive, of Egypt named Gordon as
the governor-general of the Sudan for the second time.
Gordon’s task was to relieve the garrisons under threat
from a revolt by the Mahdists, followers of the Mahdi,
the leader of the Muslim tribes in the Sudan. Gordon
arrived in the Sudan on 18 February 1884 and marched
on Khartoum, the capital, rescuing some 2,600 civilians
before the Mahdists besieged the city in March. Histo-
rian George Bruce writes: “Defended by an Egyptian
garrison under General Gordon, this town [Khartoum] goleniShchev-kutuzov, mikhAil