How Farmers Defeat The Empire
Lessons from Võ Nguyên Giáp’s People’s War, People’s Army (Part 1)
Welcome to Part I of our series on Võ Nguyên Giáp’s People’s War, People’s Army. In this post, we’ll be reviewing the first chapter of Giáp's book — the first of four parts — where he lays the groundwork for the Vietnamese resistance. This section covers the history of colonial oppression, the rise of the Viet Minh, and the dramatic moment of revolution, and the core strategies of victory.
I also have a special surprise at the end of this post. I’ve just published an ebook—From Guerrilla to Commune: The Rojava Model of Resistance—and paid subscribers get a free downloadable copy. Inside you will discover how a war-torn region built a society rooted in direct democracy, how ordinary people became defenders of freedom, and how this revolutionary model offers powerful lessons for anyone seeking to build resilient, decentralized resistance in their own community.
If you’re new to this series or need a refresher, be sure to check out the series opener for an overview and context.
Introduction: The Birth of a People’s War
Empires don’t just fall. They are brought down. Sometimes by armies, sometimes by revolutions, and sometimes by barefoot farmers who learn to turn their own suffering into strength.
In 1945, Vietnam was a land of raw wounds. For nearly a century, the French had drained it of its lifeblood — rubber bled from vast plantations, rice stripped from its fields to feed foreign markets, coal dug from its mountains to fuel French industry. For the Vietnamese people, colonization meant hunger, forced labor, and brutality. And when the French staggered under the shadow of World War II, the Japanese swept in, devouring whatever was left. It seemed as though Vietnam’s suffering would never end.
But suffering has a way of becoming strength. In the mountains, jungles, and villages, a new force was rising — the Viet Minh. They were not a conventional army. They were farmers, workers, teachers, and shopkeepers. They were a scattered, desperate people, drawn together by a shared hunger for freedom. And they were led by those who understood that the greatest weapon of the weak is not the gun, but the will to fight.
"Our army is a people’s army. Our army fights for the people and is supported by the people."
Võ Nguyên Giáp, People’s War, People’s Army
Võ Nguyên Giáp, the brilliant strategist who helped transform this ragged resistance into a force that would shatter the French empire, called it the “People’s War.” But this war was never just about rifles and grenades. It was about mobilizing a nation — about turning every village into a fortress, every peasant into a scout, every river into a road, and every mountain into a shield.
But this is not just a story about Vietnam. It is a story about how ordinary people, facing overwhelming power, can refuse to be crushed. It is a story about how a decentralized resistance, fueled by the will of the people, can defeat even the greatest empires.
And it is also a warning — because when the smoke cleared and the French were gone, a new form of power rose in Vietnam. The decentralized movement became a centralized state. The people’s war became the party’s victory.
In this post, we are exploring the first section of Võ Nguyên Giáp’s "People’s War, People’s Army," not just as a history lesson, but as a guide — a blueprint for resistance in a world where the empire is no longer a foreign invader, but an industrial system that is devouring the planet. We will see how Giáp’s strategy succeeded, where it faltered, and what lessons it offers for those who still believe that a livable planet and human dignity are worth fighting for.
I. The Story: How the People’s War Began
Vietnam was always a land worth fighting for. The mountains were thick with jungle, the rivers teemed with fish, and the fertile fields could feed empires — and they did. For centuries, foreign powers carved the country apart, from Chinese dynasties to French colonizers. But while the land was taken again and again, the spirit of the people remained stubborn, rooted like the ancient forests.
By the early 20th century, that spirit was under siege. French colonial rule was not just a distant government in Paris. It was a boot on the neck. Rubber plantations spread like scars across the countryside, worked by Vietnamese laborers trapped in a system of forced labor. Rice grown in the fertile deltas was exported to Europe while peasants went hungry. Taxes crushed those who had nothing left to give. Resistance was met with prisons, firing squads, and the unyielding cruelty of colonial soldiers.
But there were whispers in the mountains. Hồ Chí Minh, a young revolutionary who had traveled the world, returned with a dream — a Vietnam free from foreign rule. And with him were people like Võ Nguyên Giáp, a former history teacher who knew that the greatest lessons were written in blood. They founded the Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam), a coalition of nationalists, communists, and ordinary people who wanted one thing — freedom.
When World War II erupted, Vietnam became a pawn in another empire’s game. The Japanese stormed in, pushing out the French but bringing even greater suffering. As the war dragged on, famine swept the country — nearly two million Vietnamese starved, their rice stolen to feed Japanese armies. Death came in a hundred thousand quiet ways — in the fields, in the villages, in the silence of empty stomachs.
But it is in the shadow of death that the seeds of revolt take root. As the Japanese empire crumbled in 1945, the Viet Minh seized their moment. Across the countryside, they armed themselves with weapons stolen from the Japanese and the French. Villagers became soldiers overnight. Grandmothers carried messages through the jungle. Farmers dug secret tunnels beneath their fields. A song of defiance swept across the land.
In August 1945, with the Japanese surrendering and the French staggering, the Viet Minh launched the August Revolution. In a matter of weeks, they seized control of Hanoi, and Hồ Chí Minh stood before a sea of people in Ba Dinh Square, declaring the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. For the first time in decades, Vietnam was free.
But empires never leave quietly. The French returned, determined to retake their “colony.” What followed was nearly a decade of war — a brutal, grinding conflict between a foreign empire armed with modern weapons and a ragged, resilient people armed with little more than their land, their rage, and their dreams.
This was the People’s War — a war fought not by generals in polished uniforms, but by peasants in muddy fields. A war in which every river could become a supply line, every mountain a fortress. The Viet Minh were not a traditional army. They were a nation at war with the chains that had bound it for a century.
But as they fought and won, something began to change. The Viet Minh, once a scattered, decentralized resistance, became more than just a movement. It became a state. What had been a struggle of the people was slowly becoming a struggle of the party — a revolution in the process of being tamed.
In the jungles, the mountains, and the flooded rice paddies, the people’s war raged. But in the shadow of this struggle, another battle was beginning — a battle for the soul of the revolution itself.
II. The Core Strategy: The People’s War
Empires rise on the strength of their armies, but they fall to the strength of the people. Võ Nguyên Giáp understood this better than most. In People’s War, People’s Army, he lays out a strategy that transformed the Vietnamese from a scattered, suffering population into a force that shattered the French colonial empire.
At the heart of this strategy was a simple but radical idea: War is not just the business of soldiers — it is the struggle of an entire people. This was the foundation of the People’s War. It was a war fought not only with rifles and grenades, but with shovels, rice bowls, whispers, and courage. Every villager, every farmer, every fisherman could become a part of the resistance.
Three Phases of People’s War
Giáp’s concept of People’s War was built on three flexible phases:
Guerrilla Warfare (Strategic Defense): When the enemy is strong, you avoid direct confrontation. You fight in the shadows — ambushes, sabotage, hit-and-run attacks. Villages become bases of support, providing food, shelter, and intelligence. Resistance fighters strike and then melt back into the jungle.
Mobile Warfare (Strategic Equilibrium): As the resistance grows stronger, it shifts to a more mobile approach. Guerrilla units become small, agile armies capable of coordinated strikes. The enemy is forced to stretch its forces thin, fighting on many fronts.
Conventional Warfare (Strategic Offensive): When the balance of power shifts, the resistance moves to direct confrontation. Once ragged guerrillas become a disciplined army capable of launching full-scale assaults, like the legendary siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, where the French were decisively defeated.
War by the People, For the People
What made this strategy so powerful was not just its flexibility, but its foundation in the Vietnamese people themselves. The Viet Minh were not an isolated army, separate from the population. They were the population.
Villages as Fortresses: In every village, men and women dug hidden bunkers, stored weapons, and passed intelligence to guerrilla fighters. Children became lookouts, and elders acted as messengers. A family might plant rice by day and repair rifles by night.
Terrain as a Weapon: The mountains, jungles, and rivers of Vietnam became allies. Guerrilla fighters could vanish into the dense foliage, strike from the shadows, and disappear. Trails known only to the villagers became secret supply lines.
Psychological Warfare: Giáp understood that victory was not just about territory, but about the spirit of the people. The French could occupy a city, but they could never truly control a land where every face might hide an enemy.
III. Lessons for Modern Resistance: Adapting the People’s War
There is a reason why Võ Nguyên Giáp’s concept of People’s War is more than just a story from the past. It is a blueprint — a strategy for how ordinary people can resist overwhelming power. But the world has changed since the jungles of Vietnam hid guerrilla fighters. Today, the empire is not a foreign army in colonial uniforms. It is a global industrial system that strips forests, poisons rivers, and treats the earth as raw material for profit. So how do the lessons of the People’s War apply to this new struggle?
1. War is for Everyone: Mobilize the Whole Community
Giáp’s greatest insight was that resistance is not just the work of soldiers. It is the work of everyone. The Viet Minh succeeded because they made the entire population part of the war effort. This didn’t just mean recruiting fighters. It meant turning villages into bases, turning farmers into scouts, and turning the land itself into a weapon.
Modern Application: Today, resistance must become a part of everyday life. It is not just the work of activists or militants, but of everyone who cares about life on this planet. Communities can create local food networks to resist industrial agriculture and detach from dependence on its systems; form neighborhood defense groups to protect their water sources; or establish mutual aid networks to survive disasters.
The Lesson: Don’t rely on isolated groups of “experts” or “activists.” Make resistance part of the culture of your community.
2. Decentralization is Strength — Until it Becomes a Trap
The Viet Minh’s early success came from their decentralized structure. Local guerrilla units were independent, able to adapt to their terrain and strike without waiting for orders. But as the struggle continued, the Communist Party began to centralize control. What began as a people’s movement became an instrument of party power.
Modern Application: Decentralized resistance is powerful because it is flexible. Local groups know their land, their people, their needs. But decentralization can become chaos without some coordination. The challenge is finding a balance.
The Lesson: Build local resistance networks, but maintain communication and solidarity between them. Avoid the temptation of a single, centralized organization. Resist becoming another rigid hierarchy.
3. Use the Terrain: Understand Your Environment
The Vietnamese knew their land — its jungles, mountains, and rivers. They used it to hide, to supply their forces, and to outmaneuver the enemy. Giáp understood that knowing your terrain is a weapon as powerful as any rifle.
Modern Application: Whether your terrain is a forest, a coastline, a desert, or an urban jungle, know it better than those who would destroy it. Resistance can mean physically protecting a forest from logging, creating secret paths for activists in a city, or building underground water systems in drought-prone areas.
The Lesson: Make the land an ally, not just a battlefield. Defend it, learn from it, and make it part of your strategy.
4. Psychological Warfare: Break the Spirit of the Invader
The Viet Minh didn’t just fight soldiers — they fought the morale of the French. They turned every village, every farmer, and every dark path into a reminder that the colonizers were not welcome. The French saw victory as impossible long before they were actually defeated.
Modern Application: Today, psychological warfare is about refusing to accept the myths of industrial civilization — that it is unstoppable, that resistance is pointless, that the destruction of the earth is “progress.” Break the myth of the empire’s invincibility.
The Lesson: Make resistance visible. Celebrate every victory. Tell stories of defiance. Remind people that even the greatest empires can be brought down.
5. Be Ready to Change — But Don’t Lose Your Soul
The Viet Minh were flexible, shifting from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare and finally to conventional battles. But this flexibility came at a cost. As they centralized, they lost their original spirit of a people’s struggle. The decentralized resistance became a rigid state, and the people’s army became the Party’s army.
Modern Application: Your resistance must be able to change and adapt, but it must never lose sight of its values. If a local group grows and connects with others, it must remain accountable to the people it serves. If a resistance network coordinates its actions, it must never become a dictatorship.
The Lesson: Fight with integrity. Never forget that the purpose of resistance is not just to win, but to protect the living world and preserve the freedom of those who defend it.
A Strategy for the Present
The lessons of Võ Nguyên Giáp’s People’s War are not just history. They are tools. Tools for those who look at a world devoured by extraction and exploitation and refuse to surrender.
If you want to resist the empire, you must make resistance part of everyday life. You must be as decentralized as a forest, but as connected as the roots beneath it. You must know your land, defend it, and learn from it. You must fight not only with force but with stories — stories of defiance, of survival, of victory.
And above all, you must remember that this is not just a struggle for land, water, or air. It is a struggle for the soul of the world.
IV. The Danger of Centralization: When Resistance Becomes Oppression
Võ Nguyên Giáp’s People’s War was a strategy of survival — a way for a scattered, starving population to rise up against a brutal empire. But as the war dragged on, as victory turned from a dream into a possibility, the nature of the Viet Minh began to change. What had been a decentralized network of guerrillas, rooted in local villages and guided by local leaders, was gradually absorbed into the centralized structure of the Communist Party.
Ss the war continued, the Communist Party began to assert more control. Local leaders who did not align with Party ideology were replaced. Guerrilla units were reorganized into a formal military hierarchy. What had been a people’s struggle for freedom became a centralized struggle for party power. And when the French were defeated, Vietnam did not become a land of free villages — it became a one-party state.
The Double-Edged Sword of Centralization
This is the double-edged sword of any resistance movement. Coordination can bring strength, but it can also bring control. Discipline can be the difference between victory and defeat, but it can also become a prison. The Viet Minh’s victory was also the beginning of their transformation into something else — an empire of their own.
But there is another way. While the Viet Minh became a centralized state, other resistance movements have shown that it is possible to remain decentralized while maintaining coordination. Perhaps the best example of this is the Kurdish forces in Rojava.
Decentralization Done Right: The Kurdish Model
In the mountains of Northern Syria, the Kurdish forces (YPG/YPJ) and the broader Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have built a system that combines decentralized power with coordinated action. At the heart of this system is the idea of "Democratic Confederalism," a model developed by Abdullah Öcalan, which emphasizes local autonomy, direct democracy, and the empowerment of communities.
Local Councils and Autonomy: Kurdish forces operate through a network of local councils, where decisions are made at the community level. These councils are empowered to manage their own affairs, from education to security.
Temporary Hierarchies for Conflict: In times of conflict, Kurdish forces can rapidly coordinate, creating a temporary, flexible hierarchy of command. But when the conflict ends, command structures dissolve, and power returns to the local councils.
Diversity and Inclusion: The Kurdish model is not limited to one ethnic group or ideology. Arabs, Assyrians, Syriacs, and other minorities are part of the SDF, and women are represented at all levels of leadership, both in civil governance and on the battlefield.
The Balance of Power and Freedom
This balance — between local autonomy and temporary coordination — is the heart of a truly resilient resistance. It avoids the trap of rigid hierarchy without falling into the chaos of complete fragmentation. The Viet Minh lost this balance. What began as a struggle for freedom became a struggle for control, and the Communist Party’s victory over the French was also a victory over the decentralized spirit of the people’s war.
But the Kurdish forces in Rojava show that another way is possible. Resistance can be strong without being oppressive. Coordination can exist without crushing autonomy. And the people who fight for freedom can keep that freedom alive in their own communities.
A Choice for Modern Resistance Movements
For those who would resist the global industrial empire, the lesson is clear: Decentralization is not just a strategy. It is a form of freedom. And freedom must be defended not only from those who would take it from the outside, but also from those who would seize it from within.
If your resistance becomes another empire, then your victory is only another defeat.
Conclusion: The True Power of a People’s War
Empires fall. They always do. Some are brought down by other empires, devoured by greater powers. Some rot from within, collapsing under their own weight. But the greatest falls — the ones that echo through history — are those brought down by the defiance of ordinary people.
Võ Nguyên Giáp’s People’s War, People’s Army is a story of such defiance. It is the story of a scattered, starving people who turned their suffering into strength, who turned their forests and rivers into weapons, who transformed themselves from peasants into soldiers and brought down the mighty French empire.
But it is also a story of transformation — a reminder that even the most righteous struggle can become a prison if it loses its soul. The Viet Minh won their war, but in doing so, they became something else: a centralized state, a new power that would demand obedience just as fiercely as the old one had.
The lesson is clear: Resistance is not just about victory. It is about integrity. It is about building the world you want to defend, not just tearing down the world you hate.
If you would resist the global industrial empire, you must do more than fight. You must build communities that can survive without it. You must embrace decentralized power, even when it is messy, because the alternative is tyranny. You must allow resistance to be diverse, because the land itself is diverse, and every place must defend itself in its own way.
Empires don’t just fall. They are brought down — by forests that refuse to be cut, by rivers that refuse to be poisoned, by people who refuse to be broken.
If you choose to fight, fight not just for land or life, but for the freedom of those who stand beside you. Fight not just against empire, but against the seeds of empire in your own heart.
Because the only real victory is a world where no one is a master — and no one is a slave.
Up Next: The People’s Army – Discipline Without Oppression
The first part of this series showed how the Vietnamese transformed suffering into strength, rising from scattered villages to a decentralized resistance. But defiance alone is not enough to bring down an empire. To defeat the French, the Viet Minh needed something more — an army.
In the next part of this series, we will explore the second section of Võ Nguyên Giáp’s People’s War, People’s Army, where the Viet Minh transformed from ghostly guerrillas in the jungle to a disciplined, unified force that could take on the might of the French empire.
But as they grew stronger, another battle began — a struggle to balance the discipline of an army with the freedom of a people’s movement. We will see how the Viet Minh walked the razor’s edge between coordination and control, and how the seeds of a new power were planted even as they won their war for freedom.
Stay tuned.
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✅ The Revolutionary Philosophy: How Democratic Confederalism transformed scattered villages into a network of self-governing communes.
✅ The Spirit of Community Defense: How the YPG and YPJ — the People’s and Women’s Protection Units — turned farmers, teachers, and students into defenders of freedom.
✅ Balancing Freedom and Coordination: How Rojava maintained local autonomy while uniting to survive against powerful enemies.
✅ Lessons for Modern Movements: Practical insights for building decentralized, resilient resistance in any community. Download below:
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