Brigadier general Vũ Văn Giai (12 May 193413 October 2012) was a general in the

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

ese

Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; ) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forc ...

(ARVN).

Military career

He served as deputy commander of the 1st Division. From 16 April to October 1971 he commanded division elements in Operation Lam Son 720 against PAVN bases in the A Sầu Valley. In June 1971 he was responsible for the division’s actions around Firebase Fuller. He was appointed as the original commander of the 3rd Division on its formation in November 1971. In an interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in early February 1972 he and 1st Division commander General

Phạm Văn Phú Major General Phạm Văn Phú (16 October 1928 – 30 April 1975) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Military service Vietnamese National Army Phú began his military career as an interpreter for the French Far East Exp ...

expressed doubts about the widely anticipated PAVN offensive in the northern provinces in mid-February, stating that no major action would take place until March at the earliest due to the need for the PAVN to build up their logistics. Following the defeat of the 3rd Division in the

First Battle of Quảng Trị First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

in April 1972 he was made a scapegoat for the loss of Quảng Trị Province. While the new I Corps commander General

Ngô Quang Trưởng Ngô Quang Trưởng (13 December 1929 — 22 January 2007) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Trưởng gained his commission in the Vietnamese National Army in 1954 and moved up the ranks over the next decade, most ...

wanted to keep him as commander of the 3rd Division he was overruled by President

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (; 5 April 1923 – 29 September 2001) was a South Vietnam, South Vietnamese military officer and politician who was the Leaders of South Vietnam, president of South Vietnam from 1967 to 1975. He was a general in the Repub ...

. On 3 May he was relieved of command and placed under investigation. A U.S. official stated at the time that he "was just overwhelmed by the problems that he faced in the invasion." On 2 October 1973 he was found guilty of abandoning his post by a military court and was sentenced to five years' hard labor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vu Van, Giai Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals South Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War 1934 births 2012 deaths People from Nam Định province