Vietnamese poured into the capital on Sunday (October 13) to bid farewell to Vo Nguyen Giap, the general who masterminded historic defeats of France and the United States to become one of the 20th century's most important military commanders.

Crowds lined the streets of Hanoi cheering, crying and holding up pictures of "Red Napoleon", a national legend with a domestic standing second only to the leader of Vietnam's struggle against colonialism, Ho Chi Minh. Giap died on Oct. 4, age 102, after four years in a Hanoi military hospital.

Hundreds of thousands thronged to catch a glimpse of Giap's coffin as it was driven by military vehicle past an unbroken line of mourners to an airport 30 km (18 miles) away. Giap's body will be flown to his home province of Quang Binh for burial.

The funeral has brought a show of unity that Vietnam's current generation of leaders have struggled to foster in a country where three quarters of the 90 million population were born long after G