HANOI (Reuters) - Twenty-nine years after the end of the Vietnam war, communist military mastermind General Vo Nguyen Giap remains grateful to the Americans who opposed it. The Vietnam War, known in Vietnam as the American War, has become a hot issue in the U.S. presidential race with Democrat John Kerry drawing attention to his service and President Bush's Republicans disparaging Kerry's later anti-war stand. "I would like to thank them," the 93-year-old veteran said on Friday of those Americans who opposed the war.

But he sounded a note of warning. "Any forces that wish to impose their will on other nations will surely fail," he said. "Each nation should have the right to independence," he said, wagging a finger at reporters and Foreign Ministry staff in an ornate French colonial style government guest house in the capital, Hanoi.