Viet Cong

The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam chose a half-blue, half-red flag with a five-pointed yellow star in the middle.

The Brinks Hotel, Saigon, following a Viet Cong bombing on Dec. 24, 1964. Two American officers were killed.

The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), was a communist army based in South Vietnam that fought against the governments of South Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War (1955-75). The group is better known as the Viet Cong (Việt Cộng) or V.C., short for "Vietnamese Communist." American soldiers called the Vietnamese communist forces Charlie (which is the letter "C" in the NATO phonetic alphabet),^[1] whether North Vietnamese or South Vietnamese (Viet Cong).

The group was mostly made up of people from South Vietnam but a few members were from North Vietnam. The main leaders and most of the people in the group were communists. Some members were not communists. The Viet Cong used guerilla warfare, including terrorist bombings, assassinations, and ambushes. The group is best known for the Tet Offensive, a surprise attack on many South Vietnamese cities that began in January 1968 during Tet, or the Vietnamese New Year. The group was closely allied with the government of North Vietnam, which conquered the South in 1975.

According to Re-thinking Camelot (Noam Chomsky 1993), the NLF resistance was in part the result of terror that was inflicted by the government of South Vietnam, which was backed and guided by the US, while the NLF was peacefully awaiting the national elections that had been promised by the Geneva Accords of 1954. Some, however, accuse Chomsky of minimizing the communists' atrocities and of exaggerating those of their opponents.

History

After the 1954 Geneva Agreement, Vietnam was temporarily divided into two regions. The North resolutely fought for the peaceful reunification of Vietnam.^[2]

Viet Cong Media

Soldiers and civilians took supplies south on the Ho Chi Minh trail (1959)
US Military map of Communist forces in South Vietnam in early 1964
Brinks Hotel, Saigon, following a Viet Cong bombing on December 24, 1964. Two American officers were killed.
A Viet Cong prisoner captured in 1967 by the U.S. Army awaits interrogation.
A U.S. Air Force Douglas Skyraider drops a white phosphorus bomb on a Viet Cong position in South Vietnam in 1966.
Viet Cong soldiers captured by US Marines outside of Dong Ha, RVN 1968
Viet Cong soldier stands beneath a Viet Cong flag with an AK-47 rifle.
A U.S. propaganda leaflet urges Viet Cong to defect using the Chiêu Hồi Program.
Viet Cong soldiers carry an injured American POW to a prisoner swap in 1973. The VC uniform was a floppy jungle hat, rubber sandals, and green fatigues without rank or insignia.