Liberation Army of South Vietnam

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Liberation Army of South Vietnam
Quân Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam
Emblem
Active	January 1961 – July 7, 1976
Country	South Vietnam
Allegiance	National Liberation Front
Type	Irregular military Light infantry
Role	Asymmetric warfare Unconventional Warfare
Size	24,000 (1961) 64,000 (1963) 290,000 (1974)
Part of	People's Army of Vietnam
Nickname(s)	Viet Cong The Liberators / Liberation Army
Engagements	Vietnam War
Insignia
Military Flag

The Liberation Army of South Vietnam (LASV; Vietnamese: Quân Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam; Chữ Hán: 軍解放沔南越南), also recognized as the Liberation Army (Quân Giải phóng - QGP or Giải phóng quân), was an irregular and regular military force established by the Workers' Party of Vietnam in 1961 in South Vietnam^[1] as the nominal armed wing of the National Liberation Front and largely operated as a proxy of the existing People's Army of Vietnam. In 1962, the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam separated from the Workers' Party of Vietnam in terms of external appearance, openly directing the Liberation Army's military. Politically, the South Vietnamese Liberation Army was under the direction of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. The military forces from the North to the South of Vietnam, although collectively known as the Liberation Army of South Vietnam, still use the unit names, military badges and War flag of the Vietnam People's Army.

After the 1973 Paris Agreement, the forces of the South Vietnamese Liberation Army were merged into the Vietnam People's Army one by one. This merger was completed in 1975 and 1976. Although administratively the Liberation Army of South Vietnam and the People's Army of Vietnam are two different armies, they share the same leadership and can completely merge, split, and supplement forces according to their needs a unified principle. After 1975, the Workers' Party of Vietnam acknowledged leading both the South Vietnam Liberation Army and the Vietnam People's Army during the war. The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam also received the secret direction of the Workers' Party of Vietnam.^[2]

The South Vietnamese Liberation Army is under the open direction of the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam, and secretly under the direction of the Politburo of Vietnam Labor Party and the Central Military Commission of the Vietnamese People's Army, Central Department for South Vietnam, the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam. Regarding secrecy, the Central Department for South Vietnam and the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam directed in the area B2 (Ninh Thuan to Ca Mau).^[3]