Viet Cong

"Vietcong" redirects here. For other uses, see Viet Cong (disambiguation).
This article is about the organization formally named National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. For the government formed by this organization, see Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam.

National Liberation Front
of South Vietnam
Mặt trận Dân tộc Giải phóng
miền Nam Việt Nam
Also known asViệt Cộng (VC)
pronunciationⓘ
the Front (Mặt trận)
LeadersProvisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam Liberation Front:[4]
Liberation Army:
Central Office:
Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam Governance:
Dates of operation1954–1959 (as southern Viet Minh cadres)
December 20, 1960 – February 4, 1977 (1960-12-20 – 1977-02-04)
Merged intoVietnam Vietnamese Fatherland Front
AllegianceNorth Vietnam Vietnamese Fatherland Front

 Republic of South Vietnam

Group(s)
Headquarters
Active regionsIndochina, with a focus on South Vietnam
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
AlliesState allies:

Non-state allies:

OpponentsState opponents:

Non-state opponents:

Battles and warsSee full list
Preceded by
North Vietnam Viet Minh
Succeeded by
Vietnam Fatherland Front
This article contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ Nôm, chữ Hán and chữ Quốc ngữ.

The Viet Cong[nb 1] was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. Formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam[nb 2] and nominally conducted military operations under the name of the Liberation Army of South Vietnam (LASV), the movement fought under the direction of North Vietnam against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War. The organization had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized and mobilized peasants in the territory the Viet Cong controlled. During the war, communist fighters and some anti-war activists claimed that the Viet Cong was an insurgency indigenous to the South that represented the legitimate rights of people in South Vietnam, while the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments portrayed the group as a tool of North Vietnam. It was later conceded by the modern Vietnamese communist leadership that the movement was actually under the North Vietnamese political and military leadership, aiming to unify Vietnam under a single banner.[citation needed]

North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front on December 20, 1960, at Tân Lập village in Tây Ninh Province to foment insurgency in the South. Many of the Viet Cong's core members were volunteer "regroupees", southern Viet Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord (1954). Hanoi gave the regroupees military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Viet Cong called for the unification of Vietnam and the overthrow of the American-backed South Vietnamese government. The Viet Cong's best-known action was the Tet Offensive, an assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese urban centers in 1968, including an attack on the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The offensive riveted the attention of the world's media for weeks, but also overextended the Viet Cong. Later communist offensives were conducted predominantly by the North Vietnamese. The organization officially merged with the Fatherland Front of Vietnam on February 4, 1977, after North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a communist government.

  1. ^ "National Liberation Front (Viet Cong)". www.fotw.info. Archived from the original on April 18, 2023.
  2. ^ Berg, Nicole M. (July 29, 2020). Discovering Kubrick's Symbolism: The Secrets of the Films. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-3992-5 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Gibson, Karen Bush (February 4, 2020). The Vietnam War. Mitchell Lane. ISBN 978-1-5457-4946-3 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Burchett, Wilfred (1963): "Liberation Front: Formation of the NLF", The Furtive War, International Publishers, New York. (Archive)
  5. ^ Possibly a pseudonym for Trần Văn Trà. "Man in the News: Lt.-Gen. Tran Van Tra". February 2, 1973. Archived from the original on August 23, 2009.
  6. ^ Bolt, Dr. Ernest. "Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (1969–1975)". University of Richmond. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
  7. ^ Logevall, Fredrik (1993). "The Swedish-American Conflict over Vietnam". Diplomatic History. 17 (3): 421–445. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1993.tb00589.x. JSTOR 24912244.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pentagon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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