Why do they call it Viet Cong?

Why do they call it Viet Cong?

The phrase "Viet Cong" denotes only southerners who supported the communist cause — but in many cases, they were integrated with fighters from the regular North Vietnamese army, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The name Viet Cong comes from the phrase "cong san Viet Nam," meaning "Vietnamese communist."

What did Viet Cong mean?

Vietnamese Communist 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), no matter whether North Vietnamese or Vietcong.

Why did America lose the Vietnam War?

America “lost” South Vietnam because it was an artificial construct created in the wake of the French loss of Indochina. Because there never was an “organic” nation of South Vietnam, when the U.S. discontinued to invest military assets into that construct, it eventually ceased to exist.

What did the Vietnamese call American soldiers?

American soldiers referred to the Viet Cong as Victor Charlie or V-C. "Victor" and "Charlie" are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet. "Charlie" referred to communist forces in general, both Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.

What is the difference between Viet Cong and North Vietnamese?

As explained in the responses here, the North Vietnamese (NVA or PAVN) were the formal army of North Vietnam while the Viet Cong (short for Vietnamese Communist) was the guerrilla Army of South Vietnam. Actually, the Viet Cong was formed from the remnants of the Viet Minh who had successful fought the French.

Did any American soldiers stay in Vietnam after the war?

The last US ground troops left Vietnam in March 1973, after which the peace talks once again broke down. Fighting resumed and South Vietnam eventually surrendered to the forces of North Vietnam in April 1975. Approximately 2,700,000 American men and women served in Vietnam.

Could America have won in Vietnam?

What this evidence goes to show us is that the United States could have never won the Vietnam war; the South Vietnamese government completely lacked the leadership or legitimacy among the people to even build sufficient popular support; and the fact that the South Vietnamese were purely reliant upon the support of the ...

Why was Vietnam a failure?

Although a number of factors and influences, domestic and international, contributed to America's defeat in Vietnam, the overriding reason the United States lost the war was one that has often fueled nations' losing military efforts throughout history: the fundamental error in strategic judgment called “refighting the ...

What does Dinky Dau mean?

crazy Dien-Cai-Dao: (Pronounced “dinky-dow”). Vietnamese for “crazy”. They say all Americans are a little dinky-dow and all Australians are beaucoup dinky-dow.

What does Vietcong stand for?

• Vietcong(ProperNoun) a communist organization and guerrilla army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States, South Korea, Australia, and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War and was supported by communist North Vietnam.

What was given the name Vietcong?

• The Viet Cong was the name given by Western sources to the National Liberation Front (NLF) during the Vietnam War. The NLF was a political group with its own army - the Peoples' Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam (PLAF) that operated in South Vietnam and Cambodia.

Why were the Viet Cong were called "Charlie"?

• Why the Viet Cong Were Called " Charlie ". Thus, amongst U.S. soldiers and South Vietnamese allies, " Viet Cong " (and " Charlie " for the U.S. soldiers) came to commonly refer not just to the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front, but also to the North Vietnamese army soldiers- basically, any enemy Vietnamese troops were slapped with the label.

Who were the Viet Cong and what was their role in the war?

• The Viet Cong were South Vietnamese supporters of the communist National Liberation Front in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the American War). They were allied with North Vietnam and the troops of Ho Chi Minh, who sought to conquer the south and create a unified, communist state of Vietnam.