The term Việt Cộng appeared in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956. It is a contraction of Việt Nam Cộng-sản (Vietnamese communist), or alternatively Việt gian cộng sản ("Communist Traitor to Vietnam"). The earliest

Activists opposing American involvement in Vietnam said that the Viet Cong was a nationalist insurgency indigenous to the South. They claimed that the Viet Cong was composed of several parties—the People's Revolutionary Party, the Democratic Party and the

1. ^ Radio Hanoi called it the "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" in a January 1961 broadcast announcing the group's formation. In his memoirs, Võ Nguyên Giáp called

• Tet Offensive 1968, US Embassy & Saigon fighting. CBS News footage of the Tet Offensive.
• Vietnam War – Hue Massacre 1968. A tribute to the dead of Huế by Trịnh Công Sơn,

Origin
By the terms of the Geneva Accord (1954), which ended the Indochina War, France and the Viet Minh agreed to a truce and to a separation of forces. The Viet Minh had become the government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam since

• Viet Cong and PAVN strategy, organization and structure
• Viet Cong and PAVN battle tactics

• U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, The Human Cost of Communism in Vietnam (1972), part I Archived June 22, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, part II, part III Archived May 30, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, and part IV Archived May 30, 2019, at the Wayback Machine