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