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The Vietcong (Việt Cộng) was a communist army based in South Vietnam that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1959-75). It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the regular North Vietnamese army. The Vietcong was closely allied with the government of North Vietnam. The group was formed in the 1950s by former members of the Vietminh acting on orders from Hanoi. Many of its core members were "regroupees," southern communists 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 Hochiminh Trail in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Vietcong's best-known action was the Tet Offensive, a massive assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese urban centers in 1968. The offensive riveted the attention of the world's media for weeks, but also overextended the Vietcong. Later communist offensives were conducted primarily by the North Vietnamese army. The group was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a communist government. |
Vietnam vs Khmer Rouge, 
