Viet cong (VC)

The National Front for the Liberation of Southern Vietnam, also known as the Viet Cong (VC), the National Liberation Front (NLF), and as the Front National de Liberaté (FNL), was the primary rebel organization fighting the US-backed Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

The NLF claimed that it was a national front of all elements opposed to the existing government, whether communist or not. Its military organization was known as the People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLA). U.S. soldiers came to refer to the NLF as "Viet Cong", (VC) from the Vietnamese term for Vietnamese Communist. American forces typically refered to members of the NLF as "Charlie," which comes from the US Armed Forces' phonetic alphabet's pronunciation of VC ("Victor Charlie").

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