where did the term viet cong come from
Viet Cong The term Việt Cộng appeared in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956.[7] It is a contraction of Việt Nam Cộng-sản (Vietnamese communist),[7] or alternatively Việt gian cộng sản ("Communist Traitor to Vietnam").[8] The earliest citation for Việt Cộng in English is from 1957.[9] American soldiers referred to the Việt Cộng 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 Việt Cộng and North Vietnamese.
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Việt Nam), also known as the Second Indochina War,[59] and also known in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America (Vietnamese: Kháng chiến chống Mỹ) or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955[A 1] to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies and the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies.[60] The war is therefore considered a Cold War-era proxy war.[61]