The Việt Cộng was the name given by the United States and the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) to Communist soldiers and guerillas fighting for Vietnamese Worker’s Party (Lao Động) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the Second Indochina War from 1956 to 1975. In reality, however, this name was used by the United States to refer to all the South Vietnamese who fought against the United States, regardless of whether they were Communists or not. President of the RVN, Ngô Đình Diệm, first used the term in 1956 to refer to “Vietnamese Communist”. Although the origin of the name is commonly believed to have come from the American intelligence chief Edward Lansdale, who was sent to advise Ngô Đình Diệm. When American troops landed in South Vietnam, they briefly referred to the Việt Cộng as the “VC”, an abbreviation for Việt Cộng and VictorCharlie.
