Viet Cong and PAVN Battle Tactics

Viet Cong And PAVN Battle Tactics

NLF and PAVN battle tactics comprised a flexible mix of guerrilla and conventional warfare battle tactics used by the Main Force of the People's Liberation Armed Forces (known as the National Liberation Front or Viet Cong in the West) and the NVA (People's Army-Vietnam) to defeat their American and South Vietnamese (GVN/ARVN) opponents during the Second Indochina War (Vietnam War).

For related articles on strategy/organization and logistics see:

• Viet Cong and PAVN strategy, organization and structure
• Viet Cong and PAVN logistics and equipment

The National Liberation Front (NLF) in this article, identifies an umbrella of front groups to conduct the insurgency in South Vietnam. The NLF was affiliated with independent groups and sympathizers. The armed wing of the NLF was regional and local guerrillas, and the People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF). The PLAF was the "Main Force" - the Chu Luc or full-time soldiers of the NLF's military muscle. Many histories lump both the NLF and the armed wing under the term "Viet Cong" in common usage. Both were tightly interwoven and were in turn controlled by the North. Others consider the Viet Cong to primarily refer to the armed elements. The term PAVN (People's Army of Vietnam) identifies regular troops of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). Collectively, both forces - the southern armed wing and the regulars from the north were part of PAVN, and are treated as such in official communist histories of the war.

Certain terms such as "NLF" and "VC" or "NVA" and PAVN" are used interchangeably, and they, along with others used herein such as "Chicom", "Liberation Army", "regime" etc. have no pejorative or partisan intent or meaning. They are incorporated here due to their widespread popular usage by both South Vietnamese and American military personnel and civilians, and common usage in standard histories of the Vietnam War.