Who were they?
The main enemy in the Vietnam was mainly the Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front. The Viet Cong were fighting side by side with “The people’s army of Vietnam” (PAVN). The Viet Cong means “Vietnamese communist” and the Viet Cong is the most common expression of the enemy in Vietnam. Together they were at a strength of 461,000, against The United States and South Vietnam who had a strength of 1,8 million.
The communism was supported by Cuba, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet.
How did they operate?
The armies of the north had units trained as guerilla soldiers and regular army units. Guerilla soldiers were armed civilians organized to be sent to war by their communist superiors. They were used for ambushes, sabotage and raids. They worked in small groups and tried hard not to confront large enemy groups, instead they would try to “wound” their opponents by attacking small groups of soldiers or take out enemy resources.
The northern armies had several advantages. They had big tunnel systems in the mountains where they could hide, and they knew their homeland well. A big advantage they had was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (south Vietnam) through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The trail system was called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the armies of the North. This was an advantage because it was very difficult for the US to bomb and destroy their support line. The system provided
