page_title: NLF and PAVN strategy, organization and structure
section_title: Early effectiveness of the Viet Cong
hierarchical_section_title: NLF and PAVN strategy, organization and structure / Historical development of the NLF and PAVN / Early effectiveness of the Viet Cong
caption_attribution_description: English: en:USS Card (CVE-11) underway, March 26, 1943.
context_page_description: During the Second Indochina War, better known as the Vietnam War, a distinctive land warfare strategy and organization was used by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam or better known as the Viet Cong in the West, and the People's Army of Vietnam or North Vietnamese Army to defeat their American and South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam opponents. These methods involved closely integrated political and military strategy – what was called dau tranh. The National Liberation Front, was an umbrella of front groups, sympathizers and allies set up by the rulers of North Vietnam to conduct the insurgency in South Vietnam. The NLF also included fully armed formations- regional and local guerrillas, and the People's Liberation Armed Forces. The PLAF was the "Main Force" – the Chu Luc or full-time soldiers of the NLF's military wing. Many histories lump both the NLF and the armed formations under the term "Viet Cong" or "VC" in common usage. Both were tightly interwoven and were in turn controlled by the North. Others consider the Viet Cong or "VC" to primarily refer to the armed elements.
context_section_description: By 1964 the VC, supported by smaller numbers of PAVN, were increasingly effective, conducting attacks up to regimental strength. The Battle of Binh Gia (also known as The Battle of Ap Bac in many Western histories), where the victorious VC held the battlefield for 4 days rather than simply melt away as in earlier times is a vivid example of their confidence and effectiveness. Their operations regularly drubbed Diem's troops, and although Diem's forces controlled a number of urban areas and scattered garrisons, the security situation had become critical.
  VC confidence also showed in a number of attacks against American installations and troops, from assaults against places where US soldiers and advisers gathered, to sinking of an American aviation transport ship, the USS Card at a Saigon berth in 1964. Viet Cong forces also struck hard at American air assets, destroying or damaging large numbers of US aircraft during daring raids at the Bien Hoa in 1964, and Pleiku in 1965. Viet Cong Main Force units were not the only communist forces on the offensive in the early 1960s. In areas near the North Vietnamese border, PAVN regulars joined in the assault against South Vietnam with strong conventional units, including divisions like the PAVN 304th and 325th, and inflicted severe losses on the ARVN. The communist strategy was to kill as many ARVN effectives as possible, paving the way for a collapse of the South Vietnamese regime before the Americans could arrive in force. In other areas, PAVN regulars operated in disguise as "local farmers" - adopting peasant garb like black pajamas and straw hats, and removing manufacturing marks from weapons made in Soviet Bloc countries and shipped to Vietnam. The PAVN also positioned numerous base camps near South Vietnam's borders from which they sallied out to strike at will. These border zone strike forces were soon to clash with the Americans in one of the war's fiercest battles- at a place called the Ia Drang Valley. Total NLF/PAVN fighting strength is controversially estimated by the American Military Assistance Command- Vietnam (MACV) at around 180,000 men in 1964. Opposing them during the war's early phases were (on paper by various estimates) over 300,000 ARVN troops and a US troop level that stood at around 16,000 in 1964, This was to increase rapidly in later years.
caption: By 1964, the VC were attacking in regimental strength with growing success. A VC demolition team even damaged USS Card while pierside.[20]
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