Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam use of terror in the Vietnam War
Murder, kidnapping, torture and intimidation were a routine part of Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) operations during the Vietnam War. They were intended to cow the populace, liquidate opponents, erode the morale of South Vietnamese government employees, and boost tax collection and propaganda efforts. Estimates of the total number of South Vietnamese civilians killed by the VC/PAVN between 1954 and 1975 range from 106,000 to 227,000. Overview. Murder, kidnapping, torture and intimidation were a routine part of Viet Cong  (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) operations during the Vietnam War. They were intended to cow the populace, liquidate opponents, erode the morale of South Vietnamese government employees, and boost tax collection and propaganda efforts. Terror was meant to demonstrate that the South Vietnamese government could not protect them. The VC attacked villages and hamlets with the intention of killing men, women and children to sow panic and insecurity. During the early years of the war, assassinations and similar activity was organized via "special activity cells" of the VC. As the conflict continued, efforts were centralized under the  VC Security Service, estimated to number 25,000 men by 1970. As well as targeted murders and kidnappings the VC and the PAVN frequently mortared refugee camps and placed mines on highways frequented by villagers. Some mines were set to explode only on the passage of a heavy vehicle, in order to target civilian buses. Another terror method involved the random shelling of major cities with 122-mm rockets. This extensive use of terror received comparatively little attention from Western journalists, who were preoccupied with covering the conventional warfare aspect of the conflict. Notable VC/PAVN incidents of terror include the  Đắk Sơn massacre, Massacre at Huế, Son Tra massacre and the Thanh My massacre. Similar results could be achieved by provoking hasty reaction or retaliation attacks by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) or American forces on villagers through sniping, raids, or placing mines and booby traps in and near villages. Such reactions sometimes sparked atrocities that could be used in VC propaganda to help mobilize or radicalize elements of the populace. A 1965 "Christian Science Monitor" article by Japanese journalist Takashi Oka reported on what seemed to be the use of the method. The VC entered a  village and harangued the local populace about supporting the Revolution, before digging in and passing word to the district capital that they were active in the community. The next day, U.S. planes bombed the village and its Catholic church. VC operatives emerged after the destruction to tell survivors about the perfidy of the U.S. imperialists. Such methods could sometimes backfire, with villagers blaming VC forces for the destruction and death brought to their communities. In December 1960 the South Vietnamese government reported to the International Control Commission (ICC) that during the year the VC destroyed or damaged 284 bridges, burned  60 medical aid stations and, through destruction of schools, deprived some 25,000 children of schooling. In October 1961 a U.S. State Department study estimated that the VC were killing South Vietnamese civilians at a rate of 1,500 per month. In October 1964, U.S. officials in Saigon reported that from January to October 1964 the VC killed 429 Vietnamese local officials and kidnapped 482 others. In June 1965 South Vietnamese officials reported that the rate of assassinations and kidnappings of rural officials had doubled in June compared to May and April, with 224 officials being either killed or kidnapped. On May  11, 1967 State Health Secretary Dr. Tran Van Lu-Y told the World Health Organization in Geneva that more than 200 doctors and medical workers in South Vietnam had been victims of the VC in the previous ten years. He said that 211 members of his staff have been killed or kidnapped; 174 dispensaries, maternity homes and hospitals destroyed; and 40 ambulances mined or machine-gunned. By 1969, nearly 250 civilians were being murdered or kidnapped each week. VC/PAVN terror squads committed over 36,000 murders and almost 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972 according to a U.S. Department of  Defense estimate in 1973. Statistics for 1968–72 suggested that "about 80 percent of the terrorist victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres." PAVN/VC forces and spokesmen consistently denied using terror tactics. They attributed mass graves found at Huế after their temporary occupation of the city to spontaneous action by aggrieved communities. However, the use of terror was encouraged in official VC documents. A May 17, 1965 memorandum from the COSVN Security office, directed Nguyễn Tài, the chief of security for the Saigon-Gia Định  Party Committee, to "exploit every opportunity to kill enemy leaders and vicious thugs, to intensify our political attacks aimed at spreading fear and confusion among the enemy's ranks." COSVN Resolution Number 9, published in July 1969 noted: "Integral to the political struggle would be the liberal use of terrorism to weaken and destroy local government, strengthen the party apparatus, proselyte among the populace, erode the control and influence of the Government of Vietnam, and weaken the RVNAF." R. J. Rummel estimated that PAVN/VC forces killed around 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975, with a range of between 106,000  and 227,000. Rummel's mid-level estimate includes 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants. In addition, at least 36,000 South Vietnamese civilians were executed for various reasons between 1967 and 1972. Thomas Thayer estimated in 1985 that between 1965 and 1972 the VC killed 33,052 South Vietnamese village officials and civil servants. Ami Pedahzur wrote in 2006 that "the overall volume and lethality of Viet Cong terrorism rivals or exceeds all but a handful of terrorist campaigns waged over the last third of the twentieth century." Partial list of attacks and incidents. The following is a partial list of VC and  PAVN terror attacks and incidents.