what is the difference between Viet cong (VC) and North Vietnam Army (NVA)?

Answer 1

NVA were the soldiers of North Vietnam supporting the rebellion in South Vietnam.. The VC were natives of South Vietnam fighting against the South Vietnamese government.

The NVA were regular army forces. VC were indigenous, guerrilla forces.

Answer 2

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RE:
what is the difference between Viet cong (VC) and North Vietnam Army (NVA)?

Answer 3

Vietcong is NOT a derogatory term invented by US personnel. It's a Vietnamese term, correctly spelled Việt cộng, invented by the Vietnamese way before Johnson sent the first Calvary unit to Da Nang. If translated literally, it means Communist Vietnamese, a general name for any Viet who is a communist (Cộng=Communist). The use of "Vietcong" might differ between the Americans and the Viet population. US service people called the South insurgents Vietcong but referred to regular soldiers from the North as NVA (North Vietnamese Army). Viet people in the South lumped NVA and the insurgents together and called them all Viet cong.

Answer 4

Vietcong were guerilla fighters from South Vietnam and lived in the area.
NVA were regular soldiers from North Vietnam who came down the Ho Chi Mhin Trail

Answer 5

The Viet Cong was not officially part of the North Vietnamese army; they were more of a guerilla force.

Answer 6

Amazing how a straightforward Question invites a political speech by way of response!

marshal3corps has given you a political lecture, based on a book by a pair of far-left academics. Noam Chomsky, one of the co-authors, was prominent in the anti-war movement during 'Nam. Neither he nor his co-author, Herman, were there. That should tell you how much they knew about the reality of 'Nam.

By contrast, Michael J was there. And he gave you a straightforward, sensible answer.

In a technical sense, marshal3corps is right. Officially, there was no such organization as "Viet Cong". The official name of the NLF's military arm was the "People's Liberation Armed Forces". But everyone referred to them as "Viet Cong", "VC" or "Charlie" for short. The PLAF (Viet Cong) was established by the (communist) government of North Vietnam late in 1960, as a means to escalate armed rebellion against the government of South Vietnam.

Incidentally, by the time of US involvement, the NLF was 100% communist controlled although nominally still open to non-communists. The "F" initial stands for "Front": and that's what the NLF had become - a communist "front' (= "cover" or "fake") organization.

Answer 7

Nlf Vietnam

Answer 8

The NVA was exactly as stated, the North Vietnamese Army, or the regular units of that nations military forces.
There is no such organization, no was there ever, called the Viet Cong, or VC. This is a derogatory designation invented by some US military personel to describe the elements of the NLF, the largest political party in Vietnam before the nation was divided. This political party was the reason for that divide, a party which was approximately 10% communist and largely concerned with large scale agrarian reform. This was the problem France had and the problem that the US had--the NLF was determined to be rid of outside forces who had consistently manipulated that nation to their own ends.
Other groups active in the war were the ARVN(Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) and some smaller religious movements, most well known being the Buddhists.

If you omit VC and replace it with NLF, the difference between the two is that one was, again, a regular fighting army, while those of the NLF were irregular, or guerilla fighters, obvious in a sense, because North Vietnam was independent while the NLF in South Vietnam was being mercilessly bombed to pieces or rounded up in concentration camps by the US forces in a vain effort to maintain power in that country.

Answer 9

Michael J. gets my vote. He was there.
It's what I was taught, as well.