Editing Viet Cong (section)

===Origin===
[[File:HoChiMinhTrial001.jpg|thumb|left|Soldiers and civilians took supplies south on the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]] (1959)]]

By the terms of the [[Geneva Accord (1954)]], which ended the [[Indochina War]], France and the [[Viet Minh]] agreed to a truce and to a separation of forces. The Viet Minh had become the government of North Vietnam, and military forces of the communists regrouped there. Military forces of the non-communists regrouped in [[South Vietnam]], which became a separate state. Elections on reunification were scheduled for July 1956. A divided Vietnam angered Vietnamese nationalists, but it made the country less of a threat to China. Chinese Premier [[Zhou Enlai]] negotiated the terms of the ceasefire with France and then imposed them on the Viet Minh.

About 90,000 Viet Minh were evacuated to the North while 5,000 to 10,000 cadre remained in the South, most of them with orders to refocus on political activity and agitation.<ref name="Pentagon"/> The Saigon-Cholon Peace Committee, the first VC front, was founded in 1954 to provide leadership for this group.<ref name="Pentagon"/> Other front names used by the VC in the 1950s implied that members were fighting for religious causes, for example, "Executive Committee of the Fatherland Front", which suggested affiliation with the [[Hòa Hảo]] sect, or "Vietnam-Cambodia Buddhist Association".<ref name="Pentagon"/> Front groups were favored by the VC to such an extent that its real leadership remained shadowy until long after the war was over, prompting the expression "the faceless Viet Cong".<ref name="Pentagon"/>[[File:Enemy situation, early 1964.jpg|thumb|US Military map of Communist forces in South Vietnam in early 1964]]

Led by [[Ngô Đình Diệm]], South Vietnam refused to sign the Geneva Accord. Arguing that a free election was impossible under the conditions that existed in communist-held territory, Diệm announced in July 1955 that the scheduled election on reunification would not be held. After subduing the [[Bình Xuyên]] organized crime gang in the [[Battle for Saigon]] in 1955, and the Hòa Hảo and other militant religious sects in early 1956, Diệm turned his attention to the VC.<ref>Karnow, p. 238.</ref> Within a few months, the Viet Cong had been driven into remote swamps.<ref name="Karnow245">Karnow, p. 245.</ref> The success of this campaign inspired U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight Eisenhower]] to dub Diệm the "miracle man" when he visited the U.S. in May 1957.<ref name="Karnow245"/> France withdrew its last soldiers from Vietnam in April 1956.<ref name="HistPlace">{{cite web |title= The History Place&nbsp;— Vietnam War 1945–1960 |url= http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html |access-date = June 11, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312070611/http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html|archive-date= March 12, 2023}}</ref>

In March 1956, southern communist leader [[Lê Duẩn]] presented a plan to revive the insurgency entitled "The Road to the South" to the other members of the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam|Politburo]] in Hanoi.<ref name="Ang16">{{cite book |first=Cheng Guan |last=Ang |title=The Vietnam War from the Other Side |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4OgLBUXHikIC |year=2002 |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |isbn=0-7007-1615-7 |page= 16}}</ref> He argued adamantly that war with the United States was necessary to achieve unification.<ref name="Ang21">Ang, p. 21</ref> But as China and the Soviets both opposed confrontation at this time, Lê Duẩn's plan was rejected and communists in the South were ordered to limit themselves to economic struggle.<ref name="Ang16"/> Leadership divided into a "North first", or pro-Beijing, faction led by [[Trường Chinh]], and a "South first" faction led by Lê Duẩn.

As the [[Sino-Soviet split]] widened in the following months, Hanoi began to play the two communist giants off against each other. The North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olson |first=James |author2=Randy Roberts  |title= Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, 1945–1990| page= 67 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |year= 1991}} This decision was made at the 11th Plenary Session of the Lao Động Central Committee.</ref> Lê Duẩn's blueprint for revolution in the South was approved in principle, but implementation was conditional on winning international support and on modernizing the army, which was expected to take at least until 1959.<ref>Ang, p. 19</ref> President [[Hồ Chí Minh]] stressed that violence was still a last resort.<ref>{{cite book |author= Võ Nguyên Giáp |author-link= Võ Nguyên Giáp |chapter=The Political and Military Line of Our Party |title=The Military Art of People's War: Selected Writings of General Vo Nguyen Giap |pages= 179–80}}</ref> Nguyễn Hữu Xuyên was assigned military command in the South,<ref>Ang, p. 20.</ref> replacing Lê Duẩn, who was appointed North Vietnam's acting party boss. This represented a loss of power for Hồ, who preferred the more moderate [[Võ Nguyên Giáp]], who was defense minister.<ref name="Ang21"/>

[[File:Starved Vietnamese man, 1966.JPEG|thumb|left|upright|A photo from the U.S. Information Agency allegedly showing a 23-year-old Le Van Than, who had defected from the Communist forces and joined the South Vietnam Government side and was later recaptured by the Viet Cong and spent a month in a Viet Cong internment camp.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541979|title=The effects of just one month spent in a Viet Cong prison camp show on 23-year-old Le Van Than, who had defected from the Communist forces and joined the Government side, was recaptured by the Viet Cong and deliberately starved |website=US National Archives Catalog|year=1966|access-date= August 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504024629/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/541979|archive-date= May 4, 2023}}</ref>]]

An assassination campaign, referred to as "extermination of traitors" <ref name="McNamera35">{{cite book |last1= McNamera |first1= Robert S.|last2= Blight |first2= James G.|last3= Brigham |first3= Robert K. |title= Argument Without End |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0sBl9BuPYYC |year=1999 |isbn=1-891620-22-3 |page= 35|publisher= PublicAffairs}}</ref> or "armed propaganda" in communist literature, began in April 1957. Tales of sensational murder and mayhem soon crowded the headlines.<ref name="Pentagon"/> Seventeen civilians were killed by machine gun fire at a bar in [[Châu Đốc]] in July and in September a district chief was killed with his entire family on a main highway in broad daylight.<ref name="Pentagon"/> In October 1957, a series of bombs exploded in Saigon and left 13 Americans wounded.<ref name="Pentagon"/>

In a speech given on September 2, 1957, Hồ reiterated the "North first" line of economic struggle.<ref>Ang, p. 23.</ref> The launch of [[Sputnik]] in October boosted Soviet confidence and led to a reassessment of policy regarding [[Indochina]], long treated as a Chinese sphere of influence. In November, Hồ traveled to Moscow with Lê Duẩn and gained approval for a more militant line.<ref name="Ang24">Ang, pp. 24–25.</ref> In early 1958, Lê Duẩn met with the leaders of "Inter-zone V" (northern South Vietnam) and ordered the establishment of patrols and safe areas to provide logistical support for activity in the Mekong Delta and in urban areas.<ref name="Ang24"/> In June 1958, the VC created a command structure for the eastern Mekong Delta.<ref name="Karnow693">Karnow, p. 693.</ref> French scholar [[Bernard Fall]] published an influential article in July 1958 which analyzed the pattern of rising violence and concluded that a new war had begun.<ref name="Pentagon"/>