Liberation Army of South Vietnam

The Liberation Army of South Vietnam (LASV; Vietnamese: Quân Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam; Chữ Hán: 軍解放沔南越南), also recognized as the Liberation Army (Quân Giải phóng - QGP or Giải phóng quân), was an irregular and regular military force established as the nominal armed wing of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (or Viet Cong - VC) by the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1961 in South Vietnam. It operated as a part of the existing People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) of North Vietnam, having its name the only official organization of communist-aligned armed forces to fought in South Vietnam. In 1962, the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam separated from the Communist Party of Vietnam in terms of external appearance, openly directing the Liberation Army's military. Politically, the LASV was under the direction of the VC and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. The military forces although collectively known as the Liberation Army of South Vietnam, still use the unit names, military badges and war flag of the PAVN.

After the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, the forces of the LASV were merged into the PAVN one by one. This merger was completed in 1975 and 1976. Although the LASV and the PAVN were nominally two different armies, they shared the same leadership and could completely merge, split, and supplement forces according to their needs. After 1975, the Communist Party of Vietnam acknowledged leading both LASV and the PAVN during the war. The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam also received the secret direction of the Communist Party of Vietnam. In 1976, with the official reunification of Vietnam, this army was dissloved.

The LASV was under the open direction of the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam, and secretly under the direction of the Politburo of Communist Party of Vietnam and the Central Military Commission of the PAVN, Central Department for South Vietnam, the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam. The Central Department for South Vietnam and the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam directed in the area B2 (Ninh Thuan to Ca Mau).