Viet Minh

This extraordinary memoir tells the story of one man's experience of the wars of Viet Nam from the time he was old enough to be aware of war in the 1940s until his departure for America 15 years after the collapse of South Viet Nam in 1975.

In 1940 Japan placed Vietnam under military occupation, restricting the local French administration to a figurehead authority. Seizing the opportunity, the Communists organised a Vietnamese independence league, the Viet Minh, whose armed forces became known as the PAVN (more commonly known to the West as the Vietcong, or NVA) and prepared to launch an uprising against the French at the war's end. This text details the history, organisation and uniforms of the People's Army of Vietnam from its origins in the fight against colonialism, through two separate wars against the US and Khmer Rouge, to its role in the modern era.