Vietnam Viet Cong DMZ - Quang Tre Flag
This Viet Cong battle flag is made from cotton and it was captured from a Viet Cong patrol, on the 1st of February, 1970 by Corporal Richard "Richie" Bennett, just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam.
The Viet Cong were a political organization that fought the South Vietnamese and the US during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). It emerged on the winning side of the war and they had guerilla and army units fighting for them and they later went on to recruit groups of cadres that managed the peasants living in the local areas who got caught up in the fighting. The National Liberation Front, also known as the NLF, was established by communists from the southern areas in 1960 to encourage non-communists to partake in the war.
The primary members of the Viet Cong were often referred to as "regroupees" and these were predominantly southern Vietminh people who came back to live in the north of Vietnam after the Geneva Accord five years before the war in 1954. The "regroupees" were given military training and then they were sent along the dangerous Ho Chi Minh Trail at the start of the 1960s by Hanoi. The National Liberation Front claimed that peace was their primary target and they wanted to encourage southerners to "overthrow the camouflaged colonial regime of the American imperialists" in order to achieve their goals.
One of the most famous offensives led by the Viet Cong was the Tet Offensive during which time the Viet Cong attacked over 100 urban places in the south of the country in 1968. During the Tet Offensive, a devastating attack took place on the US embassy in Saigon. The fighting captured the attention of the world's media but they soon realized that fighting so many battles meant that they were overstretched and the North Vietnamese forces led future conflicts. The Viet Cong group was dissolved in 1976 after the war ended and South and North Vietnam were unified by a communist government.
Cpl. Bennett, from Glenwood Landing, New York, later donated this flag to the
US Army Ranger Museum in New York City. The flag is framed in a frame measuring 22-1/2 x 27" and unusually there are signatures of the star. On the back of the frame it reads: "Captured/ from Viet/Cong patro/l feb. 1970/south of DMZ/Quang Tre Province/South/By E/4 Richie Bennett USA/Glenwood LDG/NY".
Sources:
National Liberation Front (Vietcong), Flags of the World, 10 September 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/vn-vcong.html
Vietcong, Wikipedia, 10 September 2012, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong
The Tet Offensive: the turning point in the Vietnam War - Part One, Alan Woods
http://www.marxist.com/tet-offensive-part-one.htm
Caodaism, 10 September 2012, from:
http://www.wix.com/lamdathoa/intro/page-1
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
