People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF), the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (NLF), which fought with the North Vietnamese army against South Vietnamese and United States forces during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). The fighters of the PLAF were seeking to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunify Vietnam.

The Geneva Accords of 1954, drawn up after the First Indochina War (1946-1954), called for the temporary partition of Vietnam, but provided for national elections to reunify the country in 1956. These elections never took place, however. South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, encouraged by the United States, refused to hold national elections since Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam, was favored to win. This refusal, combined with Diem’s repressive policies, led to general unrest in the south. In order to organize opposition there, the leadership in North Vietnam established the NLF in 1960 and the PLAF in 1961.

Between 1959 and 1964 about 44,000 Communist supporters from North Vietnam infiltrated the south and joined the PLAF. Many of these were originally southerners who had fought with the Viet Minh during the First Indochina War but had been left in the north when Vietnam was divided. Most of the PLAF forces, however, were recruited directly in the south. In order to earn local approval and expand their ranks, the PLAF distributed land, created village governments, opened schools, and assassinated hated landlords and government officials. Numbering about 100,000 in 1964, the PLAF grew to 2 million by 1967.

PLAF forces were grouped into three categories. The local village self-defense forces were the base and the most important; they were responsible for setting booby traps and conducting night raids, and they served as the recruiting pool for the forces above them. At the next level in this organizational pyramid were the regional forces, and then the main forces, which were relatively well armed and capable of traveling great distances.

After the United States began bombing North Vietnam in 1964, the first whole units of North Vietnam’s army, the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), were dispatched to the south, and the PLAF and PAVN began to coordinate their war efforts. When the United States committed troops to the war in 1965, the military command directing PLAF and PAVN operations adjusted its strategy. The PLAF village units began to conduct rapid surprise assaults on U.S. forces at close range, followed by speedy disengagement to avoid American firepower. Other PLAF units coordinated attacks with the PAVN.

During the Tet Offensive in 1968 over 85,000 PLAF troops attacked simultaneously in the five largest cities of South Vietnam, as well as in the 36 province capitals and 64 district capitals. Although the PLAF suffered great losses and the campaign was perceived as a military victory for U.S. forces, it created a psychological turning point in the United States. Many U.S. war planners reluctantly admitted that it seemed almost impossible to dislodge the guerrilla fighters of the PLAF, and public opinion turned against the war. The United States withdrew from the war in 1973, and Vietnam was reunified under a Communist government in 1975. With reunification there was no longer a need for a guerrilla organization, but some PLAF personnel were incorporated into the army of the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam.