People's Army of Vietnam

The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) is the national military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the armed wing of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). The PAVN is the backbone component of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces and includes: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Border Guard and Coast Guard. Vietnam does not have a separate and formally-structured ground force or army service. Instead, all ground troops, army corps, military districts and special forces are designated under the umbrella term combined arms (Vietnamese: binh chủng hợp thành) and belong to the Ministry of National Defence, directly under the command of the CPV Central Military Commission, the Minister of National Defence, and the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army.

During the French Indochina War (1946–1954), the PAVN was often referred to as the Việt Minh. In the context of the Vietnam War (1955–1975), the army was referred to by its opposition forces as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA; Vietnamese: Quân đội Bắc Việt), serving as the military force of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This allowed writers, the U.S. military, and the general public, to distinguish northern communists from the southern communists, called the Viet Cong (VC), or more formally the National Liberation Front. However, both groups ultimately worked under the same command structure. The Viet Cong had its own military forces called the Liberation Army of South Vietnam (LASV). It was practically considered a branch of the PAVN by the North Vietnamese. In 1976, following the political reunification of Vietnam, LASV was officially disbanded and merged into the so-called NVA to form the existing incarnation of PAVN, serving as the national military of the unified state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.