By Todd DePastino
In March 1966, the war in Vietnam was expanding rapidly, and hundreds of thousands of American service members were preparing for deployment. That’s when the Department of Defense published this excellent, illustrated booklet titled Know Your Enemy: The Viet Cong. It was not intended for the general public, but rather for those who would be fighting the counterinsurgency.
Produced by Armed Forces Information and Education, this pamphlet explains who the Viet Cong are, how they’re organized, and how they fight. It also tells readers a bit about the enemy mindset. And the information is presented with striking hand-drawn sketches of fighters, villagers, and terrain. The result is a fascinating artifact revealing much of how the U.S. government understood (and wanted its soldiers to understand) the war they were entering.
The Viet Cong are described as a military force and political movement that relies on indoctrination, secrecy, and terror.
What makes the Viet Cong and their way of warfare so significant is that they started with so little in material assets… but they had a belief in a well-proven doctrine (of subversion), a thorough knowledge of its tactics, and the moral support of their fellow Communists throughout the world.
The pamphlet emphasizes that this was not a conventional enemy in uniformed ranks, but a force embedded in villages and families. Local peasants aren’t be trusted entirely.
The child on the water buffalo may be a Viet Cong spy—but it is better to treat him as a friend in case of doubt.
The war, it makes clear, is one of “hearts and minds,” as VC defectors explain their approach to the war.
We seek to do three things. The first is to drive a wedge between the people and their government… The second objective is to get people to join our armed forces. The third is to persuade them to increase their production of food and give the increase to us.
The booklet explains that the VC aren’t bloodthirsty savages, but well-trained and motivated fighters with indoctrination rituals, oaths of loyalty, and code of honor, which is reproduced verbatim. It characterizes the enemy as formidable, but not superhuman.
The Viet Cong fighting man is not ‘10 feet tall’… Nor is he an incredible fanatic… Yet the Viet Cong has developed into a kind of fighting man who is capable of waging an unconventional war under conditions that would seem hopeless to the average orthodox soldier.
Know Your Enemy: The Viet Cong was part of a broader “Troop Topics” education program run by the Department of Defense during the Vietnam War. These materials were designed to provide orientation to a war that was unconventional and deeply political.
Hundreds of thousands of copies were distributed to four branches of service: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.
You can read the full booklet itself below.
