The Liberation Army of South Vietnam (LASV; Vietnamese: Quân Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam; Chữ Hán: 軍解放沔南越南), also recognized as the Liberation Army (Quân Giải phóng - QGP or Giải phóng quân), was an irregular and regular military force established by the Workers' Party of Vietnam in 1961 in South Vietnam[1] as the nominal armed wing of the National Liberation Front (NLF/Viet Cong) and largely operated as a proxy of the existing People's Army of Vietnam.

In 1962, the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam separated from the Workers' Party of Vietnam in terms of external appearance, openly directing the Liberation Army's military.

[2] The South Vietnamese Liberation Army is under the open direction of the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam, and secretly under the direction of the Politburo of Vietnam Labor Party and the Central Military Commission of the Vietnamese People's Army, Central Department for South Vietnam, the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam.

Regarding secrecy, the Central Department for South Vietnam and the High Command of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam directed in the area B2 (Ninh Thuan to Ca Mau).

[3] According to 1954 Geneva agreements, the Viet Minh were not compulsorily removed to the North because it was a political entity, not a military force.

Hanoi support for the Viet Minh to establish the NLF forces was allowed on the basis that it remained a militia in the South.

The LASV originally carried out operations ostensibly to protect South Vietnamese citizens from offensives by the Republic of Vietnam and the United States.

Command mechanism: Public: The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government led politically The People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam and the Regional Command command military affairs throughout the South Secret: The Politburo and Central Military Commission of the Labor Party of Vietnam, the General Command of the Vietnam People's Army direct the entire South, directly on the battlefields B1, B3, B4, B5.

The Central Department of the South, the Military Commission of the South, the Command of the Region on the battlefield B2, under the general direction of the Labor Party of Vietnam The Politburo, the Secretariat of the Labor Party and directly the Central Department of the South of the Labor Party secretly directed the National Front for Liberation and the Provisional Revolutionary Government.

The LASV had 11 battalions, with commanding generals Trần Văn Trà, Hoàng Văn Thái, Lê Trọng Tấn, Lê Đức Anh, Nguyễn Thị Định, and others.

The LASV initially confined its operations to rural areas due to Ngô Đình Diệm's tough crackdown on Communist sympathizers.

Since 1964, North Vietnam started providing soldiers for the LASV by voluntary mans.

[4] The Viet Minh established the NLF in order to help reunified Vietnam.

PAVN forces that went to the South were sent with the express mission to aid the NLF.

Members of the NLF army had differing and irregular uniforms, depending on circumstances.