Government and the supporters of the Democratic Republic of The Republic of Vietnam, to describe the opponents to his It was first used by Ngoĭinh Diem, First President of The phrase was a shortened form of the Vietnamese "Viet The North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War were known.
There were three names by which South Vietnamese supporters of They were South Vietnamese who supported the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War? As well, many of the earliest Vietnam "advisors" officers and NCOs were Korean and and even WWII vets.īy 1960 I had personally heard several other veterans refer to the Koreans and Japanese as "Charlie."īesides, if "Victor Charlie" were the true origin, I'd think "Victor" would be a more logical and catchy name. Dad, who had served in WWII on Guadacanal and Bouganville and other places, explained that it started there because "Charlie" was considered the ultimate sentry password, as it contained all of the things that were hard for Asians to pronounce: "CH," "R," "L." He said that they often called the "Japs" "Charlie" and the name just carried over in Korea, for similar reasons and because many of the leaders, i.e., the NCOs, were veterans of WWII. He referred to the North Koreans as "Charlie." I asked my father what he meant. When I was 10 or so, circa 1958, my father and I were watching a movie where a POW was testifying about war crimes.
I have personally been witness to "Charlie" being used as the nickname for Asian enemies by US Veterans of WWII and Korea.
However, this etymology is clearly created by an assumption from someone purely talking out of their other end. The conventional wisdom is the NATO Phonetic "Victor Charlie" thing when saying "VC." It has become accepted and I have heard it explained that way in current Vietnam movies as the etymology of the sobriquet "Charlie." It's even on Wikipedia, a source I GENERALLY put a good deal of trust in.
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