Why do they call vietnamese people charlies?

Question

Why do they call vietnamese people charlies?

Answer 1

That originated , I think, from the Vietnam war, where American soldiers called the Noth Vietnamese the Viet Cong, or Charlie Cong.

Answer 2

The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Mặt trận Dân tộc Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam), or NLF was also known as the Việt Cộng . The name "Việt Cộng", came from the Vietnamese term for Vietnamese Communist (Việt Nam Cộng Sản).

The NLF was nominally independent of the North Vietnamese armed forces (known as the NVA) and the leadership of the group was communist.

American forces during the Vietnam War typically referred to members of the NLF as Victor Charlie (or simply Charlie) to make a clear separation between these irregular enemy combattants from the NVA, i.e., to distinguish guerilla activities from "normal" or regular army operations.

The term "Charlie" was much more catchy than NLF, VC or NVA and was thus stuck on all "enemies" in daily lingo.

However, it was certainly one of the less derogatory terms, but one has to understand that military service men (especially during combat) are not known to be politically correct.

Answer 3

The Vietnames communist guerillas were called the Viet Cong (by the South Vietnamese) or VC for short.  However, when American soldiers transmit radio messages they do not just use letters because a V could be mistaken for a B or D etc.    So letters are announced using the phonetic alphabet.  There is a word for every letter in the phonetic alphabet.  VC is Victor Charlie.   Which just got shortened to Charlie.

However since this originated in wartime as slang for the enemy, I would consider it offensive and slur to use for all vietnamese people. (that is if you are hearing it now instead of just like in war movies etc.)

Answer 4

Only VN war veterans use those term