In 1885, the Vietnamese emperor, Ham Nghi, called on the people to resist: "Those with intelligence shall contribute ideas; those with strength shall lend their force. The rich shall give money to buy military supplies. The peasants and villagers shall not refuse hardship or evade danger.... Perhaps with Heaven's assistance, we shall be able to turn chaos into order, danger into peace, and finally retrieve our entire territory."

In 1946, Ho Chi Minh's government also appealed to the people: "Whoever you may be, men, women, children, old or young, whatever your religion or whatever your nationality, if you are Vietnamese, rise up to fight the colonialists, to save our country. He who has a gun, let him fight with a gun; he who has a sword, let him fight with the sword; he who has neither gun nor sword let him fight with spades, with pickaxes, with sticks. Let no one stay behind or outside the patriotic struggle against the colonialists."

We are soldiers organized by the National Liberation Front (NLF) into guerrilla units and village militias. The NLF is a coalition native to the south, made up largely of peasants. Many South Vietnamese noncombatants aid us by supplying military information, food, medical services, homemade weapons, and recruits. In return, we organize village self-defense, establish schools, encourage local irrigation projects, and, in general, functioned as a government throughout large areas of the south.