In school, I am to write a research paper based upon themes in the book The Things They Carried, a novel about the Vietnam War. I want to write about the Viet Cong, given that it's a topic I find interesting that I don't think my other classmates have considered. Can anyone point me to good sources on the VC or maybe help give me a better idea of how their lives were during the war? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Bare Feet Iron Will tells the story of the Vietnam war from the Vietnamese veteran perspective. It's an excellent read and talks about not only front line soldiers but support and medical personnel. It is incredible what they went through to fight the US. Using scrap metal as medical instruments, growing their own food, surviving tiger attacks, it's amazing we don't hear more about their experiences.
I would suggest a novel written Duong Thu Huong, Novel Without a Name. She is a veteran of the war and used that experience to write a more honest account. Though she was in the North Vietnamese armed forced, not the insurgent Viet Cong forces.
Then some more conventional books:
Xiaobing Li, Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans.
Truong Nhu Tang, A Vietcong Memoir. Just to keep in mind, this author exaggerates his importance in the VC/NLF quite a bit. Still offers a good perspective on the war and after 1975.