Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam: Encyclopedia II - Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam - Text

Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam - Text

The PRG was formed by the National Liberation Front (NLF); the Alliance of National, Democratic and Peace Forces; and the People's Revolutionary Party. Although notionally non-partisan, and including a number of political viewpoints, in reality it was controlled by the North Vietnamese Communist government which backed it,

It was proclaimed that its purpose was to assume power following the presumed victory of the opponents of the Republic of Vietnam (i.e. after the end of the Vietnam War). In reality, it was formed in large part as a political maneuver to provide a vehicle which could be used to undermine support for the policy of Vietnamization, particularly among the people of South Vietnam.

During the period 1969-1970, most of the PRG's cabinet ministries were operating from jungle hideouts in the Iron Triangle region in South Vietnam near the border with Cambodia. It was driven across the border into Cambodia in April of 1970 by an offensive into the Iron Triangle mounted by ARVN and US forces. For most of its existence thereafter it operated in exile.

Although it was a government of sorts, it did not present a serious challenge to the authority of the existing South Vietnamese government, which was only really vulnerable to a direct military attack from North Vietnam (which was eventually the reason for its demise).

After the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the PRG assumed power as the Republic of South Vietnam.

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