What was the official name of the North Vietnamese military?

The official name of the North Vietnamese military was the People's Army of Vietnam, commonly abbreviated PAVN. In Vietnamese, it is called the Quân đội Nhân dân Việt Nam.

The PAVN was the regular armed force of North Vietnam, formally organized after the August Revolution of 1945. It fought French forces during the First Indochina War and later fought South Vietnamese, American, and allied forces during the Vietnam War. Its units operated alongside the Viet Cong, also known as the National Liberation Front, but the two were not identical organizations.

A common mix-up is calling all communist forces in Vietnam the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong primarily referred to the southern-based insurgency and political-military organization, while the PAVN was North Vietnam's regular army. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam was the opposing South Vietnamese army, and the Khmer Rouge operated mainly in Cambodia.