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Lapel Pins — Flag of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong)
Object/Artifact
Two small enamel-on-gilt-metal pins cut in the shape of a flag waving from a staff. The staff runs up the left side; the flag flies to the right. The field is horizontally divided: red above, light blue below, with a five-pointed yellow star centered over the division. Gilt cloisonné-style walls outline the staff, the field divisions, and the star. A small gilt loop projects at the lower right.
2025.2.28
Obtained in Cuba by Anna Veltfort and brought to New York City with her when she moved back to the US.
The NLF — the "Viet Cong," the southern communist-led united front and its People's Liberation Armed Forces — fought the United States and the Saigon government through the Vietnam War. Its red-over-blue, gold-star flag (the red the revolution, the blue the not-yet-liberated South) became one of the era's most reproduced solidarity emblems. Cuba was among the Vietnamese cause's most ardent backers, through OSPAAAL/Tricontinental "Por Vietnam" campaigns and the Comité Cubano de Solidaridad con Vietnam del Sur.
Anna Veltfort collection
2025.2
Anna Veltfort
Gift
Maker/Attribution: Unmarked on the visible face; maker and country of manufacture unidentified (such solidarity pins were produced in Vietnam, the socialist bloc, and by Western solidarity movements alike). Date: circa 1960s–1970s (the NLF/PRG flag era, 1960–1976)
1.3 cm
1.5 cm
Single flag-shaped enamel badge with integral staff.
Metal
Gilt metal (brass) with red, light-blue, and yellow vitreous enamel (cloisonné/champlevé) (technique tentative pending inspection).
Good
Anna Veltfort
owner
National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition
New York City
New York
U.S.A.
North America
preservation
Vietnam War
Open questions: whether tied to a specific Cuban solidarity campaign/event.