evidence: On one hand, Hanoi needs historical evidence of China’s encroachment to assert its territorial claim in the increasingly tense South China Sea today. A unified Vietnam led by the CPV inherited the territorial claims of South Vietnam (also known as the Republic of Vietnam) over the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos. On the other hand, it faces a dilemma recognizing the South Vietnamese government, which was its enemy during and even beyond the Vietnam War. [...] In 1977, the Vietnamese government issued a "Statement on the Territorial Sea, the Contiguous Zone, the Exclusive Economic Zone, and the Continental Shelf," in which it asserted that the Spratly and Paracel Islands were an inseparable part of Vietnamese territory. [...] This complicates official remembrance, as it was South Vietnam that spearheaded the efforts to maintain sovereignty over the Paracel Islands. That involved cooperation with numerous countries. Thiệu asked France to provide full documentation of territorial sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea. In October 1973, just a few months prior to the Paracel battle, the National Liberation Front of the South, known in Western media as the "Viet Cong," announced its intention to liberate areas "illegally occupied by the enemy."