Depends on the location; there were slightly more PAVN battalions in the field than VC, and some on-paper VC units were actually reflagged NVA (e.g., the 808th

Depends on the location; there were slightly more PAVN battalions in the field than VC, and some on-paper VC units were actually reflagged NVA (e.g., the 808th battalion). Actions in Saigon and other southern battles were with infiltrated Viet Cong, but Hue was mostly a PAVN action with VC support. There was a lot of MOUT-style urban fighting (5 major cities and 36 regional capitals were targets of the Northern forces, plus around 70 smaller towns and various military bases like Long Binh and Bien Hoa near Saigon), but most of it was relatively short, and US forces took advantage of airmobile capabilities and reasonably good control of major roads to move forces quickly and decisively. Hue was the infamous exception, running for (IIRC) some 25 days of grinding, brutal urban combat with soldiers, Marines and South Vietnamese units clashing with the largest concentration of PAVN forces. After Tet, the North figured out that dispersing their forces was a more effective method of confronting the US (again, IIRC, I think the US suffered more casualties from ambushes and booby traps than conventional assaults in the years after Tet), though they didn't entirely abandon conventional engagements (the 29th PAVN's defense of Hill 937, or "Hamburger Hill," against a determined 101st ABN attack is an example). Even during the war in Cambodia, NVA forces chose to conduct fighting withdrawals, luring South Vietnamese forces far past their logistical limits, and simply relocating their own logistics bases deeper in the country. It wasn't until the disaster of Lam Son 719, when NVA forces stopped the ARVN offensive in Laos, that the North Vietnamese fought a standing battle.