Viet Cong have addressed the controversy surrounding their name, claiming that they ‘never intended for [it] to be provocative or hurtful’.

The art-rock band’s moniker, which refers to the military force that fought the south Vietnamese government and the US during the Vietnam war, has been criticised in some quarters for its lack of sensitivity. A recent Viet Cong show at Oberlin College’s Dionysus Disco in Ohio was cancelled because of their name, with the promoter apologising for ‘inviting a band with a name that deeply offends and hurts Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American communities’.

The band have now addressed the controversy in a statement, which admits they were ‘naive about the history of a war in a country we knew very little about’.