North Vietnamese Army Early Web Belt and Cast Brass Buckle

This is a fine example of an early NVA VC belt and buckle. The canvas belt has 12 rows of parallel and diamond stitching.  The brass buckle is cast. This is a ChiCom made factory belt for Hanoi. As you know, PLA belts had Chinese characters for 8 and 1 inside the star buckle which represented August 1st, the day of the founding of the PLA.  Belts made for export to the NVA did not bear this symbol. These early khaki canvas belts were later replaced by longer wearing web belts in the mid 1960s.  This belt dates to the late 1950s/early 1960s. Cast buckles likely represented an earlier manufacturing technique which were replaced by stamped brass buckles.