Sino-Vietnamese War
Encyclopedia
The Sino–Vietnamese War , also known as the Third Indochina War, known in the PRC as and in Vietnam as Chiến tranh chống bành trướng Trung Hoa (War against Chinese expansionism), was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The PRC launched the offensive in response to Vietnam's 1978 invasion and occupation
of Cambodia
, which ended the reign of the PRC-backed Khmer Rouge
.
The Chinese invaded Northern Vietnam and captured some of the northernmost cities in Vietnam. On March 6 China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved and retreated back to China. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars
of the twentieth century; as Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989 it can be said that the PRC failed to achieve the goal of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia. China achieved its strategic objective of reducing the offensive capability of Vietnam along the Sino-Vietnam border by implementing a scorched earth
policy. China also achieved another strategic objective of demonstrating to its Cold War
foe, the Soviet Union
, that they were unable to protect their Vietnamese ally. As many as 1.5 million Chinese troops were stationed along China's borders with the USSR at the time and were prepared for a full-scale war.
first became a French colony when France invaded in 1858. By the 1880s, the French had expanded their sphere of influence
in Southeast Asia to include all of Vietnam, and by 1893 both Laos
and Cambodia
had become French colonies as well. Rebellions against the French colonial power were common up to World War I
. The European war heightened revolutionary sentiment in Southeast Asia, and the independence-minded population rallied around revolutionaries such as Hồ Chí Minh
and others, including royalists.
Prior to their attack on Pearl Harbor
, the Japanese occupied French Indochina
. The Japanese surrender in 1945 created a power vacuum in Indochina, as the various political factions scrambled for control.
The events leading to the First Indochina War are subject to historical contention. When the Viet Minh
hastily sought to establish the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the remaining French at first welcomed the new regime, but then staged a coup to regain their control. The Kuomintang
supported French restoration, but Viet Minh efforts towards independence were backed by Chinese communists. The Soviet Union
at first supported French hegemony, but later supported Hồ Chí Minh. The Soviets nonetheless remained less supportive than China until after the Sino-Soviet split
, during the time of Leonid Brezhnev
when the Soviet Union became the key ally to communist Vietnam.
The war itself involved numerous events that had major impacts throughout Indochina. Two major conferences were held to bring about a resolution. Finally, on July 20, 1954, the Geneva Conference (1954)
resulted in a political settlement to reunite the country, signed with support from China, Russia, and Western European powers. While the Soviet Union played a constructive role in the agreement, it again was not as involved as China. The U.S. disapproved of the agreement and swiftly moved when the Vietnamese gained their independence.
played an important role in the Viet Minh victory over the French.
After the death of Joseph Stalin
, relations between the Soviet Union and China began to deteriorate. Mao Zedong
believed the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
had made a serious error in his Secret Speech denouncing Stalin, and criticized the Soviet Union's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism
, in particular Khrushchev's support for peaceful co-existence and its interpretation. This led to increasingly hostile relations, and eventually the Sino-Soviet split
. Until Khrushchev was deposed in late 1964, North Vietnam supported China in the dispute, mainly as a result of China's support for its re-unification policy, whereas the Soviet Union remained indifferent. From early 1965 onwards, Vietnamese communists drifted towards the Soviet Union, as now both the Soviet Union and China supplied arms to North Vietnam during their war against South Vietnam
and the United States.
To the PRC, the Soviet-Vietnamese relationship was a disturbing development. It seemed to them that the Soviets were trying to encircle China.
The PRC started talks with the USA in the early 1970s, culminating in high level meetings with Henry Kissinger
and later Richard Nixon
. These meetings contributed to a re-orientation of Chinese foreign policy towards the United States. Meanwhile, the PRC also supported the Khmer Rouge
in Cambodia. The PRC supported Pol Pot
from fear that a unified Vietnam, in alliance with the Soviet Union, would dominate Indochina.
came to power and established Democratic Kampuchea
. The Cambodian regime demanded that certain tracts of land be "returned" to Cambodia, lands that had been "lost" centuries earlier. Unsurprisingly, the Vietnamese refused the demands. According to Vietnam, Pol Pot responded by massacring ethnic Vietnamese inside Cambodia (see History of Cambodia
), and, by 1978, allegedly supporting a Vietnamese guerrilla
army making incursions into western Vietnam. However, it should be noted that Pol Pot massacred people of all races, including ethnic Chinese, ethnic Vietnamese and Cambodians.
Realizing that Cambodia was being supported by the PRC, Vietnam approached the Soviets about possible actions. The Soviets saw this as a major opportunity. The Vietnamese army, relatively fresh from combat with the forces of the United States, would easily be able to defeat the Cambodian forces. This would not only remove the only major PRC-aligned political force in the area but also demonstrate the benefits of being aligned with the USSR. The Vietnamese were equally excited about the potential outcome. Laos
was already a strong ally; if Cambodia could be "turned," Vietnam would emerge as a major regional power, political master of Indochina.
The Vietnamese feared reprisals from the PRC. Over a period of several months in 1978, the Soviets made it clear that they were supporting the Vietnamese against Cambodian incursions. They felt this political show of force would keep the Chinese out of any sort of direct confrontation, allowing the Vietnamese and Cambodians to fight out what was to some extent a Sino-Soviet war by proxy.
In late 1978, the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia
. As expected, their experienced and well-equipped troops had little difficulty defeating the Khmer Rouge forces. On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese-backed Cambodian forces seized Phnom Penh
, thus ending the Khmer Rouge regime.
The PRC, now under Deng Xiaoping
, was starting the Chinese economic reform
and opening trade with NATO nations, in turn, growing increasingly defiant against the USSR. On November 3, 1978, the USSR and Vietnam signed a twenty-five year mutual defense treaty, which made Vietnam the "linchpin" in the USSR's "drive to contain China."
On January 1, 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited the USA for the first time and spoke to American president Jimmy Carter
: "Children who don't listen have to be spanked." (original Chinese words: 小朋友不听话，该打打屁股了。). On February 15, the first day that China could have officially announced the termination of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, Deng Xiaoping declared that China planned to conduct a limited attack on Vietnam.
The reason cited for the attack was the mistreatment of Vietnam's ethnic Chinese minority and the Vietnamese occupation of the Spratly Islands
(claimed by the PRC). To prevent Soviet intervention on Vietnam's behalf, Deng warned Moscow the next day that China was prepared for a full-scale war against the USSR; in preparation for this conflict, China put all of its troops along the Sino-Soviet border on an emergency war alert, set up a new military command in Xinjiang, and even evacuated an estimated 300,000 civilians from the Sino-Soviet border. In addition, the bulk of China's active forces (as many as one-and-a-half million troops) were stationed along China's borders with the USSR.
In response to China's attack, the USSR sent several naval vessels and initiated a Soviet arms airlift to Vietnam. However the USSR felt that there was simply no way that they could directly support Vietnam against the PRC; the distances were too great to be an effective ally, and any sort of reinforcements would have to cross territory controlled by the PRC or U.S. allies. The only realistic option would be to indirectly re-start the simmering border war with China in the north. Vietnam was important to Soviet policy but not enough for the Soviets to go to war over. When Moscow did not intervene, Beijing publicly proclaimed that the USSR had broken its numerous promises to assist Vietnam. The USSR's failure to support Vietnam emboldened China to announce on April 3, 1979, that it intended to terminate the 1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance.
, Type 62
, and Type 63
tanks from the PRC People's Liberation Army
(PLA) entered northern Vietnam. The Chinese force consisted of units from the Kunming
Military Region (later abolished), Chengdu
Military Region, Wuhan
Military Region (later abolished) and Guangzhou Military Region, but commanded by the headquarters of Kunming
Military Region on the western front and Guangzhou Military Region in the eastern front.
Some troops engaged in this war, especially engineering units, railway corps, logistical units and antiaircraft units, had been assigned to assist Vietnam
in its struggle against the United States just a few years earlier during the Vietnam War
. Contrary to the belief that over 600,000 Chinese troops entered Vietnam, the actual number was only 200,000. However, 600,000 Chinese troops were mobilized, of which 200,000 were deployed away from their original bases during the one month conflict. Around 400 tanks (specifically Type 59
s) were also deployed.
The Chinese troop deployments were observed by US spy satellites, and the KH-9 Big Bird photographic reconnaissance satellite played an important role. In his state visit to the US in 1979, the Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping
was presented with this information and asked to confirm the numbers. He replied that the information was completely accurate. After this public confirmation in the U.S., the domestic Chinese media were finally allowed to report on these deployments.
.
, Lao Cai
and Lang Son
. The Vietnamese avoided mobilizing their regular divisions, and held back some 300,000 troops for the defence of Hanoi. The Vietnamese forces tried to avoid direct combat, and often used guerrilla tactics.
The initial Chinese attack soon lost its momentum, and a new wave of attack was sent in. Eight Chinese divisions joined the battle, and captured some of the northernmost cities in Vietnam. After capturing the northern heights above Lang Son, the Chinese surrounded and paused in front of the city in order to lure the Vietnamese into reinforcing it with units from Cambodia. This had been the main strategic ploy in the Chinese war plan as Deng did not want to risk an escalation involving the Soviets. The PVA high command, after a tip-off from Soviet satellite intelligence, was able to see through the trap, however, and committed reserves only to Hanoi. Once this became clear to the PLA, the war was practically over. An assault was still mounted on the PVA 314A division defending the city. After three days of bloody house-to-house fighting, Lang Son fell on March 6. The PLA then took the southern heights above Lang Son and occupied Saba. By now, the PLA could claim to have crushed several of the Vietcong's regular units including the 316A Infantry Division, the 308th Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 345th Infantry Division and the 346th Infantry Division, but they also suffered extensive casualties themselves. The combination of high casualties, a badly organized command, harsh Vietnamese resistance and the risk of the Soviets entering the conflict stopped the Chinese from going any further.
On March 6, China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved. On the way back to the Chinese border, the PLA destroyed all local infrastructure and housing and looted all useful equipment and resources (including livestock), which were mainly donated by China to support Vietnam's economy prior to the war, completely paralyzing the economy of northern Vietnam. The PLA crossed the border back into China on March 16. While China claimed to have crushed the Vietnamese resistance, Vietnam claimed that China had mostly only fought against border militias. This allowed both sides to claim military victory, as both sides claimed to have taught their opponent a lesson.
Wei Jingsheng
told western media in 1980 the Chinese troops had suffered 9,000 deaths and more than 10,000 wounded during the war, but a recent leak showed that the PLA had 6,954 killed and 14,800 wounded, and 238 Prisoners of War in the course of the war.
Vietnamese armed personnel:
Regular forces (from Chinese sources): 100,100 killed in total, Wounded: more than 10,000. 2210 Prisoners of War. Province Militia and divisions of the Public Security Army: unknown, the causality estimated: 70,000
" while returning to China, causing extensive damage to the Vietnamese countryside and infrastructure. Although Vietnam continued to occupy Cambodia, China successfully mobilized international opposition to the occupation, rallying such leaders as Cambodia's deposed king Norodom Sihanouk
, Cambodian anticommunist leader Son Sann
, and high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge to deny the pro-Vietnam regime in Cambodia diplomatic recognition beyond the Soviet bloc. China improved relations with ASEAN by promising protection to Thailand
and Singapore
against "Vietnamese aggression". In contrast, Vietnam's decreasing prestige in the region led it to be more dependent on the Soviet Union
, to which it leased a naval base at Cam Ranh Bay
.
Border skirmishes continued throughout the 1980s
, including a significant skirmish in April 1984. Armed conflict only ended in 1989 after the Vietnamese agreed to fully withdraw from Cambodia. This conflict also saw the first use of the Type 81 assault rifle
by the Chinese and a naval battle over the Spratly Islands
in 1988. In 1999 after many years of negotiations, China and Vietnam signed a border pact, though the line of demarcation remained secret. There was a very slight adjustment of the land border, resulting in land being given up to China, which caused the widespread complaints within Vietnam. Vietnam's official news service reported the implementation of the new border around August 2001. Again in January 2009 the border demarcation with markers was officially completed, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Dung on the Vietnamese side and his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, on the Chinese side. Both the Paracel
(Hoàng Sa: Vietnamese) (Xīshā: Chinese) and Spratly
(Trường Sa: Vietnamese) (Nansha: Chinese) islands remain a point of contention.
However, Henry Kissinger
argues that "conventional wisdom is based ... on a misapprehension of the Chinese strategy" and views it as a successful bid to demonstrate the limits of Soviet power. Lee Kuan Yew
points out that Deng Xiaoping had made public statements attacking the Soviet Union prior to the war, and concurs: "The Western press wrote off the Chinese punitive action as a failure. I believe it changed the history of East Asia."
Deng Xiaoping told Henry Kissinger that "There wasn't a defense line left all the way to Hanoi" and mused about whether it would have been a good idea to have advanced further into Vietnam.
: Some historians stated that the war was started by Mr. Deng (China's then paramount leader
Deng Xiaoping) to keep the army preoccupied while he consolidated power...
The Chinese official name for the war was 对越自卫反击战 (duì yuè zìwèi fǎnjī zhàn), roughly translated as 'self-defense counterattack against Vietnam'.
" originally written to laud the sacrifice and service of the Chinese military, to the 1986 film The Big Parade
which carried (as far as possible, in China at that time) veiled criticism of the war.
Cambodian-Vietnamese War
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea. The war began with isolated clashes along the land and maritime boundaries of Vietnam and Kampuchea between 1975 and 1977, occasionally involving division-sized military formations...
of Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, which ended the reign of the PRC-backed Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
.
The Chinese invaded Northern Vietnam and captured some of the northernmost cities in Vietnam. On March 6 China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved and retreated back to China. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars
Indochina Wars
The Indochina Wars were a series of wars fought in Southeast Asia from 1947 until 1979, between nationalist Vietnamese against French, American, and Chinese forces. The term "Indochina" originally referred to French Indochina, which included the current states of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In...
of the twentieth century; as Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989 it can be said that the PRC failed to achieve the goal of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia. China achieved its strategic objective of reducing the offensive capability of Vietnam along the Sino-Vietnam border by implementing a scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policy. China also achieved another strategic objective of demonstrating to its Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
foe, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, that they were unable to protect their Vietnamese ally. As many as 1.5 million Chinese troops were stationed along China's borders with the USSR at the time and were prepared for a full-scale war.
France vs Vietnam: First Indochina War
VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
first became a French colony when France invaded in 1858. By the 1880s, the French had expanded their sphere of influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
in Southeast Asia to include all of Vietnam, and by 1893 both Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
had become French colonies as well. Rebellions against the French colonial power were common up to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The European war heightened revolutionary sentiment in Southeast Asia, and the independence-minded population rallied around revolutionaries such as Hồ Chí Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
and others, including royalists.
Prior to their attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, the Japanese occupied French Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
. The Japanese surrender in 1945 created a power vacuum in Indochina, as the various political factions scrambled for control.
The events leading to the First Indochina War are subject to historical contention. When the Viet Minh
Viet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
hastily sought to establish the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the remaining French at first welcomed the new regime, but then staged a coup to regain their control. The Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
supported French restoration, but Viet Minh efforts towards independence were backed by Chinese communists. The Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
at first supported French hegemony, but later supported Hồ Chí Minh. The Soviets nonetheless remained less supportive than China until after the Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
, during the time of Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
when the Soviet Union became the key ally to communist Vietnam.
The war itself involved numerous events that had major impacts throughout Indochina. Two major conferences were held to bring about a resolution. Finally, on July 20, 1954, the Geneva Conference (1954)
Geneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
resulted in a political settlement to reunite the country, signed with support from China, Russia, and Western European powers. While the Soviet Union played a constructive role in the agreement, it again was not as involved as China. The U.S. disapproved of the agreement and swiftly moved when the Vietnamese gained their independence.
Sino–Soviet split
The Chinese Communist Party and the Viet Minh had a long history. During the initial stages of the First Indochina War with France, the recently founded communist People's Republic of China and the Viet Minh had close ties. In early 1950, China became the first country in the world to recognise the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the 'Chinese Military Advisory Group' under Wei GuoqingWei Guoqing
Wei Guoqing was a Chinese government official, military officer and political commissar. He served on the Communist Party of China's Politburo and as Director of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department...
played an important role in the Viet Minh victory over the French.
After the death of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, relations between the Soviet Union and China began to deteriorate. Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
believed the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
had made a serious error in his Secret Speech denouncing Stalin, and criticized the Soviet Union's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
, in particular Khrushchev's support for peaceful co-existence and its interpretation. This led to increasingly hostile relations, and eventually the Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
. Until Khrushchev was deposed in late 1964, North Vietnam supported China in the dispute, mainly as a result of China's support for its re-unification policy, whereas the Soviet Union remained indifferent. From early 1965 onwards, Vietnamese communists drifted towards the Soviet Union, as now both the Soviet Union and China supplied arms to North Vietnam during their war against South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
and the United States.
US war in Vietnam: Second Indochina War
The Soviets welcomed the Vietnamese drift toward the USSR, seeing Vietnam as a way to demonstrate that they were the "real power" behind communism in the Far East.To the PRC, the Soviet-Vietnamese relationship was a disturbing development. It seemed to them that the Soviets were trying to encircle China.
The PRC started talks with the USA in the early 1970s, culminating in high level meetings with Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
and later Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. These meetings contributed to a re-orientation of Chinese foreign policy towards the United States. Meanwhile, the PRC also supported the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
in Cambodia. The PRC supported Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
from fear that a unified Vietnam, in alliance with the Soviet Union, would dominate Indochina.
Cambodia
Although the Vietnamese Communists and the Khmer Rouge had previously cooperated, the relationship deteriorated when Khmer Rouge leader Pol PotPol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
came to power and established Democratic Kampuchea
Democratic Kampuchea
The Khmer Rouge period refers to the rule of Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Khieu Samphan and the Khmer Rouge Communist party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea....
. The Cambodian regime demanded that certain tracts of land be "returned" to Cambodia, lands that had been "lost" centuries earlier. Unsurprisingly, the Vietnamese refused the demands. According to Vietnam, Pol Pot responded by massacring ethnic Vietnamese inside Cambodia (see History of Cambodia
History of Cambodia
- Prehistory and early history :Carbon 14 dating of a cave at Laang Spean in northwest Cambodia reveals people who made pots were living in Cambodia as early as 4200 BCE . Further archaeological evidence indicates that other parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited from around...
), and, by 1978, allegedly supporting a Vietnamese guerrilla
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
army making incursions into western Vietnam. However, it should be noted that Pol Pot massacred people of all races, including ethnic Chinese, ethnic Vietnamese and Cambodians.
Realizing that Cambodia was being supported by the PRC, Vietnam approached the Soviets about possible actions. The Soviets saw this as a major opportunity. The Vietnamese army, relatively fresh from combat with the forces of the United States, would easily be able to defeat the Cambodian forces. This would not only remove the only major PRC-aligned political force in the area but also demonstrate the benefits of being aligned with the USSR. The Vietnamese were equally excited about the potential outcome. Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
was already a strong ally; if Cambodia could be "turned," Vietnam would emerge as a major regional power, political master of Indochina.
The Vietnamese feared reprisals from the PRC. Over a period of several months in 1978, the Soviets made it clear that they were supporting the Vietnamese against Cambodian incursions. They felt this political show of force would keep the Chinese out of any sort of direct confrontation, allowing the Vietnamese and Cambodians to fight out what was to some extent a Sino-Soviet war by proxy.
In late 1978, the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia
Cambodian-Vietnamese War
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea. The war began with isolated clashes along the land and maritime boundaries of Vietnam and Kampuchea between 1975 and 1977, occasionally involving division-sized military formations...
. As expected, their experienced and well-equipped troops had little difficulty defeating the Khmer Rouge forces. On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese-backed Cambodian forces seized Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
, thus ending the Khmer Rouge regime.
People's Republic of China (PRC) vs. Vietnam: Third Indochina War
While the first war emerged from the complex situation following World War II and the second exploded from the unresolved aftermath of political relations with the first, the Third Indochina War again followed the unsolved problems of the earlier wars. The fact remains that: "Peace did not come to Indochina with either American 1973 withdrawal or Hanoi's 1975 victory" as disputes erupted over Cambodia and relations with China.The PRC, now under Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
, was starting the Chinese economic reform
Chinese economic reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...
and opening trade with NATO nations, in turn, growing increasingly defiant against the USSR. On November 3, 1978, the USSR and Vietnam signed a twenty-five year mutual defense treaty, which made Vietnam the "linchpin" in the USSR's "drive to contain China."
On January 1, 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited the USA for the first time and spoke to American president Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
: "Children who don't listen have to be spanked." (original Chinese words: 小朋友不听话，该打打屁股了。). On February 15, the first day that China could have officially announced the termination of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, Deng Xiaoping declared that China planned to conduct a limited attack on Vietnam.
The reason cited for the attack was the mistreatment of Vietnam's ethnic Chinese minority and the Vietnamese occupation of the Spratly Islands
Spratly Islands
The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines and Malaysia , about one third of the way from there to southern Vietnam. They comprise less than four square kilometers of land...
(claimed by the PRC). To prevent Soviet intervention on Vietnam's behalf, Deng warned Moscow the next day that China was prepared for a full-scale war against the USSR; in preparation for this conflict, China put all of its troops along the Sino-Soviet border on an emergency war alert, set up a new military command in Xinjiang, and even evacuated an estimated 300,000 civilians from the Sino-Soviet border. In addition, the bulk of China's active forces (as many as one-and-a-half million troops) were stationed along China's borders with the USSR.
In response to China's attack, the USSR sent several naval vessels and initiated a Soviet arms airlift to Vietnam. However the USSR felt that there was simply no way that they could directly support Vietnam against the PRC; the distances were too great to be an effective ally, and any sort of reinforcements would have to cross territory controlled by the PRC or U.S. allies. The only realistic option would be to indirectly re-start the simmering border war with China in the north. Vietnam was important to Soviet policy but not enough for the Soviets to go to war over. When Moscow did not intervene, Beijing publicly proclaimed that the USSR had broken its numerous promises to assist Vietnam. The USSR's failure to support Vietnam emboldened China to announce on April 3, 1979, that it intended to terminate the 1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance.
Chinese forces
On February 17, a PRC force of about 200,000 supported by 200 Type 59Type 59
The Type 59 main battle tank is a Chinese produced version of the Soviet T-54A tank, an improvement over the ubiquitous T-54/55. The first vehicles were produced in 1958 and it was accepted into service in 1959, with serial production beginning in 1963...
, Type 62
Type 62
The Norinco Type 62 is a Chinese light tank developed in the early 1960s and is based on the Chinese Type 59 with a reduced main gun caliber, lighter armour and a smaller suite of electronics and other equipment to help reduce weight. The Type 62 is still used by the Chinese People's Liberation...
, and Type 63
Type 63 light tank
The Norinco Type 63 is a Chinese amphibious light tank. First fielded in 1963, it is in many ways similar to the earlier Soviet PT-76. However, contrary to the popular belief, it does have some essential differences from the PT-76 in the vehicle's waterjet propulsion system, etc...
tanks from the PRC People's Liberation Army
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
(PLA) entered northern Vietnam. The Chinese force consisted of units from the Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
Military Region (later abolished), Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
Military Region, Wuhan
Wuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
Military Region (later abolished) and Guangzhou Military Region, but commanded by the headquarters of Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
Military Region on the western front and Guangzhou Military Region in the eastern front.
Some troops engaged in this war, especially engineering units, railway corps, logistical units and antiaircraft units, had been assigned to assist Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
in its struggle against the United States just a few years earlier during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Contrary to the belief that over 600,000 Chinese troops entered Vietnam, the actual number was only 200,000. However, 600,000 Chinese troops were mobilized, of which 200,000 were deployed away from their original bases during the one month conflict. Around 400 tanks (specifically Type 59
Type 59
The Type 59 main battle tank is a Chinese produced version of the Soviet T-54A tank, an improvement over the ubiquitous T-54/55. The first vehicles were produced in 1958 and it was accepted into service in 1959, with serial production beginning in 1963...
s) were also deployed.
The Chinese troop deployments were observed by US spy satellites, and the KH-9 Big Bird photographic reconnaissance satellite played an important role. In his state visit to the US in 1979, the Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
was presented with this information and asked to confirm the numbers. He replied that the information was completely accurate. After this public confirmation in the U.S., the domestic Chinese media were finally allowed to report on these deployments.
Chinese order of battle
- GuangxiGuangxiGuangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
Direction (East Front) commanded by the Front Headquarter of Guangzhou Military Region in NanningNanningNanning is the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. It is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush tropical foliage.-History:...
. Commander-Xu ShiyouXu ShiyouXu Shiyou was a general in the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Born in Hubei, Xu grew up studying martial arts at the Shaolin Temple for eight years and he later became a soldier in Wu Peifu's warlord army...
, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Xiang Zhonghua, Chief of StaffChief of StaffThe title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
-Zhou Deli- North Group: Commander-Ou Zhifu (Deputy Commander of Guangzhou Military Region)
- 41st Corps41st Army (People's Republic of China)The 41st Group Army is one of two Group Armies assigned to the Guangzhou Military Region....
Commander-Zhang Xudeng, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Liu Zhanrong- 121st Infantry Division Commander-Zheng Wenshui
- 122nd Infantry Division Commander-Li Xinliang
- 123rd Infantry Division Commander-Li Peijiang
- 41st Corps
- South Group: Commander-Wu Zhong (Deputy Commander of Guangzhou Military Region)
- 42nd Corps42nd Army (People's Republic of China)The 42nd Army is a group army - a roughly corps-sized military formation - of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, active since the late 1940s.-History:...
Commander-Wei Huajie, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Xun Li- 124th Infantry Division124th Division (People's Republic of China)The 124th Division was a division deployed by the People's Republic of China. During the Korean War, it was the first Chinese unit to cross the Yalu River.-History:...
Commander-Gu Hui - 125th Infantry Division125th Division (People's Republic of China)The 125th Division was a division deployed by the People's Republic of China.-History:The 125th Division was a military formation of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War with a standard strength of approximately 10,000 men...
- 126th Infantry Division126th Division (People's Republic of China)The 126th Division was a division deployed by the People's Republic of China.-History:The 126th Division was a military formation deployed by the People's Republic of China as part of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War. It had a standard strength of approximately 10,000 men...
- 124th Infantry Division
- 42nd Corps
- East Group: Commander-Jiang Xieyuan (Deputy Commander of Guangzhou Military Region)
- 55th Corps Commander-Zhu Yuehua, Temporary Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Guo Changzeng- 163rd Infantry Division Commander-Bian Guixiang, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Wu Enqing, Chief of Staff-Xing Shizhong - 164th Infantry Division Commander-Xiao Xuchu (also Deputy Commander of 55th Corps)
- 165th Infantry Division
- 163rd Infantry Division Commander-Bian Guixiang, Political Commissar
- 1st Artillery Division
- 55th Corps Commander-Zhu Yuehua, Temporary Political Commissar
- Reserve Group (came from Wuhan Military Region except 50th Corps from Chengdu Military Region), Deputy Commander-Han Huaizhi (Commander of 54th Corps)
- 43rd Corp Commander-Zhu Chuanyu, Temporary Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Zhao Shengchang- 127th Infantry Division127th Division (People's Republic of China)The 127th Light Mechanized Infantry Division is the primary maneuver element of the 54th Group Army in the Jinan Military Region.The 127th Light Mobile Mechanized Infantry Division is one of the most famous and best-equipped PLA formations. Its three main regiments, the 371st, 379th, and 380th, are...
Commander-Zhang WannianZhang WannianZhang Wannian was a general of the People's Republic of China.-Biography:General Zhang Wannian was born in Huangxian county , Shandong Province of China in August 1928....
(also as the Deputy Commander of 43rd Corps) - 128th Infantry Division
- 129th Infantry Division
- 127th Infantry Division
- 54th Corps54th Army (People's Republic of China)The 54th Group Army is one of three group armies assigned to the Jinan Military Region....
Commander-Han Huaizhi (pluralism), Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Zhu Zhiwei- 160th Infantry Division (commanded by 41st Corp in this war) Commander-Zhang ZhixinZhang ZhixinZhang Zhixin was a dissident during the Cultural Revolution who became famous for criticizing the idolization of Mao Zedong and the ultra-left...
, Political Commissar-Li Zhaogui - 161st Infantry Division
- 162nd Infantry Division Commander-Li Jiulong
- 160th Infantry Division (commanded by 41st Corp in this war) Commander-Zhang Zhixin
- 50th Corps Temporary Commander-Liu Guangtong, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Gao Xingyao- 148th Infantry Division148th Division (People's Republic of China)The 148th Division was a military formation of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War with a standard strength of approximately 10,000 men. It was a component of the 50th Army, consisting of the 442nd, 443rd, and 444th Regiments....
- 150th Infantry Division150th Division (People's Republic of China)-History:The 150th Division was a military formation of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War with a standard strength of approximately 10,000 men. It was a component of the 50th Army, consisting of the 448th, 449th, and 450th Regiments....
- 148th Infantry Division
- 20th Corps20th Army (People's Republic of China)The 20th Army was a military formation of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War.-Organization:...
(only dispatched the 58th Division into the war)- 58th Infantry Division58th Division (People's Republic of China)-Korean War:The 58th Division was a military formation of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War. They were a component of the 20th Army, consisting of the 172nd, 173rd, and 174th Regiments.The 58th Division attacked the U.S. Marines holding Hagaru-ri during the Battle of Chosin...
(commanded by the 50th Corps during the war)
- 58th Infantry Division
- 43rd Corp Commander-Zhu Chuanyu, Temporary Political Commissar
- Guangxi Military Region (as a provincial military region) Commander-Zhao Xinran Chief of StaffChief of StaffThe title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
-Yin Xi- 1st Regiment of Frontier Defense in Youyiguan Pass
- 2nd Regiment of Frontier Defense in Baise District
- 3rd Regiment of Frontier Defense in FangchengFangcheng DistrictFangcheng District is a district of Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of Fangchenggang city....
County - The Independent Infantry Division of Guangxi Military Region
- Air Force of Guangzhou Military Region (armed patrol in the sky of GuangxiGuangxiGuangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
, did not see combat)- 7th Air Force Corp
- 13th Air Force Division (aerotransport unit came from HubeiHubei' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
province)
- 70th Antiaircraft Artillery Division
- The 217 Fleet of South Sea FleetSouth Sea FleetThe People's Republic of China's South Sea Fleet was first established in late 1949. The flagship of the SSF is the AOR/AK Nanchang ....
- 8th Navy Aviation Division
- The Independent Tank Regiment of Guangzhou Military Region
- 83rd Bateau Boat Regiment
- 84th Bateau Boat Regiment
- North Group: Commander-Ou Zhifu (Deputy Commander of Guangzhou Military Region)
- YunnanYunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
Direction (the West Front) commanded by the Front Headquarter of Kunming Military Region in KaiyuanKaiyuan, YunnanKaiyuan is a county-level city within the jurisdiction of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province, China.-Demography:...
. Commander-Yang DezhiYang DezhiYang Dezhi was a senior military officer in the North China Field Army, a veteran of the Korean War and commander in China during the Sino–Vietnamese War or Third Indochina War, a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the China and the Vietnam...
, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Liu Zhijian, Chief of StaffChief of StaffThe title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
-Sun Ganqing- 11th Corp(consisted of two divisions) Commander-Chen Jiagui, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Zhang QiZhang QiZhang Qi is a male Chinese shot putter.He won the bronze medal at the 2005 Asian Championships and finished fifth at the 2006 Asian Games. He also competed at the 2006 World Indoor Championships without reaching the final....
- 31st Infantry Division
- 32nd Infantry Division
- 13th Corps(camed from Chengdu Military Region) Commander-Yan Shouqing, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Qiao Xueting- 37th Infantry Division
- 38th Infantry Division
- 39th Infantry Division
- 14th Corp Commander-Zhang Jinghua, Political CommissarPolitical commissarThe political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
-Fan Xinyou- 40th Infantry Division
- 41st Infantry Division
- 42nd Infantry Division
- 149th Infantry Division149th Division (People's Republic of China)-History:The 149th Division was a military formation of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War with a standard strength of approximately 10,000 men...
(from Chengdu Military Region, belonged to 50th Corps, assigned to Yunnan Direction during the war) - Yunnan Military Region (as a provincial military region)
- 11th Regiment of Frontier Defense in Maguan County
- 12th Regiment of Frontier Defense in Malipo County
- 13th Regiment of Frontier Defense in
- 14th Regiment of Frontier Defense in
- The Independent Infantry Division of Yunnan Military Region commanded by 11th Corps in the war
- 65th Antiaircraft Artillery Division
- 4th Artillery Division
- Independent Tank Regiment of Kunming Military Region
- 86th Bateau Boat Regiment
- 23rd Logistic Branch consisted of five army service stations, six hospitals, eleven medical establishments)
- 17th Automobile Regiment commanded by 13th Corps during the war
- 22nd Automobile Regiment
- 5th Air Force Corps
- 44th Air Force Division (fighter unit)
- Independent unit of 27th Air Force Division
- 15th Air Force Antiaircraft Artillery Division
- 11th Corp(consisted of two divisions) Commander-Chen Jiagui, Political Commissar
Vietnamese forces
The Vietnamese government claimed they left only a force of about 70,000 including several army regular divisions in its northern area. However, the Chinese claimed to have encountered more than twice this number. During the war, Vietnamese forces also used American military equipment abandoned during the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Course of the war
The Chinese entered Northern Vietnam and advanced quickly about 15–20 kilometers into Vietnam, with fighting mainly occurring in the provinces of Cao BangCao Bang Province
Cao Bằng is a province of northeastern Vietnam. The province has borders with Hà Giang, Tuyên Quang, Bắc Kạn, and Lạng Sơn provinces within Vietnam. It also has common international border with Guangxi province of the People's Republic of China...
, Lao Cai
Lao Cai Province
Lào Cai , is a province of northeastern in the mountainous region of Vietnam, bordering the province of Yunnan in the China. The province covers an area of 6383.9 square kilometres and as of 2008 it had a population of 602,300 people....
and Lang Son
Lạng Sơn Province
Lạng Sơn is a province in far northern Vietnam, bordering Guangxi province in China. Its capital is also called Lang Son, which is a strategically important town at the border with China and is northeast of Hanoi connected by rail and road...
. The Vietnamese avoided mobilizing their regular divisions, and held back some 300,000 troops for the defence of Hanoi. The Vietnamese forces tried to avoid direct combat, and often used guerrilla tactics.
The initial Chinese attack soon lost its momentum, and a new wave of attack was sent in. Eight Chinese divisions joined the battle, and captured some of the northernmost cities in Vietnam. After capturing the northern heights above Lang Son, the Chinese surrounded and paused in front of the city in order to lure the Vietnamese into reinforcing it with units from Cambodia. This had been the main strategic ploy in the Chinese war plan as Deng did not want to risk an escalation involving the Soviets. The PVA high command, after a tip-off from Soviet satellite intelligence, was able to see through the trap, however, and committed reserves only to Hanoi. Once this became clear to the PLA, the war was practically over. An assault was still mounted on the PVA 314A division defending the city. After three days of bloody house-to-house fighting, Lang Son fell on March 6. The PLA then took the southern heights above Lang Son and occupied Saba. By now, the PLA could claim to have crushed several of the Vietcong's regular units including the 316A Infantry Division, the 308th Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 345th Infantry Division and the 346th Infantry Division, but they also suffered extensive casualties themselves. The combination of high casualties, a badly organized command, harsh Vietnamese resistance and the risk of the Soviets entering the conflict stopped the Chinese from going any further.
On March 6, China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved. On the way back to the Chinese border, the PLA destroyed all local infrastructure and housing and looted all useful equipment and resources (including livestock), which were mainly donated by China to support Vietnam's economy prior to the war, completely paralyzing the economy of northern Vietnam. The PLA crossed the border back into China on March 16. While China claimed to have crushed the Vietnamese resistance, Vietnam claimed that China had mostly only fought against border militias. This allowed both sides to claim military victory, as both sides claimed to have taught their opponent a lesson.
Chinese casualties
To this day, both sides of the conflict describe themselves as the victor. The number of casualties is disputed, with some Western sources putting PLA casualties at more than 20,000 throughout the war. Chinese democracy activistChinese democracy movement
The Chinese democracy movement refers to a series of loosely organized political movements in the People's Republic of China against the continued one-party rule by the Communist Party. One such movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and was taken up again in the Tiananmen Square...
Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng is a Chinese activist known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement, most prominent for authoring the document Fifth Modernization on the "Democracy Wall" in Beijing in 1978. He is generally known for getting arrested and spending 15 years in prison due to the document...
told western media in 1980 the Chinese troops had suffered 9,000 deaths and more than 10,000 wounded during the war, but a recent leak showed that the PLA had 6,954 killed and 14,800 wounded, and 238 Prisoners of War in the course of the war.
Vietnamese casualties
There are no independently verifiable details of Vietnamese casualties; like their counterparts in the Chinese government, the Vietnamese government has never announced any information on its actual military casualties. The Nhan Dan newspaper the Central Organ of the Communist Party of Vietnam claimed that Vietnam suffered more than 10,000 civilian deaths during the Chinese invasion and earlier on May 17, 1979, reported statistics on heavy losses of industry and agriculture properties.Vietnamese armed personnel:
Regular forces (from Chinese sources): 100,100 killed in total, Wounded: more than 10,000. 2210 Prisoners of War. Province Militia and divisions of the Public Security Army: unknown, the causality estimated: 70,000
Aftermath
The aftermath of the war had different effects. China and Vietnam each lost thousands of troops, and China lost 3,446 million yuan in overhead, which delayed completion of their 1979–80 economic plan. To reduce Vietnam's military capability against China, the Chinese implemented a "scorched-earth policyScorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
" while returning to China, causing extensive damage to the Vietnamese countryside and infrastructure. Although Vietnam continued to occupy Cambodia, China successfully mobilized international opposition to the occupation, rallying such leaders as Cambodia's deposed king Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
, Cambodian anticommunist leader Son Sann
Son Sann
Son Sann was a Cambodian politician and anti-communist resistance leader. Born in Phnom Penh, he held the office of Prime Minister in 1967-68. A devout Buddhist, he fathered seven children and was married....
, and high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge to deny the pro-Vietnam regime in Cambodia diplomatic recognition beyond the Soviet bloc. China improved relations with ASEAN by promising protection to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
against "Vietnamese aggression". In contrast, Vietnam's decreasing prestige in the region led it to be more dependent on the Soviet Union
Russia–Vietnam relations
Russia–Vietnam relations date back formally to 30 January 1950, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established an embassy to North Vietnam.-History:...
, to which it leased a naval base at Cam Ranh Bay
Cam Ranh Bay
Cam Ranh Bay is a deep-water bay in Vietnam in the province of Khánh Hòa. It is located at an inlet of the South China Sea situated on the southeastern coast of Vietnam, between Phan Rang and Nha Trang, approximately 290 kilometers / 180 miles northeast of Hồ Chí Minh City / Saigon.Cam Ranh is...
.
Border skirmishes continued throughout the 1980s
Sino-Vietnamese conflicts 1979-1990
The Sino-Vietnamese conflicts of 1979–1990 were a series of border clashes between China and Vietnam following the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979....
, including a significant skirmish in April 1984. Armed conflict only ended in 1989 after the Vietnamese agreed to fully withdraw from Cambodia. This conflict also saw the first use of the Type 81 assault rifle
Type 81 Assault Rifle
The Type 81 assault rifle was the principal automatic rifle used by the Chinese People's Liberation Army from the mid-1980s until 1995. It incorporates elements of the Dragunov Sniper Rifle, SKS, and AK series rifles in general looks...
by the Chinese and a naval battle over the Spratly Islands
Johnson South Reef Skirmish
The Johnson South Reef Skirmish of 1988 was a naval battle that took place between Chinese and Vietnamese forces over Johnson South Reef in the Spratly Islands on March 14, 1988...
in 1988. In 1999 after many years of negotiations, China and Vietnam signed a border pact, though the line of demarcation remained secret. There was a very slight adjustment of the land border, resulting in land being given up to China, which caused the widespread complaints within Vietnam. Vietnam's official news service reported the implementation of the new border around August 2001. Again in January 2009 the border demarcation with markers was officially completed, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Dung on the Vietnamese side and his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, on the Chinese side. Both the Paracel
Paracel Islands
The Paracel Islands, also called Xisha Islands in Chinese and Hoàng Sa Islands in Vietnamese, is a group of islands under the administration of Hainan Province, The People's Republic of China. Vietnam and the Republic of China also claim sovereignty of these islands...
(Hoàng Sa: Vietnamese) (Xīshā: Chinese) and Spratly
Spratly Islands
The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines and Malaysia , about one third of the way from there to southern Vietnam. They comprise less than four square kilometers of land...
(Trường Sa: Vietnamese) (Nansha: Chinese) islands remain a point of contention.
Relations after the war
The December 2007 announcement of a plan to build a Hanoi-Kunming highway was a landmark in Sino-Vietnamese relations. The road will traverse the border that once served as a battleground. It should contribute to demilitarizing the border region, as well as facilitating trade and industrial cooperation between the nations.Assessment
The conventional wisdom among Western military analysts is that the war was a failure of Chinese strategy, as Vietnam continued to occupy Cambodia for another decade. These analysts explicitly separate the Chinese attack in 1979 from the continued international pressure on Vietnam throughout the 1980s, and credit the latter for Vietnam's ultimate withdrawal from Cambodia.However, Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
argues that "conventional wisdom is based ... on a misapprehension of the Chinese strategy" and views it as a successful bid to demonstrate the limits of Soviet power. Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
points out that Deng Xiaoping had made public statements attacking the Soviet Union prior to the war, and concurs: "The Western press wrote off the Chinese punitive action as a failure. I believe it changed the history of East Asia."
Deng Xiaoping told Henry Kissinger that "There wasn't a defense line left all the way to Hanoi" and mused about whether it would have been a good idea to have advanced further into Vietnam.
Reflections from international and Chinese media
On March 1, 2005, Howard W. French wrote in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
: Some historians stated that the war was started by Mr. Deng (China's then paramount leader
Paramount leader
Paramount leader literally "the highest leader of the party and the state ", in modern Chinese political science, unofficially refers to the political leader of the People's Republic of China....
Deng Xiaoping) to keep the army preoccupied while he consolidated power...
The Chinese official name for the war was 对越自卫反击战 (duì yuè zìwèi fǎnjī zhàn), roughly translated as 'self-defense counterattack against Vietnam'.
Chinese media
There are a number of Chinese songs, movies and TV programs depicting and discussing this conflict with Vietnam in 1979 from the Chinese viewpoint. These vary from the patriotic song "Bloodstained GloryBloodstained Glory
Blood-stained Glory is a Chinese folk song written in 1987. Originally used to commemorate those who died during Sino-Vietnamese War, the song instead became popular for its commemoration of those who died during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.-Chinese:也許我告別 將不再回來，你是否理解？你是否明白？也許我倒下...
" originally written to laud the sacrifice and service of the Chinese military, to the 1986 film The Big Parade
The Big Parade (1986 film)
The Big Parade is a 1986 Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige. The story of a tough drill sergeant and his raw recruits, The Big Parade stars Wang Xueqi, Sun Chun, and was photographed by Zhang Yimou....
which carried (as far as possible, in China at that time) veiled criticism of the war.
See also
- Battle of the Paracel Islands
- Johnson South Reef SkirmishJohnson South Reef SkirmishThe Johnson South Reef Skirmish of 1988 was a naval battle that took place between Chinese and Vietnamese forces over Johnson South Reef in the Spratly Islands on March 14, 1988...
- Sino-Soviet border conflictSino-Soviet border conflictThe Sino–Soviet border conflict was a seven-month military conflict between the Soviet Union and China at the height of the Sino–Soviet split in 1969. The most serious of these border clashes occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River, also known as Damanskii...
External links
- Global Security Analysis of the Sino-Vietnamese War
- Order of Battle
- Air Power in the War
- G.D.Bakshi: The Sino–Vietnam War – 1979: Case Studies in Limited Wars
Additional sources
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- Chinese:对越自卫反击战Google translation
- In Chinese:对越自卫反击战：我军大量伤亡原因分析Google translation
- In Chinese:中国对越自卫反击战中为何不进攻河内？Google translation
- In Chinese:关于请求落实部分军队退役人员有关政策的报告http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://bbs.rednet.cn/a/a.asp%3FB%3D68%26ID%3D16426446%26ac%3Dpre%26rd%3D2525340%26t%3D0&ei=joWjSea7DonOtQOlkYybAg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=6&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E8%25B6%258A%25E8%2587%25AA%25E5%258D%25AB%25E5%258F%258D%25E5%2587%25BB%25E6%2588%2598%25E5%25A4%258D%25E5%258E%259F%25E8%25BB%258D%25E4%25BA%25BA%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DNGoogle translation]
- In Chinese:法卡山没有划归越南，主峰归属中国一方Google translation
- In Chinese:委屈太大，收复法卡山战斗被推迟的原因Google translation
- In Chinese:新中国战役之------中越之战http://74.125.19.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://hi.baidu.com/gejunqiao/blog/item/8439e999c70bb7096e068c4e.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%25E9%2582%2593%25E5%25B0%258F%25E5%25B9%25B3%25E6%2598%25AF%25E8%25A9%25B2%25E6%2589%2593%25E6%2589%2593%25E5%25B0%258F%25E6%259C%258B%25E5%258F%258B%25E5%25B1%2581%25E8%2582%25A1%25E7%259A%2584%25E6%2599%2582%25E5%2580%2599%25E4%25BA%2586%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN&usg=ALkJrhik6q7Tdi3zyzhlGksqjEx9cBY16QGoogle translation]