Vietnam's Bloody Defeat of China

The Chinese invaders did not succeed in achieving a military victory against the battle hardened Vietnamese forces. Photos: SinoVietnameseWar.com and Global Times

Oct-24-2010
Tim King
Salem-News.com

Flashback in time to a war most Americans aren't familiar with.

(SALEM, Ore.) - China lost a significant war in 1979 against Vietnam, though many people in the west do not realize this important history. This side of Vietnam that is rarely recognized involves the country's willingness to defeat the barbaric Khmer Rouge neighbors in Cambodia after the U.S. war in SE Asia. For this China invaded Vietnam, only to lose and retreat after 29 days, ultimately abandoning their military aggression.

VN troops on captured Chinese tank

Let's back up to 1970, when the U.S. was six years into the Vietnam War; the year that American forces invaded Cambodia, which borders both North and South Vietnam. Communist forces fighting American military units; North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong guerrillas, used Cambodia as a refuge and passageway. They would enter this country from the north, and show up in the U.S. controlled southern areas.

In 1973 a cease fire was called in Vietnam. In 1975 the last U.S. forces pulled out of the country for good, leaving behind only POW's and MIA's.

At this point all of Vietnam was under the control of Communist Hanoi and it has remained that way ever since.

What is interesting is that Vietnam was primarily supported by the USSR during the U.S. war, not by neighboring China as might reasonably be expected. China was a big supporter of Vietnam right until the start of the U.S. war; that is the year China's support of Vietnam ceased.

As Wikipedia states, the Chinese Communist Party and the Viet Minh had a long history. When Vietnam was fighting France in 1950, the recently founded communist People's Republic of China and the Viet Minh enjoyed close relations. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the 'Chinese Military Advisory Group' under Wei Guoqing played an important role in the Viet Minh's defeat of the French military.

Relations between the Soviets and Chinese began to dissolve after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin- who was responsible for the Murder of millions of Russians. Mao Zedong said Nikita Khrushchev made a serious error in a 'Secret Speech' that denounced Stalin. What really got Chairman Mao heated was Khrushchev's support of peaceful co-existence with the west.

The hostilities increased and led to what is known as the 'Sino-Soviet split'.

At this point, just prior to the start of the U.S. Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese still supported China, mainly due to China's support of North Vietnam's re-unification policy; something the Soviet Union had so far remained indifferent to.

China withdrew support from North Vietnam the same year the U.S. war began, in 1964, when Khrushchev's party sent him packing. He was replaced with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

Beginning in 1965, Vietnamese communist loyalty shifted toward the Soviet Union; with both the Soviet Union and China now supplying arms to North Vietnam in their war against South Vietnam and the U.S.

Fallout with Khmer Rouge

The Vietnamese Communists and Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge worked together in the beginning, but the relations unraveled when the Cambodian regime demanded that Vietnam return certain parcels of land to Cambodia that had been "lost" several centuries earlier. Vietnam wasn't interested, and Pol Pot responded by laying waste to ethnic Vietnamese in a massacre inside Cambodia.

Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge

It is important to note that the Khmer Rouge committed genocide against people of different races including ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodians.

The Soviets ultimately backed the Vietnamese in a war to defeat Pol Pot in Cambodia, following the tragic notorious period of genocide. The People's Republic of China's (PRC) support of Pol Pot caused the USSR to see it all as an opportunity. They backed the seasoned battle forces of the Vietnamese army which easily defeated the genocidal Khmer Rouge.

The Vietnamese knew there could be a reprisal from China, but they chose to take the Soviet support and hoped the show of force would keep the Chinese at bay. In the long run they lost their gamble.

The official Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia happened late in 1978. The Khmer Rouge was inexperienced in combat; their experience was in bullying and murdering the local civilian populace, not in actual military engagement.

By 7 January 1979, Cambodian forces backed by the Vietnamese government, seized the capital Phnom Penh, terminating the Khmer Rouge regime. Pol Pot fled into the jungle and lived for many years. Until 1997 he and a remaining remnant of the Khmer Rouge operated in the border region of Cambodia and Thailand.

The 29 Day War

The only thing missing from China's invasion of Vietnam on 17 February 1979 was aircraft. China rolled across major sections of the Vietnam border with infantry, armor, and artillery. Their 29 day war achieved no substantial victory and failed as a show of force against the Soviet Union.

According to Wikipedia:

Within a single day, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) had advanced some eight kilometers into Vietnam along a broad front. It then slowed and nearly stalled because of heavy Vietnamese resistance and difficulties within the Chinese supply system. On 21 February, the advance resumed against Cao Bang in the far north and against the all-important regional hub of Lang Son. Chinese troops entered Cao Bang on 27 February, but the city was not secured completely until 2 March. Lang Son fell two days later. On 5 March, the Chinese, saying Vietnam had been sufficiently chastised, announced that the campaign was over. Beijing declared its "lesson" finished and the PLA withdrawal was completed on 16 March.

Vietnam's position in the wake of combat operations, was that Beijing had suffered a military setback if not an outright defeat.

According to GlobalSecurity.org:

The 1979 attack confirmed Hanoi's perception of China as a threat. The PAVN high command henceforth had to assume, for planning purposes, that the Chinese might come again and might not halt in the foothills but might drive on to Hanoi. The border war strengthened Soviet-Vietnamese relations. The Soviet military role in Vietnam increased during the 1980s as the Soviets provided arms to Vietnam; moreover, Soviet ships enjoyed access to the harbors at Danang and Cam Ranh Bay, and Soviet reconnaissance aircraft operated out of Vietnamese airfields. The Vietnamese responded to the Chinese campaign by turning the districts along the China border into "iron fortresses" manned by well-equipped and well-trained paramilitary troops. In all, an estimated 600,000 troops were assigned to counter Chinese operations and to stand ready for another Chinese invasion. The precise dimensions of the frontier operations were difficult to determine, but its monetary cost to Vietnam was considerable.

Vietnamese POW's

Chinese POW's

According to the Website SinoVietnameseWar.com, the legacy of the war is enduring, particularly in Vietnam. In this nation already devastated by two recent wars, the Chinese in all essence, implemented a "scorched-earth policy" as they retreated back to China, causing extensive damage to the Vietnamese countryside and infrastructure.

Villages were reduced to rubble, roads and railroads received damage at the hands of the Chinese.

In Gerald Segal's 1985 book Defending China, it was concluded that China's 1979 war against Vietnam was a complete failure: "China failed to force a Vietnamese withdrawal from [Cambodia], failed to end border clashes, failed to cast doubt on the strength of the Soviet power, failed to dispel the image of China as a paper tiger, and failed to draw the United States into an anti-Soviet coalition."

Still, as Wikipedia relates, Bruce Elleman argued that "one of the primary diplomatic goals behind China's attack was to expose Soviet assurances of military support to Vietnam as a fraud. Seen in this light, Beijing's policy was actually a diplomatic success, since Moscow did not actively intervene, thus showing the practical limitations of the Soviet-Vietnamese military pact... China achieved a strategic victory by minimizing the future possibility of a two-front war against the USSR and Vietnam."

China-Vietnam War from Vietnamese perspective

China-Vietnam War from Chinese perspective

"Border skirmishes continued throughout the 1980s, including a significant skirmish in April of 1984; this saw the first use of the Type 81 Assault Rifle by the Chinese," according to SinoVietnameseWar.com.

After years of unsuccessful negotiations, a border pact was finally signed between the two countries in 1999. The exact position of the border was kept secret, problems continued, and Vietnam eventually relinquished the property back to China.

On a positive note, it was announced in December 2007 that the Hanoi-Kunming highway; a landmark in Sino-Vietnamese relations, would be built. The road will cross the border that was once a battlefield for these countries. It should contribute to demilitarizing the border region, as well as facilitating trade and industrial cooperation between the nations, notes SinoVietnameseWar.com.

Sources:

Sino-Vietnamese War - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chinese Invasion of VietnamFebruary 1979 - GlobalSecurity.org

SinoVietnameseWar.com

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 65 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

Police, CPP brass on top cop shortlist

Investigators from Cambodia's Civil Aviation Secretariat inspect the wreckage of the helicopter that was carrying National Police Chief Hok Lundy when it crashed Sunday night.

Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Written by Sebastian Strangio and Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

PM to announce Hok Lundy's replacement as police chief

OFFICIALS say they are unsure who will take the helm at the Kingdom's national police authority following Sunday's death of Police Chief Hok Lundy in a helicopter crash.

CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said Hok Lundy's replacement would be chosen from among Cambodia's eight deputy police commissioners and the members of the CPP standing committee as a matter of urgency.

"The CPP regrets the loss of Hok Lundy, but at the same time we have to consider a successor as soon as possible to ensure stability," he said, adding that Prime Minister Hun Sen would make the final decision on the appointment. "The body needs a new head."

Hok Lundy was killed Sunday night when his helicopter crashed in Svay Rieng province's Rumduol district, along with General Sok Saem and the craft's two pilots.

Deputy Commissioner Neth Savoeun, who is married to Hun Sen's niece, is expected to be first in line for the post and will serve as acting commissioner until a permanent appointment is made.

During his 14 years as National Police commissioner, Hok Lundy, whose daughter is married to Hun Sen's son Hun Manith, has been a controversial figure. International rights organisations have repeatedly accused him of involvement in drug trafficking and politically-motivated killings, allegedly committed during the factional fighting of July 1997.

In February 2006, the US State Department went so far as to deny Hok Lundy a visa to the United States on the basis of allegations he was involved in human trafficking.

But Human Rights Watch criticised the Federal Bureau of Investigation when it welcomed Hok Lundy to the US for counterterrorism talks in April last year, branding the police head "the absolute worst that Cambodia has to offer" and adding that "hardly anyone in Cambodia ... has shown more contempt for the rule of law".

Kek Galabru, president of the Cambodian rights group Licadho, said it was too early to say whether respect for human rights in the police force would improve under a new national commissioner.

"It depends on the person who will replace him, but it's difficult to anticipate. We'll have to wait and see," she said.

But Ny Chakrya, head of the monitoring section at Adhoc, said the appointment would have little impact.

"It does not depend on the personality of the man in charge, it depends on the system," he said Monday. "A new commander will make no difference. When the police system supports and respects human rights, then people will have faith in the police."

Who are Bun Rany Hun Sen, Sok An, Hok Lundy and Neth Savoeun?

Excerpt from “Chinese Presence in Cambodia – Contribution to a violent, possessive and unequal economic policy”
By Françoise Mengin
International Study and Research Center (CERI)
Political Science, France
No. 133, Feb 2007
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to access the study report in French (PDF)

L'extrait en Français se trouve à la fin du texte en anglais

Hun Sen’s wife is of Chinese origin, and one of their daughters, Hun Mali, married Sok Puthyvuth, the son of vice-prime minister Sok An who is also of Chinese origin; another one of their sons, Hun Manith married Hok Chendavy, the daughter of national police commissioner Hok Lundy who is of Sino-Vietnamese origin, and one of their nieces, Hun Kimleng, married Neth Savoeun, the deputy national police commissioner who is of Sino-Vietnamese origin. If the Chinese presence is chronic at the top of the state, it is because the Chinese community is still identified by its business activities on one hand, and because the CPP-State leaders are personally involved in the commercialization of political life on the other hand. Therefore, even though vice-prime minister Sok An, who is of Chinese origin, represents the “know-how” – next to Hun Sen’s “strength”- he is nevertheless involved in the privatization of the economy to the benefit of Chinese interests. Sok An, known as the education baron, directly delivers business licenses allowing the creation and the management of private universities, a large number of which are under the control of the Chinese embassy, and they are specialized in the teaching of the Chinese language. Since becoming “Mr. Oil Business,” it is uncertain if Sok An will provide a more rigorous management of this state resources.

It would be wrong to identify the leading class with Sino-Khmers. Doing so would underestimate the Vietnamese factor which remains a determinant factor in the political trajectories – in particular, that of Hun Sen’s – as well as in the marriages by alliance. It should be noted that a large number of Sino-Khmers do not partake in this double process of enriching themselves and of participating in the power concentration. However, the important position occupied by the Sino-Khmer oknhas can only reinforce the role of the entrepreneurial ethos in the identification of Chinese-ethnic communities. This identity is represented by a participation in a strategy to accumulate material or symbolic capitals. The economic policy in which the overseas Chinese are involved in determines and defines their business activities, in particular those in the CPP state which is founded on domination and plundering.
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La femme de Hun Sen est d’origine chinoise et l’une de leurs filles, Hun Mali, a épousé Sok Puthyvuth, fils du vice-Premier ministre Sok An, lui-même d’origine chinoise; l’un de leurs fils, Hun Manith, a pris pour épouse Hok Chendavy, fille du directeur de la police nationale Hok Lundy d’origine sino-vietnamienne, et l’une de leurs nièces, Hun Kimleng, s’est mariée avec le vice-directeur de la police nationale, Neth Saoeun, lui aussi d’origine sino-vietnamienne. Or si la présence de « Chinois » au plus haut sommet de l’Etat est mise en avant de manière récurrente, c’est parce que l’identification d’une communauté chinoise continue de se faire autour de ses activités marchandes, d’une part, et que les dirigeants de l’Etat-PPC sont personnellement engagés dans la marchandisation de la vie politique, d’autre part. Ainsi, bien que le vice-Premier ministre Sok An, d’origine chinoise, incarne le « savoir » – aux côtés de Hun Sen « la force » – il n’en est pas moins personnellement impliqué dans le processus de privatisation de l’économie, au profit, notamment, d’intérêts chinois. Sok An, appelé le baron de l’éducation, délivre directement les licences autorisant la création et la gestion d’universités privées, dont un nombre croissant sont, sous le contrôle de l’ambassade de Chine, spécialisées dans l’enseignement de la langue chinoise. Devenu plus récemment « Monsieur pétrole », on ne sait s’il s’en tiendra dans ce domaine à une gestion plus rigoureuse des ressources de l’Etat.

Il serait cependant erroné d’assimiler la classe dirigeante aux Sino-khmers. Ce serait sous-évaluer le facteur vietnamien qui reste déterminant tant au niveau des trajectoires politiques – celle de Hun Sen en premier lieu – que des stratégies d’alliances matrimoniales. Ce serait également oublier que nombre de Sino-khmers ne participent pas à ce double processus d’enrichissement et de concentration du pouvoir. Mais la place importante qu’occupent des oknha sino-khmers ne fait que renforcer le rôle de l’ethos entrepreneurial dans le processus d’identification des communautés d’origine chinoise, l’identité étant cette variable qui participe d’une stratégie d’accumulation du capital, qu’il soit d’ordre matériel ou symbolique. C’est donc bien l’économie politique dans laquelle s’insèrent les Chinois d’outre-mer qui détermine et circonscrit leur activité marchande, en l’occurrence celle de l’Etat-PPC fondée sur la domination et la prédation, l’une et l’autre se nourrissant mutuellement.