Vietnam War

In 1979, there was a conflict between Vietnam and China. The Vietnam War began on February 17, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded the enemy's northern provinces.

What caused the conflict?

China was not interested in having a strong state near its borders. In addition, Vietnam cooperated with the USSR, with which China was in a tense relationship. A certain factor in the escalation of the conflict was the events of 1975 in Cambodia. Then came to power the "Khmer Rouge", the leader of which was Pol Pot. Their only foreign ally was China. They began to organize border provocations on the territory of Vietnam. As a result, Vietnam concluded an agreement with the USSR on cooperation and friendship and began an intervention in Cambodia, as a result of which Pol Pot was overthrown and Heng Samrin, ready to cooperate with Vietnam, came to power.

China was concerned about this, as the influence of neighboring states, oriented toward the USSR, was strengthened. This was one of the main reasons for the Vietnam War. In 1978, several agreements were concluded between Vietnam and the USSR, according to which the Russians obtained the right to establish air and naval bases in that country. As a result of Vietnam's strengthening, this country has a number of claims about the Vietnam-China border (in particular, claims for delineation of the Gulf of Tonkin).

Vietnam occupied some Chinese islands and made territorial claims to a number of others. In violation of the agreements reached, Vietnam launched a campaign to "squeeze" the Chinese from the Vietnamese territory. As a result, the latter had to flee the country to other neighboring countries.

In Cambodia, Vietnamese troops were introduced to overthrow the government of the Khmer Rouge. On the border with China, there were always provocations from Vietnam.

Then in February 1979, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China demanded that provocations be stopped, but this remained without attention. Beginning in December 1978, military districts bordering on Mongolia and the USSR were put on high alert in the PRC.

Hostilities

At 4 o'clock on 17.02.1979 the Chinese troops launched an offensive, the Chinese-Vietnamese war started. Chinese troops included 44 divisions, the total number of which was 600 thousand people. However, only 250 thousand people invaded Vietnam. The Vietnamese People's Army (VNA) opposed them 100 thousand.

The Vietnam War took place in several directions. The main ones are the Kaoban, Lao Kai and Langshon. Within 3 days, Chinese troops seized the provincial center of Laocai and advanced along the territory of Vietnam to 15 kilometers inland. Subsequently, the rate of invasion significantly decreased. Only at the cost of large losses was captured by the provincial center of Kaobang. The Vietnam War continued, on March 4, Lang Son was captured. As a result, universal mobilization was declared on the territory of Vietnam. However, on March 5, China announced the withdrawal of its troops, which occurred on March 16.

Results of the war

Losses of the parties amounted to approximately 20 thousand people. Both opponents declared victory. Vietnam was guided in its arguments by the fact that it inflicted heavy losses and successfully repulsed China's aggression. The second side pointed out that it had achieved partial success of its campaign, namely, in a short time captured a significant territory of Vietnam, inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and large economic damage.

The Vietnam War revealed the backwardness of Chinese troops, the poor training of commanders, the lack of modern weapons, the low mobility of units, and also some of the shortcomings of the VNA - inept command and weak defense in the most important areas.