Vietnam, a country that we are familiar with and unfamiliar with, always has mixed emotions.
Although Vietnam is a socialist country with a similar national flag to China, it is alienated and even hated from China, and has closer relations with countries such as the United States and Russia. Silent Night History believes that this stems from Vietnam's great power ambitions since ancient times, North Vietnam won the victory in the unification of the north and south of Vietnam, and considered itself to be the origin of Vietnam's civilization, and that the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms were part of the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty before, and were profoundly influenced by the culture of the Central Plains Dynasty.
The powerful empire of the Tang Dynasty expanded its territory at the same time, but also carried out a strong cultural output, which made the Khitan, Jurchen and other ethnic groups rise and establish a strong centralized dynasty, which is the result of the cultural spillover of the Central Plains Dynasty.
In the southern Xinjiang of the Central Plains Dynasty, although the geographical location of northern Vietnam was remote, the southward migration of the population after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty promoted the development of Jiangnan and Lingnan, and laid the foundation for the southward shift of the economic center of gravity in the Song and Song dynasties.
Northern Vietnam, which is close to Lingnan, also benefits. Therefore, after getting rid of the rule of the Southern Han Dynasty in 939, Vietnam had the conditions to establish a centralized regime. Coupled with the weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty, Vietnam took the opportunity to invade during the Northern Song Dynasty, which brought serious losses to the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, with the rise of the Mongol Empire and the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty entered a period of unification that lasted for 800 years. Vietnam was not only unable to replicate the glory of the invasion of the Northern Song Dynasty, but was defeated by the Mongol Yuan Empire.
Eventually, Vietnam recognized the reality and became a vassal state of the Central Plains Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, Vietnam was officially named "Vietnam" and no longer had ambitions for the Liangguang region.
However, despite having no ambitions for the Central Plains Dynasty, Vietnam's territorial expansion towards other countries never stopped.
Since ancient times, Vietnam has been committed to expanding westward and southward. Expansion to the west could halt the expansion of Siam and Burma, while expansion to the south could increase the strategic depth against the Central Plains Dynasty.
As a result, over the past 800 years, Vietnam has expanded its territory through wars, marriages, and alliances, eventually gaining control of Laos and Cambodia, becoming an important power in Indochina.
At the same time, Vietnam also paid tribute to the Chinese dynasty in the north, and built a "small China in the southern sky" with itself as the core, forming a small tributary system. Especially after the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Qing Dynasty, Vietnam claimed to be the successor of Chinese civilization.
However, despite the remarkable results of Vietnam's expansion, Vietnam's miniature vassal system was insignificant in the face of the onslaught of Western colonialism. Eventually, from the landing of French invaders in Vietnam in 1858 to the end of the Sino-French War in 1885, Vietnam became a French colony, ending more than 800 years of expansion and forming "French Indochina".
Similar to the British colonization in British India, the French colonization of French Indochina was also very attentive. Even, France shamelessly seized the Spratly Islands.
However, the fruits of French colonization were soon "taken away" by Japan after the outbreak of World War II, including the Spratly Islands. In Indochina, the French invaders could only launch the strategy of "no one can occupy Saigon before the surrender of France", becoming the first of the Japanese colonization of Indochina.
France's performance was so humiliating that the surrender of Vietnam after the war was completed by China and Britain. However, the people of Nanjing** were anxious for the civil war and left in a hurry, and France took the opportunity to make a comeback.
In Vietnam at that time, the revolutionary armed forces led by Ho Chi Minh successfully established the country and promoted the liberation of North Vietnam after Japan's unconditional surrender. In order to "drive out" the Nationalist ** Army in Nanjing, Ho Chi Minh even did not hesitate to reach a rapprochement with the French, who controlled southern Vietnam.
The problem, however, was that what France wanted was to rebuild Indochina, not to "divide the world equally" with North Vietnam. Therefore, immediately after the withdrawal of Chinese and British troops, the confrontation between North Vietnam and France began.
North Vietnam's anti-aggression war was widely supported by Third World countries, especially after the founding of New China in 1949, and soon became the rear of North Vietnam. With the direct and indirect support of the People's Republic of China, North Vietnam finally won the final victory in the War of Resistance against France in 1954, with the re-liberation of North Vietnam and the liberation of Laos and Cambodia from French colonial rule.
After the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, China actively promoted the settlement of the Indochina issue in order to maintain peace in the Indochina Peninsula and the world at large. However, this was not Ho Chi Minh's original intention.
As the leader of a socialist state, Ho Chi Minh was a staunch nationalist whose goal was not only to unify Vietnam with the north and south, but also to bring Laos and Cambodia under Vietnamese rule.
However, after the defeat of France and the comeback of the United States, Ho Chi Minh had no choice but to hide his dissatisfaction in the bottom of his heart. Although China and the Soviet Union were at loggerheads after June 1959, both sides rushed to support North Vietnam, especially China, which provided more than $20 billion in supplies to Vietnam in order to prevent the United States from getting involved in Indochina.
However, the Soviet Union, as a superpower, seemed to be richer, and North Vietnam was more inclined to the Soviet Union than China's negative attitude towards North Vietnam's expansion, because the Soviet Union was not stingy with North Vietnam's expansion in order to contain China, which made North Vietnam gradually "feel at home".
Thus, after Ho Chi Minh's death, North Vietnam gradually abandoned its policy of playing between China and the Soviet Union and wholeheartedly joined forces with the Soviet Union.
With the assistance of the Soviet Union, Sino-Vietnamese relations gradually deteriorated, especially after the normalization of Sino-American relations in 1972. Thanks to the support of the new China, the United States found a way out of the quagmire of the Vietnam War, and then North Vietnam eliminated South Vietnam in 1975 and achieved reunification, which also caused Sino-Vietnamese relations to fall to a freezing point.
After the reunification of Vietnam, Le Duan** did not stop its actions, but immediately began to invade Laos and Cambodia, and at the same time as a large-scale anti-Chinese war, it carried out provocations on the Sino-Vietnamese border, which eventually triggered a self-defense counterattack war against Vietnam that shocked the world.
Due to the neutrality of the United States and other Western countries, coupled with the strict readiness of New China, the Soviet Union, as an ally of Vietnam, never dared to act rashly. Subsequently, China and Vietnam fought a two-mountain round war that lasted for more than 10 years, and the Soviet Union continued to lose blood due to the attrition of Vietnam, and finally collapsed in 1991.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vietnam, which had lost its backers, was forced to seek peace, and the Sino-Vietnamese War finally ended once and for all. However, at this time, the international community, the United States, as the only superpower, stood alone in the world, frantically instigated war, and regarded Vietnam as an important frontier to contain China.
Similar to the "three sharp knives" theory put forward by ** after the start of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Vietnam has become an important battlefield in the confrontation between China and the United States. Vietnam's heart is inflated, and we are its natural obstacles.
Coupled with the dispute between China and Vietnam over islands and reefs in the South China Sea, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia's struggle, the United States became a natural ally of Vietnam. Thus, the United States and Vietnam put aside their past grievances and became half-brothers.
At this time, Vietnam, as a third world country with abundant labor resources, had a strong demand for investment, which formed a strong complement to the United States, which had an industrial spillover. In addition, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was born during the Cold War, and the United States established it in order to promote anti-China in Southeast Asia, so the relationship between the United States and Vietnam is heating up day by day.
However, as a global superpower, the strategic focus of the United States has always been in Europe, and Vietnam is not its strategic priority. Moreover, Vietnam does not take the initiative to make overtures to the United States like Japan and South Korea, and although it has a position in front of the United States, it has lost the sense of security of being protected.
The northern neighbor is ready to respond to any action by Vietnam.
The United States has been blockading New China for a long time, but China's strength is increasing day by day. After the rapid economic development of the People's Republic of China, it began to move low-end industries out on a large scale, and Vietnam became a beneficiary again.
In fact, the industrial complementarity between China and Vietnam is stronger and more coordinated than that of the United States and Vietnam, which determines that Vietnam's development is inseparable from China, and the same is true for the entire ASEAN. India tried to get rid of Made in China, but eventually found that it could not get rid of its dependence on China.
Similarly, Vietnam tried to get rid of China, even at the expense of the United States, but the result was speechless. In addition, collusion with the United States will not only fail to gain US support, but may also provoke resentment among its northern neighbors and lead to self-reaping the consequences.
The most embarrassing thing about Vietnam is that the situation of colluding with the United States to unify the north and south of Vietnam is once again in danger. The reason why US-Vietnam relations developed rapidly after the end of the Cold War was that after the reunification of Vietnam, it failed to clear the southern forces in time, but instead formed a coalition with it, which laid hidden dangers for Vietnam.
As Vietnam emerged from the shadow of the war, the South's growing economic power and close cooperation with the United States allowed U.S.-Vietnam relations to improve. However, the rise of power in the south upset the political balance after the reunification of Vietnam, and the Hoon Gui clique in the north was unhappy with this and tried to fight back.
However, the business problems of the Vietnamese army made it difficult to defeat the South again. Therefore, although Vietnam is willing to get close to the United States, it will not express it openly and choose to be patient with American provocations.
At the same time, although Vietnam does not want to get close to China, it still sees Sino-Vietnamese relations as a priority. At present, Vietnam's greatest advantage is that as long as it does not pursue the unrealistic dream of an "Indochina federation", China and Vietnam can become close neighbors and partners.
After the land boundary is surveyed, Vietnam seems less nervous about the South China Sea. However, this is only theoretically possible, as Vietnam's ambitions are part of its DNA and have been around for a long time.
Therefore, it seems impossible to make a radical change in Vietnam.