Fighting against Vietnam, not for VietnamYears later, Fang knew that Deng Gong had a vision.
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Foreword: China and Vietnam were once brothers, but in 1979 they met each other. For this war, many people have not understood why our country is at war with Vietnam, and why it withdrew its troops after victory, until 30 years later, they did not understand ***'s thoughtfulness.
This is a "war that had to be fought", and the real enemy was not Vietnam, but the Soviet Union. So, what kind of story is hidden behind the 1979 self-defense counterattack against Vietnam?
1. The brotherhood of the past, the strange relationship between China and Vietnam, the relationship between the two countries for thousands of years is as close as that of brothers. However, the invasion of Western countries in modern times caused the two countries to go their separate ways, and each established its own state.
Despite deep ties and similar experiences, the relationship between New China and Vietnam was initially friendly. In Vietnam's fight against France and the United States, our country provided a lot of assistance, such as the formation of tank regiments, engineer regiments, anti-aircraft artillery battalions and fighter regiments, provided the most advanced ammunition to equip 2 million people, and helped them establish a complete military industrial production system.
Even at that time, the USSR was supporting Vietnam, and the assistance of our country can be said to be"The icing on the cake"。However, during the period of resisting France and aiding Vietnam, our country's assistance can definitely be called"Charcoal in the snow", because at that time only our country provided military assistance to Vietnam.
In order to support Vietnam's struggle for independence, we not only sent outstanding military generals such as Tran Geng and Wei Guoqing, but also developed a lot of advanced equipment, which was sent to Vietnam on a priority basis, even though it was not widely used in our country itself.
For example, the Type 56 submachine gun and the heavy boat bridge were supplied to Vietnam as soon as they were put into production. In addition, our economic and industrial assistance to Vietnam is innumerable, including more than 5 million tons of grain and more than 300 million meters of cloth, as well as helping them build hundreds of kilometers of railways and thousands of kilometers of oil pipelines.
According to statistics, between 1950 and 1979, the cumulative value of China's aid funds and equipment to Vietnam exceeded 10 billion US dollars.
Vietnam's sincerity has deeply touched Vietnam, and many pro-China leaders, such as Ho Chi Minh, have publicly expressed their support and gratitude to China on many occasions and actively promoted the deepening of friendship between China and Vietnam.
However, even against this backdrop, why did the two countries go to war in 1979? The trigger for the conflict can be traced back to Ho Chi Minh's plan to create a "federation of Indochina".
After Vietnam's victories over France and the United States, North and South Vietnam had not yet been reunified, and Ho Chi Minh again asked for China's assistance in the hope that they would help Vietnam annex Laos and Cambodia.
After Ho Chi Minh's death, Le Duan came to power, insisting on the creation of an "Indochina Federation" and the creation of a "completely new state" on Indochina with the support of the Soviet Union.
This act was a serious violation of the consistent principles of our country,** so that Le Duan's request was denied, but this did not stop his ambitions, and the problem remained.
Despite his arrogance, he understood the power of the new China. Therefore, instead of immediately starting a war with China as soon as he came to power, he began to prepare.
First of all, he led the North Vietnamese to actively attack South Vietnam, taking advantage of the deep energy crisis in the United States and no time to take care of the colonial plan of the Indochina Peninsula, and realized the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975.
Then, he laid the groundwork for the war on both military and ** fronts, attacking Laos and Cambodia while proclaiming Vietnam as the "third power in the world".
In Laos, he sent 50,000 troops, nominally to help them overthrow the kingdom and start the cause of socialism, but in reality the army remained there after the war.
In 1977, Vietnam and Laos signed the Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, and Laos was under the direct control of Le Duan. In contrast, Cambodia's greater independence and close ties with China make it difficult for Le Duan to deal with.
However, in order to achieve"Union of Indochina"As a result, Le Duan enlisted significant assistance from the Soviet Union, both economically and militarily. With the support of the Soviet Union, Le Duan gradually lost his reverence for the new China, and on the one hand, he preached the powerful status of Vietnam, claiming that Vietnam was the third power in the world; On the other hand, he tampered with history textbooks, fabricated facts, and incited anti-Chinese sentiment among the people.
At this point, Li Duan was ready for war with New China. He first repeatedly suppressed and expelled overseas Chinese in Vietnam, and then continued to provoke disputes along the Sino-Vietnamese border, such as tearing down boundary markers and harming border residents.
His egregious behavior has seriously damaged Sino-Vietnamese relations, and our country has publicly condemned it, but Le Duan does not care. He actually expected China to be provoked and thus send troops to attack Vietnam.
Le Duan had already placed the Vietnamese army in a favorable position, and had placed observers in key areas, and if Chinese troops were spotted, artillery would be deployed to strike hard.
If China does not send troops, then Vietnam can openly encroach on China's territory and interests. Although on the surface, Vietnam does not seem to have any to lose in this incident, Le Duan clearly underestimated ***'s wisdom and determination.
After Li Duan provoked the incident, ** quickly made a decision to send additional troops and announced the dispatch of troops. From the declaration of war to the end of the fighting, it took less than four months in total, and the actual battle lasted less than a month.
At the beginning of the war, our army set out from Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and began a two-way attack. In just 29 days, we completed three phases of the battle, not only capturing Cao Binh, but also penetrating more than 40 kilometers into the Vietnamese border.
At this time, Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, was completely exposed to the noses of our army, and as long as we went further, Vietnam would be nailed to the pillar of shame in history. However, our army did not choose to pursue the victory, but chose to withdraw the troops of Mingjin.
Many people were puzzled by our decision, and it was not until more than 30 years later that people understood that the capture of Hanoi was not our main goal, because our main deterrent was the Soviet Union.
After Vietnam surrendered to the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union had already encircled us in the interior of our country. At that time, the northeast and northwest of our country were directly adjacent to the Soviet Union, Outer Mongolia was a puppet of the Soviet Union, India was an ally of the Soviet Union and had friction with our country, and Afghanistan in the southwest was directly occupied by the Soviet Union.
Whether intentionally or not, the Soviet Union already posed a threat to the security of our borders. In particular, when Sino-US relations are improving and Sino-Soviet relations are gradually falling to the freezing point, the threat of the Soviet Union cannot be ignored.
When New China was founded, China's relations with the Soviet Union were very good, because China pursued a one-sided foreign policy, and the Soviet Union also provided all-round assistance to our side.
For example, in the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance signed in 1950, the Soviet Union helped China build hundreds of additional projects and provided billions of dollars in aid funds in just a few years.
Of course, the Soviet Union also provided a large number of professionals and technologies to help China establish a new industrial system, so that China's industrial technology can be rapidly improved.
However, "there is no banquet in the world that will not be dissolved", and after Khrushchev came to power in 1956, relations between China and the Soviet Union began to gradually drift apart. The "long-wave radio incident" and the "Kinmen shelling incident" have had a very bad impact on Sino-Soviet relations, and Brezhnev's rule and arrogant attitude have pushed Sino-Soviet relations to an irreparable situation.
In order to threaten our country, the Soviet Union even amassed a million troops on the Sino-Soviet border, as if war could break out at any time. On the one hand, Japan is actively preparing for war and preparing for war, and on the other hand, it has begun to seek to improve relations with the United States.
In 1972, after Nixon's visit to China, relations between China and the United States gradually eased and normalized, and the ties between the two countries became increasingly close. On New Year's Day in 1979, China and the United States established diplomatic-level ambassadorial relations, a series of events that made the Soviet Union feel uneasy.
At that time, Vietnam, which had just been reunified, still regarded the United States as a great threat, and China's lack of support also exacerbated Vietnam's dissatisfaction, and Le Duan became resentful of the new China.
The Soviet Union wanted to deter China, and Vietnam also wanted to take advantage of China, so the two countries hit it off and signed the "Soviet-Vietnamese Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation." Under the treaty, the USSR pledged to support Vietnam's "Indochina Federal Plan" and provided substantial ** equipment assistance.
At a time when Vietnam was in danger, the Soviet Union promised military assistance and possibly even direct troops. With the advanced ** equipment provided by the Soviet Union, Li Duan became overconfident, he believed that since 1962, there had been no large-scale foreign war in New China, and the army had become"Lazy"。
In contrast, the Vietnamese army, which has been resisting since the beginning of World War II, is much more demoralized and experienced. Coupled with the support of the Soviet Union, he believed that he would definitely be able to lead Vietnam to victory over China.
However, Li Duan did not expect that the troops of New China were still very brave, although they did not have an advantage in equipment, their morale was higher, and their strategic deployment was more thorough, which directly gave Li Duan a game"Operation Thunder"。
By the time Le Duan realized all this, the Vietnamese army was demoralized and unable to fight back. And the Soviet Union, which has always been regarded as the backing, did not speak out from beginning to end, and Le Duan had to give up the fight.
The only puzzling thing is that since the Soviet Union wanted to use Vietnam to deter China, why not just help Vietnam?
The Soviet Union had already fought four wars around 1979 and was unable to open up new battlefields. They provided a lot of air support in the Ethiopian-Somali war, and they got their hands dirty in the war in Afghanistan and have reached their limits.
If China was also involved, the Soviet Union might have had a hard time coping. **Commenting on the speech of the Soviet leader, he said that Vietnam could not fight alone if the Soviet Union did not help Vietnam.
But in reality, tensions between China and the Soviet Union already existed, and the USSR expressed its attitude only through the Vietnamese army.
In the international situation at that time, the Soviet Union was unable to provide large-scale assistance to Vietnam in a large-scale war with China. Nonetheless, China has said it is ready for every eventuality.
However, the Soviet Union did nothing on the border and only provided material and ** support to Vietnam, showing its weakness at that time, much to Vietnam's disappointment. This also explains why Le Duan has since reined and Vietnam is no longer as arrogant as it used to be.
Despite this, the border friction between China and Vietnam did not disappear immediately and did not gradually diminish until 1990. This was mainly due to the fact that Vietnam still wanted assistance from the Soviet Union, and China was not willing to put an end to the situation.
1.The Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship with Vietnam and formed a military alliance. Therefore, as long as Vietnam went to war, the Soviet Union had to provide assistance, which was said to be in the amount of more than $2 billion a year.
Although the Soviet Union tried to weaken China with the help of Vietnam, in reality, it had to shoulder this "burden", and its suffering and suffering are self-evident. The collapse of the USSR also had the effect of this factor.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vietnam's relations with China became no longer profitable, so Vietnam gradually gave up friction with China, and peace and openness gradually returned to the Sino-Vietnamese border.
In the 1979 self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, although China won a rapid victory, it also exposed some problems, such as the backward equipment of the troops and the lack of actual combat drills among the soldiers.
In order to make up for these deficiencies, in the next 10 years of warfare, China transferred troops from major military regions to fight against Vietnam. This operation not only thwarted Vietnam's arrogance, but also sharpened a modern army, achieving the best of both worlds.
Overall, there is no absolute winner, as Vietnam's economy has been largely undeveloped during the decade of war, and it is far worse than the rest of Asia.
The Vietnam War, which ultimately overwhelmed the Soviet Union, was undoubtedly a self-defeating lesson. At the same time, although China has gained a lot in the 10-year round war, it has also paid a huge price, including the sacrifice of countless soldiers and the waste of national wealth, which has had a negative impact on the development of China's economy.
It also reminds us to cherish peace, avoid unnecessary wars, and concentrate on economic development. Here, we also express our admiration for the foresight and sagacity of Comrade ***.