In December 1978, Cambodia underwent earth-shattering changes. Vietnam's ambitions were so great that they sent troops to occupy the country and installed Han Samlin as a puppet leader to establish the People's Republic of Cambodia.
Pol Pot, the leader of close relations with China, lost power, and in order to regain everything for himself, he turned to China for help. ** After receiving Pol Pot's request for help, he immediately organized a meeting of military generals to discuss whether a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam should be launched.
The Sino-Vietnamese border issue has occurred frequently, and Vietnam has continuously violated China's territorial sovereignty, seriously threatening the safety of the lives and property of the people at the border. Despite our repeated forbearance, some military generals, in order to protect the interests of the country and the people, advocated teaching a lesson to Vietnam, which did not know the height of the sky.
However, there are also generals who oppose military action in view of the current situation and the international environment. Among them, the first marshal and General Su Yu, two highly respected and experienced generals, also held opposing views.
Deng Gong received a letter while processing the documents, and his face changed greatly after seeing the contents, and his brows were furrowed. He thought while smoking a cigarette, and then urgently convened a meeting of Su Yu and other high-level leaders of the Military Commission to discuss a very important matter.
Prime Minister Pol Pot has visited China many times and has established a deep friendship with Chinese leaders. Although he has pursued a foreign policy of closing himself off from the rest of the country since he came to power, he has always maintained a friendly attitude toward China.
In 1977, Pol Pot instructed Cambodia to close all embassies in Cambodia except Laos, North Korea and China, which shows the importance he attaches to China. This time, Pol Pot wrote a letter to Deng Gong, asking China to send troops to help Cambodia fight Vietnam, which showed his trust and dependence on China.
However, relations between Vietnam and Cambodia were good, but in May 1975, the Khmer Rouge army invaded Phu Quoc.
After the end of the nearly 20-year Vietnam War, Vietnam found Cambodia taking the opportunity to provoke, and the contradictions between the two countries in terms of mineral deposits and oil gradually intensified. Frequent border clashes ensued.
Before turning the other cheek with Cambodia, Vietnam had tried to co-opt Cambodia in order to establish a so-called Federation of Indochina and dominate the region, but Pol Pot's refusal dashed that plan.
Vietnam launched an attack on Cambodia with the mentality of "destroy if you can't cooperate", but Cambodia's strength was very different from Vietnam's, and it was quickly defeated. After Ho Chi Minh's death and Le Duan's coming to power, Vietnam's ambitions began to swell, and it boasted that it was the "third military power in the world", and its military strength could "crush" other countries, which also made the dream of a "federation of Indochina" gradually take shape.
As a result, Vietnam began to expand frantically, constantly provoking contradictions in neighboring countries. In order to realize its ambitions, the country even did something ungrateful, staging a "farmer and snake" drama.
Although China and Vietnam have always maintained good relations, Vietnam has continued to illegally occupy and bomb Chinese territory along the border, wounding and shooting border guards.
Hundreds of thousands of border dwellers have been forced to leave their homes where they have lived for many years and settle in strange places; Tens of thousands of acres of crops were destroyed, and farmers' harvests were reduced or even none. And Li Duan even openly tore his face, looking for reasons to wantonly exclude and ** Chinese at home, and create armed conflicts such as the "Tinghao Mountain Incident" on the border.
Despite our selfless assistance to Vietnam during the Vietnam War, these actions were met with Vietnamese rudeness.
What is even more excessive is that he tore up the agreement signed with China during Ho Chi Minh's lifetime, forcibly seized most of the islands of China's Spratly Islands, and claimed that these islands belonged to Vietnam.
Although we follow the principle of "harmony is precious" and based on past friendships, we have backed down again and again. However, Vietnam regards this as China's weakness and can be bullied, and it has even more brazenly pursued hegemonism.
** He Su Yu was worried about Vietnam's arrogance, coupled with Pol Pot's request for help, Deng Gong came up with the idea of counterattacking Vietnam. So, he summoned the generals to discuss the feasibility of the idea.
At this meeting, two different voices emerged, one was the anti-war faction headed by Marshal Ye and Su Yu, and the other was the main war faction that advocated war. Many people may wonder, are they afraid that *** and Su Yu are afraid of opposing Vietnam?
The two generals did not refuse to fight, but decided that the current was not the best time. They are well aware that China has just undergone a severe test, that production and economy have not yet recovered, and that a peaceful and stable environment is needed for development in the early stage of reform and opening up.
After the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has not fought a large-scale battle, and the combat capability of the soldiers needs to be restored through a lot of training, otherwise their own side may be very large. They love every soldier dearly, so they don't want to see senseless sacrifices.
In addition, they were also worried that if a war broke out with Vietnam, the Soviet Union would take the opportunity to attack China, and our side would face the dilemma of being surrounded by the Soviet Union and Vietnam. Simultaneous operations in two directions require extremely high logistical support such as material transportation, and it is difficult for China to meet this condition at this time.
Therefore, they advocated waiting for the PLA to improve its combat effectiveness before going into battle to ensure victory.
Their worries were not unfounded. Vietnam's repeated provocations against China by force are inseparable from the instigation of the Soviet Union. For the sake of their own ambitions, the two countries are in cahoots. Vietnam has been in war for a long time and its own military strength is limited, but the Soviet Union has provided it with a large number of first-class equipment, which has improved its combat effectiveness.
Vietnam adheres to the principle of "if you have milk, you are a mother", and regards the Soviet Union as its big brother and ally. At this time, Sino-Soviet relations were unilaterally broken down by the actions of the Soviet Union, which undermined the friendship between the two countries.
Vietnam was in cahoots with the Soviet Union, fearlessly confronting China despite China's past help, and saw China as the biggest obstacle to its hegemony over the Indochina Peninsula. It was because of the support of the Soviet Union that Vietnam dared to provoke our country many times.
However, Vietnam did not know that it saw the USSR as an ally, and the USSR saw it as a pawn. The Soviet Union vigorously supported Vietnam's hegemony in the Indochina Peninsula in order to control the region through Vietnam, so that it could facilitate its own southward march into the Indian Ocean in the future, and gain more chances of winning in the struggle for world hegemony with the United States.
Located in one of the three major peninsulas in southern Asia, Indochina Peninsula has attracted attention due to its unique geographical location and strategic significance. It is located between the South Asian subcontinent and China, like a bridge between the East Asian continent and the archipelago, just a stone's throw from the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, with a total area of 2.06 million square kilometers.
Not only is it strategically located, but it is also rich in natural resources. The Indochina Peninsula contains a large number of mineral deposits, such as non-ferrous metals such as lead and silver, as well as coal, natural gas, oil, etc.
The abundance of these resources made the Soviet Union salivate over them. In the seventies, after a long period of stalemate, Sino-US relations finally began to ease up and develop in a positive direction.
The Soviet Union feared that friendly relations between China and the United States would adversely affect it, especially if it was in a dominant position in the struggle for hegemony with the United States. Therefore, they chose to invest in Vietnam in order to contain China.
In November 1978, the two countries reached a military agreement in which they promised that in the event of a military attack on either side, the other side must provide support. As a superpower, the Soviet Union's military strength during the Cold War was impossible to ignore.
Despite the fact that our country also has nuclear **, if the USSR enters the war, our country will fight in two places at the same time, and an excessively long front may not be conducive to resisting the USSR and Vietnam. Therefore, Su Yu and others have concerns about this.
Deng Gong understood their thoughts, but he understood that Vietnam had to fight back. At this time, a person stood up, and his firm belief made Deng Gong more convinced of his decision-making.
* The support, coupled with Deng Gong's resourcefulness, let the world see his greatness. **Known as the "great steward of the republic", he has made great contributions to the economic construction of our country and the cultivation of party members and leadership.
In the decision-making of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, ** played a key role. He was a member of the first generation of the leadership team of New China, and he had a very high evaluation of Deng Gong's ability.
Therefore, at the ** work conference in March 1977, he proposed that Deng Gong be reinvolved in the work of ***. Deng Gong's comeback, he contributed a lot. This support is not blind, but the result of careful consideration.
His remarks dispelled the concerns of opponents such as *** and Su Yu. Although the war between Vietnam and China could provoke Soviet intervention, Soviet reinforcements could not reach the battlefield immediately because their main forces were stationed in Europe against the capitalist countries.
If the Soviets attacked China, they would need to move troops from Europe, but the distance between Europe and China was several thousand kilometers, which meant that it would take at least a month for the Soviets to reach the front.
Considering the ability to march at that time, it would definitely take longer for the Soviet troops to reach their destination. As long as our country ends the fighting with Vietnam within a month, then we will not be in a situation where we are faced with enemies and fighting on both sides.
By the time the Soviets arrived en masse, we would probably already be waiting for their arrival. * I think that Vietnam needs to fight, but we need to race against time, play a speed war, and we can't grind, otherwise we will be in a passive situation.
At the meeting, he made a detailed analysis of the possibility of fighting Vietnam and some operational guidelines, which reassured the main fighting faction and made the anti-war faction gradually change their minds. As for whether the Soviet army will participate in the war, ** and others proposed that their movements can be closely monitored and their strategies adjusted in time.
In the end, Deng Gong decided to carry out a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, but as ** said, we need to end it as soon as possible and cannot delay until the Soviet army appears.
In order to ensure that the Soviet Union would not support Vietnam, Deng Gong came up with a plan. Under the cover of his visit to the United States, he made the Soviet Union mistakenly believe that China and the United States had reached a cooperation agreement. At this time, our country was massing forces on the Sino-Vietnamese border, apparently preparing for war with Vietnam.
Faced with the threat from the United States, Soviet politicians would have carefully considered whether it was worth going to war with the United States for Vietnam. Because they knew that their own interests were the top priority, and at that time the Soviet Union's center of gravity was in the Middle East, and it would not go to war for Vietnam and the United States.
Therefore, when the war of self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam broke out, the Soviet Union, although it verbally supported Vietnam, did not take practical action. At the same time, China is also ready to deal with the Soviet Union's entry into the war, including organizing ship formations in the Paracel Islands, and the generals and soldiers of the Xinjiang and Lanzhou military regions are on standby at any time.
Chinese leaders and generals, such as Deng Gong and Su Yu, also demonstrated their wisdom and determination, going deep into the front lines to understand the situation and giving practical advice and tactics, rather than standing idly by because they were not on the sidelines.
It was only after the battle that they returned home to rest.
It was easy for China to educate Vietnam and achieve the goal of the counterattack within a month. After the war, Vietnam's economic infrastructure was devastated, and our country withdrew its aid. Vietnam's "stealing chickens does not make rice," and the border issue has failed to set off a big storm.
History has proved that Deng Gong and the first person made wise decisions, and at the same time understood and corrected the problems of the troops, and maintained high combat effectiveness. Marshal Ye and Su Yu's considerations have their positions, but they are correct.
With this article, I pay tribute to Deng Gong, ** Marshal Ye, Su Yu and other ancestors!