Vietnam is China's southern neighbor, and in history, Vietnam was a county or vassal state of China for a long time. In modern times, China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, while Vietnam was completely reduced to a French colony. In China's early revolutionary movements, there were close ties with Vietnam.
During the Vietnam War of Resistance Against France and the Vietnam War, China sent military advisory groups to Vietnam on many occasions to guide the Vietnamese army in combat. China has also continuously sent air defense and engineering troops to Vietnam to help Vietnam defend itself against the invasion of American planes and build railways, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and other facilities. In the nearly 30 years since it assisted Vietnam, China has provided military aid of up to $20 billion to Vietnam, greatly supporting Vietnam's liberation struggle.
Vietnam was reunified in 1975 after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. At that time, Sino-Soviet relations were tense, and Vietnam chose to stand on the side of the Soviet Union and cooperate with the Soviet Union's strategic decision to flank China from the north and south. Beginning in 1975, Vietnam began to suppress the pro-China faction in the country, and tore up the 1958 declaration that Vietnam recognized the Dongsha Islands, Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands, and Nansha Islands as belonging to China, and quickly occupied more than 96% of the islands of the Nansha Islands by taking advantage of its geographical advantages.
Since 1978, the Vietnamese army has killed and wounded hundreds of Chinese border soldiers and civilians in the border areas. Vietnam also confiscated the assets of local Chinese and overseas Chinese, and drove all the overseas Chinese in Vietnam to the Sino-Vietnamese border. In order to safeguard the stability of southern Xinjiang and the safety of people's lives and property, PLA troops in the southern provinces began to move to the Sino-Vietnamese border areas.
On February 17, 1979, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam officially began, launching an attack on the Vietnamese army on a battlefield of about 500 kilometers, and the Vietnamese army mobilized six infantry divisions, 16 local regiments and four artillery regiments, with a total of 100,000 people. Although the war lasted only a month and our country was victorious, it was a pyrrhic victory, and more than 2,000 people lost their combat effectiveness on the first day. In just one month, the PLA departments have a total of **270,000 people, so why is it so big to fight a small Vietnam?
First of all, in terms of equipment, the gap between the two sides is not large, and the Vietnamese army is even stronger than our army in terms of individual soldiers. Because in the past 30 years, our army has carried out a lot of first-class assistance to Vietnam, and the Vietnamese army can be said to be armed by our army, and more than 10 million sets of military uniforms have been provided to Vietnam alone. At that time, when the relations between the two countries were at their best, it could be said that we would give what Vietnam wanted, and some advanced ** our army had not yet been equipped, so we gave it to Vietnam first, and even transferred it from the active troops to Vietnam when it was not enough.
Secondly, in terms of the quality of personnel, the Vietnamese commanders were not bad, because at that time Vietnam had been fighting for decades, and this war was still a local war for them. The middle and senior commanders of the Vietnamese army basically studied at the Nanjing Military Academy or the Guilin Military Academy, and they were taught by the Chinese hand-in-hand, and they have a very good understanding of the strategy and tactics of our army.
In addition, in terms of combat effectiveness, the Vietnamese army is also very strong. Vietnam fought with the Americans, fought with the French, and had a lot of combat experience. The places where the squadron and the Vietnamese army fought were still mountainous jungles that were not conducive to our army's superiority in artillery fire, and the Vietnamese army's rich experience in jungle operations could be brought into great play. However, fortunately, in the later stage of the campaign, our army gradually adapted to it, and the number of ** gradually decreased.