Military History | How To Make War | Wars Around the World Rules of Use How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Armed Forces of the World Discussion Board
   Return to Topic Page
Subject: Just recently passed - China Vietnam war anniversary
Necromancer    4/16/2009 5:59:44 PM
fyi
 
Quote    Reply

Show Only Poster Name and Title     Newest to Oldest
Panther       4/22/2009 2:25:31 AM
You should know Necro, if your going to make a post, then please show more consideration for others and be more specific? For all the rest of us might know, you could be talking about the 12th century instead of the 20th... good grief!
 
Quote    Reply

strat-T21C    Hey!! We lost!   4/22/2009 1:06:23 PM

fyi
let me guess? You are going to celebrate an ass kicking that the Vietnamese gave the Chi-coms back in '89? That makes sense, unless the Chi-coms are going to make up their own history on that one as well.

 
Quote    Reply

Necromancer    oops- I lost the link earlier   4/23/2009 2:27:30 AM

You should know Necro, if your going to make a post, then please show more consideration for others and be more specific? For all the rest of us might know, you could be talking about the 12th century instead of the 20th... good grief!

Hai Ba Trung: The Historical Backdrop

The Sino-Vietnamese conflict is 21 centuries old. The Chinese colonised the Kingdom of Nam-Viet in the Red River delta before the birth of Christ. In AD 39 two Vietnamese sister queens named Trung-Trac and Trung-Nhi led a four year long revolt against the Chinese. The Hans sent strong reinforcements and crushed this rebellion. Rather than surrender, the two queens committed suicide by jumping into the Red River. To this day in March each year all Vietnamese girls celebrate the Hai- Ba Trung day. That the 1979 Chinese invasion came in Feb-March could only have stirred these historical memories of hate in Vietnam.

Other major revolts followed in the 3rd, 6th and 10th centuries. These helped to buildup the martial spirit of the Vietnamese. A dozen more wars were fought in the 15th century. Then Chinese power declined and Vietnam was able to assert its independence. From the 18th century onwards both China and Vietnam were involved in trying to stave off the yoke of foreign domination. Vietnam became a colony of France in the later half of the 18th century and for a while two historical enemies became allies against a common imperialist enemy. When the Second World War broke out, both Giap and Ho Chi Minh took shelter in the Yunan province of southern China. This served as the base for guerilla warfare against the French. The Regular Vietnamese Army was built up and trained in the Kwang Si Field firing ranges of China. However both Giap and Ho Chi Minh never forgot for an instant the historical realities. They refused all Chinese offers to intervene militarily on their behalf. Ho Chi Minh said, "It is better to sniff French dung for a while than to eat Chinese all our lives". During World War II the Japanese occupation forces overthrew the French in Vietnam. They could not consolidate their hold over the countryside and thus gave the Viet Minh guerillas their chance to move in. Thus when the French returned they were sucked in to a relentless guerilla war. In 1956 came Dien Bien Phu and the rout of the French forces in Indo-China. The Geneva conference partitioned Vietnam along the 17th parallel. It is noteworthy that Chou en Lai (Zhou en Lai) ? the late Chinese Prime Minister played a significant role in this partition. The Chinese were not keen to see a strong united Vietnam on their southern borders. The Americans moved in and Vietnam?s agony dragged on for another 20 years - as a fierce guerilla war now started in the South against the pro American regime.

The Chinese appeared to be intent on fighting the Americans to "the last Vietnamese". However when the signs of American defeat became apparent the hardheaded Chinese realised that before them lay the prospect of a militarily strong and reunited Vietnam. Besides the Sino-Soviet rivalry had now turned into open with undisguised hostility. The Chinese stopped all Russian supplies from reaching Vietnam by land. They tacitly encouraged the Americans to stay. Before the American rout finally came in 1975 and the Viet Minh forces reunited Vietnam, the Chinese launched a naval attack and captured the disputed Parcel Islands in the South China Sea in 1974. The façade of friendship was over. The historical rivalries had flared into the open.

The Cambodian Preamble

During the closing stages of the war in Vietnam it had spilled over into the neighbouring Kampuchea. The famous Ho Chi Minh Trail (the infiltration route) from North to South Vietnam lay partly through Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea). The Americans launched a major offensive in the Parrots Beak Bulge to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The CIA inspired a coup in which Gen Lon Nol overthrew the neutralist premier Norodom Shinouk. Shinouk fled to Peking and the pro Western regime of Lon Nol cooperated with the Americans in operations against the Viet Cong bases and caches. The Khmer Rogue guerillas ? (an ultra leftist communist organisation in Kampuchea) began guerilla warfare to overthrow Lon Nol?s regime. The Vietnamese aided them in this. When the Americans withdrew from Vietnam and Saigon fell, the Khmer Rogue guerillas overthrew Lon Nol?s unpopular regime. Thus it was that the regime led by Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan and Iang Seary came into power in Phnom Phen.

However, just as China and Vietna

 
Quote    Reply

strat-T21C       4/23/2009 9:42:54 PM
good post.
 
Quote    Reply

Godofgamblers       4/27/2009 2:48:09 AM
thanks for that article, necro. quite good.
 
Quote    Reply

Necromancer    gog   4/27/2009 2:50:21 AM

thanks for that article, necro. quite good.


i think we r gonna be in dreamland in july---we meet u??
 
Quote    Reply

Godofgamblers       4/27/2009 10:36:41 PM
sure, Necro, why not!
 
But i'm in Jakarta; it's a ways from Bali. but keep in touch and let me know your plans.
k
 
Quote    Reply



 Latest
 News
 
 Most
 Read
 
 Most
 Commented
 Hot
 Topics