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In the late 1970s, Vietnam was ungrateful and ignored my country's kindness in assisting it. It openly declared that China was its biggest enemy, and frequently invaded my country's border areas with armed force and killed Chinese residents across the border.
In order to teach this forgetful little brother a lesson, China began to consider using troops against Vietnam. However, in view of the complex international situation at that time, Deng Xiaoping had always been cautious about whether to fight against Vietnam.
Many senior PLA generals opposed the use of force against Vietnam, including Su Yu and Ye Jianying.
But then Chen Yun, who did not care about military affairs, said something, which immediately enlightened Deng Xiaoping and everyone in the audience, and they immediately made up their minds to fight back against Vietnam. So, what did Chen Yun say, and what in-depth considerations did Deng Xiaoping go through when he decided to send troops to Vietnam?
At the end of 1975, with the joint efforts of the Vietnamese military and civilians, the South Vietnamese regime was defeated, and Vietnam finally achieved the reunification of the north and the south. When the news came, Vietnam was filled with joy and people celebrated the arrival of national reunification.
Like the Vietnamese people, there are also many Chinese compatriots who are cheering.
As neighbors separated by a strip of water, China and Vietnam in modern times have had very similar fates. They both experienced anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles, and they are brothers in need who have gone through the struggle of blood and fire.
The friendship between the Chinese and Vietnamese people can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, the French colonists invaded Vietnam on a large scale. In response to the Vietnamese regime's request for help, the Qing Dynasty, as the sovereign state, sent Feng Zicai to lead the Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians to mount a heroic resistance against the French colonists.
achieved a great victory at Zhennanguan , which dealt a heavy blow to the French invaders and even forced the collapse of the French cabinet.
After entering the 20th century, the friendship between China and Vietnam has become even stronger. The revolutionary struggles of the two countries were led by the communist parties of their respective countries, and both countries belong to the international communist camp.
Comrade Ho Chi Minh , known as the founding father of Vietnam, often went to China to learn from Chairman Mao and learn advanced revolutionary struggle experience. During the Anti-French War and the Anti-American War in Vietnam, China provided selfless assistance to Vietnam regardless of its own difficult situation.
During the Vietnam Anti-French War , China sent a military advisory group headed by General Chen Geng. They went deep into the front line of the anti-French war and helped the Vietnamese army command countless battles.
With the help of Chen Geng and other advisers, the Vietnamese army achieved a decisive victory at Dien Bien Phu. In the First World War, the French invaders were unable to fight back, establishing the victory of the Anti-French War.
During the Vietnam Anti-American War, China's help to Vietnam was even more selfless in all aspects.
During the entire period of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Vietnam, more than 4,000 Chinese army officers and soldiers were laid to rest on Vietnamese soil, and countless more were injured.
In addition to military assistance, China's economic assistance to Vietnam is unconditional, generous and selfless. Until now, China's assistance to Vietnam has been the largest and longest in the history of China's foreign aid.
As of 1978, China's economic assistance to Vietnam totaled 20 billion US dollars, of which 93.3% was free assistance and the remaining 6.7% was interest-free loans.
Therefore, when the news of Vietnam's reunification came, China was equally happy. In addition to high-level calls to congratulate, Chinese people on the Sino-Vietnamese border also shared this joy with Vietnamese expatriates living in my country.
They held a grand banquet and invited Vietnamese expatriates to their homes.
held hands to celebrate in front of the Friendship Gate and China-Vietnam Friendship Bridge . Together they told about the hardships of the anti-imperialist struggle over the years, celebrated together for the dawn of victory, and looked forward to a better and peaceful life.
However, what the Chinese people and even the Chinese government did not expect was that Vietnam, a neighbor connected by mountains and rivers, a brotherly country that fought colonialists and imperialist invaders in the same trenches, would fall out soon after reunification.
was not only completely alien to China, but also aggressively invaded China. The two sides eventually met each other and fought to the death.
In the history of Sino-Vietnam relations, China has always treated Vietnam sincerely and provided full assistance to its wars against France and the United States. It invested troops, weapons, and property, and more than 4,000 officers and soldiers died on the battlefield to resist the United States and aid Vietnam.
However, as Vietnam completed the reunification of the north and the south, Vietnam's attitude towards China took a 180-degree turn, and even openly declared that our country is Vietnam's number one enemy.
also invaded our country across the border, which forced our country to launch a self-defense counterattack . The two sides eventually went to war.
So, why has Vietnam changed its attitude so badly? What provocations has it committed against China? How is China prepared to fight back?
In fact, the source of the bad relations between China and Vietnam can be largely attributed to the bad relations between China and the Soviet Union.
In 1956, Khrushchev made a secret report completely denying Stalin at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which caused an uproar and became an insurmountable rift between China and the Soviet Union.
As time passed and entered the 1960s, after the Soviet Union treacherously withdrew its aid and experts, China and the Soviet Union officially turned against each other and reached a trough, and finally an armed conflict broke out on Zhenbao Island.
For a time, China was in a situation of being surrounded and isolated in the world. In order to break this isolated international environment, China decided to seek normalization of relations with the United States.
Against this background, contacts between China and the United States became more frequent. It was not until Nixon's visit to China in 1972 that Sino-US relations broke the ice.
However, China's normal diplomatic decision-making was a betrayal of itself in the eyes of Vietnam. Therefore, Vietnam, which was originally wavering between China and the Soviet Union, completely turned to the Soviet Union after the reunification was completed.
In November 1978, Vietnam signed the "Soviet-Vietnam Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" with the Soviet Union.
This treaty has a strong military alliance treaty nature, which means that Vietnam has completely moved towards the Soviet Union and formed a military alliance to advance and retreat together.
At the same time, Vietnamese Communist Party leader Le Duan also publicly issued a statement, saying that China was the biggest obstacle to its development. This was almost equivalent to declaring that China was Vietnam's number one enemy. It was from this time that China began to consider re-examining Sino-Vietnam relations.
In addition to fully turning to the Soviet Union to obtain greater assistance, the core factor why Vietnam turned its back on China was Vietnam's revived ambition to establish a Greater Indo-China Federation.
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia on the Indochina Peninsula were originally three independent countries. In the 19th century, under France's colonial aggression policy, the three countries belonged to French Indochina. From then on, the three countries began to have a rich history.
Later, the French colonists were driven away. As the strongest among the three countries of the Indochina Federation, Vietnam has always wanted to restore the Greater Indochina Federation by itself and thereby dominate the Indochina Peninsula.
Especially after successively defeating military powers such as France and the United States, the Vietnamese army, armed with Soviet-style and American-style weapons and equipment, became even more confident. It boasted that it was the third military power in the world. As its confidence expanded, its ambitions also grew.
On December 25, 1978, with the support of the Soviet Union, Vietnam mobilized 20 divisions. With the tank cluster opening the way, the troops divided into seven groups to invade Cambodia, revealing the ferocious minions of its hegemony .
While invading China’s southern neighbor, Vietnam also began to frequently provoke China.
In the late Qing Dynasty, in order to escape the war at home, many Chinese people left their hometowns to make a living and began to " go to Southeast Asia." Among them, Vietnam was one of the main destinations of the voyage to Southeast Asia. Many Chinese people made a living and started families here.
However, with the connivance of the Vietnamese government and the demonizing propaganda of the Vietnamese propaganda machine, the Chinese living in Vietnam have become robbers who come to seize the market and labor resources in their mouths. They even called on the Vietnamese people to drive away the Chinese.
As a result, under the instigation of lawless elements, a large-scale anti-Chinese movement was launched in Vietnam.
Shops opened by Chinese people in Vietnam were robbed and smashed, and Chinese people were beaten and abused. Many Chinese people living in Vietnam had their wealth and family property accumulated over two or three generations destroyed and were forced to flee back to the country or live overseas.
In addition to the domestic anti-Chinese movement, the Vietnamese military has also begun to frequently cross the border into China's border areas to carry out armed harassment. Vietnamese soldiers secretly infiltrated into the mountains and forests on the China-Vietnam border, took advantage of the terrain, and shot at our border residents from a commanding height.
Due to the long-term good relations between China and Vietnam, ordinary residents on the Chinese border are unaware of the changing situation between China and Vietnam, and are not wary of Vietnamese soldiers.
Their daily routine is to go to the mountains on the Sino-Vietnamese border to do farm work. However, when the Chinese residents were unprepared, the Vietnamese soldiers shamelessly fired cold shots at the unarmed people, causing casualties to innocent people.
What's even more egregious is that the Vietnamese army also fired artillery fire on residents' houses, destroying countless houses, leaving Chinese residents homeless and forced to live in cold and damp caves. Thousands of tons of bananas rotted on the trees because residents did not dare to harvest them.
In addition to armed aggression on the southern border, Vietnam has also frequently provoked conflicts in the South China Sea, openly claiming that the Nansha Islands and Paracel Islands are Vietnamese territory, and has occupied more than 90% of the islands.
Faced with Vietnam's intensified provocations, the Chinese government could not bear it and began to consider using force to punish Vietnam.
In the late 1970s, Vietnam ignored my country's repeated warnings and intensified its armed aggression in the border areas, killing and injuring many border residents and tearing down boundary markers, openly insulting the dignity of our country.
For this reason, the Central Military Commission decided to put the use of force to punish Vietnam on the central agenda. Members of the Politburo Standing Committee and senior generals of the People's Liberation Army were convened specifically for this purpose to discuss strategies against Vietnam.
So, how did Deng Xiaoping decide to send troops to Vietnam at this meeting? What were the deep considerations behind Deng Gong’s determination?
While Vietnam’s aggression is becoming more and more aggressive, China is also considering using force against Vietnam. At the end of 1978, Deng Xiaoping, who was in charge of the work, convened members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and senior generals of the People's Liberation Army to hold a meeting to study the use of troops against Vietnam.
At that time, the Soviet Union was eyeing the north, and the attitude of the United States was unclear.
Therefore, many comrades expressed concerns about rashly sending troops to Vietnam, especially when the Soviet Union and Vietnam had signed the "Soviet-Vietnam Friendship Treaty" with the nature of a military alliance. They worried that sending troops to Vietnam would cause retaliation from the Soviet Union.
At that time, the Soviet Union was the only country that could compete with the United States. Although China was not afraid of aggression, when facing a powerful opponent like the Soviet Union, no one dared to say what the outcome would be.
Some people say that the Soviet Union is busy engaging in an arms race with the United States and should not have the time and energy to take care of Vietnam, its new little brother. However, some people object to this, saying that no one knows the temper of the Soviet Union.
During the World War II , the "Soviet-Japanese Friendship Treaty" did not expire. The Japanese Kwantung Army wanted to use this treaty to persuade the Soviet Union to remain neutral, but the result was that millions of Soviet Red Army troops entered the customs as soon as they said they would. Therefore, you must be cautious when considering the Soviet Union's attitude.
Therefore, Su Yu and Ye Jianying also said: “It is possible to fight Vietnam, but it is not recommended to fight at this time."
Su Yu and Ye Jianying are meritorious generals of our army who have come from the war years. They have experienced the baptism of blood and fire. One is the first general of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the other is among the top ten marshals. Deng Xiaoping had to carefully consider their opinions.
It was difficult to decide whether to send troops to Vietnam, and the meeting reached a deadlock.
At this time, the opinion of a veteran of the Communist Party of China played a key role in Deng Xiaoping's decision to send troops to Vietnam. This veteran was Comrade Chen Yun, then a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and first secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Comrade Chen Yun was a veteran figure of our party and enjoyed high reputation and prestige within the party.
At the age of 29, he was already a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. At that time, Chairman Mao was only an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Deng Xiaoping was only the Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee.
After the founding of the People's Republic of my country, Comrade Chen Yun fought hard on the economic construction front for a long time and made outstanding contributions to the construction of our country's national economy.
Faced with the deadlock in the meeting and Deng Xiaoping's hesitation, Chen Yun said:
"I don't think we need to worry too much about the Soviet Union's intervention. Although the Soviet Union has signed an alliance treaty with Vietnam, most of its troops are deployed in the direction of Europe. If it wants to use force against China, it will take at least a month to mobilize its troops back. I think this month can be used to fight Vietnam. "
This idea coincided with Deng Xiaoping's. In Deng Xiaoping's original vision, the use of force against Vietnam was a military operation mainly focused on punishment. It was to attack Vietnam within a limited time and in a limited scope, and to make a quick decision to force it to give up its aggressive ambitions.
The internal opinions were unanimous. In order to confuse Vietnam on the international situation, Deng Xiaoping visited the United States and Japan successively, and in 1978 On December 16, 2016, China and the United States jointly issued the "Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and the United States".
announced that China and the United States would formally establish diplomatic relations from January 1 of the following year.
Deng Xiaoping’s move was really clever. While visiting the United States, he openly mobilized troops to the Sino-Vietnamese border, creating a situation in Vietnam that China was sending troops to Vietnam, which has gained the attention of Western society. The illusion of support also made the Soviet Union, which was eyeing the north, dare not act rashly.
In February 1979, under the deployment of the Central Military Commission, the nine armies ordered to enter the Vietnam War were deployed at the borders of Yunnan and Guangxi.
html On December 17, amid the roar of thousands of artillery pieces, the People's Liberation Army launched attacks on both the east and west fronts into Vietnam at the same time, 's self-defense counterattack against Vietnam has officially begun.
Under Deng Xiaoping's decision-making, this war brought China decades of peaceful environment, providing a peaceful and stable external environment for reform and opening up . also used a lightning-fast offensive to completely destroy Vietnam's aggressive ambitions, making it no longer dare to covet China's territory.
