1. Soviet-Vietnamese collusion, the Vietnamese authorities are arrogant
In 1975, the North Vietnamese army occupied the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon , and the South and North Vietnam were unified to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Vietnam War , which lasted for 20 years, was finally over.
After unification, Vietnam maintained a huge army. At its peak, it reached 1.3 million. The Vietnamese army acquired a large number of American-made weapons left over by the American army in Vietnam and the United States handed over to South Vietnam. Military equipment has become one of the Southeast Asian countries. head.
Backed by a strong military force, the Vietnamese authorities began to embark on the road of armed expansion eagerly. It has long coveted Cambodia and Laos’ southern neighbors in an attempt to bring the entire Indochina that was once colonized by the French. The region was brought under its own rule.
To the north, Vietnam has been in constant friction with the New China, which once assisted itself in the war of resistance against France and the United States, and even sent troops to fight against the French and American forces side by side with itself.
In the five years from 1974 to August 1978, the Vietnamese army unilaterally made 3,398 provocations on the Sino-Vietnamese border, and unscrupulously opened fire on China, killing and wounding more than 300 Chinese border guards and border residents. People, making thousands of Chinese people homeless, can only live in caves, and a large amount of farmland cannot be cultivated.
The rebellious Vietnamese army
Since September 1978, the Vietnamese have even overthrown border monuments without authorization, occupying 162 Chinese territories, and even sent troops directly to invade China and attack our border soldiers.
They let out wild words: One Vietnamese soldier can deal with 30 Chinese soldiers!
The vigilance of the Vietnamese authorities is not unrelated to their close collusion with the Soviet government. On November 3, 1978, the heads of the Soviet Union and Vietnam signed the Soviet-Vietnamese Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in Moscow. The Soviet Union promised to provide a large amount of military and economic assistance to Vietnam.
At this price, the Soviet air force and navy were able to station in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay, Da Nang and other naval and air military bases, realizing the Soviet Union’s unprecedented military presence in the South Pacific.
Vietnam is very clear that in the context of tensions between China and the Soviet Union, its only bargaining chip to counter China is the support of the Soviet Union.
The then leader of Vietnam, Le Duan
After the Soviet Union and Vietnam were connected, East Germany, which had always been in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and other " Warsaw Pact" countries also cooperated. Vietnam is getting closer and closer. This situation has given Vietnam an illusion of "brothers in the four seas".
Sure enough, since the Soviet Union’s public support, the Le Duan government was even more complacent. Only a month later, it launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia. 250,000 Vietnamese troops crossed the border of Cambodia and occupied the capital of Cambodia only 12 days later. Phnom Penh.
With the rapid victory of 's war of aggression against Cambodia, Vietnam began to proclaim itself as the “third military power in the world” second only to the United States and the Soviet Union. In just a few months, the Vietnamese army has blossomed on all sides and is very busy.
At the same time as it invaded Cambodia, Vietnam sent more than 50,000 people to invade Laos and clashed with Thailand in the west, making it a robbery presence in Southeast Asia.
In fact, the reason why Vietnam dared to dispose of troops and aggressively aggressively invaded it was a major strategic misjudgment of the Chinese government's determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Le Duan (first from right) visited the Soviet Union in 1978, and Brezhnev (middle) personally greeted him at the airport
Le Duan, the leader of Vietnam, the Prime Minister Le Ching Yi, the Chief of Staff of the Vietnamese Army Wenjinyong et al.,As long as the Soviet Union maintains pressure on the northern border, China dare not really use force against Vietnam.
Once the Sino-Vietnamese war begins, the Vietnamese army will drag the People's Liberation Army on the southern front, and the Soviet armored army will take advantage of the Mongolian steppe and go south. For China, it will face the danger of having to fight on two fronts.
Not only is the high-level Vietnamese leaders convinced of the "iron-blood friendship" of the Soviet Union, this superstition has even spread to the hearts of the grassroots officers and soldiers of the Vietnamese army.
Take an example: the 123rd regiment of the military command of Lang Son Province in Vietnam believes in daily defensive training that although officers and soldiers must be prepared to fight against China’s “aggression”, they only need to insist on 30 minutes before the Soviet Union will send troops to help. In Vietnam, the war will have a complete turnaround, and the whole regiment will unanimously agree with this. This situation is not rare among the troops stationed in northern Vietnam.
Of course, in order to "hold down" the People's Liberation Army as much as possible, Vietnam has deployed more than 150,000 regular troops and a large number of militia troops along the Sino-Vietnamese border.
Le Duan inspects the Vietnamese army
In the direction of Guangxi, the Vietnamese army has 3 divisions, 325B divisions, 338 divisions, and 346 divisions. In Yunnan, there are 316A divisions and 345 divisions. In addition, the Vietnamese side There are more than 10 regiments, more than 20 independent battalions of local troops, and 4 artillery regiments.
There is a saying: If the sky is to make it perish, it must first make it crazy. Vietnam’s military militants have aroused the Chinese government’s high vigilance, and a large-scale self-defense counterattack is imminent.
2. The consideration and layout of the Chinese government
As the only target of Soviet-Vietnamese linkage, the Chinese government's tricks on Lebanon and Soviet leader Brezhnev are of course clear. Based on a comprehensive study and judgment of the international situation at the time, the Chinese leaders headed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping believed that the possibility of Soviet support to Vietnam existed, but the scale and extent were very limited.
The Soviet Union at that time was as sickly as Brezhnev himself.The government is old and inefficient, the economy is stagnant, and the people’s lives are difficult. Only the seemingly powerful army maintains international authority.
Although the Soviet Union has been eager to intervene in the situation in Central Asia, it does not seem to be successful. The Taraki regime in Afghanistan that it supports has been in jeopardy after only a year of existence. This has made Brezhnev brain-stricken.
Brezhnev is very old
In Africa, the Soviet Union has been involved in a big way Angola The domestic melee and the Ethiopia-Somali war are very busy.
In the Middle East, due to the deterioration of the relationship between the original ally Egypt and itself, the Soviet Union had to directly confront Israel, and the war was about to start.
That’s not even counted. In January 1979, the Islamic Revolution broke out in Iran. The tough leader Khomeini came to power, and the Soviet power in Iran was emptied.
Although the United States is temporarily on the defensive in the global political and military game, NATO in Europe still maintains a strong military presence. Since Europe is the real strategic focus of the Soviet Union, most of the Soviet army’s power has always been constrained. Eastern Europe cannot get away.
Although we judge that the Soviet Union is unlikely to have a big fight, we also predict that after military operations against Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union may break out of medium and small fights.
Comrade Deng Xiaoping and Marshal Xu Xiangqian at the meeting of the State Council in 1978
Therefore, after the decision to implement a just self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, China is ready for a possible large-scale military conflict in the north. At that time, the main force of the People's Liberation Army was still gathering in the northeast and northwest.
Under the deployment of the Central Military Commission, the PLA’s most elite armored units, missile units, and artillery units on the thousands-kilometer border from northeast to Xinjiang are fortified at various levels. Their main task is to contain as much as possible before the end of the Vietnam counterattack war. Soviet offensive.
As for the so-called allied countries that follow the Soviet Union, they are weaker,Apart from shouting and cheering, and knocking on the side drums, it is even more impossible to do anything substantively. They are even more outside the scope of China's consideration.
However, in addition to military preparations, the Chinese government has yet to play an important diplomatic card.
On January 1, 1979, China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations. On January 29, Deng Xiaoping, the then Vice Premier of the State Council, paid an official visit to the United States and met with the then President of the United States Jimmy Carter.
Comrade Xiaoping's visit to the United States
When talking about the tensions on the border between China and Vietnam, Deng Xiaoping calmly said: "The kid is disobedient, it's time for spanking."
Carter immediately understood At a time when the Soviet Union’s global layout was pressing the United States everywhere, China was able to take action to clean up the Soviet Union’s younger brother, Vietnam, and frustrated Brezhnev’s spirit. This is naturally what the United States can't ask for.
On February 5, Deng Xiaoping ended his visit to the United States and returned to China. At this time, he already had a bottom in his mind. If the Soviet Union wanted to carry out a military attack on China, it had to consider the US response.
Although the intelligence about the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States has long been on Brezhnev’s desk, the speed of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two parties was so fast that the Soviets did not expect it. Since the Sino-Soviet conflict on Zhenbao Island broke out in 1969, the Soviet Union has I have never felt such obvious diplomatic isolation.
Vietnam has become a hot potato at the moment. If the Soviet army cannot provide assistance to Vietnam in time, then the image of the Soviet Union in the eyes of the "Warsaw Pact" organization and other brothers will be greatly reduced. When China goes to war, it has to run the risk of losing face with China and the United States at the same time.
A huge Soviet tank cluster deployed in Europe
For Blaine, who knows how many catties the Soviet Union has,It is obvious that the Soviet side cannot afford to fight against Sino-U.S. and U.S.-led NATO on a global scale.
The importance of Vietnam has been greatly devalued in Brezhnev's mind, but Le Duan does not know it yet.
At this time New China was just 30 years old. Deng Xiaoping, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Ye Jianying and other older generations of revolutionaries who have experienced cruel revolutionary wars are still in leadership positions. Su Yu, Xu Shiyou, Yang Dezhi, Han Xianchu, etc. On the battlefield, the veteran who was born and died still has a treasure.
For these old revolutions, the more powerful and brutal Kuomintang reactionaries, Japanese aggressors, and US imperialism have all been defeated. What is the trivial clown?
In the most difficult times, we would rather be hungry and tighten our belts to support Vietnam. In order to help them drive away the Yankees, how much rice, how much weapons and equipment we sent to Vietnam, and how many soldiers of the People's Liberation Army paid the price of their lives.
Deng Xiaoping, Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian, Zhang Aiping in the 1980s
Now, they use the weapons and supplies we gave us to hit us in turn. How can there be such a reason in the world!
Beginning in December 1978, the People's Liberation Army began a large-scale mobilization on the Sino-Vietnamese border. A total of nearly 500,000 troops of 9 armies and 29 divisions have been assembled.
In addition, more than 800 tanks, armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery , including more than 800 combat vehicles of various types, more than 9,000 artillery pieces of various types, and more than 30,000 vehicles of various types, were dispatched. In terms of logistics, more than 700,000 militiamen and migrant workers have been mobilized to support the frontline.
By the beginning of February 1979, the counterattack was already on the line.
3. The Soviet Union "rejected" the treaty, and the Vietnamese authorities woke up like a dream
It is ridiculous that the Vietnamese side itself still knows nothing about the coming crisis.
The People's Liberation Army massed towards the Sino-Vietnamese border
Just the day before the People's Liberation Army began its offensive, on February 16, 1979, Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Ching Yi, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Vie-Chen, and Vietnam Army Chief of Staff Wen Jinyong just Fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to visit the Cambodian puppet regime that he has fostered.
The Vietnam First Military Region deployed in the north began to organize major military officers at all levels to conduct intensive training and study, so the regiment, battalion, and company commanders were basically not in command positions when the war broke out.
In the early morning of February 17th, Guangzhou Military Region Commander Xu Shiyou commanded the Eastern Front troops, and Kunming Military Region Commander General Yang Dezhi commanded the Western Front troops. The first batch of 300,000 troops was thunderous. Launched an assault on the territory of Vietnam on the thousands of miles from Quang Ninh to Laizhou.
In just two days, the People's Liberation Army captured the border town and the capital of Vietnam's Huanglianshan Province, Lao Cai, and continued to advance in depth. Because the Vietnamese side was not prepared to defend against the PLA offensive, the frontline Vietnamese troops suffered heavy casualties and were in chaos.
The Vietnamese army in the Northern Military Region hurriedly organized resistance, and hurriedly reported the news of the attack to their superiors. As a result, officers at all levels had to return to the troops in a hurry, commanding the scattered troops to try to reduce and ease the offensive of the army in a strategically defensive manner.
Admiral Yang Dezhi inspected the front line on the eve of the counterattack
The shocked Vietnamese government immediately remembered the Soviets who promised to cooperate with Vietnam on offense and defense. On the morning of the 17th, Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Span4span quickly notified the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the situation and sent out an emergency telegram for help.
until February 22,The Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact countries under its control, as well as Ethiopia , Afghanistan and other governments that had good relations with the Soviet Union expressed their "condemnation" of China and demanded a ceasefire and withdrawal from the Chinese side.
Most countries, including the United States, expressed "regret" for this and hoped that the two sides would negotiate to resolve the issue.
This made the Vietnamese side anxious: the eyebrows were on fire. The Soviet Union's big brother just issued a few diplomatic statements indifferently. This did not help Vietnam's bad situation.
For the Vietnamese army, which has lost its troops and lost its generals, what they really need is the explosive good news of "the Soviet Union's millions of soldiers go south", or the less explosive but more practical "Soviet Union has sent to Vietnam." Reinforcement".
The Vietnamese army captured by the People's Liberation Army
If this does not work, then take the second place, military assistance from the Soviet Big Brother, aircraft, tanks, artillery, too!
Seeing that a week has passed, the two transport planes dispatched by the Soviet Union finally arrived late, unloading hundreds of tons of ammunition at Hanoi Airport. But this is like a drop in the bucket for the raging front-line warfare.
Western newspapers keenly observing this detail sarcastically said that at such a critical moment of urgency, the "treatment" enjoyed by Vietnam is not even as good as Ethiopia, Angola and other African countries.
This made the Vietnamese authorities want to cry, what is the meaning of "military alliance"?
In fact, after receiving the telegram from Vietnam, Brezhnev fell into deep thought.
The soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army who have quickly entered the hinterland of Vietnam
He can’t figure out what kind of tacit understanding the Chinese leaders have reached with the Americans.After all, Deng Xiaoping launched the war against Vietnam only 12 days after his return. This efficiency shows that China is likely to have some kind of promise from the Americans.
Therefore, the Soviet Union did not expect China to take action so quickly. The Soviet army did not yet have the conditions to launch a large-scale offensive.
In addition, reliable intelligence shows that the Beijing Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army, the Shenyang Military Region, and the Lanzhou Military Region have entered the first-level combat readiness state, and a large number of missile and tank troops have also appeared in the Xinjiang Military Region . This happened in the People’s Liberation Army. Four hours after the start of the attack on Vietnam.
Brezhnev's thinking is not as old as his body. He quickly realized that the Chinese government would not hesitate to fight the Soviet Union for the stability of southern Xinjiang.
Obviously, the number and quality of equipment of China's tank troops are far inferior to that of the Soviet Union, but the fighting will and tactics of the PLA Army are unimaginable by the Soviet Union.
The People's Liberation Army during the 1984 military parade
In the Korean Peninsula, the equipment of the Volunteer Army was far worse than that of the U.S. Army, but the result was that the Americans were blocked south of the "38th Line". One step forward.
It is not difficult for him to imagine that once the Soviet army enters China, it will be ruthlessly and resolutely hit. It is impossible to win by relying only on a medium-sized army, and Vietnam must be rescued unless there is a big fight.
For the Soviet Union, which is already in the world, the consequences of being involved in a large-scale war with China are unbearable.
What's more, there are the United States and NATO who are trying to reap the benefits of the fishermen on the side. Even if they do not take action, they only need to support the opposition in Afghanistan, Iran, Angola and other countries while the Soviet Union is in the quagmire. Enough for the Soviet Union to drink a pot.
It's not worth paying such a big price for Vietnam!
Unexpectedly, the so-called powerful Soviet army could not even win Afghanistan.
After thinking about it, Brezhnev decided to abandon the war option. But in order to support Vietnam’s “little brother” and not to lose the power of the empire, the Soviet Union still carried out some symbolic support operations, including a six-division-scale military exercise in Mongolia and military operations in Kazakhstan. Drills and so on.
The Eastern European countries and some Asian and African countries, which have always followed the Soviet Union, saw that the Soviet Union was basically "thunder and rain," and it was even more reluctant to take the initiative to be the first bird, so even the diplomatic rhetoric was too lazy to make any more.
On March 4, the People's Liberation Army captured Lang Son , an important town in northern Vietnam, and 130 kilometers south is Hanoi. From Lang Son to Hanoi, there is no danger to defend in Vietnam.
At this time, the Vietnamese government has changed from "brothers in the four seas" to "become embarrassed on all sides". It was not until the war broke out that it sadly discovered that it was only a lonely family.
was desperate and panicked when the Vietnamese government announced a national mobilization, the Chinese government proactively announced that since the goal of self-defense counterattack has been achieved, since March 5, 1979, the Chinese border troops will be withdrawn to China.
After the People’s Liberation Army conquered Lang Son, it seized a large amount of rice that helped Vietnam back then.
was as sudden as the beginning of the counterattack. The war was over without waiting for the Soviet Union to react further. To win, fast in and fast out, China showed off in front of the Soviet Union.
Until the Chinese army completed its disciplinary mission against Vietnam and completed its withdrawal from Vietnam on March 16, the Soviet army did not dare to cross the Sino-Soviet border half a step!
Not to mention the big hits, even the middle hits and small hits we expected before did not happen.
and Vietnam’s dividends in national reunification have been exhausted,As a result, economic development has been stagnant for a long time.
The Chinese people have the determination, courage, and ability to fight to the end and defeat all forces that threaten the dignity and territorial integrity of the country and hinder our realization of national reunification!
The People's Liberation Army conquered Lang Son
History has proved that there are many ways to help, but little help. However, any forces that provoked war everywhere and endangered world peace, no matter how powerful they are on the surface, cannot restore their failure. fate.
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