1979-2-17 Sino-Vietnamese War 1979-3-16

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Looking Back at the Sino-Vietnamese War - Asianometry > .

China-Vietnam War (1979) - Wars of 20th Century > .

China vs. Vietnam: the New Race of the Century - VisPol > .

History of Vietnam (All Vietnamese dynasties) - Epimetheus > .

China-India War (1962) - Wars of 20th Century > .

How the Soviets and China became enemies - Cold War > .

China - Soviet Union Border Conflict (1969) - Wars of 20th Century > .

The Han Supremacist Problem - Asianometry > .

> Vietnam >>

24-4-6 Vietnam: Hx, USA-Xina Relations, SXS, economy - gtbt > .

China - Wars of 20th Century >> .

Chinese History Episodes - Asianometry >> .

On the CCP - Asianometry >> .

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The Sino-Vietnamese War (中越战争) was a border war fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's actions against the Khmer Rouge in 1978, which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars.

On 6 March, China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved. During the withdrawal, the PLA used scorched-earth policy, destroying local infrastructure and looting useful equipment and resources (including livestock), this severely weakened the economy of Vietnam's northernmost provinces. The PLA crossed the border back into China on 16 March. Both sides declared victory with China claiming to have crushed the Vietnamese resistance and Vietnam claiming to have repelled the invasion using mostly border militias. ... Had the PLA decided to attack Hanoi, the PLA would have suffered huge losses.

China and Vietnam each lost thousands of troops, and China lost 3.45 billion yuan in overhead, which delayed completion of their 1979–80 economic plan. 

On 1 March 2005, Howard W. French wrote in The New York Times: Some historians stated that "the war was started by Mr. Deng (China's then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping) to keep the army preoccupied while he consolidated power..."

  

As Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989, China was unsuccessful in its goal of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Sino-Vietnamese border was finalized. Although unable to deter Vietnam from ousting Pol Pot from Cambodia, China demonstrated that its Cold War communist adversary, the Soviet Union, was unable to protect its Vietnamese ally.