Reflecting a country's attitude toward history is actually in two places: the first is in the museum, and the second is in the students' textbooks. In the case of World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany and the island nation to the east of us are a stark contrast. If a country is not able to face up to history, even if it is strong, it will not be respected by the people of the world.
On February 17, 1979, in the face of Vietnam's unwarranted provocation and harassment on the Sino-Vietnamese border, China officially launched a self-defense counterattack war against Vietnam. Nearly 560,000 troops, divided into two routes, launched a surprise attack on Vietnam on a front of about 500 kilometers. If the troops had not been withdrawn at that time, Vietnam would not have been a country but a province.
On March 16, 1979, we formally withdrew our troops, temporarily ending a month-long self-defense counterattack. The victory or defeat is already very obvious, so how did the Vietnamese side describe the war? Or go back to the two places I just talked about, museums and student textbooks.
Unlike Chinese habits of thought, in the eyes of the Vietnamese, the Sino-Vietnamese war was not only a counterattack against Vietnam from the perspective of Chinese, but also included the so-called "occupation" of Vietnam by the so-called Chinese dynasties from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties for two thousand years.
In the military museum in Hanoi, Vietnam, there is no content about China's self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam, only some materials on China's War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Vietnam. When most elderly Vietnamese are asked about the war, they generally say, "I know that you Chinese propaganda is a war of self-defense against Vietnam, but if you think about it, is that possible?" Does a country as small as Vietnam dare to invade you? ”
Not just museums, but in their high school textbooks of the 1990s, they described it even more frighteningly. Because there is a lot of information, I will only list a few of their views here. If you want detailed information, you can follow me to the private message to request.
First, the Vietnamese army used a variety of flexible tactics, which led to the defeat of the People's Liberation Army and the need to withdraw
Second, it is shameful that China's propaganda to its domestic people is "to teach Vietnam a lesson, not to occupy Vietnam."
Third, the People's Liberation Army has done all kinds of evil in Vietnam, burning, killing, and robbing the people, bringing heavy disasters to the Vietnamese people
Fourth, Vietnam's poverty and backwardness are due to China's aggression
Fifth, after China's failure to invade Vietnam, it is natural that war compensation should be paid to Vietnam's losses
These five points can be said to be ridiculous to the extreme, and they have to provoke us, and after being violently beaten, they still use strong words. Why not look for your big brother the USSR? Also, it Chinese us to provoke, and your eldest brother does not dare to take care of it.
What is even more ridiculous is not that after the defeat, before the war, the propaganda in Vietnam was very interesting, saying: "Not only is this ours, but even Guangdong and Guangxi are also ours, and everywhere there are kapok trees, it is ours!" The Vietnamese 3rd Division, which was stationed on the Border between China and Vietnam at the time, even shouted the slogan: "Hit friendship pass for breakfast, and hit Nanning for the Spring Festival."