Since World War II, there have been few large-scale wars in the world, and everyone has realized the importance of peace, and they are unwilling to let innocent people suffer from war and chaos, and they have buried their heads in the economy.
But in the 1980s, there was a little-known Thai-Vietnamese war, and the war scene could not be described simply as tragic. Vietnam had the upper hand at first, but in the end it lost miserably to Thailand, so why did the war start? How did Thailand turn the tide of the war and turn defeat into victory?
The story also begins with the war between the United States and Vietnam, and in 1975, the War with Vietnam, which had been deadlocked for nearly 10 years, finally could not hold back, and it could not afford the huge cost of the war. The United States chose to withdraw its troops, and the war ended in vietnam's final victory. The United States lost face in this war, but Vietnam gained great self-confidence because of this war, and the national self-confidence was bursting.
But why did the United States start this Vietnam War? The reason was to prevent the Soviet Union from unifying Vietnam. As we all know, after World War II, the world was divided into the capitalist camp headed by the United States and the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union liberated the Eastern European countries, the United States controlled the Western European countries, and the two camps engaged in a fierce arms race on all sides. The countries under their respective administrations also inevitably engaged in confrontation. For example, the NATO organization jointly established by the Western European countries led by the United States and the Warsaw Pact organization composed of Eastern European countries led by the Soviet Union have launched fierce confrontations between the two sides. Asia was not spared, and so the Vietnamese regimes in Southeast Asia fought, vietnam was first a French colony in the 19th century, then France was defeated by Germany, and Vietnam fell into the hands of the Japanese. After Japan's surrender in World War II, North Vietnam established a democratic republic, and a fierce rivalry between the South Vietnamese regime and the South Vietnamese regime began.
Vietnam was the first socialist country in Southeast Asia under the leadership of the Soviet Union, and it was the Soviet Union that helped North Vietnam out of its predicament when It was occupied by France. But South Vietnam has always been supported by the United States, and as North Vietnamese become more and more powerful, there is a great posture of unifying South Vietnam. Especially in 1956, north Vietnam carried out a large-scale land reform in the country, and the people received a large amount of land for free, which was a very big impact on the South Vietnamese regime. Because the distribution of land is what the people most want to see, so in the election to unify the whole country, the odds of Victory in North Vietnam are very large, and seeing that South Vietnam is about to be reunified, the United States behind it cannot sit still. Fearing that the unification of Vietnam would affect the ideological distribution of Southeast Asia and that more and more countries would choose to take the socialist road, in 1965, the United States created the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and officially launched the Vietnam War.
The reason why the United States dares to attack Vietnam at will is nothing more than that it feels that Vietnam is weak and bullying, and it is a country that can win without effort. But in the end, the United States is too conceited, and the situation in Vietnam is far from being as simple as it seems. At that time, everyone felt that Vietnam would undoubtedly lose this war, after all, the gap between the strength of the two sides was too large.
The first test of the war was the military strength of both sides, and the United States at that time had an overwhelming advantage. But the war was fought for ten years, and even if it took ten years, the United States was unable to take North Vietnam.
In fact, from the perspective of war casualties, the casualties of the US military are much smaller than those of Vietnam, after all, the US military weapons are very lethal. However, in terms of strategy and tactics, the United States has failed, and the United States does not have a clear goal for this war, so it has led to a great blindness in combat. The United States does not know what position to attack, and it is not good to grasp that degree, so it is dragged down by the long-distance love war. In addition, the United States is also facing a lot of pressure from the international community, especially from the Soviet Union and China, so it has many concerns when fighting, and it cannot and does not dare to let go of its hands to fight, which is also an important reason for the failure of the United States.
The United States was a veritable number one power at the time, but North Vietnam defeated the United States and somewhat obliviously listed itself as the world's third-largest power after the United States and the Soviet Union. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops, North Vietnam quickly unified South Vietnam, and in 1976 formally established the Socialist State of Vietnam.
A victory made the Vietnamese people lose their minds, and the Vietnamese people were also full of passion and ambition, and they began to dream of unifying Southeast Asia and dominating the world.
Vietnam quickly put its ideas into practice, first sending troops to Laos and Cambodia, and starting its own path of aggression and expansion. Because Vietnam was also an ally of the Soviet Union, Vietnam, who did not know the height of the sky, began to provoke China, and the relationship between China and Vietnam once fell to a freezing point.
Although Vietnam did not gain much from the war with the United States, it received a large amount of advanced American military equipment. When the United States withdrew, it can be said that it was evacuated under great pressure, so some large weapons were too late to take away, and eventually they were forced to stay in Vietnam.
These weapons include aircraft, artillery, tanks, etc., and the weapons left behind by the United States are enough to equip the army that has always been huge. Vietnam has also accumulated rich combat experience in the course of ten years of war with the United States, and with weapons and experience, Vietnam is simply like a tiger.
Vietnam is becoming more and more arrogant, does not pay attention to its neighboring countries, and has also made enemies with many Southeast Asian countries and China, but fortunately, Vietnam still has the Soviet Union's thigh to hold.
The Soviet Union gave Vietnam a lot of economic and military help, and Vietnam's military strength was not only good for economic development, but also increasing. At that time, Vietnam was even more blind, with its own strength and a strong country behind it, and Vietnam began further expansion plans.
It didn't take long for Laos to be easily taken by Vietnam, because Laos was so small in front of Vietnam at this time that Vietnam successfully established a puppet regime in Laos.
Although Vietnam received instructions from the Soviet Union to take Laos, it was inevitably condemned by the international community. After all, Laos provided a lot of help during the Vietnam War, and Vietnam's practice was simply ungrateful.
After Laos, Vietnam extended its claws to Cambodia, and Cambodia's strength was even weaker, not even a decent army. Therefore, the weak Cambodia also seems vulnerable in front of Vietnam, and there is no suspense that Vietnam will take Cambodia. Seeing their country annexed, many Cambodians fled to Thailand.
Although Cambodia has been captured, the guerrillas in the country have been stubbornly resisting and have been operating along the Thai border. The mysterious guerrillas caused the Vietnamese army to lose a lot, so they repeatedly sent troops to the Thai border to attack and arrest the guerrillas.
Although Thailand knows that it is not a rival to Vietnam, Vietnam's behavior is simply unbearable, which is a naked violation of Thailand's territory and sovereignty. The Thai army began to fight back, but the old fritter Vietnam three times five divided by two to find out the real strength of Thailand. Since then, the Thai army has been repeatedly defeated in the conflict with Vietnam.
Thailand knew that it was not wise to be tough, so it took the initiative to show its overtures to Vietnam, but by this time, Vietnam's nose had been cocked to the sky. Duan Ran will not accept Thailand's overtures, but will intensify pressure on the Thai border.
By this time, Thailand had sensed the danger and realized that a war with Vietnam was inevitable. In order to get a head start in the war, Thailand began to take the lead in massing troops, but Vietnam also observed Thailand's movements and began to increase its strength on the Thai border.
Seeing that war was about to break out, the Thais panicked because they knew that they were definitely not Vietnam's opponents, so they began to seek help from other countries. The first thing to find was the United States, and Thailand regarded the United States as a partner, but at this time, the United States was busy fighting against the Soviet Union and had no time to separate. What's more, the United States has just lost to Vietnam, and this decade-long war has seriously damaged the Vitality of the United States, and the United States is unwilling to be trapped in the quagmire of war. The United States, which has a full military contraction, is also powerless, and in the end it only provides some military weapons for showmanship.
Thailand knew that there was no hope for this war and could only rely on itself, so it mobilized the people of the whole country to maintain a state of combat, and the Thai people participated in the battle with the idea of seeing death as a homecoming.
But just when Thailand is at a loss, the further deterioration of relations between our country and Vietnam has given Thailand a glimmer of life. Thailand believes that it is entirely possible to seek the help of our country to help them win this war, after all, the enemy of the enemy is the friend.
When the Thai minister visited China in 1979, he expressed his intention to strengthen military cooperation with China and hoped to work with China to attack Vietnam and maintain stability in Southeast Asia.
China has long been intolerable to Vietnam's provocative behavior, and Thailand has given us a chance to vent. China has also put the confrontation with Vietnam on the agenda, just as two countries with common goals and interests have come together.
China sells a large number of weapons and equipment to Thailand at a low price, and saying that it is a low price is actually no different from what is sent for free. With the help of our country, Thailand's military strength has obviously increased a lot. But the arrogant Vietnam was unaware of the changes in Thailand, still thought That Thailand was vulnerable, and fantasized about one day turning Thailand into its colony.
But when it was really fighting, Vietnam realized that Thailand was strong, and vietnam's offensive in Thailand could not advance at all. Half of vietnam's attacks on Thailand were perfectly blocked by Thailand. As the war time and front gradually extended, fighting in foreign countries and underestimating the strength of the opponent made Vietnam gradually unable to cope with the war.
In 1979, China also launched a counterattack war against Vietnam, vietnam's troops were divided in two, most of which were transferred to the Chinese border for combat, and Vietnam simply did not have enough energy to take care of both battlefields at the same time. Therefore, in the end, they had to give up attacking Thailand.
The first attack on Thailand ended in vain, and the Vietnamese not only did not reflect on their mistakes, but felt that it was because China's self-defense war changed the war situation. China is inherently stronger than itself, so it is not shameful to lose the war, but losing to Thailand makes Vietnam feel very humiliated, so the Vietnamese are not convinced and unwilling to accept this result.
The thief-hearted Vietnam once again launched another attack on Thailand, but this time Thailand still did not achieve a significant victory. After 1983, the number of wars between Vietnam and Thailand became more and more frequent, and there were countless frictions of all kinds, large and small. The lack of a breakthrough made the Vietnamese gradually agitated, and eventually went to extremes. Vietnamese soldiers attacked the camps without humanitarianism, which can be said to have offended the public anger, and many Western countries have come to the aid of Thailand. The Soviet Union, which had been helping Vietnam, also intended to stand alone this time, no longer providing weapons and no more troops. Vietnam succeeded in turning its enemies from Thailand to the whole world, but even so, Vietnam continued to invade Thailand.
Vietnam began to take the response to the United States at that time, no longer a strong offensive but a protracted war, which is the experience of Vietnam in the decade-long war with the United States. But Thailand is not a vegetarian either, and it also has a good understanding of Vietnam's combat methods and operational thinking.
Thailand is also inspired to change this passive beating situation, so it began to carry out sophisticated planning to strike and fight a beautiful turnaround battle. Thailand made full use of the advantages of the air force and artillery to carry out precision strikes, and Thailand marched all the way to the top, breaking through the bamboo, and Vietnam was defeated miserably. Vietnam eventually resisted, gave up the offensive, and reconciled.
The war between Vietnam and Thailand lasted for 9 years, otherwise the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and no one expected that the mighty Vietnam would be defeated, while the seemingly inconspicuous Thailand won the final victory. In fact, the defeat of Vietnam is a reasonable and inevitable event, and it is also the result of the joint action of internal and external factors.
Vietnam's acts of aggression have always violated the theme of the times of peaceful development, and Vietnam has defied the wind and defied the condemnation of the international community, and its insistence on going its own way eventually led to the gradual defeat and retreat in the war. Vietnam wants to fight Thailand, China and the world on its own, simply not knowing how many pounds it has.
The war waged by Vietnam was originally aimed at satisfying its own ambitions and interests, without any justice to speak of, and naturally received no support.
In fact, from the war between Vietnam and Thailand, we can see that whether you are a big country or a small country, you must face up to your own strength, do not go to be arrogant, do not let a little achievement and victory blind your eyes, so as not to eat your own evil consequences. Every country has the right to safeguard its sovereignty and territory, and blindly launching a war out of selfishness and blatantly violating social morality will never win the hearts of the people, and Vietnam is a living negative example.