War is a terrible word, and a professor once did a survey, and since the founding of the Qin Dynasty in China, more than two-thirds of the years of war have occurred. Notice that this is the year, not the number of times, and it is even more terrifying if you count the number of times.
And in the era of no war for more than 30 years, only we are New China, 41 years have passed since our nearest counterattack against Vietnam, even if we count the two mountain round war, 31 years have passed, and we are really lucky to live in this era!
In fact, we can have the life we have now, thanks to the recent war! Not only did it teach Vietnam a lesson, but it also won decades of development time.
Counterattack against Vietnam
Background to the war
First of all, to talk about the gains and losses of a war, we must look at the background environment, and the war against Vietnam must also be analyzed from behind.
At that time, it was the most severe moment of the US-Soviet hegemony, and the world pattern was very unfavorable to China. The United States had just suffered in Vietnam, the world was gradually on the defensive, and the Soviet Union began to expand by factors such as rising prices and oil prices.
The biggest pressure for this expansion is China, because although the two countries are socialist countries, the time of confrontation is not short, and after the 1969 Zhenbao Island conflict, there was a trend of big fights, and the Soviet Union also carried out nuclear blackmail against China.
To this end, China has maintained a heavy military presence on its northern border, peaking at 6.7 million troops in 1974, and much of its construction has been diverted.
At that time, not long after the end of the special period of ten years, the economic situation was very poor, coupled with the need to maintain the logistical supply of the troops, the serious point can be said to be internal and external difficulties.
So China needs a chance to break the game, and this opportunity is Vietnam!
Li Sun and Brezhnev
In November 1978, Lê Thanh flew directly to Moscow and signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and Vietnam with Brezhnev, stipulating a military, economic and other alliance between the two sides.
One of them is that if one State feels threatened by others, the other State has the responsibility to help it eliminate the threat. At that time, the United States had only recently withdrawn its troops from Vietnam, and it was unable to touch it at all, and the capable countries around it were China.
The Soviet Union also had the right to use navy and air bases such as Cam Ranh Bay and Da Nang in Vietnam in the treaty, so that the Soviet army could stay in Vietnam at any time, and then the north and south would attack China, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
If this is just a deterrent threat, there is no practical action, but Vietnam's next step determines the direction of the situation.
In December 1978, Vietnam launched an elite attack on Cambodia on the grounds of the BaekChun Massacre.
Cambodia-Vietnam War
Reasons for sending troops
Vietnam attacks Cambodia, then China must have a move, mainly for these two reasons:
As early as 1939, the Communist Party of Vietnam proposed the idea of establishing the "Federal Government of the Indochina Democratic Republic", allowing the three countries to unite to establish a federal state headed by Vietnam.
This kind of thinking has never stopped, and after driving away France and the United States, Vietnam feels that it is time to realize its dream of a great power.
Laos had no opinion at that time, and now it is basically Vietnam's sphere of influence, and when Vietnam fought with the United States, Laos also suffered a lot, just one Cambodia. After Vietnam launched a war of aggression, Cambodia has no way to resist, if the three countries merge and increase their strength, Vietnam's next step will be to point to China, which is not alarmist.
At that time, Vietnam expelled overseas Chinese, constantly created bloodshed on the border, and even Li Sung openly declared: Not only friendship is ours, but every place where kapok trees grow is ours, including Guangdong and Guangxi. Its ambitions are clear.
At that time, China will have to face the long-term deployment of heavy troops on the north and south lines, and even if there is no war, there will be no way to develop the economy, and the logistics of the army alone will be able to drag China down enough.
Ironically, Friendship Pass was named ZhennanGuan in the late Qing Dynasty and changed to Friendship Pass in 1965, a friendship that arose in honor of China's help to Vietnam against the invaders.
Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia
Second, everyone has their own psychological safety distance, the big countries also have, for the United States this safe distance is the entire Americas, so that year the Cuban missile crisis, even if the United States to carry out nuclear war must be tough with the Soviet Union.
For the Soviet Union, it was Central Asia, and for China, it was Southeast Asia, which has been deeply radiated by the Chinese cultural circle since ancient times, and even in modern times, it has not been completely free from the influence of Western colonization.
From a strategic point of view, China will not allow a regional power in Southeast Asia that it hates, which will affect China's future economic development and homeland security.
So China counterattacked Vietnam on February 17, 1979, and at the same time the northern army was in a state of war, ready to deal with the Soviets moving south.
Fight back against Vietnam
War effects
China's actions were not expected by many countries in the world, Vietnam was blinded at that time, and most of its north was conquered by our army, which once threatened its capital Hanoi.
Vietnam hurriedly asked the Soviet Union for advice, remember what the "Soviet-Vietnamese Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" said above, the Soviet Union should send troops to help, but his actual action is to pull the younger brother together to publicly condemn China, the biggest action is to conduct military exercises on the border of our country, and there is no substantive action other than that.
In fact, the Soviet Union also has its own small calculations, World War II he can rely on depth to win Germany, China's depth is not weak, if the United States intervenes, this will affect the Soviet Union itself. The younger brother is important or himself is important, and the Soviet Union obviously chose the latter.
Of course, China did not take the opportunity to annex Vietnam's territory, and after achieving its strategic objectives, it retreated, and destroyed the industrial facilities along the way. I don't know if Vietnam felt angry, but after our army withdrew, they made small moves on the border, so a two-mountain round war broke out.
The retreat and destruction and the two-mountain round war lost Vietnam for decades, and also greatly eased the pressure on our north, dragging the Soviet Union back.
Vietnam was originally an agrarian country, and its unification had not been for a few years, and its industry was basically in the north, and after being blown up by our army, it was destined to take a long time to recover.
If Vietnam does not provoke and develop itself with all its might, this situation will be like a replica of China and the Soviet Union, which needs to maintain a large number of troops in the north, and is afraid of war again, and does not dare to develop industry on the basis of the original, and needs to be redeveloped.
This slow is a little slower, the good guys can recover, but he invaded Cambodia without stopping, and while provoking China, this industry is basically completely stagnant, and all the national strength is used in military expenditure, which is completely a dead cycle.
We now know that Vietnam has been fighting for many years, and behind it is the Soviet Union, when 90% of the oil, steel, fertilizer and 70% of the important materials needed by Vietnam came from the Soviet Union, and other weapons and equipment are even more difficult to count. The Soviet Union gave Vietnam nearly $2 billion in loan aid over three years.
Vietnam can't afford to pay back all this, and it can't even afford to pay back the annual interest, so I know why it is said to have dragged down the Soviet Union, it is simply a bottomless pit.
China obtained
World War I reduced the pressure on both sides, how cost-effective this deal is, I believe it is needless to say, in addition, China has also received real military training, in fact, in the Vietnam counterattack war, we still exposed a lot of problems, the army has not fought for a long time and caused a lot of unnecessary losses.
However, in the battle of the two mountains, ten group armies took turns to fight, and the troops gained great gains with very few losses, which was a metamorphosis of the whole army. Through this war, China's relations with the West entered an ambiguous period, purchased a lot of Western weapons and equipment, and the economic trade of the people also increased, and began to reform and open up in the true sense.
If you look at it in the long run, this war has completely destroyed Vietnam's dream of hegemony, allowing Southeast Asia to maintain the state china wants, Vietnam's per capita income in 1985 was less than one hundred US dollars, and it was considered by the United Nations to be one of the poorest countries in the world.
The Soviet Union was no better, having invaded Afghanistan in 1985 and unable to support its little Vietnamese brothers. After two bloodlettings in Vietnam and Afghanistan, the Soviet Union finally collapsed.
After the dissolution, many military industry experts came to China, bringing a leap forward to China's military industry, and aircraft carriers, if the Soviet Union does not disintegrate, Vaglian will not be able to reach China, then our aircraft carrier cause is bound to be postponed for several years, in these years, everything may be different.
Therefore, the counterattack against Vietnam is a butterfly effect and a key battle in the history of New China.
Chang'an shattered thoughts
Relations between countries have never been stable, and in the history of New China, there have been alliances with the Soviet Union to resist the United States and the United States to resist the Soviet Union, and the losses in these two wars were not small.
Although it is heart-wrenching, there is only one reason for this – we are not strong enough. In order to ensure our own safety, we must unite with one of them, even if the other side sees us as only the price, which is also necessary.
Only by playing will there be a time for us to develop! Therefore, I am very grateful for the efforts of those great predecessors, whether it is entering the DPRK or facing Vietnam, they only hope that the later Chinese will not have to fight again. Fortunately, China has developed to this day, and it no longer has to rely on others, and no one will dare to easily go to war against China.