Preamble:
Whether it was the Korean War in 1950 or the Vietnam War in 1955, they were by no means simple internal wars for North Korea, Vietnam, and countries around the world, but a contest between international powers.
After the end of World War II, the United States made enough capital in the war, and then their economic and military power swelled dramatically, and they became the leader of the European world at that time.
At the same time that the United States became a capitalist power, the Soviet Union also recovered from the trauma of World War II, and some Eastern European countries joined the socialist camp under the influence of the Soviet Union's socialist path.
The growing socialist camp of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe was seen by the United States as the Soviet Union's move of its cake in Europe, so the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union continued to expand around the world, and finally intensified. The Korean War and the Vietnam War were triggered by the open and covert struggle between the two countries.
During the Korean War, the Chinese Volunteers became a nightmare for the United States
In 1950, the contest between capitalism and socialism finally spread to the Korean Peninsula, but it began with Japan's defeat in 1945. At that time, the United States proposed to divide Korea into two parts, the North and the South, with the 38th parallel as the boundary, with North Korea going to the Soviet Union and South Korea going to the United States. The Soviet Union also gave an affirmative answer to the US proposal.
However, from 1945 to 1950, there was an internal conflict between the two Koreas, with more than 2,000 disputes in just five years, and finally North Korea, with the support of the Soviet Union, launched an attack on Seoul.
When South Korea was defeated by the Korean People's Army, the United States began to worry about the weakening of its power in East Asia, and at the same time, he also wanted to use the Korean War to deal a severe blow to the Soviet Union, which he wanted to tell the Soviet Union about the serious consequences of easily breaking the balance.
However, what the United States did not expect was that the Chinese volunteers went to fight in Korea, and our army showed great strength on the Korean battlefield, and in just two months, the US army was defeated and fled under the offensive of the Chinese volunteers. The American dream of battering the Soviet Union was shattered by the Chinese volunteers, and the impact of the Korean War was not only felt by the United States, but also by the whole world.
Let me ask, with the experience of the Korean War, did the US military dare to easily cross the 17th parallel without consideration during the Vietnam War? Of course, there must be a very complicated reason why the US side did not cross the 17th parallel, so what is the reason?
The United States, mired in the shadow of the Korean War, sees China's warning as a holy decree
Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover said this after the end of the Korean War, saying: "The United Nations was defeated by Communist China in Korea, and now no army in the world is strong enough to repel China"
I think this sentence should be enough to prove the combat effectiveness of the Chinese volunteers in the Korean War. However, before the war, MacArthur did not believe that the Chinese light infantry could defeat his aircraft, artillery and tanks, so he completely ignored China's repeated warnings, and in the end, he could only accept the pursuit of Chinese soldiers on the battlefield.
Later, during the Vietnam War, the United States once again wanted to embark on the dangerous path of expanding the Vietnam War, and China also gave a very stern warning in the face of American aggression.
In 1961, the U.S. war of aggression in Vietnam had already begun to pose a direct threat to China, and Mao Zedong also made many important instructions on the development of the Vietnam War, he asked everyone to maintain a high degree of vigilance for the country's security at all times, and he has been making preparations before the war.
Because if we are to get involved in the war in Vietnam, we have to be ready, and at the same time, he analyzes the possibility of fighting or not fighting.
He said: Whether you can fight or can't fight, there are two possibilities of a world war, which are inevitable and inevitable; sometimes if you are not well prepared, the enemy will come, and when you are ready, the enemy will not dare to come, so we base ourselves on fighting in order not to fight.
In August 1964, the United States wantonly created the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident" and insisted on expanding the war to northern Vietnam, which forced the Chinese side to take some measures.
On August 6, 1964, the Chinese government issued a warning to the United States, warning it that it was better not to cross the 17th parallel, otherwise it would be at its own risk and would be nothing more than another Korean War.
In the Korean War, the Americans had already learned the power of the Chinese, and after Peng Dehuai's victory to resist US aggression and aid Korea, when summing up the significance it brings, he said: For hundreds of years, the era when Western invaders could occupy a country as long as they erected a few cannons on a coast in the East is gone forever.
Therefore, the United States provoked the Vietnam War and wantonly expanded the war to northern Vietnam, endangering China's interests, and we will inevitably make a counterattack.
At this time, the United States did not want to involve China in any case, because in the context of the Cold War, communism was against the capitalist camp, and the United States wanted Vietnam to become the capitalist camp, and at the same time, he did not want to see China on the front of the Soviet Union, so after receiving Mao Zedong's warning, US President Johnson ordered:
There is no order to ban bombing operations within 40 kilometers of the Sino-Vietnamese border, because as long as we participate in large-scale operations on the ground, it will be another nightmare for the United States.
Later, in addition to President Johnson's directive, Ridgway, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Far East, also said that we must take into account that China will enter the war, which is a big problem.
He also said that he was very disturbed when he heard many influential figures assure them that China would not dare to take this or that action, because he believed that decision-makers in military circles no longer wanted to be paralyzed by misjudging Communist China's intentions.
On August 20, 1965, when Zhou Enlai was in talks with Zambian leaders, he gave a clear answer to the United States' desire to expand the war, saying that if the United States wanted to fight with China, then China would not be able to pass the hurdle.
Chen Yi also made an explanation at a press conference on September 29, saying that whether the United States wants to fight China or not depends entirely on the US president and the Pentagon. If the United States wants to fight us, I very welcome it, and it is best to let them come tomorrow, and then those reactionaries will come with them; and I am resolutely opposed to US imperialism, and the Chinese people will persist in fighting to the end against US imperialism's behavior of imposing a war of aggression on us, and in the end, we will definitely win.
In response to the sharp warnings of the Chinese representatives, the United States has shown the ultimate state of currying favor, making it clear that they have no "intention of attacking China" and that they are very much avoidance of creating an image of China as an attacker.
China's repeated warnings made the United States always remember that it did not dare to cross the 17th parallel in the Vietnam War, and the reason why the United States lost the Vietnam battlefield was because it could not cross this line, and the reason why it could not cross this line was because they always remembered the lessons they had learned on the Korean battlefield.
The struggle between North and South Vietnam, that is, the dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union, was also a struggle between capitalism and socialism
With regard to the Vietnam War, which took place from 1955 to 1975, we should not only look at the issue from the perspective of the war, but also analyze the intentions of the United States in light of the international background at that time.
Before the United States launched the Vietnam War, Vietnam had been a French colonial area, but after World War II, Vietnam was divided into two different camps, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam: socialism) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam: capitalism).
North Vietnam was a democratic republic established in September 1945, and since then, North Vietnam and South Vietnam have been at loggerheads, and of course, France has been trying to suppress the Red regime in North Vietnam.
However, although South Vietnam belonged to the capitalist camp at that time, the Red regime in North Vietnam had been influencing the people at the bottom of South Vietnam, and at the same time, North Vietnam was bent on ruling South Vietnam and realizing the unification of North and South Vietnam.
Because North Vietnam followed the path of socialism, he chose to use the people of South Vietnam to overthrow the rule of the government at that time, he first sent his military personnel to South Vietnam to organize guerrilla warfare and carry out ideological infiltration of the local people, and later many South Vietnamese people also joined the Red regime in North Vietnam.
In 1954, the Vietnamese People's Army successfully surrounded the French army, and in this situation, France could only declare its surrender, and the United States, seeing that France's power in Vietnam was already in jeopardy, decided to personally support South Vietnam.
The United States is fantasizing about achieving world domination at all times, and it not only values the benefits that Europe brings to itself, but also wants to cultivate its own puppet regime in East Asia, in fact, in order to obtain more strategic resources.
Therefore, as soon as the United States appeared, it provided military assistance to South Vietnam, and he wanted to support Ngo Dinh Diem, the ruler of South Vietnam at that time, and then form a strong confrontation with North Vietnam.
However, at that time, the United States' support for the South Vietnamese government was limited to economic and military assistance, and the rest did not provide much support, and the struggle between North Vietnam and South Vietnam was only a small-scale battle, so at that time, the Vietnam War was only a civil war between North and South Vietnam.
At that time, the United States considered that he did not want to devote too much energy to Vietnam, because at that time it and the Soviet Union were also at war in Europe and the Middle East, and if they transferred their troops to Vietnam, it was very likely that the Soviet Union would take advantage of it, after all, it was the two great powers that were stirring up the situation at that time.
If you want to talk about this Ngo Dinh Diem, he is indeed incompetent, with the military assistance of the United States, in the end, he did not do anything to North Vietnam, but during that time, the strength of North Vietnam slowly grew.
In 1960, Sino-Soviet relations broke down, and on the surface it seemed that this was indeed a very bad thing, but both China and the Soviet Union supported North Vietnam in order to maintain their image in the international communist movement, so North Vietnam, with the support of China and the Soviet Union, not only increased its military strength, but also greatly improved its military strategy, so during that time, a large number of rural areas in South Vietnam were successfully taken by North Vietnam.
Seeing that his territory was occupied by North Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem adopted a large-scale repression, but his strong repression of the liberation forces of South Vietnam caused a strong resistance from the local people.
Therefore, many South Vietnamese people of insight joined the national liberation front in South Vietnam during that period, and at the same time, they also organized guerrilla units in South Vietnam to fight against the South Vietnamese government forces in various rural areas.
In 1961, Kennedy assumed the presidency of the United States, and seeing that Ngo Dinh Diem's corrupt rule was on the verge of collapse, he decided to intervene directly in the affairs of South Vietnam, although this time he only sent military advisers, but still did not send American troops.
We can understand this approach of the United States that he is testing at all levels, and we can also understand that he does not dare to really participate in the war in Vietnam, and he understands what the consequences of another collision between the capitalist camp and the socialist camp will bring, and he does not want to see such a scene again.
However, because the South Vietnamese government was too stupid, even if the United States sent military advisers, it could not save him from the current situation of losing the war, and when the two armies were fighting, the South Vietnamese government army only knew how to send troops in a stunned way, but did not know how to make roundabouts, so they were not opponents of the South Vietnamese guerrillas at all.
The scale of the war became larger and larger, and the stability of the North Vietnamese regime was repeatedly attacked, and at the same time, the people at the bottom also developed a very strong anti-war sentiment.
As the revolt of the masses became more and more intense, the US government had to take some measures, and it was obvious that his next move would be to eliminate the puppet government and then prop up the new South Vietnamese government, which the United States has always used in East Asia.
After Ngo Dinh Diem was replaced, the United States installed a new leader, but the new ruler was not as good as Ngo Dinh Diem, and the South Vietnamese guerrillas infiltrated countless rural areas, and finally the government army could only cower in its own urban strongholds.
Now that the North Vietnamese countryside encircled the cities (China's assistance to North Vietnam also included sending military commanders) had begun to see the light of day, he decided to step up his efforts, no longer just using the strength of the guerrillas and the liberation forces, but to cross the 17th parallel and send the North Vietnamese People's Army directly to South Vietnam to fight in the war and seize the domination of South Vietnam.
In the face of the increasingly powerful infiltration of North Vietnam into South Vietnam, the South Vietnamese government army has already shown a decadent posture, and the United States sees that North Vietnam is in such an unbearable situation, if it does not send troops again, and when North Vietnam occupies South Vietnam, then Vietnam will become a strategic resource of the Soviet Union in East Asia, and this is definitely not a very favorable thing for the United States.
In fact, the United States has always wanted to monopolize Vietnam, but in the face of the powerful socialist camp, he did not dare to really cross the 17th parallel to stimulate China, so he could only continue to harass in South Vietnam. The original intention was that I couldn't go to North Vietnam, but I could go to South Vietnam, so you wouldn't have peace in North Vietnam.
Because North Vietnam was the socialist camp and South Vietnam was the capitalist camp, the struggle between North and South Vietnam was a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, and North and South Vietnam acted as agents of the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union in East Asia. At this point, the United States sent troops to Vietnam and officially entered the Vietnam War.
The United States did not want to provoke the Soviet Union, because behind the Soviet Union was the Warsaw Pact
In 1945, after the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the forcible partition of Germany by the victorious countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union, the world pattern also changed.
In 1946, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered the famous "Iron Curtain Speech" in the United States, in which he believed that the United States, as the world's most powerful power, should resist the malicious expansion of the Soviet Union.
And NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization:
Due to the changes in the world situation, both the United States and the Soviet Union made every effort to find a place in the world where they could form a confrontation with both sides, and in addition to actively supporting Japan, he gradually set his sights on the Indochina Peninsula.
The United States saw not only the economic value of Vietnam, but also the fact that Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party occupied an extremely important position in Vietnam because of the prevailing national liberation movement in Vietnam at that time, while the United States could never see Vietnam being controlled by the Soviet Union.
Therefore, he wanted to control Vietnam, but he was afraid of a confrontation with the Soviet Union, which at that time occupied a very important position in the Warsaw Pact, and if the United States acted excessively and caused dissatisfaction with the Soviet Union, it would inevitably bring very serious consequences. Therefore, during the Vietnam War, the United States was always timid and did not dare to cross the 17th parallel.
In fact, in this war in Vietnam, the United States lost either in terms of weapons and equipment, military, but in strategy, because he could not cross the 17th parallel, or it was very limited, and he was supposed to help South Vietnam fight North Vietnam, and if he won, he could directly control Vietnam, and then the whole of Vietnam would belong to his own strategic area, but now he was afraid of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp, so he could only deal with North Vietnam in South Vietnam.
However, in the Vietnam War, what the United States could not deal with the most was the ideological infiltration of the South Vietnamese people by North Vietnam, because the people of South Vietnam constantly launched uprisings, and the US military not only had to deal with the people's army sent by North Vietnam, but also had to guard against the guerrillas infiltrating South Vietnam and the Vietnamese Liberation Army.
Anti-war sentiment was high among American soldiers and the general public
It is a fact that everyone knows very well that the US government wants to control Vietnam with great ambitions, and if it wants to send troops to help South Vietnam, it must create a false impression among the soldiers that the US military is fighting for the national interest.
Therefore, in the early days of the Vietnam War, the United States sent troops to aid South Vietnam, when the United States government strongly opposed communism, so the American troops who came to Vietnam once thought that they were coming to Vietnam as a savior to save the South Vietnamese people from fire and water, but as the war progressed, the American troops who came to Vietnam found that the local people were very hostile to themselves.
Not only that, due to the climate and terrain of Vietnam, the US military is very unadaptable, not only have to fight against the often elusive guerrillas, but also have to deal with the harsh weather and unfamiliar combat environment in Vietnam.
When the U.S. military thought that South Vietnam should be recognized for their assistance, they were treated unfairly, which made them quite confused and angry, and after a long time, the combat mood was obviously low.
In addition, the anti-war sentiment of the local masses was high, and the US military was naturally reluctant to participate in the fighting, so the US military, which was still in high spirits at the beginning, naturally had a very strong war-weariness and anti-war sentiment in the late 60s and early 70s.
In addition to the strong anti-war sentiment of the US troops who participated in the Vietnam War, the people in the United States are also very disgusted with the war.
In fact, the United States is a country that attaches great importance to people's lives, and they do not want to see the sacrifice of their own people, so they want to avoid friction with China.
But do they not care about the lives of the Vietnamese people because they are afraid of the sacrifice of their own people? The aggressive nature of imperialism is vividly demonstrated in them, and they have no scruples in waging every war just to satisfy their ever-expanding ambitions.
end
The US military did not dare to cross the 17th parallel, because of the constraints of the international situation at that time, and it cannot be ignored that China brought the greatest deterrent force. The combat effectiveness of the Chinese Army has conquered the invincible American GIs, who once exclaimed: "Only God can fight Chinese soldiers in steel helmets." ”
Chinese are fortunate to be born in this great country and protected by this group of loveliest people. We must never forget that China's ability to stand tall in the east of the world and be respected by the world was won by the blood of countless ancestors.
Under the unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee since the beginning of the new period, China's national defense construction has marched to a new level. As a peacemaker, we hate war, we are never afraid of war, and only by improving our hard power can we block the enemy's aggression.
To this day, the fearless dedication of our ancestors still inspires all Chinese people to work hard and urges us to move forward towards the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
Salute to the great revolutionary forefathers!