When it comes to Vietnam, you may be familiar with it. Before the 70s of the last century, Vietnam had always been brothers and sisters with the mainland, but later, in order to realize its aggressive and expansionist ambition of being the "hegemon of Southeast Asia," Vietnam embarked on the road of "pro-Soviet and anti-China" and became an ungrateful white-eyed wolf.
In 1979, in the face of Vietnam's betrayal and provocation, China could not bear it anymore and launched a vigorous self-defense counterattack against Vietnam. In this battle, China dispatched the strength of nine armies to tear the Vietnamese troops apart and have no power to fight back.
It is true that at Vietnam's own fault, China's self-defense counterattack has caused incalculable losses to Vietnam. But what is little known is that in this war, in addition to the tangible direct losses such as combat casualties and material losses, Vietnam has suffered countless "invisible losses", so that Vietnam is still paying the price for it.
So, how big was the "invisible" loss suffered by Vietnam in the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War?
Comrades plus brothers
The "invisible losses" that Vietnam suffered later were inseparable from China's generous assistance to Vietnam. As early as the beginning of the preparation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, the "father of the nation" of Vietnam, took the initiative to establish friendship with China and won China's support for Vietnam.
China has always attached great importance to geopolitical harmony, so it has always taken an attitude of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation towards Vietnam, a neighboring country in the southwest, as well as comrades in the socialist camp. As a result, during Vietnam's War of Resistance against France and the War of Liberation against the United States, China has always provided countless valuable assistance to Vietnam.
Militarily, the mainland sent a military advisory group headed by General Chen Geng to command, as well as 300,000 soldiers to help Vietnam win the war. At the economic level, the total value of China's aid to Vietnam during the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Vietnam" period alone was as high as $10 billion, which far exceeded China's assistance to the DPRK during the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" period, which shows China's sincerity and sincerity towards Vietnam.
You must know that at that time, China had only just been founded, and it was struggling to survive in the blockade, isolation, and suppression of the United States. Even so, China is still willing to tighten its belt and give Vietnam maximum assistance to help Vietnam tide over the difficulties.
During this period, Vietnam was naturally very grateful for China's assistance and regarded its relationship with China as "comrade and brother". It is a pity that driven by national interests, this pair of countries that are "as close as brothers" have finally reached the point of turning against each other and fighting each other.
Sino-Vietnamese War
Vietnam's ambitions can be traced back thousands of years. Historically, while inheriting the Chinese ideology, culture and political system, the Vietnamese dynasty also inherited the traditional Chinese worldview, imagining itself as the "hegemon" of Southeast Asia, hoping to build a "tributary system" centered on Vietnam, even if their land area is only a small corner of the map of Southeast Asia, which seems somewhat inadequate.
As a result, since ancient times, Vietnam has never given up its aggression and expansion in Southeast Asia, and even the Mekong Delta, the "rice granary" that now belongs to Vietnam, was only snatched from Cambodia in the 19th century by the Vietnam War.
Even after being colonized by France in modern times, Vietnam still did not give up the establishment of an "Indochinese Federation" in Southeast Asia dominated by Vietnam. Especially after Vietnam, with the assistance of China, defeated the French colonizers and the American invaders one after another, Vietnam began to get carried away and thought that it was time to revive the majesty of the "little overlord of Southeast Asia".
Of course, it will be difficult for Vietnam to achieve this grand ambition by relying on the efforts of backward and impoverished Vietnam. So, he opened his mouth to the Chinese lion, hoping that China would support it as before. However, at this time, China was facing the double strangulation of the United States and the Soviet Union, and was in a period of extreme economic difficulties at home, and it was impossible to continue to provide large-scale assistance to Vietnam.
Moreover, Vietnam's adventurous behavior is highly likely to trigger large-scale intervention by Western countries, which will affect the stability of the political environment around the mainland and may even involve China in the conflict. Therefore, proceeding from the overall situation and taking full account of the international and domestic situation, China rejected Vietnam's proposal.
After clearly learning of China's opposition, Vietnam immediately became angry and emboldened, embraced the Soviet Union's thigh, followed the Soviet Union in anti-Chinese and anti-Chinese activities, set off a bloody storm in Southeast Asia and the Sino-Vietnamese border areas, and repeatedly violated the mainland's territory and sovereignty. In this way, while realizing its own ambitions, Vietnam also formed a posture of flanking China from the north and south together with the Soviet Union.
In this regard, Comrade Deng Xiaoping said:
"The collusion between the Soviet Union and Vietnam is the greatest threat to us, so if China were to attack Vietnam's bold pawn, it would be most effective in preventing the Soviet Union from encircling us. ”
On February 17, 1979, in the face of Vietnam's fearless provocation and harassment, the Chinese army officially launched a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
The "intangible" losses of Vietnam
After capturing Lang Son, which is separated by a river from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, the mainland announced that it would achieve its strategic goal and withdraw its troops in an all-round way, demonstrating its responsibility and demeanor as a major country.
According to an article published by Vietnam in 1979 entitled "Preliminary Statistics of Some Losses Currently Visible as of the End of March 1979," nearly 60,000 Vietnamese troops were killed and more than 10,000 were wounded or captured in this battle.
What's more, at that time, Vietnam's medical and health standards were backward, and many wounded and wounded eventually died, and some civilians also died in the "all people are soldiers" strategy. Therefore, on the whole, Vietnam's loss of young and middle-aged labor in this war is conservatively estimated to be more than 100,000, which is a heavy blow to Vietnam, which has a small population, and it can be said that it has wiped out an entire generation.
And this is the "invisible" blow inflicted by China on Vietnam. After the baptism of the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, Vietnam was completely frightened by China, and in order to prevent China from carrying out another critical attack on Vietnam, Vietnam also maintained a regular army of up to 1.5 million for a long time, which was three times that of the War of Resistance against the United States.
Such a large army not only dragged down the economy, but also made it increasingly difficult for the Vietnamese army to supply logistics.
At this time, the Soviet Union was also deeply involved in the battlefield in Afghanistan and had no time to take care of Vietnam, and the substantial help to Vietnam could only be said to be better than nothing. What's more, the long-term aid also made Vietnam highly dependent on the Soviet Union militarily, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vietnam's military factories could not even achieve independent production.
However, the deadliest loss is the invisible blow at the economic level. The economic base determines the superstructure, and after the loss of a large number of laborers, Vietnam's economic development has long been struggling under the long-term huge military expenditure, and once reached the verge of economic collapse.
By 1980, Vietnam had gone from a self-sufficient agricultural exporter to a grain importer with a food deficit of up to 2 million tons. In 1981, Vietnam's foreign debt had reached $3.5 billion, more than one-third of Vietnam's total economy at that time.
Vietnam has also successfully missed the development of the world economy and trade because of its long-term economic difficulties, and to this day, it is still an inconspicuous small country in Southeast Asia, which shows that Vietnam is lifting a stone to shoot itself in the foot.
During the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, China also ruthlessly destroyed and destroyed a large number of roads, bridges, factories and other infrastructure that had been built with Vietnam's assistance.
This is enough to demonstrate China's belief that "when friends come, there is good wine, and when jackals come, there are knives and guns".