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In the sixties and seventies of the last century, the United States was mired in the Vietnam War for decades, but still failed to achieve military victory.
As for France, although it had fought for a long time in Vietnam, it could not stifle Vietnam's struggle for independence.
By contrast, China's 1979 counterattack against Vietnam took just 28 days to successfully complete its main military operation.
Why do powerful armies repeatedly fail in this land?
And the army of the mainland has such divine power that a war can be ended in a month?
The shame of colonization
In the mid-nineteenth century, the invaders' artillery not only blasted open the gates of China, but the whole of East Asia was forced to crawl under the iron hooves of the colonizers, and Vietnam was no exception.
The moment the invaders set foot on the soil of Vietnam, it opened the prelude to more than 100 years of bloody storms in this country.
In 1858, the French invasion of Vietnam began.
After years of struggle, after the signing of the Treaty of Hue in 1884, Vietnam's former glory was completely reduced to the shadow of colonization.
During World War II, Vietnam was again under Japanese occupation.
Faced with this new oppression, the Vietnamese people, who had been suffering for a long time, began to revolt.
Finally, in September 1945, they drove out the French and Japanese.
Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh issued the Declaration of Independence, declaring Vietnam's independence.
But the story doesn't end with the smoke of gunfire.
At the dawn of Vietnam's independence, the United States intervened in an even more painful chapter – the decade-long Vietnam War.
At that time, although Vietnam was independent, it was not unified, and the small country was divided into two regimes, the north and the south.
Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, while the South was controlled by Ngo Dinh Diem, who wielded great power, creating a bipolar division.
In order to achieve reunification at an early date, Ho Chi Minh sent troops directly to Vietnam.
In the face of the overwhelming northern army, Ngo Dinh Diem felt unprecedented pressure, and in order to turn the tide, he sent a distress signal to the United States on the other side of the ocean.
At that time, the Cold War broke out, and the two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union did not give in to each other.
The United States, which had been waiting for a long time, was lacking a chance to enter the game, and Vietnam was a strong barrier to the eastward expansion of communism, and the US government decided to vigorously support the Ngo Dinh Diem regime.
On May 14, 1961, the United States sent 400 elite special operations to Vietnam.
By March 8, 1965, a larger military intervention had begun, with the United States directly sending 3,500 Marines to seize Da Nang.
The confrontation between the U.S. and North Vietnamese forces entered a new phase of head-to-head confrontation.
Under common sense, the Vietnamese army should have an overwhelming advantage in fighting on its own soil.
However, with the help of certain subordinate means, the US military appeared to be invincible in the 14-year war against Vietnam.
In the early days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese army was very good at using dense jungles to conduct guerrilla warfare, forcing the American army to be in a passive defensive state.
In order to change this situation, the US military launched Operation Rancher.
The execution of this tactic marked the large-scale application of chemical warfare in the Vietnam War, and its impact was far-reaching and devastating.
The U.S. military used a large number of planes carrying Agent Orange to spray them on the forests and farmland of Vietnam.
As planes flew low, tens of thousands of gallons of Agent Orange rained down like torrential rains, turning the once dense jungle to the ground and leaving vast areas of farmland barren.
These areas were reduced to extinction almost overnight.
Life in the jungle was rapidly extinguished, while also depriving the North Vietnamese army of natural cover and food sources.
This caused the North Vietnamese army to suffer huge losses, with more than 100,000 casualties.
The widespread use of Agent Orange has sparked strong protests at home and abroad.
Despite this, the U.S. government has turned a deaf ear to these voices and has only made ambiguous statements.
On the battlefield in Vietnam, this kind of chemical warfare actually lasted for nine years.
But even so, the U.S. military did not gnaw the hard bone of North Vietnam,
Who did the North Vietnamese army rely on to overcome obstacles and finally win victory?
In this war, how did China play our role and draw a unique chapter in history?
ungrateful
In the face of the grandiose invasion of the United States, China and the Soviet Union, both in the socialist camp, will never sit idly by.
In order to support North Vietnam, China provided Vietnam with all kinds of arms and ammunition.
Experts estimate that China's support at the time was enough to keep an army of 2 million soldiers fighting for a long decade.
The Soviet Union in the Far East did not sit idly by, providing Vietnam with huge amounts of economic aid.
Vietnam, a country that had never experienced the wave of industrialization, was able to gain a firm foothold in the US aggression because of the joint help of the two major socialist countries, China and the Soviet Union.
In 1973, the war between Vietnam and the United States gradually died down.
Just two years later, Vietnam succeeded in overthrowing the South Vietnamese government and reunifying the entire country.
At the victory celebrations, Vietnam openly expressed its preference for the Soviet Union's one-sided foreign policy, opening a new chapter.
However, at the end of the sixties of the last century, the contradictions between China and the Soviet Union gradually appeared.
In 1953, China won a brilliant victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and its status and influence on the international stage made a leap, and China began to negotiate with the Soviet Union on an equal footing.
This victory forced the Soviet Union to reassess the strength of this Eastern socialist brother.
In 1956, Khrushchev offered to hope that China would agree to create a joint fleet and share each other's coastlines.
Even more outrageous, he also planned to build a long-wave radio station on Chinese territory for use by the Soviet army.
These two excessive requests seriously offended China's defense of its territorial sovereignty and provoked strong repercussions.
During the negotiations, Chairman Mao, with indignation, directly questioned Khrushchev: "Why do you want to form this joint fleet with you?"
As a result, the rift between China and the Soviet Union widened.
During this time, the Soviet Union deliberately supported Vietnam, which made Vietnam begin to alienate from China, and the relationship network between China, the Soviet Union and Vietnam became more and more complicated.
In the seventies, the Soviet Union and Vietnam formed a close military front and formed an alliance against China.
The Soviet Union deployed significant military resources, including strategic nuclear forces, in Vietnam, posing a direct threat to China's national security.
At the same time, Vietnam has become increasingly bold and has been ramping up its military presence along the border.
In a series of provocative clashes with Vietnam, countless Chinese border guards died heroically in battle.
In the face of joint pressure from the Soviet Union and Vietnam, China made a decisive decision to defend its national sovereignty and maintain peace in Southeast Asia and the world—to start a war of self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam.
Absolute victory
Vietnam's pride stems from their victories in the Vietnam War, especially the defeat of the world's most powerful U.S. military, which led them to mistakenly believe that they are the new hegemon under the world's powers.
Moreover, behind Vietnam, there is the behemoth of the Soviet Union, which makes it even more arrogant.
With the acquiescence of the Soviet Union, Vietnam invaded Laos and then Cambodia, and then set its sights on the mainland as its next prey.
Despite the fact that the mainland, in the spirit of great power etiquette, continued to exhort with a peaceful voice, Vietnam's ambitions snowballed and eventually angered the central government.
Adhering to the principle of self-defense, General Xu Shiyou led his soldiers on a journey to fight back against Vietnam's vexatious troubles.
On February 17, 1979, our army and the Vietnamese army fought in Lang Son City.
This was not an ordinary encounter, but a fierce confrontation between the 55th Division of our army and the 3rd Division of the Vietnamese Army.
At dawn of artillery fire, within a day, nearly ninety percent of this small city was occupied by our troops.
Seeing that it was outmatched by our firepower, the Vietnamese 3rd Division did not hesitate to use innocents as shields to push the lonely elderly and children to the battlefield and let them run through the smoke of gunfire.
In order not to harm ordinary people, our army's combat strategy had to be adjusted.
However, after a period of fierce fighting, he still succeeded in taking the military important place of Lang Son City.
This victory made the 308th Division, which was guarding the capital of the Vietnamese army, feel an unprecedented shock, and fear spread in their hearts.
In order to regain face, the Vietnamese top brass embarked on the road of no return and even took out the chemical weapons left behind by the US military, and this desperate counterattack led to mass casualties among our troops.
General Xu Shiyou was indignant at this, and he clearly saw through the panic and revenge of the Vietnamese army.
General Xu immediately adjusted his strategic deployment, and divided the army into two parts, east and west, in accordance with the latitude and longitude on the map.
The troops of the Eastern Front pinned down the main forces of the Vietnamese army, while the troops of the Western Front inserted from Cambodia and went around behind enemy lines to carry out a sudden circular sniper attack on the Vietnamese army.
In this game, the enemy's military power is like a disintegrated twin star, and the north and south are no longer connected.
In February, in the last winter, our army defeated the 346th Division, which was claimed to be well-equipped and all-Soviet-weaponized, and fled in just 10 days, and the People's Liberation Army entered the territory of Vietnam amid the earth-shattering artillery fire.
After the news of the defeat of the 346th Division spread, in just one week, the 308th Division, which had been holding the capital, abandoned its position and retreated to Hanoi at full speed.
In the face of the sudden collapse, Vietnam extended a hand of peace to the mainland, hoping to resolve the dispute between the two countries through dialogue and restore peace.
After reading the letter asking for help from the Vietnamese side, Comrade Deng Xiaoping did not say much, and knew in his heart that the conflict was only for the purpose of ensuring the security and dignity of the country from beginning to end.
Now that the other side has realized its mistake, there is no need to continue confrontation.
On March 17, 1979, less than a month later, the battle quickly came to an end.
Compared to the decades-long war between the United States and France in Vietnam, our military operations were swift and decisive.
The difference is that the military operation we are conducting is based on justice, and no country has the right to infringe on the sovereign security of other countries.
Our goal is clear - simply to drive out the forces of aggression and ensure the security of the country.
Through this border conflict, we have sent a clear message to the international community: China will not trample on the sovereignty and dignity of other countries as some aggressors have done.
Solidarity and friendship have always been at the core of the mainland's foreign policy.
Seek to resolve international disputes through peaceful means.
The end of this conflict not only proves our determination to safeguard national sovereignty, but also demonstrates China's willingness to work with other countries to build an international community of equality, respect and cooperation with other countries.
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