As one of the founders of the Vietnamese People's Army, General Vo Nguyen Gia appeared on the cover of Time magazine three times during the Vietnam War and enjoyed a high reputation in Vietnam.
[Cover of Time magazine in the United States, Wu Yuanjia]
This made the Vietnamese attach great importance to Vo Nguyen Gia's assessment and recommendations on the Sino-Vietnamese war.
Before the official start of the Sino-Vietnamese War, some people in Vietnam's top leadership raised the question of whether the People's Liberation Army should be prepared for a surprise attack by the People's Liberation Army through Laos, but in this regard, Vu Yuanjia believed: "If China does not dare, Vietnam is enough to protect itself." ”
In fact, as mentioned by the Vietnamese side, the Chinese side did propose a tactic of allowing the PLA to attack Vietnam through Laos, but in the end this tactic was not adopted.
Why didn't the PLA choose to pass through Laos? Why is Wu Yuanjia so confident that China will not take advantage of Laos?
[Wu Yuanjia is in the army]
Vietnam and China share the same origin
China's relations with Vietnam are really messy.
Vietnam had a period of northern dependence, that is, it belonged to China.
This period first began in the Qin Dynasty, and then went through the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms...... Vietnam was a vassal state of China for the vast majority of the time.
[During the Western Han Dynasty, South Vietnam, where Vietnam was located, was a vassal state]
In the middle of the 19th century, the French powers began to invade Vietnam, and the feudal rulers of China at that time were unable to protect Vietnam, so Vietnam broke away from China.
And don't look at the fact that France cut off the vassal relationship between China and Vietnam under the banner of "helping Vietnam independence", but then France carried out 57 years of colonial rule over Vietnam.
After that, France came to Japan, Japan went to France, France came to the United States, and Vietnam never stopped to catch its breath.
As a result, China and the Soviet Union and other countries provided a lot of assistance to Vietnam, which allowed Vietnam to win the American-Vietnamese War and finally ushered in peace.
【American GIs in the U.S.-Vietnam War】
China spares no effort to help Vietnam because the two countries have the same ancestry, and Vietnam has always used Chinese characters before it was colonized by France, and its living customs are very similar to China's.
As Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of Vietnam, said: "A comrade and a brother." ”
Why did China fight a war of self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam?
But after Ho Chi Minh's death, Vietnam changed, and after Le Duan came to power, he was not in a hurry to guide Vietnam to recuperate, but took a bunch of weapons aided by the Soviet Union and other countries, and began to show off his might everywhere with the tactics of Chinese professors.
【Vietnam Map】
There are only three countries bordering Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are all about to be penetrated by Vietnam, and the remaining one is China.
Vietnam claims to have reached the third highest military level in the world, after all, there is really no country in Asia that has defeated two white countries in a row like them.
As a result, the fluttering Vietnam began to provoke China, first frantically excluding China at home, persecuting overseas Chinese, and causing more than 200,000 overseas Chinese to flee Vietnam.
Then Vietnam began to stir up incidents on the Sino-Vietnamese border, injuring border residents on the mainland, toppling boundary pillars, and violating China's sovereignty.
There was no need to endure it anymore, so on February 17, 1979, China launched a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
Borrowing through the strategy of Laos
The Chinese People's Liberation Army plans to advance from Yunnan and Guangxi respectively, and push it towards Vietnam in a "pincer shape."
The Eastern Front consisted of the 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 50th, 54th, and 55th Armies, with General Xu Shiyou as the commander, and the Western Front was composed of the 11th, 13th, and 14th Armies, with Yang Dezhi, commander of the Kunming Military Region, as the commander. The total number of troops reached 560,000.
In addition to these two routes, the PLA also had an alternative tactic, which was to borrow from Laos as mentioned earlier.
Geographically, Laos is located on the western side of Vietnam, and the two countries have a long border.
【Geographical Location Relationship Map of Vietnam, Laos and China】
If the Chinese People's Liberation Army takes advantage of Laos and drives straight into Vietnam, inserting it horizontally in the narrowest part of Vietnam's territory, it can not only cut Vietnam into two sections, but also control Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, through outflanking, and "capture the thief and capture the king first."
But this plan was ultimately rejected.
Why not borrow from Laos
In response to Vietnam's repeated provocations against China, Deng Xiaoping once said, "Children are disobedient, it's time to spank." ”
【Deng Xiaoping】
This should be noted, which means that it is enough to teach the "children" a lesson, rather than beating the "children" to death.
If China directly destroys Vietnam, it will not only violate our original intention of counterattacking, but will also be made a big fuss in the international community.
In addition, Laos and Vietnam both belong to Southeast Asia, and the geographical environment is very complex, with a large number of dense forests and mountains. The continental army did not have much experience in such terrain operations.
[Vietnam's geography is very complex]
Moreover, the route from Laos requires the People's Liberation Army to travel long distances, which is a taboo for soldiers.
What's more, Vietnam invaded Laos before, Laos itself was a mud bodhisattva crossing the river, and there were Vietnamese troops stationed in Laos, if it was discovered, the effectiveness of the strategy would be greatly reduced, so in the end this tactic was abandoned.
The Chinese are reasonable, and Wu Yuanjia also understands, so he will say with great confidence that the Chinese dare not use Laos. In the head-on confrontation, Wu Yuanjia believed that the Vietnamese army, which had just experienced the war, was much stronger than the People's Liberation Army, which had not fought for many years, so he came to the conclusion that "Vietnam is enough to protect itself".
But he was only a quarter right, and whether Vietnam has enough self-protection capabilities will tell from the results of the war.
postscript
Facts have also proved that China has enough ability to teach Vietnam a lesson without borrowing from Laos, and it took only 28 days from the official start of the war to China's complete withdrawal of troops.
In this battle, China continued to follow the principle of treating prisoners well, and the more than 2,700 Vietnamese soldiers captured not only did not suffer any harm, but on the contrary, because of the comfortable life in the prisoner of war camps, a considerable number of them hoped to stay in China forever.
More than 1,000 prisoners of war were released immediately after the war, and the remaining prisoners were released back to Vietnam in batches shortly after.
At the time of the final separation, many Vietnamese prisoners of war looked reluctant and even shed tears.
Resources:
[1] "Zhang Zhen's Memoirs", People's Liberation Army Publishing House
[2] "Selected Examples of Self-Defense and Counter-Attack Operations on the Sino-Vietnamese Border"
[3] "Summary of Self-Defense and Counterattack Operations against Vietnam", Logistics Department of Kunming Military Region
[4] Unforgettable 1979: A Complete Documentary of the Self-Defense and Counter-Attack Operations against Vietnam • China Military Network