Sino-Vietnam war in 1979

NegiG

Just Hatched
Registered Member
Hi guys.

By chance, I just read a thread about Sino-Vietnam war in 1979 ended with nuclear attack. I think I want to give you guys a view of Vietnamese too. This story was told by my father, he was once in army and all his friends are high ranking officials in VPA, some are even working in Ministry of Defence. Therefore, I think this is a reliable view. This story also include Cambodia accident.

At the end of the war with US, we were having some problems with Chinese. Vietnam choose to follow Stalin communist's way. China's ally, Cambodia kept attacking the border and even massacre a whole town named Ba Truc. Honestly, just my personal thinking, there's nothing wrong for the Vietnamese to destroy this horrible government.

Vietnam vs Cambodia:
After Cambodia launched its first massive attack, Vietnam launched another 1 to pay back. But in reality, 1 army division was secretly stay back in border between. After Cambodia launched the second massive attack, Vietnam moved 4 out of 6 army division which were stationed in the south. When Vietnam launched the invasion, VPA easily circled Cambodia army and destroy it. But they( my father's friend) told me, it was not an easy victory. One of them was working as radio man, for the first few days of the war, the more platoon VPA sent in, the more they "disappeared" or in term "lost contract". Platoon after platoon was sent in after every 5 minutes. Cambodia Artillery was not good if without Chinese advisor. He said, when they used their BMP-21 or their artillery, they must move right away to another location. Because just 5 minutes later, Cambodia artillery's shells will fall at that place right way.

Vietnam vs Sino:
My father participated in this war. He was in support divison at that time. This war was very well prepared by Chinese leader. In the morning of the invasion, town people around border saw many VPA troops walking around. In fact they are PLA troops disguised as VPA troops. Before the main army came in, they already controlled the military base there. The PLA was very fast advanced, my father digged the trech in morning, but must retreat back in afternoon. He said, there weren't any regular army divisions in this war, except for his support divison which was newly formed when this war started. Some sources say PLA fought with regular army, however PLAN actually mostly fought millitia or police. My father still has a bullet wound-marked in his leg today. Everyday, he saw trains carried wounded troops back to Hanoi and many millitia personel stayed on top of it ( guard it, I think).
Oh, about the Russian, he said transportation plane of Russian flew almost twice a day. They were just hovering above Chinese position, and both sides never did anythings except looking at each other. However, in the last few days before China announced its retreat. There was a rumor on Vietnam side that the Russian was setting up Bio-weapons in the last line of defence. My father said if the chinese was to cross this river, the russian shall fire at them. Everything has its own limit point, the russian could not stand still anymore. But he did see some strange equipment which was set up by russian, but he didn't know what it was. Rumor is just rumor after all. Well, both side claimed victory after this. Personally, I don't see any Victors or Losers in this war, both sides lost a lot of their people, China did teach Vietnam a lesson, but Vietnam still won in Cambodia. China leader realize a needs for modernization in their army.
 

Lion

Senior Member
Hi guys.

By chance, I just read a thread about Sino-Vietnam war in 1979 ended with nuclear attack. I think I want to give you guys a view of Vietnamese too. This story was told by my father, he was once in army and all his friends are high ranking officials in VPA, some are even working in Ministry of Defence. Therefore, I think this is a reliable view. This story also include Cambodia accident.

At the end of the war with US, we were having some problems with Chinese. Vietnam choose to follow Stalin communist's way. China's ally, Cambodia kept attacking the border and even massacre a whole town named Ba Truc. Honestly, just my personal thinking, there's nothing wrong for the Vietnamese to destroy this horrible government.

Vietnam vs Cambodia:
After Cambodia launched its first massive attack, Vietnam launched another 1 to pay back. But in reality, 1 army division was secretly stay back in border between. After Cambodia launched the second massive attack, Vietnam moved 4 out of 6 army division which were stationed in the south. When Vietnam launched the invasion, VPA easily circled Cambodia army and destroy it. But they( my father's friend) told me, it was not an easy victory. One of them was working as radio man, for the first few days of the war, the more platoon VPA sent in, the more they "disappeared" or in term "lost contract". Platoon after platoon was sent in after every 5 minutes. Cambodia Artillery was not good if without Chinese advisor. He said, when they used their BMP-21 or their artillery, they must move right away to another location. Because just 5 minutes later, Cambodia artillery's shells will fall at that place right way.

Vietnam vs Sino:
My father participated in this war. He was in support divison at that time. This war was very well prepared by Chinese leader. In the morning of the invasion, town people around border saw many VPA troops walking around. In fact they are PLA troops disguised as VPA troops. Before the main army came in, they already controlled the military base there. The PLA was very fast advanced, my father digged the trech in morning, but must retreat back in afternoon. He said, there weren't any regular army divisions in this war, except for his support divison which was newly formed when this war started. Some sources say PLA fought with regular army, however PLAN actually mostly fought millitia or police. My father still has a bullet wound-marked in his leg today. Everyday, he saw trains carried wounded troops back to Hanoi and many millitia personel stayed on top of it ( guard it, I think).
Oh, about the Russian, he said transportation plane of Russian flew almost twice a day. They were just hovering above Chinese position, and both sides never did anythings except looking at each other. However, in the last few days before China announced its retreat. There was a rumor on Vietnam side that the Russian was setting up Bio-weapons in the last line of defence. My father said if the chinese was to cross this river, the russian shall fire at them. Everything has its own limit point, the russian could not stand still anymore. But he did see some strange equipment which was set up by russian, but he didn't know what it was. Rumor is just rumor after all. Well, both side claimed victory after this. Personally, I don't see any Victors or Losers in this war, both sides lost a lot of their people, China did teach Vietnam a lesson, but Vietnam still won in Cambodia. China leader realize a needs for modernization in their army.

Nice read pal! All along, I found it puzzle Chinese did not continue from Lang Son. Plus, it is only 1 month into the battle. Chinese definitely has the advantage in attrition and can last another 3-4months of battle. It must have some major incident happen to conclude the war so fast.
 

Rising China

Junior Member
:china::china::china:

The war ended 30 years ago. It's time to look to a better future. China will have free trade with the 10 ASEAN countries starting Jan. 1, 2010. Let hope for a united and prosperous ASIA.
 

NegiG

Just Hatched
Registered Member
I think the main reason for Chinese did not continue from Lang Son was casualties. Before main Chinese army came to Lang Son, all other force already retreat back to form a last line of defense around Hanoi. However, it took few days for Chinese main army to have complete control over Lang Son due to population resistance there. There's a story on Wiki, i'm not sure if that one is truth. One pregnant woman carried bomb and threw herself at China tank when they came in
My father's friends who are working in Ministry of Defense told me, the main concept of Vietnam defense theory is people war(people->militia). Sources in Wikipedia says Vietnam has 4 mil reserve force, in reality, that's number must be around 9 mil +.

@Rising China: I hope so. :)
 

Damingli85

Junior Member
This war was a slap to the face of China. To put it in a better way its like picking on your little brother and get your behind handed to you. China screwed up by waging a limited war, and the Vietnamese did what they do best guerrilla with a hint of conventional warfare. Also due to the previous 10 years or so of the Cultural Revolution, China's industrial (weaponry) capability was severally damaged. I mean as others here has stated there were tons of ammo that just did fire. Logistics also proved to be a problem to the PLA, I mean was China's first war in how many years?

In theory if the war dragged long enough, China would have won. I don't think the Soviets had the balls to actually use chem/bio weapons. International prestige will fall, not to mention retaliation would not be light.

I think every Asian Communist country had a People's War concept since Stalin or Mao started it. However I think People's War is flawed as I rather see a small yet well equipped and trained army. (Franco-Prussian war of 1870).

To Rising China's post, I would love to see that happen. Not to sound like some nationalistic nut which I am not, but I believe we are seeing the rise of another Tang Dynasty.
 

Johann

Just Hatched
Registered Member
Damingli85 is correct.

Deng characterised it as a teach-a-lesson war.

Those usually continue until decisive victory - but if you're starting to bog down, you want to end it as soon as possible in order to preserve the maximum political gain.

Lang Son is the last stop before the Red River Delta, with the capital of Hanoi and the port of Haiphong.

There's no question that the PLA's performance in the battle of Lang Son came as a surprise to the PLA.

It was a much tougher battle than they expected, and they had serious problems with both effective combined arms coordination between armour, infantry, artillery and air power, as well as the logistics to support it.

I would be interested to hear about PLAAF and VPAF performance in the war - I haven't heard much on that score
 

NegiG

Just Hatched
Registered Member
@ Damingli85 : I agree with your points. In the Vietnam war, China supplied Viets many weapons and equipment. However, there were so many report about bullets, guns and especially grenade. May Viet troops were killed by the irregular time trigger of grenade. So they developed a solution of stick 1 russia grenade with 2 china grenades as a big 1. Using it by opened the russia grenade and throw the whole to enemy, it surely explode.

@Johann: Both side AF didn't go to any action. The only airforce went into action was Soviet AF. However, as my father said, they only hovered above Chinese position and transport weapons and equipment for Vietnam.

I'd love to know the quality of China weaponry today.
 

pla101prc

Senior Member
coming from a relative of mine who was in the war, the viets did some pretty gruesome things, women and elders would stab the PLA soldiers in the back as they were trying to help them. worse, the Vietnam special forces tend to attack field hospitals with red cross signs on it, they broke pretty much every single rules of engagement. a lot of Chinese casualties came from these attacks. so much so that in the end the Chinese stopped providing help to the ppl.
as for the claim that no regular divisions joined the fight, that's pure propaganda. 316A division was one of the elite divisions of the Vietnam army, it encountered with several of PLA divisions and was annihlated. i dont know what the vietnam government has been telling you there.
overall the Vietnamnese army i'd say had better individual training than the PLA from all the wars they have been fighting. but the PLA was superior in number and firepower, and had some excellent leadership. at least two or three of its top commanders now were outstanding officers that came out of the war.
but if you wanna talk about casualty, the Vietnamnese army's casualty was still significantly higher than that of PLA's.
 

NegiG

Just Hatched
Registered Member
hmnmn....It'd be logical to say that it was true that most attacks were from normal civilian. Well, as I said above, Vietnam defense is about people defense. Even now, we'd do the very same things to any invader, that's the national spirit in each Vietnamese.

At that time, Vietnam trusted big brother China, so much that Viet didn't put any regular guarding Hanoi. I doubt your source pretty much. One of my father friend was from 316A. He was a radioman for that division. It was true that they suffered heavy casualties. It was so heavy that they almost lost their division's flag(if you know what I mean). But they suffered that in Cambodia war ( check the story that platoon after platoon "disappear"). There were some new divisions which were newly formed right away. My father division was Nguyen Hue division, it was created one day after Chinese army begun their attack.

First of all, Vietnam's way of war is about people. Vietnam militia tired down the enemy before the main regular put a "decisive punch". The only regular army was the air-defense division which in charge of protecting Hanoi by all cost. As all of us know, how fast and powerful the Chinese armies advance, it'd be logical that Vietnam armies advoid direct battle with them.

P/S: I don't know about my country propaganda much. But I trust those guys from Ministry of defense. Oh I trust my father story too which was paid by a Chinese's bullet in his leg.;)

Sorry, my mistake, 316A did fought in this war! After it was re-structure in Cambodia war...my mistake. xDD~
 
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