Chapter Thirteen
242
neighborhood, those first and foremost affected by Chinese expansion and
its new geopolitical position. Vietnam is a communist country neighboring
China, which has had political and territorial disputes with it. On the other
hand, Vietnam became famous on the global scene due to the war with the
US between the 1950’s and 1970’s. However, both countries today are
significantly affected by the rise of China and have many issues with it,
opening a lot of opportunities and common ground for cooperation.
The main aim of this short chapter is to see whether the rise of China
can and will foster cooperation between these oppositionally-situated
countries, despite their problematic history and their political, economic,
and ideological differences. Using analytical and descriptive methods, we
will examine a great number of facts, arguments, and data from a broad
range of sources, such as books, papers, research, reports, newspapers, and
websites in order to see how this new geopolitical situation–the rise of
China–is affecting the relations between Vietnam and the US.
Historical Development of the Relations between Vietnam,
China and the US
Despite the long and often troublesome history between Vietnam and
China since ancient times, for our purposes we will consider the time
frame in which all three states are included, which is the second half of the
20 th century. After WWII, Vietnam had its own communist insurgency,
among others in the region. The successful Chinese communist revolution
gave an impetus to the Vietnamese communist movement, which
proclaimed an independent democratic republic in the northern part of the
country. Vietnam became a divided country with a communist state in the
north, backed by the USSR and China,^2 and a democratic state in the
south, backed by the US and its allies–primarily France, which was a
former colonial ruler of Vietnam. Both of the Vietnamese states claimed
territorial integrity and unity as the sole sovereign and legitimate
government, respectively recognized and supported by the communist and
democratic blocs. The communist insurgency caused a war in which the
US and its allies from the ANZUS treaty, Australia and New Zealand, felt
threatened by the domino theory of communist expansion, and were
heavily involved in fighting against the communist Vietkong. After twenty
years of war, the communists won and successfully unified the country as
one socialist republic. By driving Americans out of (South) Vietnam,
(^2) Chen, “China’s Involvement in the Vietnam War 1964-69”, 356.