Emergence of Vietnamese -U.S. Cooperation
243communist regimes were also established in neighboring Laos and
Cambodia.
Although Chinese military support for the Vietnamese was substantial
(320,000 Chinese engineering and anti-aircraft forces and 170,000 troops
were present and directly engaged in Vietnam), there were a few incidents,
especially with services provided by Chinese soldiers to Vietnamese
people, which led Mao to instruct Chinese troops not to be too enthusiastic
in their support.^3 The Chinese military aid to Vietnam against US had no
relation to the common communist ideology of both countries. Rather, the
vigorously provided support to Vietnam against American troops had a
strategic background in the fact that southwestern and southern coastal
China are exposed to threats from the Gulf of Tonkin and are also open to
land invasion from forces moving up from the north Vietnamese Red
River valley or up the Mekong from Saigon.^4 American forces fighting in
Vietnam were obviously a threat to China, and therefore the support for
Vietnam and the use of it as a balancing proxy was inevitable. However,
this development did not mean that Vietnam would maintain close
relations with China.
The Sino-Soviet split in the communist world had a strong effect,
improving and strengthening Chinese-American relations and cooperation
while positioning Vietnam on the Soviet side. Deepening its relations with
the Soviets, the gap between Vietnam and China became wider and wider.
When Beijing reduced its support for Hanoi, Vietnamese suspicion of
China developed into aversion, and when Vietnamese unification made it
possible for the regime in Hanoi to confront Chinese influence (evidently
not only inside Vietnam, but also in the broader South East Asian region),
the aversion further turned into hostility.^5 Vietnam is the only neighbor,
though communist, with whom China has fought in the last forty years
since the creation of the People’s Republic in 1949.^6 Driven by economic
interests over natural resources, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, China drove
Vietnam’s forces out of the Paracel Islands and attacked them in the
Spartlys.^7 The tension between these two communist neighbors and their
competition for influence in Indochina (including the Vietnamese invasion
of Cambodia) resulted in a brief border war in 1979.^8 Minor armed clashes
(^3) Ibid., 378-381.
(^4) Cohen, Geopolitics of the World System, 262.
(^5) Chen, “China’s Involvement in the Vietnam War 1964-69”, 387.
(^6) Boyd and Comenetz, An Atlas of World Affairs, 171.
(^7) Ibid.
(^8) Global Security, “Chinese invasion of Vietnam February 1979“:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/prc-vietnam.htm