and viewed very differently: to re-establish the traditional status rel-
ationship that had previously existed between the two countries.
Successive Vietnamese dynasties had over the centuries borrowed
much of Chinese culture, from cosmography to Confucianism as a
philosophy of government. So if the Vietminh took from the PRC an
appropriate model of political organisation and revolutionary warfare,
this would reinstate, in Chinese eyes, the former relationship between
China as the source of orthodoxy and Vietnam as the grateful recipi-
ent; China as the teacher, Vietnam as the pupil; in a word, China as
superior in status, Vietnam as inferior. Through generous assistance,
Beijing would once again draw Vietnam into its status-structured
political orbit.
As Vietnamese revolutionary leaders were enthusiastic about the
Maoist model and needed international support, Chinese assistance
was welcomed. A senior official was appointed to head the Chinese
liaison mission in Vietnam; a Chinese Military Advisory Group was
established, not just to oversee the training and equipping of Viet-
namese units, but also to assist in military planning; and a senior
Chinese general was sent to Vietnam to plan the first major Vietminh
offensive. Vietminh military forces were renamed the People’s Army of
Vietnam (PAVN) and readied for battle, thanks to Chinese aid, on a
scale not previously possible.
Beginning in mid-September, the Vietminh launched its offen-
sive against French garrisons close the Chinese border. Victory was
crushing. A series of attacks, ambushes and precipitous withdrawals
resulted in heavy French losses of men and equipment and left all the
mountainous northern China–Vietnam frontier area in Vietminh
hands. The PAVN was led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, but the plan,
as we now know from recently released Chinese documents, was drawn
up by his Chinese advisers.^7
Vietnamese historians have consistently minimised China’s role
in the First Indochina War, but bare statistics reveal how extensive
this was: tens of thousands of small arms, hundreds of artillery pieces
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia