Sino-Vietnamese War
The Sino-Vietnamese War was a war fought in 1979 between the two communist states of China And Vietnam.While China and North Vietnam had been close during the Vietnam War, after the conflict and the Sino-Soviet Split Vietnam aligned with the Soviet Union. China was very concerned about having to fight a two front war against both the Vietnamese and the Soviets.
An important Chinese ally was Cambodia under control of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. Relations between Cambodia and Vietnam were very poor. The Cambodian regime began massacring ethnic Vietnamese inside Cambodia. By 1978 the Cambodian government was supporting guerilla activities in eastern Vietnam.
In late 1978 the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, ending the Khmer Rouge regime. On January 7 Vietnamese backed Cambodian forces seized Phnom Penh. In response the Chinese decided to launch an punitive assault on Vietnam.
On February 17, using the Vietnamese mistreatment of the ethnic Chinese minority as an excuse, a force of 120,000 troops attacked over the countries shared border, and a naval group attacked the coast near Hanoi. The Vietnamese put up stiff resistance, but the Chinese succeeded in advancing twenty-five miles inland. Battled hardened troops from the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia were called up and helped halt the advance. A Vietnamese counter-offensive was launched against Hainan but it was rebuffed.
On March 6 the Chinese called punitive mission completed and began withdrawing their forces. They had been severely mauled with an estimated 60,000 casualties and 20,000 killed. The Vietnamese had suffered equally loosing an equal number of troops and about 10,000 civilians.
The legacy of the war is lasting, especially in Vietnam. Relations between the two neighbours are still poor and this war has far more effect on Vietnamese thinking than the Vietnam War. Today Vietnam maintains one of the world's largest armies, almost entirely out of fear of China. Occasional skirmishes continued over the border, with over a thousand people being killed in them during the 1980s.