The Sino-Vietnamese Conflict: Power Play among Communist Neighbors
Author(s)
Nguyen, Hung Mahn
Abstract
In less than two months-between Christmas Day of 1978 and the waning days of the Chinese New York-two wars broke out in Indochina, rocking the peace of Asia and threatening to endanger the fragile relationships between the major powers of the world. The Chinese incursions into Vietnam following Vietnam’s military campaign against Cambodia were only the culmination of series of conflicts that have poisoned the relationship between the two communist neighbors for quite some time. The purpose of this article is to analyze the origins of the Sino-Vietnamese conflict leading to the border war in early 1979 and assess the consequences of the conflict for Asia and for the relationships between the major powers.
