The Third Indochina War was a series of interconnected armed conflicts, mainly among the various communist factions over strategic influence in Indochina after Communist victory in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 1975.[2] The conflict primarily started due to continued raids and incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnamese territory that they sought to retake. These incursions would result in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in which the newly unified Vietnam overthrew the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge, in turn ending the Cambodian genocide. Vietnam had installed a government led by many opponents of Pol Pot, including former Khmer Rouge most notably Hun Sen. This led to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia for over a decade. The Vietnamese push to completely destroy the Khmer Rouge led to them conducting border raids in Thailand who had provided sanctuary.[3][4]
China strongly objected to the invasion of Cambodia. Chinese armed forces launched a punitive operation (Sino-Vietnamese War) in February 1979 and attacked Vietnam's northern provinces, determined to contain Soviet/Vietnamese influence and prevent territorial gains in the region.[5][6]
In order to acquire full control over Cambodia the People's Army of Vietnam needed to dislodge the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders and units, which had retreated to the remote areas along the Thai-Cambodian border.[7] After the Paris Peace Conference in 1989, the NVA withdrew from Cambodian territory. Finally regular troop engagements in the region ended after the conclusion of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords.[8][9]
In Laos, an insurgency continued until 2007, with the government being supported by both China and Vietnam.
After Joseph Stalin's death in 1953,[10]Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union. His denouncement of Stalin and his purges, the introduction of more moderate communist policies and foreign policy of peaceful coexistence with the West angered China's leadership. Mao Zedong had been following a strict Stalinistic course, that insisted on the cult of personality as a unifying force of the nation.[11] Disagreements over technical assistance for developing China's nuclear weapons and basic economic policies further alienated the Soviets and the Chinese as opposing forces of communist influence across the globe. As decolonization movements began to pick up speed in the 1960s and many such countries descended into violence, both of the communist powers competed for political control of the various nations or competing factions in ongoing civil war fights.[12] Ever more diverging Chinese and Soviet strategic and political doctrines had increased the Sino-Soviet split of the mid-1950s.
Political developments during the Vietnam War
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), which had chosen to ally with the USSR, justified incursions into neighbouring Laos and Cambodia during the Second Indochinese War by reference to the international nature of communist revolution, where "Indochina is a single strategic unit, a single battlefield" and the Vietnam People's Army's pivotal role in bringing this about.[13] However, this internationalism was obstructed by complicated regional historical realities, such as the "timeless oppositions between the Chinese and the Vietnamese on the one hand and the Vietnamese and the Khmers on the other".[14] North Vietnam intervened in the civil war between the Royal Lao Army and the communist Pathet Lao until the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the "Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" signed in July 1977. Permanently stationed North Vietnamese troops secured and maintained vital supply routes and strategic staging sites (Ho Chi Minh trail).[13] From 1958 on, Northern and Southern Vietnamese combat troops also began to infiltrate the remote jungles of eastern Cambodia where they continued the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Cambodian communist insurgents had joined these sanctuaries during the late 1960s. Although co-operation took place, the Khmer communists did not adopt modern socialist doctrines and eventually allied with China.[15][16]
The complete American withdrawal instantaneously eliminated the principal and common adversary of all the communist powers.[17] The communist regimes of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos pledged allegiance with one of these two opposing factions. The ensuing hostilities were fuelled by century-old animosities between Vietnam and Cambodia, and – particularly – Vietnam and China.[18]
The Khmer Rouge killed between 1.6 and 1.8 million Cambodians during the Cambodian Genocide. The Khmer Rouge also invaded Ba Chúc, Vietnam and massacred 3,157 Vietnamese civilians, which prompted Vietnam to invade Cambodia and overthrow the regime.
After the Fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh in April and May 1975 and the subsequent communist takeover in Laos five months later, Indochina was dominated by communist regimes. Armed border clashes between Cambodia and Vietnam soon flared up and escalated as Khmer Rouge forces advanced deep into Vietnamese territory and raided villages, killing hundreds of civilians. Vietnam counterattacked and in December 1978, NVA troops invaded Cambodia, reaching Phnom Penh in January 1979 and arriving at the Thai border in spring 1979.[19][2]
However, as China, the U.S. and the majority of the international community opposed the Vietnamese campaign, the remaining Khmer Rouge managed to permanently settle in the Thai-Cambodian border region. In a United Nations Security Council meeting, seven non-aligned members drafted a resolution for a ceasefire and Vietnamese withdrawal which failed due to opposition from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Thailand tolerated the presence of the Khmer Rouge on its soil as they helped to contain the Vietnamese and Thai domestic guerillas. Over the course of the following decade, the Khmer Rouge received considerable support from Vietnam's enemies and served as a bargaining tool in the Realpolitik of Thailand, China, the ASEAN and the U.S.[20][8]
Khmer Rouge forces operated from inside Thai territory attacking the pro-Hanoi People's Republic of Kampuchea's government. Similarly Vietnamese forces frequently attacked the Khmer Rouge bases inside Thailand. Eventually Thai and Vietnamese regular troops clashed on several occasions during the following decade.[21] The situation escalated as Thailand's territorial sovereignty was violated on numerous occasions. Heavy fighting with many casualties resulted from direct confrontations between Vietnamese and Thai troops. Thailand increased troop strength, purchased new equipment and built a diplomatic front against Vietnam.[17]
China attacked Vietnam in response to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia, entered northern Vietnam and captured several cities near the border. On March 6, 1979, China declared that their punitive mission had been successful and withdrew from Vietnam. However, both China and Vietnam claimed victory. The fact that Vietnamese forces continued to stay in Cambodia for another decade implies that China's campaign was a strategic failure. On the other hand, the conflict had proven that China had succeeded in preventing effective Soviet support for its Vietnamese ally.[22][23]
As forces remained mobilized, the Vietnamese Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army engaged in another decade-long series of border disputes and naval clashes that lasted until 1990. These mostly local engagements usually wore out in prolonged stand-offs, as neither side achieved any long-term military gains. By the late 1980s the Vietnamese Communist Party's (VCP) began to adopt its Doi Moi (renovation) policy and reconsider its China policy in particular. Prolonged hostile relations with China had been recognized as to be detrimental to economic reforms, national security and the regime's survival. A number of political concessions opened the way for the normalization process of 1991.[24]
^Chuyên đề 4 CÔNG TÁC TÌM KIẾM, QUY TẬP HÀI CỐT LIỆT SĨ TỪ NAY ĐẾN NĂM 2020 VÀ NHỮNG NĂM TIẾP THEO, datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/Quản%20lý%20chỉ%20đạo/Chuyên%20đề%204.doc
^ ab"Vietnam War - Facts, information and articles about The Vietnam War". HistoryNet. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^Kelvin Rowley. (PDF). Swinburne University of Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 16, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^"1978-1979 - Vietnamese Invasion of Cambodia". GlobalSecurity. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^Bernard K. Gordon (September 1986). "The Third Indochina Conflict". Foreign Affairs (Fall 1986). Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^"The 1979 campaign" (PDF). All Partners Access Network. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^"Viets shell Cambodian positions..." January 2, 1985. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^ abLucy Keller. "UNTAC in Cambodia – from Occupation, Civil War and Genocide to Peace - The Paris Peace Conference in 1989" (PDF). Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^"Cambodia - 20 years on from the Paris Peace Agreements". OHCHR. October 21, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^"Joseph Stalin dies - Mar 05, 1953 - HISTORY.com". HISTORY.com. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
^Clines, Francis X. (April 6, 1989). "Soviets, After 33 Years, Publish Khrushchev's Anti-Stalin Speech". The New York Times. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
^Harry Powell. "Chinese Communist Critiques of Soviet Society". Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^ abCarlyle A. Thayer. "SECURITY ISSUES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: THE THIRD INDOCHINA WAR". SCRIBD. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^Christopher E. Goscha. "Vietnam, the Third Indochina War and the meltdown of Asian internationalism, p. 161" (PDF). UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^William S. Turley (October 17, 2008). The Second Indochina War: A Concise Political and Military History. ISBN9780742557451. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^"America's Vietnam War in Indochina War in Cambodia". US History. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^ abWilliam S. Turley, Jeffrey Race (1980). "The Third Indochina War". Foreign Policy (38): 92–116. doi:10.2307/1148297. JSTOR 1148297. S2CID 158492536.
^"Chinese Communist Party: The Leaders of the CPSU are the Greatest Splitters of Our Times". Modern History Sourcebook. Fordham University. February 4, 1964. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^Kevin Doyle (September 14, 2014). "Vietnam's forgotten Cambodian war". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^Ted Galen Carpenter. "U.S. Aid to Anti-Communist Rebels: The "Reagan Doctrine" and Its Pitfalls" (PDF). Cato Institute. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^"Vietnam, Thai clash continues". Star News. June 25, 1980. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
^"The Third Indochina War". Global Security. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
^Elleman, Bruce A. (2001). Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795-1989. Routledge. p. 297. ISBN978-0415214742.
^Le Hong Hiep (June 26, 2013). "Vietnam's Domestic–Foreign Policy Nexus: Doi Moi, Foreign Policy Reform, and Sino Vietnamese Normalization". Asian Politics & Policy. 5 (3): 387–406. doi:10.1111/aspp.12035.
May 07, 2023
third, indochina, part, indochina, wars, cold, sino, soviet, splitdate1, 1975, october, 1991, years, months, weeks, locationvietnam, laos, cambodia, thailand, chinaresultremoval, khmer, rouge, from, power, cambodian, genocide, vietnamese, government, installed. Third Indochina WarPart of the Indochina Wars the Cold War and the Sino Soviet splitDate1 May 1975 23 October 1991 16 years 5 months 3 weeks and 1 day LocationVietnam Laos Cambodia Thailand ChinaResultRemoval of the Khmer Rouge from power End of the Cambodian genocide Pro Vietnamese government installed in Cambodia China withdraws from Vietnam after 27 days of fighting Communist Party of Thailand abandons armed struggle Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia in 1991 1990 Chengdu summit leads to the normalization of relations between China and Vietnam Restoration of the House of Norodom Insurgency in Laos until 2008Belligerents China Democratic Kampuchea Khmer Rouge CGDKLao royalists Hmong insurgents FULRO Thailand Supported by Malaysia North Korea Romania Singapore United Kingdom United States Vietnam Laos People s Republic of Kampuchea Supported by Bulgaria Cuba Czechoslovakia East Germany Hungary India Poland Soviet UnionCommunist Party of Thailand Pak MaiSupported by Malayan Communist PartyCasualties and lossesUnknownVietnam 105 627 military deaths 1 Unknown The Third Indochina War was a series of interconnected armed conflicts mainly among the various communist factions over strategic influence in Indochina after Communist victory in South Vietnam Laos and Cambodia in 1975 2 The conflict primarily started due to continued raids and incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnamese territory that they sought to retake These incursions would result in the Cambodian Vietnamese War in which the newly unified Vietnam overthrew the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge in turn ending the Cambodian genocide Vietnam had installed a government led by many opponents of Pol Pot including former Khmer Rouge most notably Hun Sen This led to Vietnam s occupation of Cambodia for over a decade The Vietnamese push to completely destroy the Khmer Rouge led to them conducting border raids in Thailand who had provided sanctuary 3 4 China strongly objected to the invasion of Cambodia Chinese armed forces launched a punitive operation Sino Vietnamese War in February 1979 and attacked Vietnam s northern provinces determined to contain Soviet Vietnamese influence and prevent territorial gains in the region 5 6 In order to acquire full control over Cambodia the People s Army of Vietnam needed to dislodge the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders and units which had retreated to the remote areas along the Thai Cambodian border 7 After the Paris Peace Conference in 1989 the NVA withdrew from Cambodian territory Finally regular troop engagements in the region ended after the conclusion of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords 8 9 In Laos an insurgency continued until 2007 with the government being supported by both China and Vietnam Contents 1 Background 1 1 Soviet Chinese discord 1 2 Political developments during the Vietnam War 2 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia 2 1 Vietnamese Thailand conflict 3 Sino Vietnamese conflicts 4 Regional conflicts 5 See also 6 Notes 7 ReferencesBackground EditSoviet Chinese discord Edit Main articles Vietnam War and Sino Soviet split After Joseph Stalin s death in 1953 10 Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union His denouncement of Stalin and his purges the introduction of more moderate communist policies and foreign policy of peaceful coexistence with the West angered China s leadership Mao Zedong had been following a strict Stalinistic course that insisted on the cult of personality as a unifying force of the nation 11 Disagreements over technical assistance for developing China s nuclear weapons and basic economic policies further alienated the Soviets and the Chinese as opposing forces of communist influence across the globe As decolonization movements began to pick up speed in the 1960s and many such countries descended into violence both of the communist powers competed for political control of the various nations or competing factions in ongoing civil war fights 12 Ever more diverging Chinese and Soviet strategic and political doctrines had increased the Sino Soviet split of the mid 1950s Political developments during the Vietnam War Edit The Democratic Republic of Vietnam North Vietnam which had chosen to ally with the USSR justified incursions into neighbouring Laos and Cambodia during the Second Indochinese War by reference to the international nature of communist revolution where Indochina is a single strategic unit a single battlefield and the Vietnam People s Army s pivotal role in bringing this about 13 However this internationalism was obstructed by complicated regional historical realities such as the timeless oppositions between the Chinese and the Vietnamese on the one hand and the Vietnamese and the Khmers on the other 14 North Vietnam intervened in the civil war between the Royal Lao Army and the communist Pathet Lao until the establishment of the Lao People s Democratic Republic and the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation signed in July 1977 Permanently stationed North Vietnamese troops secured and maintained vital supply routes and strategic staging sites Ho Chi Minh trail 13 From 1958 on Northern and Southern Vietnamese combat troops also began to infiltrate the remote jungles of eastern Cambodia where they continued the Ho Chi Minh trail The Cambodian communist insurgents had joined these sanctuaries during the late 1960s Although co operation took place the Khmer communists did not adopt modern socialist doctrines and eventually allied with China 15 16 The complete American withdrawal instantaneously eliminated the principal and common adversary of all the communist powers 17 The communist regimes of Cambodia Vietnam and Laos pledged allegiance with one of these two opposing factions The ensuing hostilities were fuelled by century old animosities between Vietnam and Cambodia and particularly Vietnam and China 18 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia EditMain article Khmer Rouge Vietnamese War The Khmer Rouge killed between 1 6 and 1 8 million Cambodians during the Cambodian Genocide The Khmer Rouge also invaded Ba Chuc Vietnam and massacred 3 157 Vietnamese civilians which prompted Vietnam to invade Cambodia and overthrow the regime After the Fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh in April and May 1975 and the subsequent communist takeover in Laos five months later Indochina was dominated by communist regimes Armed border clashes between Cambodia and Vietnam soon flared up and escalated as Khmer Rouge forces advanced deep into Vietnamese territory and raided villages killing hundreds of civilians Vietnam counterattacked and in December 1978 NVA troops invaded Cambodia reaching Phnom Penh in January 1979 and arriving at the Thai border in spring 1979 19 2 However as China the U S and the majority of the international community opposed the Vietnamese campaign the remaining Khmer Rouge managed to permanently settle in the Thai Cambodian border region In a United Nations Security Council meeting seven non aligned members drafted a resolution for a ceasefire and Vietnamese withdrawal which failed due to opposition from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia Thailand tolerated the presence of the Khmer Rouge on its soil as they helped to contain the Vietnamese and Thai domestic guerillas Over the course of the following decade the Khmer Rouge received considerable support from Vietnam s enemies and served as a bargaining tool in the Realpolitik of Thailand China the ASEAN and the U S 20 8 Vietnamese Thailand conflict Edit Main article Vietnamese border raids in Thailand Khmer Rouge forces operated from inside Thai territory attacking the pro Hanoi People s Republic of Kampuchea s government Similarly Vietnamese forces frequently attacked the Khmer Rouge bases inside Thailand Eventually Thai and Vietnamese regular troops clashed on several occasions during the following decade 21 The situation escalated as Thailand s territorial sovereignty was violated on numerous occasions Heavy fighting with many casualties resulted from direct confrontations between Vietnamese and Thai troops Thailand increased troop strength purchased new equipment and built a diplomatic front against Vietnam 17 Sino Vietnamese conflicts EditMain articles Sino Vietnamese War and Sino Vietnamese conflicts 1979 1991 China attacked Vietnam in response to Vietnam s occupation of Cambodia entered northern Vietnam and captured several cities near the border On March 6 1979 China declared that their punitive mission had been successful and withdrew from Vietnam However both China and Vietnam claimed victory The fact that Vietnamese forces continued to stay in Cambodia for another decade implies that China s campaign was a strategic failure On the other hand the conflict had proven that China had succeeded in preventing effective Soviet support for its Vietnamese ally 22 23 As forces remained mobilized the Vietnamese Army and the Chinese People s Liberation Army engaged in another decade long series of border disputes and naval clashes that lasted until 1990 These mostly local engagements usually wore out in prolonged stand offs as neither side achieved any long term military gains By the late 1980s the Vietnamese Communist Party s VCP began to adopt its Doi Moi renovation policy and reconsider its China policy in particular Prolonged hostile relations with China had been recognized as to be detrimental to economic reforms national security and the regime s survival A number of political concessions opened the way for the normalization process of 1991 24 Regional conflicts EditThe Insurgency in Laos The Communist insurgency in Thailand The Thai Laotian Border War The Johnson South Reef Skirmish The FULRO insurgency against VietnamSee also EditFirst Indochina War Sino Soviet split Vietnam WarNotes EditReferences Edit Chuyen đề 4 CONG TAC TIM KIẾM QUY TẬP HAI CỐT LIỆT SĨ TỪ NAY ĐẾN NĂM 2020 VA NHỮNG NĂM TIẾP THEO datafile chinhsachquandoi gov vn Quản 20ly 20chỉ 20đạo Chuyen 20đề 204 doc a b Vietnam War Facts information and articles about The Vietnam War HistoryNet Retrieved March 31 2018 Kelvin Rowley Second Life Second Death The Khmer Rouge After 1978 PDF Swinburne University of Technology Archived from the original PDF on February 16 2016 Retrieved March 11 2018 1978 1979 Vietnamese Invasion of Cambodia GlobalSecurity Retrieved March 11 2018 Bernard K Gordon September 1986 The Third Indochina Conflict Foreign Affairs Fall 1986 Retrieved March 11 2018 The 1979 campaign PDF All Partners Access Network Retrieved March 31 2018 Viets shell Cambodian positions January 2 1985 Retrieved March 11 2018 a b Lucy Keller UNTAC in Cambodia from Occupation Civil War and Genocide to Peace The Paris Peace Conference in 1989 PDF Max Planck Institut fur auslandisches offentliches Recht und Volkerrecht Retrieved March 31 2018 Cambodia 20 years on from the Paris Peace Agreements OHCHR October 21 2011 Retrieved March 31 2018 Joseph Stalin dies Mar 05 1953 HISTORY com HISTORY com Retrieved April 24 2017 Clines Francis X April 6 1989 Soviets After 33 Years Publish Khrushchev s Anti Stalin Speech The New York Times Retrieved February 29 2016 Harry Powell Chinese Communist Critiques of Soviet Society Encyclopedia of Anti Revisionism Retrieved March 11 2018 a b Carlyle A Thayer SECURITY ISSUES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA THE THIRD INDOCHINA WAR SCRIBD Retrieved March 31 2018 Christopher E Goscha Vietnam the Third Indochina War and the meltdown of Asian internationalism p 161 PDF UQAM Universite du Quebec a Montreal Retrieved March 31 2018 William S Turley October 17 2008 The Second Indochina War A Concise Political and Military History ISBN 9780742557451 Retrieved March 31 2018 America s Vietnam War in Indochina War in Cambodia US History Retrieved March 31 2018 a b William S Turley Jeffrey Race 1980 The Third Indochina War Foreign Policy 38 92 116 doi 10 2307 1148297 JSTOR 1148297 S2CID 158492536 Chinese Communist Party The Leaders of the CPSU are the Greatest Splitters of Our Times Modern History Sourcebook Fordham University February 4 1964 Retrieved March 11 2018 Kevin Doyle September 14 2014 Vietnam s forgotten Cambodian war BBC News BBC Retrieved March 31 2018 Ted Galen Carpenter U S Aid to Anti Communist Rebels The Reagan Doctrine and Its Pitfalls PDF Cato Institute Retrieved March 31 2018 Vietnam Thai clash continues Star News June 25 1980 Retrieved March 31 2018 The Third Indochina War Global Security Retrieved March 11 2018 Elleman Bruce A 2001 Modern Chinese Warfare 1795 1989 Routledge p 297 ISBN 978 0415214742 Le Hong Hiep June 26 2013 Vietnam s Domestic Foreign Policy Nexus Doi Moi Foreign Policy Reform and Sino Vietnamese Normalization Asian Politics amp Policy 5 3 387 406 doi 10 1111 aspp 12035 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Third Indochina War amp oldid 1153028380, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
