usa lost not only to the vietnamese, but to the chinese volunteers, all fighting colonialism in asia
Then why did the USA give up the Philippines without a skirmish...? What about Malaysia, Burma, India...?
China (in Korea) and Vietnam weren't fighting colonialism they were fighting for Marxism. In the long run Marxism lost.
but left behind an arrogant vietnam, which then decided to give the domino theory a try and invade a messed up cambodia that was left defenseless by usa
Arrogant...? For defending their territory...? Vietnam was attacked first by Cambodia...
"Even before the Vietnam War had ended, the relationship between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam was strained. Clashes between Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces began as early as 1974. The Khmer Rouge demanded that the Mekong Delta area be returned to Cambodia, and that all Vietnamese leave this area. The Vietnamese refused these demands since the Mekong Delta had been Vietnamese territory for nearly three centuries. In retaliation, thousands of Vietnamese were either executed or forced out of Cambodia, and villages along the border were attacked. This led to further escalation of the conflict and ultimately to the Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia."
Pol Pot had a vision of taking the territory seized by Vietnam in the 15th and 18th centuries from the Champa kingdom. The Vietnamese tried to negotiate but the Khmer Rouge refused.
en.wikipedia.org
"The War
The war between Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea began shortly after the fall of Saigon. On May 1, 1975, a team of Khmer Rouge soldiers raided Phu Quoc Island against little or no Vietnamese resistance, and then executed more than five hundred Vietnamese civilians on Tho Chu Island. Angered by the Khmer Rouge's aggression, Hanoi launched a counter-attack that resulted in the liberation of those islands by Vietnamese forces. The battle over Phu Quoc was a cause of concern for the newly-established Socialist Republic of Vietnam as the country was challenged by a new enemy at a time when relations with the People's Republic of China began to deteriorate due to Vietnam's ideological alignment with the Soviet Union. That concern was further strengthened by the presence of Chinese advisors to Pol Pot's regime and increasing shipments of military hardware to Kampuchea's armed forces.
Following the raids on Phu Quoc and Tho Chu Islands the Khmer Rouge conducted two major incursions into Vietnam. The first attack occurred in April 1977, when regular units of the Khmer Rouge army advanced 10km into Vietnam, occupying some parts of An Giang Province where it massacred a large number of Vietnamese civilians. The second attack was in September of the same year. This time they were able to advance 150km into Vietnam. In retaliation, six divisions of the Vietnam People's Army invaded Cambodia on December 31, 1977. The Vietnamese army advanced as far as Neak Luong and later withdrew, taking with them some key Khmer Rouge figures, including future Prime Minister Hun Sen. The invasion was intended only as a "warning" to the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese offered a diplomatic solution to the border conflict that would require the establishment of a demilitarized zone along the border, but the offer was rejected by Pol Pot and fighting resumed."
Considering their border was violated multiple times, their territory occupied, and many civilians murdered, both in Vietnam and (ethnic Vietnamese) in Cambodia, how do you think the Vietnamese should have responded to such actions...?
Especially when the Khmer Rouge indicated they were not willing to negotiate..? Also the Vietnamese invasion stopped the killing fields of Pol Pot.
china stopped the domino chain without nearly as much fuss as the usa fussed over, achieving objectives, as in mission accomplished, and lessons taught
If you mean stopping Vietnam from entering Cambodia, clearly not...the domino theory was about the spread of communism.. (whether accurate or not..) not about the spread of Soviet influence...the form of Marxism being espoused in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia was Maoist not Soviet.
We have differences of opinion that can be argued effectively I think by either side but I must say this notion of an arrogant Vietnam attacking a "mess up" (Damn straight it was.. murderers tend not to be good soldiers..) Cambodia appears to be heavily sinocentric. Given your ehtnicity and location understandable since you may have only read Chinese sources but, personally I think the Chinese version of events is way off base. Granted Vietnam made a big error by expelling many of their ethnic Chinese after the invasion by China (a friend of mine came to the US for that reason...) but the Vietnamese government has at least apologized for these actions.. and by and large the formed removal of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam was non-violent (especially compared to what happened to the ethnic Vietnamese who tried to flee in the 80s..) |
