Questions on Deng/VietNam-Cambodge/(F)SU-Afganistan

[Buulong Nguyen <buulong@dutmpw1.tudelft.nl>]

Hi friends, 

When deng XiaoPing died (sorry if I write his name wrongly), a Dutch 
journalist wrote in his article in the NRC Handelblad,a serious newspaper 
in the Netherlands, the following (freely translated from Dutch):

"... Militarily was the Chinese invasion against Vietnam in 1979 a 
failure. Now it appeared to be, on second thoughts, a good foresight. It 
made the way free for cooperation with the West in order to hold up the 
soviet neo-expansionism  by isolating Vietnam and the (former) Soviet 
Union. This well-thought-out policy had led to the forced withdrawal of 
the Vietnamese troop from Kampuchea and the Red Army from Afghanistan 
later ..."

Occasionally I have seen almost the same views in an article published in 
Singapore and forwarded to this VNSA-L some days ago.

So I wonder if it is true.

Until now I had a naive idea that the Chinese 1979 invasion was a furious 
reaction on what happened in Cambodia, because of the aliance between 
China and the Polpot's regime. That idea came maybe from the propagande 
at Vietnamese school that time (I was an eighth-class schoolboy). Maybe 
it came Deng's words about "giving Vietnam a lesson".

As I remember, the Red Army entered Afghanistan in April 1979 as 
school-children we have to learn a song, which sounds: "Cu`ng ca^'t cao 
tie^'ng ha't mu+`ng ca'ch ma.ng tha'ng Tu+, cu`ng ca^'t cao tie^'ng ha't 
mu+`ng ne^`n da^n chu? co^.ng hoa`...")

I can imagine that the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan had something to do 
with the Soviet expansionism under Brejeniev. But has Deng invaded 
Vietnam just to promote cooperation with the West in order to resist the 
Soviets?

I am struggling with another question: did Hanoi's invasion in Cambodia 
fit in with Soviet geopolitical ambitions? To my naive political consent, 
the invasion was a matter of necessity. I still remember how innocent 
habitants of the south-western border provinces, including children, have 
been murdered in the most horrible way. I still remember the animal 
misbehaviour of Polpot's soldiers with Vietnamese women and young girls. 
And who can forget that a lot of young Vietnamese people (li'nh nghi~a 
vu. quan su) has been killed during the border war 1976-1979?

I discuss quite often about Vietnamese history and politics with 
foreigners (some of them are active in journalistics and politics). 
During such talks, when it goes on the Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 
1979, I'm still trying to defend Vietnam. It is not because of some kind 
of blind nationalism, but because I really believe Vietnam didn't have 
another choice under the then circumtances.

Yes. I did heard about the ambition of then Vietnamese leaders to create 
something like "Union of Indochina" joining Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. I 
have no doubt abou the soviet ambitious expansionism. And, I often asked 
myself whether the Vietnamese army had to stay so long in Cambodia to be 
"sa la^`y" over there.

So, for wich reason had the Vietnamese leaders invaded Cambodia 1). Just 
to follow the order from theirSoviet "quantha^`y", or 2).To end the 
genocide in Cambodia and, meanwhile, to move the war from the 
Vietnam-Cambodia borders to the Cambodia-Thailand ones (less civilian 
loss)?, or on both reasons?

Did Deng invade Vietnam just to prevent farther sovietization of Aia and 
to ensure "a stable and peaceful atmosphere for economical development 
in South-East Asia"?

Can you, friends, give me more background information or your 
consideration on the three invasions (VN-Cambodia, China-VN, and 
SU-Afghanistan)? What do you think about the "well-thought-out" policy of 
Deng?

Thanks in advance!

Buu-Long.

PS.1/. There was a forwarded article on this list last week about the 
motivation of Deng to invade Vietnam. As I remember, the author wrote 
that one of the main reason was Deng's need in strengthening his 
position as new China leader. Unfortunately I was failed to save that 
article. I would appreciate it very much if someone of you could forward 
it to me. Thanks!

2/. My apologies to the Admin if the subjects I highlighted here fall 
under the taboo ones.