17 Feb 1979 - 16 Mar 1979
Good Analysis from YouTube commenter...
As a Chinese I would try to answer this question as unbiased as I can. But instead of arguing who actually won the war, I would rather talk about the implications and background of this war on China’s side. Honestly this is not a glory war for China, China did invade Vietnam despite any reasons.
We all understand that the war is the extend of politics, war servers the purpose of politics. So what the purpose of this war for China is? To invade Vietnam? To punish Vietnam like what Chinese government has propagated? No, it was ironic that from the very beginning China’s primary purpose had never been Vietnam.
In my opinion China had at least 3 strategic purposes.
1. jeopardize global reputation of Soviet Union.
2. strive for supports and aids from U.S and western world.
3. And the ultimate goal was to strength Den Xiaoping’s authority in China and hence starts his plan of reforming China.
Background information: In 1979 Soviet Union is a hostile country of China; China had established full diplomatic relationship with U.S in 1/1/1979; Vietnam was a firm ally of Soviet and the relationship with China was tense; Vietnam invaded Cambodia; China has just recovered from the chaos caused by the ten years cultural revolution, Den Xiaoping took the power of CCP and he had planned to conduct a huge political and economical reform in China. And his plans desired a favourable international and domestic environment.
I am not going to talk about how close China and Vietnam were before, and I am not going to give the precise number of how much resources China had contribute to Vietnam to fight U.S. Circumstances had changed, Vietnam was no longer a friend but U.S had became one, the rest were irrelevant.
China needed an opportunity and Vietnam had just provided one. By invading Cambodia, Vietnam had gave China an excuse for the war. （Khmer Rouge is another topic）By sending the majority of Vietnamese elite troops to Cambodia and ignored the existence of China, Vietnam had just gave China a chance for the war, and Den Xiaoping seized the chance. In 17/02/1979, 200,000 Chinese troops had entered Vietnam territory along the 1,000 kilometers China-Vietnam border, the war had begun.
But I am not going to discus the details of the battles. In 05/03/1979, after taking the major cities in north Vietnam, even the route to the capital of Vietnam is flat as a pancake, Den Xiaoping had ordered his troops to retreat back to China. The war had ended, and both sides claimed a victory. Because he clearly understood the costs of continuing the war for China would be huge and exceed the benefits. Vietnam army were tough and experienced. The casualties of Chinese army in the first 2 days of the war had reached 4,000 and shocked the central military community.
This war had also revealed many serious problems of Chinese army. Soldiers were unprofessional and poorly equipt. Military tactics were obsolete and command system was a mess, even friendly fire had happened. And the military ranking system were abandoned during the cultural revolution, soldiers did not receive further orders when their direct commanders were killed in the battlefield. So this war and the later Gulf war alert China to transform and modernize its army. But on the other hand, no matter how bravely the Vietnamese army fought, China was still a giant to Vietnam. China could easily allocate a small portion of its national resources to drag Vietnam into a endless warfare. The small military conflicts and battles on the borders did not stop with the war until the 1990s. In more than 10 years time, troops from different Chinese military districts took turns entered into the conflict zone for training and weapon testing purpose, and of course to create pressure to Vietnam.
An ordinary Chinese life was hardly affected by those conflicts, Chinese were busy doing business at that time. However it was a totally different story for Vietnam, in order to counter China and prepare for Chinese next invasion which Den Xiaoping had warned. Vietnam had to maintain a large number of troops which was a huge burden for Vietnamese economy. Vietnam therefor did not have sufficient resources to develop infrastructures and improve economy. The subsequences of the war harmed Vietnam a lot more than the war itself.
Because Soviet did nothing to stop China invading Vietnam, after the war some of its allies like Egypt and Afghanistan embrace the western side which had led to the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet in 1980s. And Afghanistan had dragged Soviet into a war swamp. Soviet also provided a large number of financial aid to Vietnam each year to help Vietnam maintain its army. All of these issues helped the final collapse of the Soviet union in 1990s.
After the war China had proven it was helpful to against the Soviet. U.S, Japan and Europe started to sell weapons to China, invest in China, transfer technology to China and trade with China. The international environment was perfect for China in the 1980s. And Den Xiaoping had established dominated authority in CCP, he was ready to implement his mega plans.
I have to commit that Den Xiaoping is really a master in strategy, China had almost accomplished all major goals through the war, but at the expense of the lives of Chinese and Vietnamese people.