Question

How come a small country like Vietnam was able to defeat the Chinese Army during the Sino-Vietnam war?

The Sino-Vietnamese War was a border war fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's actions against the Khmer Rouge in 1978, which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars.

Answer 1

Because VietNam wanted to cut all balls of Mr Anonymous.

Answer 2

Two reasons - limited goal and lack of experience/more peacetime and a 3rd possibly?

Firstly, China never intended for its attack of Vietnam to be a full time war and invasion. And China withdrew, so technically they were not defeated. The Chinese wanted to punish Vietnam for it’s attack on the Khmer Rouge, a Chinese ally, and by extension lack of gratefulness for Chinese assistance during the Vietnam War. So China getting pushed back to its borders was not a defeat in itself. But the 2nd part, even given the limited goals of the war, why did China’s PLA nonetheless perform so badly.

Secondly, China since 1949 had largely been at peace whereas when China attacked in 1979, Vietnam had been at full scale war with the most powerful military in the world for over a decade. The Vietnamese unlike the Chinese were battle trained, battle hardened, much more experienced at waging war and both more knowledgeable about tactics and strategies - which ones worked and didn't and which were better or more applicable for certain situations.

Thus while the Chinese PLA was much bigger they were essentially newbies vs battle toughened, battle hardened and proud experienced warriors. Numbers mean nothing if your opponent has that much experience at fighting the most powerful military in the world. Modern communications systems were lacking and nor did they have pre-modern humans based communications systems that were tried and tested and well developed like the Vietnamese. Basic skills like shooting at a stationary target and map reading were lacking among many soldiers and the deficiencies of the PLA’s military soldiers and equipment was large.

For example, the tanks had very bad suspension so soldiers who were tank members are using it as an armoured personnel carrier were tied to the top with ropes to prevent them from falling off. Combine that with bad shooting skills (since of course shooting targets while moving is even harder) when the Vietnamese shot at them they were literally sitting ducks. Additionally they mostly relied on animals and humans to pull their supplies.

This meant their mobility was low and slow so Vietnamese could easily harass them, track them and attack the supply chains and soldiers at an easy pace. The geographic advantage meant that Vietnamese could also force the Chinese into valleys where they would either rain bullets on them or release dam waters on them knowing how slow a retreat would be.

This war was one in which it was: Vietnam (quality) vs China (quantity). And given the limited nature of the war, China could only use a limited quantity before deciding that the sheer amount of lives that needed to be lost/weapons used - perhaps to reach Hanoi - wasn't worth it. So far from China crushing the Vietnamese while they did inflict damage on Vietnam it would be a stretch to call it a victory for either China or Vietnam.

It was more like China did inflict a decent amount of damage but it took them far longer and they needed to use far more soldiers/weapons than they anticipated. It’s likely what they thought was a relatively easy and quick lesson turned into a mid-paced and long fought slog.

The 3rd possibility

The 3rd possible reason that is floated but not fully verified is Deng Xiaoping knew that the PLA was backwards, not prepared for war and unable to fight any conflict well against a neighbour like Vietnam and definitely not against larger potential enemies like the Soviet Union or the US. The PLA had many conservative generals who either felt the PLA was good enough or they had the ultimate deterrent now - nuclear weapons - so it’s all ok.

So to force the conservatives out and usher in much needed reforms and upgrades to the PLA Deng attacked Vietnam. A limited war was seen as low risk way of displaying how incompetent and deficient the PLA was at waging war and would allow Deng to push through his reform programme.

Answer 3

The reason why China attacked Vietnam was because several months earlier Vietnam signed a friendship accord with the USSR which included a provision that the latter would aid Vietnam if attacked by China.

With that accord in hand, Vietnam started to shift the border stones towards China.

China attacked Vietnam with her third rate soldiers and assigned the first and second rate soldiers in the North to anticipate the invasion from USSR.

The USSR reneged on the accord and didn't interfere.

China's third rate soldiers beat the hell out of the Vietnamese and retreated unhindered after teaching Vietnam that she was all alone.

Answer 4

Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime - BBC News - BBC.com

Aug 4, 2014 - In the four years that the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century. The brutal ...

While the BBC whitewashes the monstrousness and evil of the Khmer Rouge, to the shame of both, China and America both did provide support to that vile group.

Note, for me it is personal. A good part of my Military service in Vietnam was near the Cambodian Border and my Vietnamese wife of 46 years is from that border region. We have relatives that still live down there.

Answer 5

It’s reasonable to call that a win for Vietnam, despite that our Chinese Quoran would argue the otherwise.

You can’t use the “small country” in area to consider Vietnam Army is weak at the time. In contrast to that, Vietnam Army readiness and skills are high at the time. The ratio regular and reserved troops, militia / population of Vietnam is far higher than China and most of countries on earth.

You could look at nowaday Israel arm forces for the visual comparison.

And Vietnam just ended an long term war to the most advanced arm forces on Earth, US armed forces and can still manage to be survived.

Answer 6

Let’s review the basic facts here…

Territorial Changes:

Minor loss of Vietnamese territory to China along the Sino-Vietnamese border in Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn Provinces, namely Nam Quan Gate and half of Bản Giốc Falls.

Major engagements:

Battle of Lạng Sơn (1979) - Wikipedia

Battle of Đồng Đăng (1979) - Wikipedia

Battle of Lào Cai - Wikipedia

Battle of Cao Bằng (1979) - Wikipedia

In all 5 engagements, PLA forces took the territory they wanted to take. Some of it was given back when the PLA withdrew after ending the war. The Vietnamese did not manage to retake any town or city by force of arms.

Casualties:

Vietnamese:

To this day, the Vietnamese govt has never published official casualty figures for the war. Estimates range from the low end at 20,000 to the high end at 70,000, if only counting military KIA.

What’s not in dispute is that the Chinese captured 1,636 POWs who were returned at the end of the war.

Chinese:

Like Vietnam, China has never published official casualty figures. The 6,954 KIA figure often cited as “Chinese propaganda” was a leak from an internal PLA document .

What isn’t disputed again is that the Vietnamese captured 238 POWs.

Strategic goals:

China’s main goal, stated before the war even began, was to rescue the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Obviously, it failed in this goal. The Vietnamese govt wisely chose to continue their campaign in Cambodia knowing that they could hold both fronts long enough to finish their work in Cambodia.

So… just like the American war in Vietnam, a strategic defeat, but a tactical victory for China. It’s one of those wars where you win all the battles but still lose the war.

That being said, the war did reveal a number of tactical weaknesses in the PLA. Everything from the basic infantry rifle to the light tanks that were used were found wanting.

PLA Type 56 SKS, a licensed copy of the Soviet Simonov SKS, a 10-round semiautomatic rifle. Very much WWII era tech. This was the basic infantry rifle of the PLA. The AK-47 was never adopted for line infantry use due to perceived issues with accuracy.

Also a PLA Type 56, confusingly enough. These Chinese versions of the AK-47 were provided to the NVA in huge numbers during the US-Vietnam war. During the Sino-Vietnam war, there were more Chinese Type 56s being used against China than by China.

PLA Type 62 Light tank: Hundreds were deployed in the war. It was the most common PLA AFV used. Despite looking very similar to the ubiquitous Type 59 (T-54 licensed copy) MBT, these light tanks had only a fraction of the armor and a smaller gun. They proved quite inadequate in the war due to how vulnerable they were to even the humble RPG-7 (most of which were also made in China).

Following the war, the PLA retired the old SKS and started phasing out its light tanks. There was also a renewed drive to modernize the PLA both technically and tactically.