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CHINA �. AND THE VIETNAM WARS 1950-1975 THE NEW COLDW AR HISTORY JohLne wGiasd deidsi,t or CHINA AND THE VIE'l'NIIM WARS 195D-1975 OiangZhai The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hil1 and London ©2000 PortoifCo hnasp 1t2,e6, ra, sn 7da ppeared ThUen iveorfNs oirCttayhr oPlriensas earilsnioe mre, wdhiafftefo rremn,t Alrli grhetsse rved respecitnQi ivaZenhlga y"i,T, r ansplanting Manufacitntu hree d thCeh inMeosdeeC lh:i nMeisleiA tdavriys ers UniStteadot fAe mse rica antdh Fei Vrisett nWaamr1 ,9 50-1954;' SeitnM iniaonCndi ttyyp es Journal ofM ilitary History 57 (Oct1o9b9e3r) byK eysTtyopnees eItntci.n g, (reprbiypn etremdi s"sCihoiannn)tad;h e Thpea pientr h biosom ke etthsge u ideliGneenseC voan feorf1e 9n5cC4hei;n a 'Qu arterly, fopre rmanaendnduc rea boiftl hiet y no1.2( 9M ar1c9h9( 2r)e prbiypn etremdi s CommiotntP ereo duGcut.iiodnfe olri nseisoo Ofnx foUrndi vePrrsei"stBsye) i;aj nidn g BooLko ngeovfti htey thVei etnCaomn f1l9i6c4t-,N1 e9w6 5: CounocnLi ilb rRaersyo urces. ChinEevsied eCnoldc Wear;' In ternational History Project Bulletin, no5sa .n 6d( Winter LibroafCr oyn gress 19-9956()r eprbiypn etremdi sasnido n); Cataloging-Diant-aP ublic"aOtpipoonNs eignogt iCahtiianonatnd hs e: ZhaQii,a ng. VietnPaemaT cael1 k9s-61,59 6P8aci,fic" Chlannatd hV eie tnwaamr1 s9,5 0-/1 97H5is torical Review 68n,o1 .( Febr1u9a9r9y) QiangZhai. (©1 9b9y9A meriHciasnt oArsiscoacli ation, pc.m -.( Thneec wo wladhr i story)P acCiofiacBs rta nrcehp;r biynp teerdm is Inclbuidbelsi ogrreafpehraiencindanc lde essx i.oo ftn h Uen iveorfCs ailtiyfoP rrneisas ISBN 08-078-(2a5pl3ak2p.- e-8r ). Journals). ISBN 08-078-(4p8b4:ak2 l.-pk5a. p er) 1C.h ina-Froerleai-Vtgiineo tnnsam (DemocRreaptuib2Vcl.i i ect)n am (DemocRreaptuibcl ic)r-eFloarteiiognns Chi3nC.ah .i na-Froerleaitgino ns-1949- 1974V6.i. e tnacmoensfl1ei9 c-61t19,7 5. 1T.i t1l1Se.e. r ies. DS777.280.0z03 88 959.704-dc2C1I P 040 30 20 10 0 5 4 3 2 1 FoZrh Sahiu atnaJdoiX ni ngzao CONTENTS Foreword, ix Acknowledgments, xi Abbreviations, xiii Introduction, 1 Chapter Recognition and Assistance, 1950-1953, 1. 10 Chapter 2. From Dien Bien Phu to Geneva, 1953-1954, 43 Chapter 3. Consolidation and Unification, 1954-1961, 65 Chapter 4. The Geneva Conference on Laos, 1961-1962, 92 Chapter 5. Deeper Entanglement, 1961-1964, 112 Chapter 6. ConfrontingU .S. Escalation, 1964-1965, 130 Chapter 7. Vietnam Peace Talks, 1965-1968, 157 Chapter 8. From Tet to Cambodia, 1968-1970, 176 Chapter 9. Sino-U.S. Rapprochement and Vietnam, 1970-1975, 193 Conclusion: The Duality of China's Policy, 217 Notes, 223 Bibliography, 267 Index, 295 MAPSI,L LUSTRAT&I TOANBSL,E S MAPS Indochina, 2 North Vietnam in 1950, 27 ILLUSTRATIONS Luo Guibo, 14 Luo Guibo poses with Vietnamese Communist leaders, 17 Luo Guibo and his wife, Li Hanzhen, with Ho Chi Minh and other Vietnamese Communist officials, 18 Vo Nguyen Giap greets Luo Guibo, 30 Luo Guibo inspects a Vietnamese factory, 39 Luo Guibo poses with Vietnamese factory workers, 40 Luo Guibo and other Chinese advisers in Vietnam, 41 Prince Norodom Sihanouk accompanies Premier Zhou Enlai during his visit to Cambodia, 67 Mao and Ho Chi Minh at Beijing airport, 71 Mao hosts a banquet in honor of Ho Chi Minh during Ho's visit to China, 72 Zhou Enlai and Ho Chi Minh at Beijing airport, 90 The Chinese delegation at the Geneva Conference on Laos, 101 Chen Yi meets with Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma and Prince Souphanouvong, 102 Mao meets with Nguyen Thi Binh, 118 Mao greets Le Duan, 127 Zhou Enlai greets Sihanouk at Beijing airport, 188 TABLE Table 1. China's Military Aid to the DRY, 1964-1975, 136 FOREWORD Qiang Zhai's China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950-1975 is a remarkable contribu tion to Cold War international history generally, and to the international history of the Vietnam War in particular. Historians have long speculated about the relationship between the People's Republic of China and the Demo cratic Republic of Vietnam during the quarter century of conflict in Indochina that extended from 1950 to 1975. It is only with the publication of this book that we are in a position to know. In an admirably thorough and dearly written account, Qiang Zhai has used an impressive array of recently release,d Chinese archival sources, memoirs, diaries, and documentary collections to tell the story of China's support for the Vietnamese Communists in their struggle, first against the French, later against the Americans. Several striking findings emerge from his research: That Mao Zedong viewed the Vietnamese national liberation movement in both ideological and geopolitical terms. It deserved strong support as part of his larger strategy of creating an anti-imperial world order, but at the same time he was unwilling to separate that cause from China's interest in balancing the Soviet Union and the United States against one another. This is, then, a revealing study of how, in Mao's mind, revolutionary zeal intersected with Realpolitik. That Chinese military assistance was critical to the Viet Minh in their war against the French prior to the Geneva settlement of 1954. The extent of this assistance was all the more surprising given China's simultaneous involvement in the Korean War. That the Russians and the Chinese did, as we have long suspected, force the Viet Minh to accept the 1954 division of the country but that the Chinese later regretted this, a sentiment that contributed both to the Sino-Soviet split and to Beijing's support for the North Vietnamese escalation of the war against South Vietnam and the Americans in the early 1960s. That the Chinese sent some 320,000 support troops to North Vietnam