Why did the Cambodia-Vietnamese War last for over 10 years,
while the Chinese-Vietnamese War last only for one month?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian-Vietnamese_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese-Vietnamese_War

One was a guerilla type warfare, the other a full frontal invasion?

The People's Republic of Kampuchea was militarily weak so VietNam have to stay for ages to fight the Khmer Rouge bastards.

I have several questions about these two wars.

Why did Vietnam go all the way to the capital of Cambodia, Pnom Penh, while China did not go all the way to the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi?

Were there some kind of strategy that the leaders of involved parties used?

i just hope this doesnt turn into a flame bait.

My intentions of starting this thread is to learn from the inputs of members in here.

Hopefully, this thread will not be locked due to the sensitivity of some members in here.

The Chinese want "to teach VietNam a lesson"

VietNamese army toppled the KR because they keep raiding villages across in Viet territory in 1977-78.

i knoe u dont have bad intentions, yes hopefully trolls will pick a cliff, for themselves to jump.

VietNam-China War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietname...sion_of_Vietnam

i think i told u abit how it started. i cant be bothered to right the whole thing again:

this wht i told Happy_Asian:

my dad meant a vietnamese officer during the khmer rhouge ousting who speak khmer, he told my dad tht vietnam didnt even wonna invade cambodia, but some rengade KR(heang samrin, hun sen ask them for help), and due to KR incursions, eventually staying in cambodia to long tht guy left the military, fled to thailand. yer tht invasion almost cost viet an economy no doubt to tht.

conclusion:

the funny thing is whn my dad crossed over to refugee camp,my dad was working in thailand at the refugee camp bulidng things ,a palm leaf struck his left eye, and they needed an interpreter, this same guy, interpreted for my dad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian-Vietnamese_War

Why 10 years? Well you can ask US the same question why they are still in Iraq and will probably stay for more years to come. It's to rebuild the country after a war and to prevent the return of power of the Khmer Rouge.

Vietnam set up the PRK with Heng Samrin right from the beginning but he didn't have enough force right away to defend against the Khmer Rouge, so Vietnamese troops had to stay while he built up his forces to be able to defend them.

This is pretty much similar to what the US is doing by hoping to stay in Iraq long enough so the Iraqi forces have enough time to be built up to defend against Iraqi insurgents.

While Vietnam did leave after 10 years, it was unclear if the PRK had enough power to prevent the Khmer Rouge from coming back and luckily they did.

You might say: "Why not let UN troops stay from the very beginning to fight off Khmer Rouge"?

Well UN troops usually don't take sides in a conflict, they just do peace keeping and even if they did take a side, they probably would be on the side of the Khmer Rouge, since the Khmer Rouge was still the reprsentatives of Cambodia in the UN during the 1980s, so I believe if Vietnamese troops didn't stay and build up the PRK while fighting off the Khmer Rouge, they would have returned with the help of the UN.

An occupation of a country takes years, while an invasion for cause of destruction like the Chinese were trying to do in the 1979 incursion lasted only weeks.

I do not fear Cambodian but I do fear the Chinese. Come on, there's like over a billion of them. It's like 100 Chinese attacking 1 Vietnamese--rewind Vietnamese history over again. Even though many Vietnamese have Chinese blood in them (and we know the reason), I prefer Cambodia to be our friend.

^I don't agree with your reasoning for fearing China. Numbers alone should not be enough to fear a country.

I'm more afraid of corruption and promotion of lack of education for the leaders in the Vietnamese military(which will hamper Vietnam's fighting abilities) then I am with the population of China.

1 Soldier who receives adaquate training and equipment is better off than 20 fat,lazy, uneducated and corrupted soldiers who squandered all their money on cars.

it is really not advantageous for china to attack vietnam again. i mean both militarily and economically speaking. vietnam is too densely populated to let an occupying force stay happy for too long.

com'on, this is just one of the minor excuses to invade cambodia. vietnam was an ally of the soviet union and cambodia was an ally of china, vietnam was afraid of the growing threat of another chinese front growing on her southern border(cambodia) and did not want to be surrounded by an enemie so cambodia had to be invaded.

Wrong, it was the Khmer Rouge who invaded Vietnam first that's why Vietnam retaliated.

there was alot of border clashes during those days.

Yeah but these were no ordinary border clashes. Khmer Rouge would try to commit genocide, and would go into Vietnamese villages near the border and kill every civilian they could. I believe on Phu Quoc Island they took 500 villagers hostages and killed them before they ran back to Cambodia.

What's the point of killing and running away if it was just a border clash? It was more like an attempt at genocide, which Vietnam justifibly responded by finally defending itself (Of course Vietnamese didn't take revenge and killed every Cambodian civilian they could find).

Normal border clashes usually just involve troops killing other troops, the civilians are not intentionally targetted for killing.

I've noticed vietnamese people on AF likes to talk about us cambodians whether its good or bad. What's with this topic socal? Didn't you said this about my people that we are the last thing on your mind. I could of sworn you said that on my ''Why Do Viets On AF...'' thread that was closed. If you ask me I think you are a hypacrit.

Bro, this is not about cambodians as a whole, this is about during KR era, and wht the KR did.

i watched year zero last nite......thats some freaky shlt

Bryon u knoe wht the KR ideolgogy was like regarding vietnam, it should answer for the most part of the border clashes, and for civilian deaths yes i agree something like tht should never happen. Of course the vietnamese army didnt take revenge, most of THE BLOKES(vietnamese troops) MY DAD TALKED TO DIDNT WANT TO BE THERE THE FIRST PLACE.

The Khmer Rouge made it clear that each of the 2 millions of them would slaughter 30 Vietnamese then the "Vietnamese Final Solution" would be achieved.

ethnic vietnamese in my dad hometown of Takeo, the people my dad knoe where killed by KR, man for wht reason, theyed lived in cambodia for generations they didnt deserve it, all my dad knoe was tht the ones tht KR took away tht nite was nice people.

Yeah that's true, most of the troops were just criminals who would be pardoned if they served or people who planned to run to Thailand while in Cambodia to escape Communism.

I doubt most of them even knew why they were in Cambodia.

I have nothing against Cambodian people. Believe it or not is up to you.

Don't be so paranoid.

yer my dad meet such an officer who did just tht.

paranoid about what?

everything relating to cambodia alerts you as hell, for some odd reason.

same thing can be said about byron but you dont see me calling him paranoid. Especially when this is the internet and believe me i dont have ''online feelings''

you even made a whole thread about it.

im paranoid about..............my food getting cold...........i better eat quicker........mmm......

that's not call paranoia VP.