Danger and Dynamism in Sino-Vietnam Relations

The recent news of Hanoi purchasing a fleet of Russian-made Kilo-class submarines to assist in a potential future stand-off between the Vietnamese Navy and the greater forces of the PLA points to the long and complicated relationship between powerful northern (i.e. Chinese) and resilient southern (i.e.) Vietnamese regimes. Sino-Vietnamese relations in the span of ten years after the death of Hồ Chí Minh, as one modern researcher wrote “deteriorated from one of ‘comradeship plus brotherhood’ to one between ‘the most direct and most dangerous enemies.’”[1] In this environment of heightened tensions the Fall of Saigon on April 29, 1975 both marked the end of the Second Indochinese War and one step closer to the Third Indochinese War, the short February 1979 border conflict between China and Vietnam.The premodern era was no less complex. In the historical example below fear of expanding regional influence for Vietnam led to aggressive behavior from China.