1st Edition

Chinese Military Strategy in the Third Indochina War The Last Maoist War

By Edward C. O'Dowd Copyright 2007
248 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

256 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This well-researched volume examines the Sino-Vietnamese hostilities of the late 1970s and 1980s, attempting to understand them as strategic, operational and tactical events. The Sino-Vietnamese War was the third Indochina war, and contemporary Southeast Asia cannot be properly understood unless we acknowledge that the Vietnamese fought three, not two, wars to establish their current role in... Read more

Introduction  1. Introduction  Background  2. The Chinese Political Work System Narrative  3. Hanoi and Beijing on the Road to War  4. The 1979 Campaign  5. The Battle of Lang Son  6. Artillery Diplomacy: Waiting for the 'Second Lesson'  Explorations  7. Crisis in Command: The Cadre System Under Stress in the Guangzhou Military Region  8. Political Work in the 1979 Campaign  9. Politics vs. Firepower: The Paradox of Maoist Tactics  Conclusion  10. Conclusion: The Legacy of an ‘Incredible, Shrinking War.’  Appendix 1: Principles of the Political Work System.  Appendix 2: Principal Duties of the Political Commissar

Biography

Edward C. O’Dowd holds the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University, Quantico.