From: v-nguyen@cis.ohio-state.edu (Viet-Anh V Nguyen)
Subject: Re: Spratly Islands
Originator: v-nguyen@retina.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 21:35:57 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.193904.20421@news.media.mit.edu> nguyen@airmics.gatech.
edu (Son Nguyen) wrote:
 
>According to U.S. News & World Report, Mar 9, 92:
>
>"So far, Chinese plans flying to the Spratlys from Hainan Province have
>been able to fly over the islands for just five to 10 minutes." That
>means they got to go back Hainan for refueling after 5-10 minutes
>fighting/bombing.  Normally, bombers don't need more time than that.
>
>Militarily, there is no match between China and Vietnam.  Here is the
>comparison:
>
>	  
>	 Active Personnel  Combat Aircraft  Battle Tank  Capital Ship
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>China      +3 millions	      5,850          7500           148
>
>Vietnam     1 millions          185          1750             7
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Besides, China is a self-supported country, i.e., they can build their
>own weapons and sell to other countries like silkworm missiles to
>Iran.  They got their own atomic bombs. Their ships are more
>modernized, equipped with radars and missiles.  Vietnam ship has
>nothing besides machine guns.


Agreed.


>Vietnam nowadays is even weaker since the fall of the Soviet Union.
>China did give Vietnam a lesson (around 1979, I believe).  That was a
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That was the seventeenth time that China had come to teach Vietnam a lesson!!!
And the real question here should be, Who gave whom a lesson? According to Time
at that time [1]:

   
     "...In any event, Teng allowed that his timetable could be off since
      'the Vietnamese are stronger' than the Indians. Indeed they are. As
      the murky war bogged down in seeming stalemate, one pressing question
      was: Who was punishing whom? ..."


And according to Neil Sheehan [2]:

     
     "...The Chinese did not get far, nor did they stay long on this occasion.
      Their regular army had not fought since another border war with India in
      1962 and did badly against the local Vietnamese troops, the Frontier
      Guards and the regional forces, taking thousands of casualties to get to
      Langson, 11 miles by road from the border. They held Langson for a mere
      four days and Dong Dang for twenty before pulling back into their own
      territory in March 1979. Vietnam's regular divisions, which had been in
      Cambodia, were moving up to counterattack, and the Chinese apparently
      thought better of the matter. As they withdrew they demolished Lang Son,
      dynamiting most of the houses, the hospital, the high school, and other
      public buildings..."


> ...
>
>The best way for VN to do right now is team up with the ASEAN countries
>and bring the issue to the U.N. and beg the U.S. for help.
>
>
>Good day,
>
>So+n Nguye^~n


Vietanh Nguyen

REFERENCES
----------
[1] "Suck Them In and Outflank Them": In China's punitive war against Viet
    Nam, who was punishing whom?, Time, March 12, 1979, pp. 34-36.

[2] Neil Sheehan, After the War Was Over, p. 44.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese