ABSTRACT
Friendship Pass, a narrow gap between low hills and karst outcroppings, is a route frequently used by Chinese armies seeking to invade Vietnam. When PLA tanks rolled south through the pass in February 1979 toward Lang Son, the small city about eighteen kilometers south of the border that is the first significant town on the road, they followed a route the Sung, Yuan, Ming, and the Qing armies all had used. In each invasion in the past, the Chinese had encountered defeat or, at best, a costly victory. History was about to repeat itself (Map 9).
