ABSTRACT
The battle for the Paracels in January 1974 took many people, by surprise, not least the Western world and the South vietnamese themselves. As a Newsweek writer commented in the aftermath of the battle, the Chinese action was "clearly at odds with the flexible, pragmatic approach to foreign policy that has been the recent hallmark of Premier Chou En-Iai".(l) It was also reported that "Western diplomats in Saigon have been hard pressed to find an explanation for China's current move to assert sovereignty there (Paracels)."(2) Only days before the battle broke out, a South vietnamese progovernment pUblication, Vietnam Report, praised President Nguyen Van Thieu for his tough posture against China and saw the Chinese government's statement of 11 January 1974 as a "golden opportunity" for the South vietnamese government to gain from "the right of representation of the entire nation". (3) There was no sign of fear of military action being taken by China.
