ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the history of Vietnamese and Chinese relations from Vietnam’s beginnings to the tenth century a.d. It looks at their relationship to the period of French colonization of Vietnam. The chapter considers Vietnam’s struggle for independence from France and its growing rift with China to about 1975. The Chinese wanted to culturize and pacify the “southern barbarians” and sought the abundant riches found in Vietnam. Capitalism appeared to the Vietnamese people, and especially to the educated and politically conscious minority, as a product of foreign rule, to be abolished together with colonialism. The Vietnamese felt the pressure of international politics interfering with their war. The ending of the Vietnam War for the United States marked the beginning of yet another Indochinese war. Both Beijing and Moscow knew it was only a matter of time before Saigon and the rest of South Vietnam would fall and Vietnam would be reunited.
