ABSTRACT
China, Vietnam, and North Korea faced similar challenges and made their own choices during the worldwide communist crisis. When Vietnam and China underwent revolutionary reforms and transformations, Kim Il-sung's North Korea greeted the emerging political reality in the socialist and communist world with typical disdain. China's invasion of Vietnam in 1979 and several major attacks along the Sino-Vietnamese borders in 1981 and 1984 also expressed Beijing's concerns on other issues such as Vietnam's expelling some 200,000 Chinese-Vietnamese refugees into China and challenging China's claims of the South China Sea Islands. The Russian military intelligence increased their reconnaissance planes and ships in the South China Sea and along the Vietnamese coast after China's invasion. On February 24, two Russian transport planes landed at Hanoi and unloaded some military equipment. Most countries maintained a neutral position during the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979.
