1979 Self-defense Counterattack Against Vietnam(2)
During his stay in the US, mentioning serval times to president Carter, Deng was trying to discuss the Vietnam issue, disclosing to president that a military attack against Vietnam is a must.
President Carter had remained silent in response to Deng’s suggestion. By principle, Carter disagreed Deng’s strike first to gain overwhelm, particularly the military action concerns the Sovereignty of a state, a big country towards a small one.
Deng said: "We cannot permit Vietnam to play Wildman." President Carter's attempt to dissuade the Chinese leader from such a course of action was unsuccessful. Deng offered no assurance that there would not be a Chinese invasion of Vietnam.
As a president loving peace, Carter had never initiated a war, which looks uncommon compared to all the previous presidents’ tenure. Labeled by “enduring”, his foreign policy approached president Roosevelt’s concept, but seemed a bit out of sync with America’s world police thinking after World War II when expansionism prevalent.
The first president visiting Cuba, Mr. Carter, after stepping down from presidency, was also the first president who first even passed the 38th parallel (San-Ba Line) in 1994 and stayed in Pyongyang for three days.
Deng Xiaoping came to power again by the end of July,1977 while president Carter’s tenure started in January 1977. Judging by Carter’s experience and ideas, it was distinct that Carter would deem what Deng Xiao Ping wanted, initiating a war that is a big communist country towards a small communist one, based on tactical evaluations, was like making a mountain out of a molehill. Vietnam had not invaded China’s territory de facto or made a large personal and property damage at that time. Supposedly it would be hard for President Carter to understand what is in Deng Xiaoping’s mind because any surmising of the consequences of Soviet-Vietnam cooperation looks like a game in the computer with no substantive meaning. The key point in fact lies in the big gap between Deng’s thinking and Carter’s peace concept. Therefore, President Carter had shown no interest in Deng’s suggestion to resolve the conflict between Vietnam-Cambodia by war, and even opposed it.
In his explanation to President Carter, Deng Xiao ping describes Vietnam’s consolidation of its Indian-china forces supported by the Soviet Union as a key step of the USSR’s strategic deployment in the world scope. The USSR has gathered a number of forces around East Europe and the borders of China. Now, Deng Xiaoping Ping warned, the USSR is building up military bases in Indo-China，Africa，and the Middle East.
Although Carter was paying more attention to what is happening in realty, he, meaning while, thought much of his Assistant to National Security Affairs Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski’s opinion of the possible strategic impact that Vietnam shall have occupied Cambodia, which coincides with Deng Xiao ping’s assumption.
In his tenure, President Carter did not pay a visit to China, the only one American president that in his tenure had not visited China. Because China’s Political arena had been metamorphosing with wired waves and clouds, which made Carter’s understanding of China hard: who is leading China? But for Carter, the most worrying thing was that Deng Xiao Ping would take advantage of his visit to China to make a statement that the president got involved in the war against Vietnam and it was the US and China that together plotted the war.
Feb 17,1979, the war named Self-defense Counterattack Against Vietnam did initiate!
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