VietNamNet Bridge - From 17/2 to 16/3/1979, Beijing mobilized 600,000 troops and modern weapons to attack six northern border provinces of Vietnam. In this attack, they destroyed four towns, over 20 towns-lets, many villages, factories, mines, farms, roads, bridges, and houses. China then announced that it had achieved the purpose and began to withdraw troops from Vietnam.

A witness of the Border War 1979, Ms. Chu Ngoc Lan.

This article aims to provide additional material for readers to know more about the Border War 1979.

The town of Dong Dang, Lang Son Province is now a busy commercial center. This is the border gate between Vietnam and China. Looking at today’s scene of bustling trading activities between Vietnamese and Chinese traders, few people could think about the bloody attack of China here in 1979.

At the current location of Dong Dang Market, at the foot of the Dong Dang fort are the graves of nearly 300 civilians, a company of border guards and many local militia and policemen.

According to witnesses, the full-scale attack on Lang Son and Vietnam's northern border provinces began at around 4 am on February 17th 1979, when Vietnamese people were still asleep. Explosions woke Vietnamese up. They rushed to shelters and caves to hide bullets.

Dong Dang Town today.

At the age of 70, Ms. Chu Ngoc Lan, a resident in Nam Quan Street, Dong Dang Town never forgets the day she lost her husband and hundreds of relatives and neighbors in Dong Dang.

The day China attacked Dong Dang, she took her children to her mother’s home. Three shells hit her house; her husband died immediately. She and her two children and a few cousins shared another bunker so they escaped death. They were then taken to a safe place by militia.

Another resident of Dong Dang, Ms. Ha Thi Hien, who is now Director of the Ha Giang Private Enterprise in Lang Son City, had to witness her mother’s death. At that time Hien was 14 years old. When Chinese troops stormed in Lang Son, Hien and her family had already been in the shelter for a day.

Facing the risk of choking and being detected by Chinese troops, the whole family decided to creep up and fled. Emerging from the shelter, Hien’s father was shot by Chinese soldiers. He was wounded and fainted. After two days, he was found by militants.

Hien and her mother ran but the mother was shot and died on the spot. Hien kept running. Along the way, she saw a woman who lost both legs and asked for help.

"Throughout my life I will never forget the image of my mother when she was shot, and the eyes of that woman. She begged me for help, but I was just a child, and I was also fleeing. I could not help her," Hien recalled.

Mr. Hoang Huu Du could never forget the extreme panic when he saw "a river full of dead bodies" in his hometown, the town of That Khe, Trang Dinh district, Lang Son.

Du was 17-year-old at that time and part of a militia of the town. "In a few hours that morning, Chinese troops flooded the town," he recalled.

Du and other militias helped local people seek shelter. Chinese troops flooded Trang Dinh, shot people and arrested five others as prisoner. A few years later these people were released.

Tragic song in Dong Dang Fortress

The door to Dong Dang Fortress, where 400 people died.

Living in a small house in the mountain town of Binh Gia, Lang Son, armed forces hero Hoang Van Lien is now a silver-haired middle-aged man. He was one of two survivors in Dong Dang fortress, the grave for nearly 400 people, both civilians and soldiers.

Enlisted in 1978, Lien was assigned to the mobile police team of Lang Son province. At this time, the situation at the border was volatile, Lien and his teammates had to patrol the border very often.

In the early morning of February 17th1979, after the usual patrol, he saw shells shot from China. People tried to find shelter. He and his team tried to fight back and protect the people. Many teammates were sacrificed. Lien and three others withdrew to Dong Dang fortress, where a company of border guards were fighting, and nearly 300 people were sheltering in the trench.

His group and border guards fought fiercely. After three days, most of the soldiers were sacrificed. The rest withdrew into the fortress and shot through loopholes. The fortress had three doors, one door was filled before, and two remaining doors were seized by Chinese soldiers.

On the 4th day, Chinese troops threw explosive and gas into the trench, killing all 400 soldiers and people. Lien and a teammate took advantage of the night to leave the trend and became the last two witnesses of the tragic story of the Dong Dang fortress.

The Dong Dang fortress is still there as the evidence of a historicevent, and the common grave of nearly 400 Vietnamese people.

China’s "human waves" strategy

The number of troops and weapons that China used in the Border War 1979 has not been fixed, but according to many documents, it was the largest military mobilization of China since the Korean War.

In the morning of February 17 1979, two infantry divisions of China under the support of one regiment of tanks and six artillery regiments entered the gate of Dong Dang, Lang Son Province.

The local armed forces and local army fought fiercely and heroically sacrificed their lives. Lang Son Police was one of the tenacious forces that fought to protect every inch of land and the people. After the war, from a few hundred policemen, only six remained and all of them were bestowed the title of hero.

Colonel Trieu Quang Dien, Hero of the People's Armed Forces, recalled that moment when Chinese soldiers flooded the town. In the battle of Dong Dang, he and his comrades fought fiercely, then moved back to Mau Temple Cave, about 500m from Dong Dang fortress, to protect hundreds of people who were hiding there.

In his memoirs, the tension in the border areas persisted. Earlier, Chinese reconnaissance went to Dong Dang to incite people. Also during this time, the flow of Chinese Vietnamese leaving Vietnam to China made the border areas more strained. At that time Vietnam’s regular army was fighting in Cambodia, and under international law the regular military forces must be tens of kilometers from the border so the police, militia and local border guards were the main force to fight invaders.

When China attacked Lang Son, private Trieu Quang Dien had just finished his training course and was back in Dong Dang. He and two teammates - Vi Van Cao and Tran Van Thai – had just returned from the patrol when the Chinese artillery began shooting to Dong Dang.

The three young policemen were mobilized to the area of Mau Temple cave to protect people, and support other forces. Dien still remembered that within the first hour, most of his squad members were sacrificed. Vi Van Cao and Tran Van Thai were killed by Chinese bullets in front of him. The sea of troops and tanks of China buffeted Dong Dang and then overflew into Lang Son City.

Recalling the Vietnam-China War Border 1978-1979, Lang Son people cannot forget the story about the heroic martyr Le Dinh Chinh, the first policeman who fell in Cao Loc district.

On August 25th 1978, Chinese troops crossed the border to Vietnam to assault officers, women and local people. Le Dinh Chinh fought back with bare hands and was stabbed by a group of Chinese by ballistic knife.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thinh, a veteran in Binh Gia district, Lang Son, a former sergeant of Division 14, the first major unit approaching Lang Son City, said that for a long time, China kept provoking Vietnam. Chinese in plainclothes continuously crossed the border to Vietnam to move markers and threaten Vietnamese people. Vietnam sought to resist but could not use the armed forces and military equipment.

Thinh’s unit was ordered to support from the outside. Thinh saw by his eyes half of a mountain collapsed by Chinese explosive. In that mountain was Khon Khoang Cave, the shelter of people in the two villages nearby.

Luckily, people in the cave had been moved to another location before the explosion.

A few days after the Chinese occupied Lang Son and five other border provinces, destroyed hospitals, schools, bridges and roads ad killed thousands of civilians in Vietnam, the local self-defense forces and the regular army of Vietnam fought fiercely.

The Khanh Khe Bridge, in Cao Loc District, Lang Son is the evidence of the fierce battle between Vietnam's 377 Division and Chinese invaders. Many bloody battles took place to struggle for every inch of land at strategic locations around Lang Son.

After nearly a month, on March 16th 1979, China suddenly announced it had completed the target of attacking Vietnam and began to withdraw.

To date, the number of troops and weapons that China used in this war has yet to be transparent but according to many documents, this is the largest military mobilization of Beijing since the Korean War.

Hoang Huong