How many soldiers did China send to help North Vietnam?

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Kim Sung
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How many soldiers did China send to help North Vietnam?

#1

Post by Kim Sung » 19 Nov 2006, 13:17

According to a Chinese military magazine 'Research on Contemporary China' (當代中國史), China sent about 320,000 troops, 179 fighters, 145 combat vessels, 1044 tanks and vehicles, 16,333 trains, 37,500 mortars, and 2,160,000 assault rifles. If we put together all these Chinese assistance in money, the total is more than 20 billion dollars (the then value).

Among 320,000 troops sent to help North Vietnam, 5,270 soldiers were killed or wounded in combats. I didn't know that China gave such a huge assistance to North Vietnam.

Where were these Chinese troops deployed?

More details on Chinese assistance to North Vietnam will be appreciated.

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Brian Ross
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#2

Post by Brian Ross » 20 Nov 2006, 00:55

Thats about 3 times greater than previously admitted levels of assistence! I remember reading newspaper reports from the early 1990s when the PRC first admitted they'd actually helped North Vietnam but they only admitted to about 100,000 over a period of about 10 years. As far as I am aware, they were primarily engaged as Engineers and railway troops - repairing bridges and railways between PRC and North Vietnam. In addition, there were also apparently large numbers of AAA troops as well, deployed along the railways, mainly.

I wonder if your list is primarily aid provided to North Vietnam - the list of aircraft, tanks, trains, etc reads like such a list. Therefore I wonder how many of those soldiers were employed in logistics duties? 16,333 trains appears to be the number of supply trains, rather than the handing over of physical trains, locomotives and all to the North.
Last edited by Brian Ross on 20 Nov 2006, 06:34, edited 1 time in total.


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Paddy
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#3

Post by Paddy » 20 Nov 2006, 01:57

Brian Ross wrote:. Therefore I wonder how many of those soldiers were employed in logistics duties? 16,333 trains appears to be the number of supply trains, rather than the handing over of physical trains, locomotives and all to the North.
This I am pretty sure because the width of track on China was smaller than standard ones used in Vietnam. I heard it was designed to be smaller so Soviet could not use Chinese track in case of invasion (?). Trains going to China from Vietnam had to be hoisted up and sit on special chasis to run on tracks on China side.

Paddy.

mars
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Re: How many soldiers did China send to help North Vietnam?

#4

Post by mars » 20 Nov 2006, 04:16

Kim Sung wrote:According to a Chinese military magazine 'Research on Contemporary China' (當代中國史), China sent about 320,000 troops, 179 fighters, 145 combat vessels, 1044 tanks and vehicles, 16,333 trains, 37,500 mortars, and 2,160,000 assault rifles. If we put together all these Chinese assistance in money, the total is more than 20 billion dollars (the then value).

Among 320,000 troops sent to help North Vietnam, 5,270 soldiers were killed or wounded in combats. I didn't know that China gave such a huge assistance to North Vietnam.

Where were these Chinese troops deployed?

More details on Chinese assistance to North Vietnam will be appreciated.
King, in Vietnam war, we chinese used a rotation system simliar with that used by American, and most of chinese troops sent to north vietname were either AAA or engineer troops, there were NO chinese ground troops committed into ground battles in south, and those chinese combat casualites were caused by us bombing and mine, otherwise how could you explain chinese suffered such a low casualites rate ? (5000+ out of 320,000 in a nearly 10 years time period ?

Jarkko Hietala
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Re: How many soldiers did China send to help North Vietnam?

#5

Post by Jarkko Hietala » 20 Nov 2006, 17:41

mars wrote:King, in Vietnam war, we chinese used a rotation system simliar with that used by American, and most of chinese troops sent to north vietname were either AAA or engineer troops, there were NO chinese ground troops committed into ground battles in south, and those chinese combat casualites were caused by us bombing and mine, otherwise how could you explain chinese suffered such a low casualites rate ? (5000+ out of 320,000 in a nearly 10 years time period ?
Pretty good points if troops are rotated yearly then there would have been on average 32 000 Chinese troops in North Vietnam constantly from these 320 000 Chinese troops that had tour of duty in North Vietnam. If rotation period is two years then there would have been 64 000 Chinese troops at North Vietnam on average.

Also 5000 (about 1100 dead 4200 wounded) Chinese casualties on the period of 10 years don’t seem that high. If you compare it to USA casualties from Iraq witch are 2875 dead and 20887 wounded on Iraq in period of 3 years or USA casualties from Vietnam dead: 58,209 wounded: 153,303 at period of full vietnam war.

My source on casualties http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... alties.htm

If Chinese would have used this massive 320 000 men troops in combat surely their casualties would have been a lot higher something like 30-50% of troops would be realistic instead of 1,6% casualty rate 5000 from 320 000 men.

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