Chinese Hoang Sa invasion and North Vietnamese reaction in 1974

Mathieu Bouquet mathbouq at mathbouq.com

Tue Mar 27 05:29:48 PDT 2007

Dear list members,

I am currently writing my master thesis about the lingering oriental Sea

dispute between mainland China and Vietnam.

About the dispute build-up, I wonder if there was any official or

non-official (i.e.: North Vietnamese newspapers articles) reaction from

Hanoi after the january 1974 Chinese attack against the South Vietnamese

troops in the Hoang Sa archipelago. I have seen no mention about such a

reaction until now, although many publications stress that this Chinese

operation was not approved (and maybe be much resented) in Hanoi, but

none of them give any "proof" of their assessment.

Thanks in advance for your help

Mathieu

Balazs Szalontai aoverl at yahoo.co.uk

Tue Mar 27 06:05:37 PDT 2007

Dear Mathieu,

during my research in the Hungarian archives, I found a report written by the Hungarian embassy in Hanoi (date: 17 November 1975) that noted the North Vietnamese leadership's intense dissatisfaction with the Chinese occupation of the islands. As a North Vietnamese cadre put it, the islands "constitute an inalienable part of Vietnam, and they will never renounce their claim for the oil-rich islands that are of strategic importance." In September 1975, Le Duan visited China and raised the issue of the islands, but the Chinese were, predictably, unwilling to return them to Vietnam.

Best regards,

Sidel, Mark mark-sidel at uiowa.edu

Tue Mar 27 06:55:10 PDT 2007

Ramses Amer at Uppsala, http://www.pcr.uu.se/personal/anstallda/amer_ramses.htm might well have more information on this too....

Mark Sidel