| This dissertation seeks to explain the cause of the escalating conflict and subsequent termination of the Sino-Vietnamese alliance in 1978. Looking at the period from 1964-79, this dissertation contends that an increase in Sino-Soviet conflict was critical in causing an increase in Soviet-Vietnamese cooperation. These developments then caused an escalation of Sino-Vietnamese conflict. It is also argued that an alternative explanation, that locates the cause of the Sino-Vietnamese conflict in a specifically bilateral issue, namely, Vietnam's attempt to establish a sphere of influence over its neighbors, Cambodia and Laos, is less satisfactory as an explanation of Sino-Vietnamese conflict. |
