Chinese Factor In U.S. Policy On Vietnam During 1961-1969

The United States and the Soviet Union confronted each other during the Cold War. With its global strategy, in order to curb the expansion of communism in Indochina, the United States supported the anti-communist forces, particularly the South Vietnamese regime, to prevent the north communist's expansion and protect the South Vietnamese regime. It was a crucial period for the U.S. policy on Vietnam during 1961-1969. The United States developed a different policy in Vietnam as the situation changed. During the period, China had an extremely important influence on the situation changes of South Vietnam, thus constrained the U.S. policy in Vietnam.During this period, from a geopolitical point, China and North Vietnam established deep friendship of"comrades and brothers"against the same enemy-the U.S. imperialist. Therefore, when the Vietnamese leaders asked for China's material assistance, the Chinese leaders accepted immediately. These materials effectively guaranteed the North's construction and people's anti-US struggle, so that the United States was setback in the development of South Vietnam strategy. To face the deteriorating situation in South Vietnam, the U.S. believed the "domino" effect, and decided to escalate the Vietnam War. For this, China made a strong response, in addition to strongly protesting against the United States, sending secret logistical support units to support the Vietnamese people immediately. The America government had to increase the intensity of bombing the North Vietnam, and continued to deploy additional ground troops to South Vietnam. But through the Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers fighting, the air defense operations got many victories. Therefore, the U.S. Army did not achieve the desired effect of the bombing. Meanwhile, People's Army of Vietnam sent many soldiers to South Vietnam to eliminate their same enemy with People's Liberation Armed Forces in South Vietnam. They attacked U.S. army constantly, so that the number of U.S. military casualties keeping increasing. This forced U.S. Government to start contacting with North Vietnam for peace talks in order to solve the problem at an early date. But under the Chinese Government's influence, North Vietnam Government thought that it was impossible to win by negotiation except wining on the battlefield. So they set strict conditions for negotiations. However, after the Spring Offensive in 1968, the North Vietnam's Army suffered great loses. Then the North Vietnamese leaders began to consider the peace talks seriously. The U.S. Government also announced to stop bombing the area north of latitude 20 degrees. So the North Vietnam Government agreed to send representatives immediately to negotiate with the United States. But they didn't make great progress in the negotiations, mainly because Sino-US relations did not improve. Until 1972, after Nixon's visit to China, Sino-US relations began to improve, and then China began to support the U.S. peace talks. In this case, China had been actively promoting the US-Vietnam bilateral peace talks and finally they signed the Paris Agreement.During 1961-1969, China always played a vital role in constraining the United States policy to the Vietnam, and the U.S. Government also recognized the importance of China. After the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations, the United States recognized the possibility of improving Sino-US relations, and China also realized that it was important to confront Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with the United States. So finally Sino-U.S. relations achieved the normalization during the term of President Nixon. After that, the Chinese Government actively promoted the Vietnam-America peace talks, and finally the two sides signed"Paris Agreement"which became the foundation for North Vietnam to unify the country.