Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: zrra07@crx34.UUCP (Randall R. Appleton)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Chinese Army and the Vietnam conflict of 1979
Message-ID: <1990Aug6.031148.2110@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 6 Aug 90 03:11:48 GMT
References: <1990Jul27.015503.21955@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul31.223503.6119@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Amoco Production Company, Tulsa Research Center
Lines: 35
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: zrra07@crx34.UUCP (Randall R. Appleton)
In article <1990Jul31.223503.6119@cbnews.att.com> eos!woody@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Wayne Wood) writes:

>In article <1990Jul27.015503.21955@cbnews.att.com> anthony@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au (Anthony Lee) writes:

>>In 1979 China was involved in a major conflict with Vietnam.  The 
>>Chinese Army made a very small penetration into Vietnam but suffered
>>many casualties.  Many experts pointed out that the Chinese Army was
>>then poorly organised and also poorly armed.  In many ways this was the
>>the current political situation ?  Is the Chinese Army actually capable
>>of defending China in a conventional war, considering her poor preformance
>
>first, consider logistical problems.  the invading force not only has to fight
>and secure territory but it must also provide it's own logistical needs...
>possibly transporting the needed supplies/replacements through hostile 
>territory.  witness napoleon and hitler. 

Ahhh, no.

The Chinese didn't get very far at all in their invasion.  In other words, 
the never got vary far from their supply.

The Americans in Vietnam seemed to have all the supply they needed.  If in 
fact there were supply problems (and I'm sure their were) the problems
were of an organbizational and not a transaportation nature (that's an
opinion, not a statement of fact.)

In any case, the problems with the Chinese army were not supply.  Unlike 
Hitler or Napolean, they did not go literally thousands of miles across
an empty plain into the Russian winter.  In fact, they didn't get anywhere
at all!

Randy