The Third Indochina War
An International History

A timely reassessment of the Third Indochina War from the perspective of the international history of the Cold War.

Cheng Guan Ang (Author)

9781009560054, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 November 2024

224 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.2 cm, 0.33 kg

'The first truly international history of the Third Indochina War. Extending from the origins of the war in the 1970s to the final end of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1990s, this book covers all aspects of the confrontation, from Southeast Asian, Chinese, and US perspectives.' Odd Arne Westad, author (with Chen Jian) of The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform

The Third Indochina War – comprised of the Vietnam-Kampuchea War from 1978 to 1990 and the brief Sino-Vietnamese War in February 1979 – has received far less scholarly attention than the earlier two Indochina Wars. Ang Cheng Guan utilises a wide range of archival and secondary material, including Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, Soviet, American, British, Australian and ASEAN sources, to provide a comprehensive new analysis of the conflict. By carefully reconstructing its chronology, Ang traces the life-cycle of the war from its origins, through the conduct of military engagements, to its eventual resolution. He focuses on multiple actors simultaneously, highlighting the inter-connected perspectives of the war's major protagonists – Vietnam, Cambodia and China. In demonstrating the roles of the USSR, the US and ASEAN in both prolonging and ending the conflict, he situates the Third Indochina War fully in its Asian, global and Cold War contexts.

Introduction
1. Vietnam–Cambodia–China relations
2. From the fall of Saigon to the invasion of Cambodia (April 1975-December 1978)
3. The Sino-Vietnamese war (February 1979)
4. Regional responses to the Vietnamese invasion
5. The long-drawn endgame
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]