Broadcast: March 31, 1979 Hanoi in aftermath of China invasion of Vietnam

From February 17 to March 16th, 1979, China staged a military incursion into Northern Vietnam. The video here is a report from Jim Laurie who visited the 'Invasion area' in late March 1979. By February 18th, Chinese forces with ground forces only (infantry, artillery, armor, no air power) had advanced eight kilometers into Vietnam along a broad front through 26 points of entry. Heavy Vietnamese resistance slowed the advance. The Vietnamese resorted to the guerilla tactics that had employed so successfully against the French and the Americans. They ceded low lying areas and mounted attacks from surrounding mountainous areas. On March 4th the Chinese capture of the provincial capital of Lang Son about 20 kilometers from the Chinese border. Shortly after Beijing declared its "lesson" to Vietnam over and began withdrawing to Guangxi province. Historians are divided on the war's outcome. Vietnam's response was to step up military preparedness. Weaknesses in China's tactical preparation and training were exposed leading to a campaign in Beijing in the following years to "modernize" the Peoples Liberation Army. Vietnam was undeterred in its continued occupation of Cambodia which continued until 1988-89 assisted by Soviet Russian assistance. Ethnic Chinese residents of Vietnam joined the flood of refugees exiting Vietnam. Anti-Chinese sentiment increased; hostility to China apparent to visitors to Vietnam in 2016.