COMPOSITION OF THE FIRST TWO PLA COMBAT ENGINEER DIVISIONS COMMITTED BY COMMUNIST CHINA AS PART OF ITS MASSIVE 320,000-MAN PLUS VIETNAM WAR INTERVENTION


Chen Jian looks at Communist Chinese intervention in the Vietnam War, in his book Mao's China and the Cold War, Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

"From 1965 to 1969, China's aid to Vietnam took three main forms: the dispatch of Chinese engineering troops for the construction and maintenance of defense works, airfields, roads, and railways in North Vietnam; the use of Chinese antiaircraft artillery troops for the defense of important strategic areas and targets in the northern part of North Vietnam; and the supply of large amounts of military equipment and other military and civilian materials." (221)

Creation of the Chinese People's Volunteer Engineering Force (CPVEF)

17 April 1965. "The North Vietnamese General Staff cabled the Chinese General Staff requesting Chinese engineering troops be sent, to the offshore islands in the Tonkin Gulf area to take responsibility for constructing the defense system there." (221)

18 April 1965. In response to the above and following the Chinese government's lead, "The Chinese General Staff establish[ed] the Chinese People's Volunteer Engineering Force (CPVEF) which was composed of some of China's best engineering units and would carry out the tasks of building and rebuilding railways, building defense works, and constructing airfields in [Commun-ist North] Vietnam." (221-222)

"During consruction, China would also be responsible for defending its engineering units against American attack." (223)

May to June, 1965. "Following these agreements [between North Vietnam and Communist China], the CMC and PLA [Peoples Liberation Army] General Staff issued a series of orders to mobilize Chinese troops in May and June 1965. Beginning in early June 1965, seven divisions of CPVEF entered [North] Vietnam during different periods." (223)

6 June 1965. All of 12,000 men in strength, the 2nd Division of the CPVEF begins to cross the frontier into North Vietnam. The 2nd Division CPVEF was of a different size than its sister unit, the bigger, brawnier, Ist Division CPVEF, but its projected role in actively helping North Vietnam to defeat the Americans and their allies was just as important and vital to Hanoi's war effort and aims, both of which were simply this: to conquer the South, period.

"The second division of the CPVEF consisted of three engineering regiments, one hydrology brigade, one maritime transportation brigade, one communication engineering brigade, one truck transportation regiment, and a few antiaircraft artillery units with a total strength of over 12,000 men. It entered Vietnam on 6 June 1965 and was the first group of Chinese engineering troops to assume responsibilities there. Its main tasks were to construct permanent defense works and establish communication systems on fifteen offshore islands and eight coastal spots in the Tonkin Gulf area. The division was also called on to fight together with North Vietnamese troops in the event that the Americans invaded the North." (223)

23 June 1965. The Ist Division of the CPVEF begins crossing the Chinese - North Viet-namese border, and, as Chen Jian tells us, would eventually reach its peak wartime strength of 32,700 effectives while committed to action in the North Vietnamese (or DRV) territory.

"The first division of the CPVEF was composed of six regiments of China's best railway corps (another two would join after August 1968), one railway prospecting team, and around a dozen antiaircraft artillery battalions. At its peak, the total strength of the division reached 32,700. It begin arriving in Vietnam on 23 June 1965, and most of its units stayed until late 1969. Accord-ing to Chinese statistics, when the last unit left Vietnam in June 1970, the division had com-pleted 117 kilometers of new railway lines, rebuilt 362 kilometers of old lines, bilt 39 new rail bridges and 14 tunnels, and established 20 new railway stations." (223)

All together, the Communist Chinese would commit around a total of 170,000 combat engineering and support troops from their Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to aid Hanoi's war effort, and all this on North Vietnamese soil.

"But was this all?"

Nope, not at all! Because the PLA 's General Staff also committed "a total of sixteen divisions (sixty-three regiments) of Chinese antiaircraft artillery units, with a total strength of over 150,000 men, [to be] engaged in operations in Vietnam." (Jian-225)

More about that later!