China becomes openly involved in the Vietnam War: 1965-1973

Mao's warning to Washington seems to be grim: "Better keep your pilots out of the range of our batteries operating on North Vietnamese territory, or else!"

Commanding generals of upwards of sixteen Communist Chinese air defense artillery (ADA) divisions then feel free to begin waxing American pilots raiding North Vietnamese territory. And proceed to do so.

Author Qiang Zhai, in China and the Vietnam Wars 1950-1975, Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, makes a good point when he tells us starting on page 137, "As one China specialist has perceptively observed, the deployment of Chinese troops in Vietnam was not carried out under maximum security against detection by Washington."

Indeed it wasn't! Perhaps the Chinese, a very astute people, had learned more than one lesson from their massive intervention in the Korean War (1950-1953).

Instead, in North Vietnamese territory, "The Chinese troops wore regular uniforms and did not disguise themselves as civilians. The Chinese presence was intentionally communicated to U.S. intelligence through aerial photography and electronic intercepts. The presence of troops, along with the large base complex that China built at Yen Bai in northwest Vietnam, provided credible and succesful deterrence against an American invasion of North Vietnam." (Zhai -138)

While America's pilots continued pressing home their fighter and bomber attacks against concentrations of Chinese ADA combat troops, much as they had in Korea, Washington buckled.

As Zhai tells us, an obviously worried "William P. Bundy, assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs, told Secretary of State Dean Rusk on June 5, 1965, that the Chinese foreign minister had drawn a line for the United States."

Author Chen Jian, Mao's China and the Cold War. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

The Use of Chinese Antiaircraft Artillery Troops

24 July 1965. "The Vietnamese General Staff telegraphed the Chinese General Staff, formally requesting that China send the two antiaircraft artillery divisions that have long completed their preparations for operations in Vietnam. The earlier the better. " (Jian - 225)

1 August 1965. "The Sixty-first and Sixty-third Divisions of the Chinese antiaircraft artillery forces entered Vietnam from Yunnan and Guangxi respectively." (225)

9 August 1965. The Sixty-first Division, "using 37 mm and 85 mm antiaircraft guns, shot down one F-4, which according to Chinese records, was the first American plane to be downed by Chinese antiaircraft units." (225)

23 August 1965. "The troops of the Sixty-third Divison entered the Kep area and engaged in their first battle with the Americans on 23 August. Reportedly, they shot down one American plane and damaged another." (225)

Early August 1965 to March 1969. "A total of sixteen divisions (sixty-three regiments) of Chinese antiaircraft artillery units, with a total strength of over 150,000 men, engaged in operations in Vietnam. These units, which entered Vietnam in eight seperate stages, were mainly from the artillery forces, the air force, the navy, and, in some cases, the Kunming and Guangzhou Military Regions. Following their experience during the Korean War, the Chinese military leadership adopted a rotation strategy for these troops -- usually a unit would stay in Vietnam for around six months and then be replaced by another. These units were deployed to defend strategically important targets, such as critical railway bridges on the Hanoi-Youyiguan and Hanoi-Lao Cai lines, and to provide cover for the Chinese engineering troops [up to 170,000 men strong ] ." (226)

Mid-March, 1969. Chinese ADA Scorecard: By the time their last ADA combat units were pulled out of Vietnam in the early Spring of 1965, "Chinese records claim that these troops had fought a total of 2,154 battles and were responsible for shooting down 1,707 American planes and damaging another 1,608." (226)

Hummm ... so, what was the protocol then, when an American hit the silk, in his parachute? Landing on Red Chinese-occupied North Vietnamese territlory?

Hummm ... to hold on to the US pilots until the North Vietnamese showed up to claim them???!!!

Hummm .. so, maybe Hanoi never has been lying, when Hanoi tells the US they're not holding any more U.S. POWS.

Hummm .. so, like maybe China knows the answer to all that ....