A War of Angry Cousins

(7 of 9)

Other major revolts, in the third, sixth and tenth centuries, helped the Viets build a martial spirit, which was needed to ward off attacks from Tais in the west and Chams in the south. A dozen more wars and another ruthless Chinese occupation in the early 15th century reinforced the Viets' independent spirit and burned hostility toward the Chinese into their minds for good. Before World War II, Nationalist China gave shelter to anti-French Vietnamese political refugees, but even this consideration failed to erase the enmity. In his subsequent war against the French, Ho Chi Minh was offered the support of Mao Tse-tung's advancing Communist army, which might have meant quick, joint victory. Ho declined. Later, with pithy logic, he explained why he had preferred to fight a protracted guerrilla war on his own: "It is better to sniff the French dung for a while than to eat China's all our lives."

The spectacle last week of the two big Communist powers, China and the Soviet Union, at each other's throats on the brink of a possible shooting war—with the U.S., their once common adversary, passively standing by—bordered on a global Theater of the Absurd. After some initial confusion, the increasingly fragmented international Communist movement swung overwhelmingly against China. In Eastern Europe, independent Yugoslavia maintained its customary neutrality. Maverick Rumania appealed to both sides to "stop military actions immediately." The rest of the Warsaw Pact countries, predictably, supported Moscow in condemning what Bulgaria called China's "adventurous and aggressive actions." Even Albania broke out of its longstanding isolation to condemn its recently estranged Chinese ally.

In France, Italy and Spain, the major Eurocommunist parties all lined up against China, with one quirky difference: as a reminder of his vaunted autonomy from Moscow, Spanish Communist Party Boss Santiago Carrillo compared China's aggression against Viet Nam to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Throughout Latin America, leftist groups raised an anti-Chinese chorus. Thousands of students marched down Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma with banners that said VIVA VIET NAM—VANGUARD OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION.

The conflict between Communist neighbors had a disillusioning impact on some leftist European intellectuals. In an article for Milan's Corriere della Sera, Journalist Giuliano Zincone recalled how he had marched in protest against the American presence in Viet Nam and had contributed money to the Viet Cong. China was "on the side of Viet Nam, like Che, united in the struggle." But then came Peking's turmoil: the masses attacking the Gang of Four, the resurgence of the old "capitalist reader," Teng. By invading Cambodia, Viet Nam betrayed its principles. "Now the circle has closed," Zincone wrote. "Gentle China, the solid, the responsible, sends its tanks to 'punish' its former brothers, with the risk of triggering catastrophic conflict. We are starting from zero. Orphans."