Battle of Cao Bằng (1979)

The Battle of Cao Bằng was fought between the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) over the city of Cao Bằng and its vicinity, from the beginning of the Sino-Vietnamese War on 17 February, to 6 March 1979. Chinese forces ended up capturing Cao Bằng along with other territories in northern Vietnam. Despite the Chinese intention to battle against and defeat some major regular units of the VPA, the PLA found themselves encountering mostly small units of Vietnamese border guards and militia. After the capture of Cao Bằng, Chinese forces moved on to capture Đức Long, a town on Highway 4 on 3 March. On 5 March, following the capture of the Vietnamese capital of Lạng Sơn, as well as what analyst described as "other military successes along the 500 mile front", the Chinese forces then declared that they had “attained the goals set for them” in the 17-day border war and that they were withdrawing troops from Vietnam. Analysts located in Vietnam, had observed that some Chinese units in locations that weren't "hotly contested by the Vietnamese" have already commenced withdrawing in the past few days.

The Washington Post on March 6, 1979 reported that though heavy Vietnamese resistance at Cao Bang had resulted in Vietnamese defeats, some Bangkok analysts pointed that Vietnam was at least successful in keeping their losses low by avoiding battles between its main-force units stationed near Hanoi with the Chinese forces. Western analysts had stated that a Vietnamese decision to attack the Chinese troops as they withdrew, could lead to retaliation and cause the war to continue.