I've read a bit into that conflict while I was traveling in Vietnam and it definitely is interesting. Vietnam had just finished the American war (their independ

I've read a bit into that conflict while I was traveling in Vietnam and it definitely is interesting. Vietnam had just finished the American war (their independence war) and had a pretty strong military, they were well on their way to uniting indochina. China invades to interrupt vietnam's invasion of cambodia (splitting vietnam's forces), but takes relatively heavy losses due to outdated military strategy (essentially losing to a bunch of militia on their way to the capitol). Had Vietnam been allowed to take cambodia/laos/etc, a united indochina could have been a pretty serious player in the region, and served as a counter to China. Instead China essentially aborted that plan, and can now push its southern neighbors around.