Reassessment of Beijing’s economic and military aid to Hanoi’s War, 1964–75

Although China’s assistance to North Vietnam was substantial, playing a vital role in Hanoi’s war against the United States, this policy was made based on Beijing’s strategic calculation and ideological conviction rather than on Hanoi’s needs. The Chinese leadership attempted to use aid to influence Hanoi’s approach to the war, but achieved almost no effect. Instead, Beijing’s manipulation made Hanoi suspicious about the Chinese leadership’s real intentions in Indochina, and Beijing’s effort to help Hanoi against the United States was arguably its biggest, unexpected foreign policy failure in the Cold War.