battle, Cold War

Battle of Cao Bằng

Name: Battle of Cao Bằng
Location: Vietnam

Battle of Cao Bằng was a battle fought in 1979 in what is now Vietnam. Its exact site is not recorded; the atlas places it at its recorded location. It was part of the Sino-Vietnamese War. The recorded result: Chinese victory.

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Fought1979

WhereVietnam22.750N, 106.083E, placed at the location, approximate

OutcomeChinese victory

BelligerentsChinaagainstVietnam

Part ofSino-Vietnamese War1979

Where it sits in the Sino-Vietnamese War

4 placed engagements of the Sino-Vietnamese War in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date	1979 (year precision)
Place	Vietnam 22.750N, 106.083E
Kind	Battle, Cold War
Strength	At least 7 regular divisions; ~84,000–200,000; Fire support: 1st Artillery Division; 70th Anti-Aircraft Division	1 regular division; plus regional troops, and militia; Total ~15,000; (Reinforced by 311th Division since 1 March)
Casualties and losses	Vietnamese claims: 18,000 casualties; 134 tanks/APCs destroyed	Chinese claims: 246th & 567th Regiments destroyed; 1,500 civilians killed; 450 civilians captured
Commanders	Xu Shiyou Wu Zhong	Đàm Văn Ngụy Hoàng Biền Sơn

Placed at its recorded location; the exact site is not recorded. with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

Nearest engagements

Battle of Phu Tong Hoa 1948, 56 km S
Battle of Bang Bo 1885, 109 km SE
Battle of Nui Bop 1885, 122 km SE
Battle of Hòa Mộc 1885, 137 km SW
Siege of Tuyên Quang 1884, 137 km SW

In the same war

Before: Battle of Lào Cai 1979
After: Battle of Móng Cái 1979
All 4 engagements of Sino-Vietnamese War

Elsewhere in 1979

Battle of Cao Bằng is one of 2,997 engagements of the 20th century in the atlas and one of 140 in present-day Vietnam.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q23020683, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Battle of Cao Bằng (1979), revision 1383489142, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.