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| 1977, Sept |
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| Vietnam joined the UN. Participation in the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank followed. | 1 |
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| 1978, March |
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| In measures aimed at rebuilding the economy, Vietnam nationalized all private trade. This move adversely affected the ethnic Chinese community in Vietnam. Dual citizenship was revoked. | 2 |
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| June |
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| Vietnam joined COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance), the Communist trading group controlled largely by the USSR. The next month the Chinese ceased all aid to Vietnam. | 3 |
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| Dec |
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| Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia (See 1979, Jan). In 1975 the Khmer Rouge, a Communist organization in Cambodia, came to power after ousting the U.S.-backed regime of Lon Nol. They then began to unleash a horrific holocaust on their own populace that left over 1 million—perhaps as many as 2 million—dead, including countless ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese living in Cambodia. The Vietnamese military ousted the Khmer Rouge and installed a puppet regime in Phnom Penh under Heng Samrin and Hun Sen, both Cambodian Communists opposed to Pol Pot. As long as ten years later, and in the face of worldwide criticism, 140,000 Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia. | 4 |
| The People's Republic of China sided with Cambodia and disgorged venomous attacks on Vietnam. The Soviet Union and Vietnam had signed a 25-year treaty of friendship (Nov.). Although China and the USSR had both supported North Vietnam in its struggle against the U.S. and South Vietnam—specifically, long after the Sino-Soviet split—postliberation Vietnam chose to side with the Soviets against its historical enemy to the north. The treaty gave the USSR the former base at Cam Ranh Bay, and Vietnam received various forms of aid. | 5 |
| North Vietnam had never been happy with China for inviting Pres. Nixon to visit the People's Republic while U.S. troops were still on Vietnamese soil. China would have liked to see a more grateful Vietnam, and it was angered by the treatment meted out to ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, the so-called “boat people” who fled the country in 1977–78. | 6 |
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