[dragoon500ly]

And here is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at the start of the Twilight War.
Sources are the Military Balance series and the Almanac of World Military Power.

Population: 57,200,000
Army: 1,200,000
1 armd div
58 infantry divs (ranging in strength from 5,000 to 15,000)
10 marine bdes
7 engineer divisions
15 economic construction divisions (and no I have no idea what they really do)
4 independent engineer bdes
6 independent armored regts

[much ex-US equipment is inoperable]
1,500 T-34/-54/-55/-62/Type 59 MBTs
400 M-48 MBTs
450 PT-76/Type 60/Type 63/M-41 light tanks
300 M-8/M-20/BRDM-2 armored cars
1,500 BTR-50/-60/Type 56/K-63 APCs
800 M-113/V-100 Commando APCs
300 76mm/85mm/100mm/122mm guns
200 130mm guns/M-107 SP 175mm hows
400 75mm pack/105mm/122mm/155mm towed hows
100 152mm towed hows
200 M-109A1 SP 155mm/M-110 SP 203mm hows
90 SU-76/SU-100/ISU-122 assault guns
400 Type 63 107mm/BM-21 122mm/BM-14-6 140mm MRLs
2,000 81mm/82mm/107mm/120mm/160mm mortars
1,800 75mm/82mm/107mm RCLs
4,000 23mm/30mm/37mm/40mm/57mm/85mm/100mm/130mm AA guns
400 Type 63 37mm/M-42 40mm/ZSU-23-4/ZSU-57/2 SP AA guns
800 SA-2/-3/-6/9 SAMs

Navy: 8,000
4 frigates (2 ex-Sov, 2 ex-US)
8 FAC(M)
8 FAC(T)
12 large patrol craft
9 coastal patrol craft
6 LST (3 ex-Sov, 3 ex-US)
1 SAR sqn with 10 Mi-4

Air Force: 12,500
3 FGA sqns with 68 MiG-17/F-5A, 43 Su-7/-20
6 interceptor sqns with 176 MiG-21bis/F/PF
transports include 20 An-2/Li-2; 9 AN-24; 50 An-26; 2 An-30; 6 Tu-34;
11 Yak-40; 7 Il-14; 2 Il-18; 2 C-130B; 1 DC-3; 4 DC-4; 2 DC-6;
2 Boeing 707; 7 U-17
Helos include 22 Mi-6; 38 Mi-8; 22 Mi-24; 14 Ka-25; 49 UH-1
17 SAM regts with 400 SA-2/-3

Paramilitary Forces:
Border Defense Forces: 60,000
Militia: 1,500,000

In the wake of the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975, the armed forces assumed responsibility for garrisoning the south, rooting out the remaining resistance forces and providing cadres to assist in the administration of the newly won territory and its population. At the same time, they had to provide continued support for their allies in Laos. Rather than demobilize, available evidence indicated that Vietnam actually increased the size of its military.

During the post war period, the military, in addition to its normal role, also assumed responsibility for reconstruction, including support for ambitious plans to increase agriculture and industry as well as long-term massive internal shifts of population.

As relations with Cambodia and China became strained, Vietnam's military was under pressure to provide more protection for the nation's borders. After several years of border incidents, the government sent troops into Cambodia in 1978. Assisted by anti-Khmer Rouge forces, they rapidly gained control of virtually all of Cambodia and deposed the Pol Pot government. China reacted by invading Vietnam in 1979. Chinese made significant gains, but before the strongly resisting Vietnamese could mobilize on a major scale, Peking ordered its troops to withdraw. By mid 1979, Vietnam had friendly neighbors in Cambodia and Laos and a stable condition on the Chinese border.

The increasing acerbity of Sino-Vietnamese relations, resulting in the cessation of all assistance from China and the cutting of land communications from the USSR through China, compels Vietnam to rely more on shipping from Eastern Europe and the USSR. However, available port facilities in Vietnam are limited. This resulted in a joint USSR-Vietnamese effort to restore and improve the US-constructed port at Cam Ranh Bay in return for increased Soviet assistance. With the granting of basing rights to the Red Navy, China has been further alienated by the increased the PRC's apprehension about the Soviet's presence in Southeastern Asia waters.

As Vietnam's relations with China worsen, Vietnamese diplomatic efforts among the AESAN states has increased, an indicator of Hanoi's sense of isolation. Thailand, omitted from the early Vietnamese efforts as a demonstration of residual Vietnamese resentment of the Thai role in the Indochina War, was included with its AESAN partners.

Vietnam relied on and received heavy and continuing economic and military support from the USSR and the PRC prior to 1975. When China withdrew its support, Vietnam relied on the massive amounts of US equipment captured with the fall of the South. But as the use of this equipment has used up available stockpiles of spare parts, Vietnam has increased its reliance on the USSR.