Sino-Soviet War: Reasons?

[kalos72]

Has anyone done any work or put any real thought into what led up to the war?

Obviously there must have been tensions among the two before the border clash or do people think it was just some guys on the border losing their shit and started firing at one another?

In my campaign we have tensions running since early '94 but we havent put alot of thought into the details.

[ArmySGT.]

Iron ore, Timber, coal, silica, tungsten, titanium, diamonds, gold, oil, and water.

Resource rich territories of Mongolia and Siberia.

[dragoon500ly]

"I don't know, two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later they're gonna fight..."

Colonel Andy Tanner USAF

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

"I don't know, two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later they're gonna fight..."

Colonel Andy Tanner USAF

Subtle.. I dig the reference.

[dragoon500ly]

As subtle as a hand grenade in a washing machine...

[Silent Hunter UK]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

"I don't know, two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later they're gonna fight..."

Colonel Andy Tanner USAF

Ah him. I have used a more politically correct version of one of his lines in an article on the Tu-22M.

[kalos72]

I found alot of Fanzine stuff about the timeline that seemed to fill in alot of blanks...

[James Langham2]

My guess is that with two countries that control the media and events in a remote area there would be considerable doubt as to the truth. Likely to be tensions building for some time and then bang it all kicks off...

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by kalos72

Has anyone done any work or put any real thought into what led up to the war?

Obviously there must have been tensions among the two before the border clash or do people think it was just some guys on the border losing their shit and started firing at one another?

In my campaign we have tensions running since early '94 but we havent put alot of thought into the details.

The border of Russia (and earlier, Soviet Union) and China is sort of like the DMZ in Korea. A lot more border clashes than is generally made public.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

And to go further with Paul's comment, the border clashes have often been between border guard units rather than army units and don't seem to draw the same attention from the media compared to "proper" military clashes.
I vaguely recall that various clashes between Chinese and Soviet border guards have resulted in fatalities on both sides on more than one occasion.

[Webstral]

I tried to address the motives for the Soviets in my piece on the Sino-Soviet War. Kato put it in an archive file at one point.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

And to go further with Paul's comment, the border clashes have often been between border guard units rather than army units and don't seem to draw the same attention from the media compared to "proper" military clashes.
I vaguely recall that various clashes between Chinese and Soviet border guards have resulted in fatalities on both sides on more than one occasion.

It's the Sino-Soviet Border Conflict fought between March-September of 1969. While initially fought between border guards, it escalated to artillery barrages between both sides and the deployment of some 658,000 Soviet troops and 814,000 Chinese troops.

It was fought over control of several islands on the Amir and Ussuri Rivers; the Chinese gained control of two major islands. There was an on again off again series of "incidents" until 1991 when both sides signed an accord acknowledging Chinese control.

During the initial fighting, the Kremlin was so spooked by the threat of Chinese invasion, they alerted their Strategic Rocket Forces, just in case.

[James Langham]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

It's the Sino-Soviet Border Conflict fought between March-September of 1969. While initially fought between border guards, it escalated to artillery barrages between both sides and the deployment of some 658,000 Soviet troops and 814,000 Chinese troops.

It was fought over control of several islands on the Amir and Ussuri Rivers; the Chinese gained control of two major islands. There was an on again off again series of "incidents" until 1991 when both sides signed an accord acknowledging Chinese control.

During the initial fighting, the Kremlin was so spooked by the threat of Chinese invasion, they alerted their Strategic Rocket Forces, just in case.

There's a really good reference to it at the start of Max Brook's World War Z - the inspiration for the style of many of my quotes.

[James Langham2]

An unusual idea that would fit the 1.0 timeline (and inspired by news today from Korea) - a Russian unit on the Chinese gets orders to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan, he decides to not risk it and tries to escape to Chinese territory, Russian guards fire at him and the CHinese thinking they are under attack return fire, everything escalates as both sides report up the chain that the other side fired first (they may even believe it...). Poor quality reports (made as an excuse to avoid blame) escalate the incident to the level of the 1960s incidents above.