Sino-Soviet War: Reasons?

[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.