Part 1 of 2 Parts
During the time I have been writing this blog, I have covered hostility between various nuclear armed nations. Today, there are groups trying to stop nuclear proliferation and groups trying to stoke conflict between nations with nuclear weapons. Nations who have nuclear weapons are threatening to use them and some nations that do not have nuclear weapons are trying to obtain them to the great consternations of their rivals or enemies. However, I have never blogged about one particular a nuclear confrontation that could have happened but did not. We here in the U.S. saw the Soviet Union and China as allies who stood together against the U.S. during the Cold War. But relations were not always sunny between the two nuclear powers.
For years before 1969, the relationship between the Soviet Union had been deteriorating. In 1969, the simmering enmity between the former allies reached the point where it boiled over into a hot war. In March of that year, Chinese troops fired on Soviet troops on Damansky Island on the Ussuri River. (Zhenbao Island for the Chinese) The Ussuri River formed part of the border between Soviet Siberia and Manchuria in China. Damansky Island is right in the middle of the river and the border runs down the center of the island. This island is just a hundred and twenty miles south of the major Soviet city of Khabarovsk.
The Soviets believed that the Chinese had brought in a unit of specially trained troops to ambush Soviet troops. In the ambush, fifty Soviet troops were killed and many more were wounded. There were allegations of atrocities committed against wounded Soviet soldiers which angered the Soviet generals.
Two weeks after the Chinese attack, the Soviets counter-attacked and hundreds of Chinese troops were killed. Skirmishes continued on and around the island through the spring and summer. The U.S. CIA Director told the press that the Soviets had been quietly asking foreign governments what they thought about the possibility of the Soviets hitting China with a preemptive nuclear attack.
Apparently, the Soviet leadership believed that the Chinese leaders were insane. They were discussing whether or not it would be a good idea to crush China before it got any stronger. Oddly enough, although the Chinese were the ones who attacked the Soviets in the first place, it did not seem that China had either the will or resources to engage in a major war with the Soviets. On the other hand, the Soviets were well prepared for war.
The Soviets had been building up their ground forces since the early Sixties when Chinese relations were beginning to sour. In 1965, the Soviets had thirteen ground divisions. By 1969, that had grown to twenty-one divisions but they were primarily defensive. The Chinese, on the other hand, had thirty-four divisions, including tank and artillery divisions. If the Soviet Union had decided to attack China, it would have had two options.
The first option for a Soviet attack would have been a mechanized attack into Manchuria to destroy much of Chinese industrial infrastructure. There would also have been a limited nuclear attack to destroy Chinese nuclear forces and research facilities. Such an attack would have consisted of about seven hundred and fifty thousand men supported by modern armor divisions, artillery, tactical air power and possibly tactical nuclear weapons.
Please read Part 2
A Soviet ship uses a water cannon against a Chinese fisherman on the Ussuri River on 6 May 1969
