Vietnamese border raids in Thailand | |||||||
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Part of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War and the Cold War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Vietnam People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–89) State of Cambodia (1989) | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Lê Duẩn Trường Chinh Võ Nguyên Giáp Heng Samrin Hun Sen |
Bhumibol Adulyadej Prem Tinsulanonda Chavalit Yongchaiyudh Son Sann Son Sen Pol Pot Khieu Samphan Ieng Sary Nuon Chea Norodom Sihanouk Norodom Ranariddh | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
~1,000–3,000[citation needed] | ~5,500–8,000[citation needed] |
After the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent collapse of Democratic Kampuchea in 1979, the Khmer Rouge fled to the border regions of Thailand, and, with assistance from China, Pol Pot's troops managed to regroup and reorganize in forested and mountainous zones on the Thai-Cambodian border. During the 1980s and early 1990s Khmer Rouge forces operated from inside refugee camps in Thailand, in an attempt to de-stabilize the pro-Hanoi People's Republic of Kampuchea's government, which Thailand refused to recognise. Thailand and Vietnam faced off across the Thai-Cambodian border with frequent Vietnamese incursions and shellings into Thai territory throughout the 1980s in pursuit of Cambodian guerrillas who kept attacking Vietnamese occupation forces.