Shortly before dawn on Feb. 17, 1979, as the morning mist clung to the jagged rocks of the Sino-Vietnamese frontier, more than 400,000 soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army swept into northern Vietnam.
At the time, Ly Thi Kham was a 25-year-old private in the People's Army of Vietnam, which was dug in along the frontier. In a recent conversation at his home in the border town of Dong Dang, the gravel-voiced veteran recalled the serried ranks of PLA soldiers advancing through the dim light, drums pounding and horns blaring.
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