History.com: This Day In History (March 02-1969): Soviet Union and Chinese armed forces clash

One could wonder why people would come to fight for Damansky or Chen-Pao (Zhenbao), the uninhabited island in the Ussuri river, between China and the Soviet Union, but it became a serious Sino-Sovietborder clash, Soviet and Chinese forces fighting a battle on an island claimed by both nations.

Levant's Agora

By History.com Editors.

In a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China fire on each other at a border outpost on the Ussuri River in the eastern region of the USSR, north of Vladivostok. In the years following this incident, the United States used the Soviet-Chinese schism to its advantage in its Cold War diplomacy.

The cause of the firefight between Soviet and Chinese troops was a matter of dispute. The Soviets charged that Chinese soldiers crossed the border between the two nations and attacked a Soviet outpost, killing and wounding a number of Russian guards. The intruders were then driven back with heavy casualties. The Chinese report indicated that it was the Soviets who crossed the border and were repulsed. Either way, it was the first time that either…

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