History
Due to its geography as Vietnam's gateway to China, Lạng Sơn and its ancient citadel have been in the path of many invasions, and were the site of three French defeats during the colonial era. Occupied by Qing forces during the military buildup that preceded the Sino-French War, the city was occupied by France after a two-week campaign in February 1885. However, the brigade there conducted a hasty retreat after a failed attack through Bang Bo into China; the "retreat from Lạng Sơn" became the most controversial aspect of the war and led to the fall of Jules Ferry's ministry. French colonial forces clashed with the Japanese 5th Division in the Battle of Lạng Sơn during the Japanese Vietnam Expedition in 22 September 1940. The French were again compelled to retreat hastily.
After the end of the Pacific War, the French colonial army established a permanent garrison there, which served as the logistics hub for the French border fortresses. It was captured in 1950 during Võ Nguyên Giáp's offensive against the French border forts, considered a turning point in the Indochina War. The city was the center of fighting during the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, and sustained extensive damage.
Read more about this topic: Lang Son
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)