war in south-east asia?

Hi there,im new here and i have a question thats really been bugging me,has there been any point in recent history (after 1980) that war could have broken out between any of the major countires in south east asia? if so who would win and what would the repercussions be?
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Well the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1978 and overthrew Pol Pot, but the Khmer Rouge remained a dangerous faction in Cambodia. Had they somehow been able to overthrow the Vietnamese puppet government, war between Cambodia and Vietnam would have been very possible.
 
The Vietnamese were spending a lot of time fighting the Khmer Rouge guerrillas hiding near the Thai/Cambodian border after the initial invasion. Have a small border dispute involving Thai border patrols and Vietnamese troops escalate into a battle and viola - another Indochinese War
 
You could try and get some sort of Indonesian-Australian war going, but I think that is very unlikely, even with the tensions that have often underpinned the relationship.

For a twist on the usual, turn the Australian PM into a mad dictator who then starts silly wars with northern neighbours.
 
Thailand and Cambodia could have duked it out - Thailand still wants some border rectification that have not been settled since the 1903 treaties, and Pol Pot's genocidal tendencies offer both a motive (ethnic Thais die in Pol Pot's camps, suspected of "irredentist deviations") and an opportunity (the whole Cambodian police and army is turned inward, not outward).
 
South-East Asia is so different, both culturally and politically, that a war between any of the nations is possible. For ATL wars, Indonesia-Malaysia, Vietnam-Cambodia, Thailand-all its neighbors.

OTL, since 1980 I think a few skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia occurred just last year, and the East Timorese situation happened back in the late 90's. Peaceful revolutions that could otherwise turn into a deadly violent civil war happened in both Thailand and Indonesia. A failed attempt at this also occurred in Myanmar. Oh and Acehnese rebels were fighting against Indonesian government troops until 2004, when they signed a treaty. The Papuan independence movement is sort of a joke and can be compared to the Basque 'revolutionaries' - they're no more than terrorists.

So yes, there have been a few acts of violence in SE Asia since 1980 but nothing that can actually be considered 'war' IMO.
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
South-East Asia is so different, both culturally and politically, that a war between any of the nations is possible. For ATL wars, Indonesia-Malaysia, Vietnam-Cambodia, Thailand-all its neighbors.

OTL, since 1980 I think a few skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia occurred just last year, and the East Timorese situation happened back in the late 90's. Peaceful revolutions that could otherwise turn into a deadly violent civil war happened in both Thailand and Indonesia. A failed attempt at this also occurred in Myanmar. Oh and Acehnese rebels were fighting against Indonesian government troops until 2004, when they signed a treaty. The Papuan independence movement is sort of a joke and can be compared to the Basque 'revolutionaries' - they're no more than terrorists.

So yes, there have been a few acts of violence in SE Asia since 1980 but nothing that can actually be considered 'war' IMO.
:rolleyes:
 
China-Vietnam war of 1979 was quite a serious affair (tens of thousands of casualties on each side), and limited border conflicts continued until approximately 1990.

It could well repeat itself, say, in 1984 or 1985.

As for outcome, it would most likely be another draw.
 
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