The Sino-Vietnamese War (; ), also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief border war fought between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in early 1979. China launched the offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978 (which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge). Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping saw this as a Soviet attempt "to extend its evil tentacles to Southeast Asia and...carry out expansion there", which reflected the long-standing Sino-Soviet split. As the former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger noted that "[w]hatever the shortcomings of its execution, the Chinese campaign reflected a serious, long-term strategic analysis".