. In 1974, South Vietnam was a US ally. The United States did nothing as China took over the Paracel Islands in 1974. US didn't even care about S.Vietnamese ally, let alone Vietcom. In 1974 ,US seventh fleet was there standing by and watching S.Vietnamese ally's navy burning and sinking.
"In the early morning of January 19, 1974, South Vietnamese soldiers from the HQ-5 landed on Duncan Island and came under fire from Chinese troops. Three Vietnamese soldiers were killed and more injured. Finding themselves outnumbered, the Vietnamese ground forces withdrew by landing craft, but their small fleet drew close to the Chinese warships in a tense standoff.
At 10:24 a.m., the Vietnamese warships HQ-16 and HQ-10 opened fire on the Chinese warships. HQ-4 and HQ-5 then joined in. The sea battle lasted about 40 minutes, with the vessels on both sides sustaining damage. The smaller Chinese warships managed to maneuver into the blind spots of the main cannons on the Vietnamese warships and succeeded in damaging all four Vietnamese ships, especially the
Nhật Tảo (HQ-10), which could not retreat because her last working engine was disabled. The crew was ordered to abandon ship but her captain, Lt. Commander Ngụy Văn Thà, remained on board and went down with his ship. HQ-16, severely damaged by friendly fire from the HQ-5, was forced to retreat westwards. HQ-4 and HQ-5 also joined in the retreat.
The next day, Chinese jet fighters and ground-attack aircraft from
Hainan bombed the three islands, and an
amphibious landing was made. The South Vietnamese Marine garrison on the islands was forced to surrender, and the damaged navy ships retreated to
Đà Nẵng.
During the battle, the Vietnamese fleet detected two more Chinese warships rushing to the area. China later acknowledged these were the
Hainan-Class submarine chasers #281 and #282. Despite South Vietnamese reports that at least one of their ships had been struck by a missile, the Chinese insisted what the Vietnamese saw were
rocket-propelled grenades fired by the crew of #389 and that no missile-capable ships were present. The reason the Chinese ships closed in was because they had no missiles. The South Vietnamese fleet also received warnings that
U.S. Navy radar had detected additional Chinese
guided missile frigates and jet fighters on their way from Hainan.
South Vietnam requested assistance from the U.S. Seventh Fleet, but the request was denied.
Following the battle, China gained control over all the Paracel Islands. South Vietnam protested to the United Nations, but China, having veto power on the UN Security Council, blocked any efforts to bring it up.[12] The remote islands had little value militarily, but diplomatically the projection of power was beneficial to China."
