They were on the capitalist side VS the people's will, trying to save the world from the dreadfull "Communism" [Yes, I eat babies at breakfast].
Hehe, nicely put. I eat them for lunch! Fear me! :gunman:
But the rest of your post only confused me further... largely because I'm too lazy to read it carefully and the other posts are a distant memory. What do you mean by 'mining' institutions? You mean plundering their best men?
Overall it isn't that likely that countries not directly threatened would get involved, but not impossible. I think the muslims should be kept out of this as it would expand things a bit too much.
Edit: I agree with Komuna that there's no real reason for China to be invaded. Why would they invade a fellow Communist country, especially one with a powerful military and nuclear arsenal? Ok, they're not real communists, but surely they would rather invade entirely non communist countries?