Daniel Orr's Blog, page 115

November 25, 1975 – Angolan War of Independence: Cuban forces repel a South-African led attack on Ebo

On November 25, 1975, Cuban artillery batteries stopped a South African-led attack on Ebo during the Angolan War of Independence.  The South Africans had planned to capture Luanda before Angola’s independence day, which had occurred two weeks earlier, on November 11.  After failing in this objective, by December 1975, the South Africans and their Angolan allies had refocused their efforts to capturing as much territory as possible.

Africa showing location of present-day Angola and other African countries that were involved in the Angolan War of Independence. South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) was then under South African rule.

(Taken from Angolan War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

Background

After World War II, thousands of Portuguese immigrants settled in Angola.  The world’s prices of coffee beans were high, prompting the Portuguese government to seek new white settlers in its African
colonies to lead the growth of agriculture.  However, many of the new arrivals settled in the towns and cities, instead of braving the harsh rural frontiers. In urban areas, they competed for jobs with black Angolans who likewise were migrating there in large numbers in search of work.  The Portuguese, being
white, were given employment preference over the natives, producing racial tension.

The late 1940s saw the rapid growth of nationalism in Africa.  In Angola, three nationalist movements developed, which were led by “assimilados”, i.e. the few natives who had acquired the Portuguese language, culture, education, and
religion.  The Portuguese officially designated “assimilados” as “civilized”, in contrast to the vast majority of natives who retained their indigenous lifestyles.

The first of these Angolan nationalist movements was the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola or MPLA (Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) led by local communists, and formed in 1956 from the merger of the Angolan
Communist Party and another nationalist movement called PLUA (English: Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola).  Active in Luanda and other major urban areas, the MPLA drew its support from the local elite and in regions populated by the Ambundu
ethnic group.  In its formative years, it received foreign support from other left-wing African nationalist groups that were also seeking the independences of their colonies from European rule.  Eventually, the MPLA fell under the influence of the Soviet Union and other communist countries.

The second Angolan nationalist movement was the National Front for the Liberation of Angola or FNLA (Portuguese: Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola).  The FNLA was formed in 1962 from the merger of two Bakongo regional movements that had as their secondary aim the resurgence of the once powerful but currently moribund Kingdom of Congo.  Primarily, the FNLA wanted to end forced labor, which had caused hundreds of thousands of Bakongo natives to leave their homes.  The FNLA operated out of Leopoldville (present-day Kinshasa) in the Congo from where it received military and financial support from the Congolese government.  The FNLA was led by Holden Roberto, whose authoritarian rule and one-track policies caused the movement to experience changing fortunes during the coming war, and also bring about the formation of the third of Angola’s nationalist movements, UNITA.

UNITA or National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Portuguese: União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola) was founded
by Jonas Savimbi, a former high-ranking official of the FNLA, over disagreements with Roberto.  Unlike the
FNLA and MPLA, which were based in northern Angola, UNITA operated in the colony’s central and southern regions and gained its main support from the Ovibundu people and other smaller ethnic groups.  Initially, UNITA embraced Maoist socialism
but later moved toward West-allied democratic Africanism.

War of Independence

On February 3, 1961, farm laborers in Baixa do Cassanje, Malanje, rose up in protest over poor working conditions.  The protest quickly spread to many other regions, engulfing a wide area.  The Portuguese were forced to send warplanes that strafed and firebombed many native villages.  Soon, the protest was quelled.

Occurring almost simultaneously with the workers’ protest, armed bands (believed to be affiliated with the MPLA) carried out attacks in Luanda, particularly in the prisons and police stations, aimed at freeing political prisoners.  The raids were repelled, with dozens of attackers and some police officers killed.  In reprisal, government forces and Portuguese vigilante groups attacked Luanda’s slums, where they killed thousands of black civilian residents.

In March 1961, Roberto led thousands of fighters of the UPA (Union of Peoples of Angola, a precursor organization of the FNLA) into northern Angola,
where he incited the farmers to rise up in revolt.  Violence soon broke out, where native farmers
killed hundreds of Portuguese civilians, burned farms, looted property, and destroyed government infrastructures.

By May, the Portuguese government in Lisbon
had sent thousands of soldiers to Angola.  In a brutal counter-insurgency campaign, Portuguese troops killed more than 20,000 black civilians and razed the
northern countryside.  By year’s end, the colonial government had quelled the uprising and pushed Holden and his UPA followers across the border to the Congo.  Some 200,000 black Angolans also fled to the Congo to escape the fighting and government retribution.

Portugal’s counter-insurgency methods were condemned by the international community.  As a consequence of the uprisings, Portugal began to implement major reforms in Angola, as well as in its other African colonies.  Forced labor was abolished, as was the arbitrary seizure of indigenous lands.  Also for the first time, public education, health care, and other social services were expanded to the general population.

November 24, 1965 – Joseph-Desire Mobutu (later known as Mobutu Sese Seko) seizes power in a coup in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

On November 24, 1965, Joseph-Desire Mobu seized power in a coup in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He would rule over a totalitarian government for the next 32 years. He renamed the country Zaire, but grossly mismanaged its economy.  Government corruption was widespread, the country’s infrastructures neglected, and poverty and unemployment were rampant.  And while Zaire’s finances stagnated under a huge foreign debt, Mobutu amassed a personal fortune of several billions of dollars. In 1972, he changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (English: “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”), or Mobutu Sese Seko for short, which was in line with the current state policy of “Zarianization” , which aimed to rid the country of the remaining vestiges of colonialism and Western influences, and foster a pro-African Zairian national identity.

The November 1965 coup was his second. On September 14, 1960, as then head of the country’s armed forces, he had seized power during the Congo Crisis. The crisis consisted of a series of civil wars that had begun shortly after the country gained its independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. Mobutu launched the coup following the impasse between President Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu after Lumumba had sought Soviet support to quell a Belgian-supported uprising in Katanga and South Kasai.

In 1997, he was deposed in the First Congo War.

(Taken from First Congo War –Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

Background

In the mid-1990s, ethnic tensions rose in Zaire’s eastern regions.  Zairian indigenous tribes long despised the Tutsis, another ethnic tribe, whom they regarded as foreigners, i.e. they believed that Tutsis were not native to the Congo.  The Congolese Tutsis were called Banyamulenge and had migrated to the Congo during the pre-colonial and Belgian colonial periods.  Over time, the Banyamulenge established some degree of political and economic standing in the Congo’s eastern regions.  Nevertheless, Zairian indigenous groups occasionally attacked Banyamulenge villages, as well as those of other
non-Congolese Tutsis who had migrated more recently to the Congo.

During the second half of the twentieth century, the Congo’s eastern region was greatly destabilized
when large numbers of refugees migrated there to escape the ethnic violence in Rwanda and Burundi.  The greatest influx occurred during the Rwandan Civil War, where some 1.5 million Hutu refugees entered the Congo’s Kivu Provinces (Map 17).  The Hutu refugees established giant settlement camps which soon came under the control of the deposed Hutu regime in Rwanda, the same government that had carried out the genocide against Rwandan Tutsis.  Under cover of the camps, Hutu leaders organized a militia composed of former army soldiers and civilian
paramilitaries.  This Hutu militia carried out attacks against Rwandan Tutsis in the camps, as well as against the Banyamulenge, i.e. Congolese Tutsis.  The
Hutu leaders wanted to regain power in Rwanda
and therefore ordered their militia to conduct cross-border raids from the Zairian camps into Rwanda.

To counter the Hutu threat, the Rwandan government forged a military alliance with the Banyamulenge, and organized a militia composed of
Congolese Tutsis.  The Rwandan government-Banyamulenge alliance solidified in 1995 when the Zairian government passed a law that rescinded the Congolese citizenship of the Banyamulenge, and
ordered all non-Congolese citizens to leave the country.

War In October 1996, the provincial government of South Kivu in Zaire ordered all Bayamulenge to leave the province.  In response, the Banyamulenge rose up in rebellion.  Zairian forces stepped in, only to be confronted by the Banyamulenge militia as well as Rwandan Army units that began an artillery bombardment of South Kivu from across the border.

A low-intensity rebellion against the Congolese government had already existed for three decades in Zaire.  Led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the Congo rebels opposed Zairian president Mobutu Sese Seko’s despotic, repressive regime.  President Mobutu had seized power through a military coup in 1965 and had in his long reign, grossly mismanaged the country.  Government corruption was widespread, the country’s infrastructure was crumbling, and poverty and unemployment were rampant.  And while Zaire’s
economy stagnated under a huge foreign debt, President Mobutu amassed a personal fortune of several billions of dollars.

Kabila joined his forces with the Banyamulenge militia; together, they united with other anti-Mobutu rebel groups in the Kivu, with the collective aim of overthrowing the Zairian dictator.  Kabila soon became the leader of this rebel coalition.  In December 1996, with the support of Rwanda and Uganda, Kabila’s rebel forces won control of the border areas of the Kivu.  There, Kabila formed a quasi-government that was allied to Rwanda and Uganda.

The Rwandan Army entered the conquered areas in the Kivu and dismantled the Hutu refugee camps in order to stop the Hutu militia from carrying out raids into Rwanda.  With their camps destroyed, one batch of Hutu refugees, comprising several hundreds of thousands of civilians, was forced to head back to Rwanda.

Another batch, also composed of several hundreds of thousands of Hutus, fled westward and deeper into Zaire, where many perished from
diseases, starvation, and nature’s elements, as well as from attacks by the Rwandan Army.

When the fighting ended, some areas of Zaire’s eastern provinces virtually had seceded, as the Zairian government was incapable of mounting a strong military campaign into such a remote region. 
In fact, because of the decrepit condition of the Zairian Armed Forces, President Mobutu held only nominal control over the country.

The Zairian soldiers were poorly paid and regularly stole and sold military supplies.  Poor
discipline and demoralization afflicted the ranks, while corruption was rampant among top military officers.  Zaire’s military equipment often was non-operational because of funding shortages.  More critically, President Mobutu had become the enemy of Rwanda and Angola, as he provided support for the rebel groups fighting the governments in those
countries.  Other African countries that also
opposed Mobutu were Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In December 1996, Angola entered the war on the side of the rebels after signing a secret agreement with Rwanda and Uganda.  The Angolan government then sent thousands of ethnic Congolese soldiers called “Katangese Gendarmes” to the Kivu Provinces.  These Congolese soldiers were the descendants of the original Katangese Gendarmes who had fled to Angola in the early 1960s after the failed secession of the Katanga Province from the Congo.

The presence of the Katangese Gendarmes greatly strengthened the rebellion: from Goma and Bukavu (Map 17), the Gendarmes advanced west and
south to capture Katanga and central Zaire.  On March 15, 1977, Kisangani fell to the rebels, opening the road to Kinshasa, Zaire’s capital.  Kalemie and Kamina in Katanga Province were captured, followed by Lubumbashi in April.  Later that month, the Angolan Army invaded Zaire from the south, quickly taking Tshikapa, Kikwit, and Kenge.

Kabila also joined the fighting.  Backed by units of the Rwandan and Ugandan Armed Forces, his rebel coalition force advanced steadily across central Zaire for Kinshasa.  Kabila met only light resistance, as the
Zairian Army collapsed, with desertions and defections widespread in its ranks.  Crowds of people in the towns and villages welcomed Kabila and the foreign armies as liberators.

Many attempts were made by foreign mediators (United Nations, United States, and South Africa)
to broker a peace settlement, the last occurring on May 16, 1977 when Kabila’s forces had reached the vicinity of Kinshasa.  The Zairian government collapsed, with President Mobutu fleeing the country.  Kabila entered Kinshasa and formed a new government, and named himself president.  The First Congo War was over; the second phase of the conflict broke out just 15 months later (next article).

November 23, 1946 – First Indochina War: French forces bombard Haiphong

By September 1946, tensions had risen between French and Viet Minh forces, which led to armed threats and provocations.  The Viet Minh (“League for the Independence of Vietnam”; Vietnamese: Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội) was a merger of Vietnamese nationalist/independene movements led by the Indochinese Communist Party which sought the end of French colonial rule. In November 1946, fighting broke out in Haiphong when French port authorities seized a Chinese junk, but were in turn fired upon by the Viet Minh.  The French first demanded that the Viet Minh yield control of Haiphong, and then bombarded the city using naval and ground artillery, and air strikes.  The French gained control of Haiphong, expelling the
Viet Minh, with 6,000 civilians killed in the fighting.

Southeast Asia today.

(Taken from First Indochina War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

Background

On August 14, 1945, Japan announced its acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, marking the
end of the Asia-Pacific theatre of World War II (the European theater of World War II had ended earlier, on May 8, 1945).  The sudden Japanese capitulation left a power vacuum that was quickly filled by the Viet Minh, which in the preceding months, had secretly organized so-called “People’s Revolutionary Committees” throughout much of the colony.  These “People’s Revolutionary Committees” now seized power and organized local administrations in many towns and cities, more particularly in the northern and central regions, including the capital Hanoi.  This seizure of power, historically called the August Revolution, led to the abdication of ex-emperor Bao Dao and the collapse of his Japanese-sponsored government.

The August Revolution succeeded largely because the Viet Minh had gained much popular support following a severe famine that hit northern Vietnam in the summer of 1944 to 1945 (which caused some 400,000 to 2 million deaths).  During the famine, the
Viet Minh raided several Japanese and private grain warehouses.  On September 2, 1945 (the same day Japan surrendered to the Allies), Ho proclaimed the country’s independence as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), taking the position of President of a provisional government.

At this point, Ho sought U.S. diplomatic support for Vietnam’s independence, and incorporated part of the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence in his own proclamation of Vietnamese independence.  Ho also wrote several letters to U.S. President Harry Truman (which were unanswered), and met with U.S. State Department and OSS officials in Hanoi.  However, during the war-time Potsdam Conference (July 17 – August 2, 1945), the Allied Powers (including the Soviet Union) decided to allow France
to restore colonial rule in Indochina, but that in the meantime that France was yet preparing to return, Vietnam was to be partitioned into two zones north and south of the 16th parallel, with Chinese Nationalist forces tasked to occupy the northern zone, and British forces (with some French units) tasked to enter the southern zone.

By mid-September 1945, Chinese and British forces had occupied their respective zones.  They
then completed their assigned tasks of accepting the surrender of, as well as disarming and repatriating the Japanese forces within their zones.  In Saigon,
British forces disbanded the Vietnamese revolutionary government that had taken
over the administration of the city.  This Vietnamese government in Saigon, called the “Provisional Executive Committee”, was a coalition of many organizations, including the religious groups Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, the organized crime syndicate Binh Xuyen, the communists, and nationalist organizations.  In Cochinchina and parts of Annam,
unlike in Tonkin, the Viet Minh had only
established partial authority because of the presence of these many rival ideological movements.  But believing that nationalism was more important than ideology to achieve Vietnam’s independence, the Viet Minh was willing to work with other groups to form a united front to oppose the return of French rule.

As a result of the British military actions in the southern zone, on September 17, 1945, the DRV in Hanoi launched a general strike in Saigon.  British authorities responded to the strikes by declaring martial law.  The British also released and armed some 1,400 French former prisoners of war; the latter
then launched attacks on the Viet Minh, and seized key government infrastructures in the south.  On
September 24, 1945, elements of the Binh Xuyen crime syndicate attacked and killed some 150 French nationals, which provoked retaliatory actions by the
French that led to increased fighting.  British and French forces soon dispersed the Viet Minh from Saigon.  The latter responded by sabotaging ports, power plants, communication systems, and other
government facilities.

By the third week of September 1945, much of southern Vietnam was controlled by the French, and the British ceded administration of the region to
them.  In late October 1945, another British-led operation broke the remaining Viet Minh resistance in the south, and the Vietnamese revolutionaries retreated to the countryside where they
engaged in guerilla warfare.  Also in October, some 35,000 French troops arrived in Saigon.  In March 1946, British forces departed from Indochina, ending their involvement in the region.

Meanwhile in the northern zone, some 200,000 Chinese occupation forces, led by the warlord General Lu Han, allowed Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh to continue exercising power in the north, on the condition that Ho include non-communists in the Viet Minh government.  To downplay his communist ties, in November 1945, Ho dissolved the ICP and called for Vietnamese nationalist unity.  In late 1945, a provisional coalition government was formed in the northern zone, comprising the Viet Minh and other
nationalist organizations.  In January 1946, elections to the National Assembly were held in northern and central Vietnam, where the coalition parties agreed to a pre-set division of electoral seats.

The Chinese occupation forces were disinclined to relinquish control of northern Vietnam to the French.  Chinese officers also enriched themselves by looting properties, engaging in the opium trade in Vietnam and Laos, and running black market operations in Hanoi and Haiphong.  However, the Chinese commander also was aware of the explosive nature of the hostile French and Vietnamese relations, while the French and Vietnamese suspected the Chinese of harboring territorial ambitions in northern Vietnam.

But the Chinese Army, which held the real power, also opened negotiations with the French government, which in February 1946, led to an
agreement where the Chinese would withdraw from Vietnam in exchange for France renouncing its extraterritorial privileges in China and granting economic concessions to the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam.

In March 1946, Major Jean Sainteny, a French government representative, signed an agreement with Ho, where France would recognize Vietnam as a
“free state having its own government, its own parliament, its own army, and its own finances, forming a part of the Indo-china Federation and the French Union”.  In exchange, the Viet Minh would
allow some 15,000 French troops to occupy northern Vietnam for a period of five years.  The agreement also stipulated that the political future of Vietnam,
including whether Cochinchina would form part of Vietnam or remain as a French possession, was to be determined through a plebiscite.  Soon thereafter, French forces arrived in Hanoi and northern Vietnam.  In June 1946, Chinese forces withdrew from Vietnam.

Throughout the summer of 1946 in Dalat (in Vietnam) and Fontainebleau (in France), Ho Chi Minh
held talks with French government officials regarding Vietnam’s future.  The two sides were so far apart
that essentially nothing was accomplished, save for a temporary agreement (a modus vivendi), signed in September 1946, which called for further
negotiations.  Meanwhile in Saigon, Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu, the French High Commissioner for Indochina, refused to acknowledge that the Ho-Sainteny agreement included Cochinchina.  In June 1946, without consulting the French national government, he established the “Autonomous
Republic of Cochinchina”, which seriously undermined the ongoing talks in France.

In the summer of 1946, the Viet Minh purged non-communists from its party ranks, effectively restoring the DRV into a fully communist entity.  By September 1946, tensions had risen between French and Viet Minh forces, which led to armed threats and
provocations.  In November 1946, fighting broke out in Haiphong when French port authorities seized a Chinese junk, but were in turn fired upon by the Viet Minh.  The French first demanded that the Viet Minh yield control of Haiphong, and then bombarded the city using naval and ground artillery, and air strikes. 
The French gained control of Haiphong, expelling the Viet Minh, with 6,000 civilians killed in the fighting.

November 22, 1975 – Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain following the death of General Franco

On November 22, 1975, Juan Carlos became King of Spain after the death of General Francisco Franco two days earlier. Franco had ruled Spain as a dictator since emerging victorious in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. As his health declined, Franco appointed Prince Juan Carlos as his successor in 1969, which was approved by the Spanish parliament on July22, 1969. Juan Carlos also temporarily took over as the country’s head of state during periods of Franco’s incapacity in 1974 and 1975.

Franco had hoped that Juan Carlos would continue the government’s ultra-conservative and authoritarian policies. Instead, King Juan Carlos dismantled Franco’s totalitarian regime and transitioned Spain into democracy and a parliamentary monarchy which it is today.

Taken from Spanish Civil War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Aftermath

Following the war, General Franco established a right-wing, anti-communist dictatorial government centered on the Falange Party.  Socialists, communists, and anarchists, were outlawed, as were
free-party politics.  Political enemies were killed or jailed; perhaps as many as 200,000 lost their lives in prison or through executions.  The political autonomies of Basque and Catalonia were voided.  These regions’ culture, language, and identity were suppressed, and a single Spanish national identity
was enforced.

After World War II ended, Spain became politically and economically isolated from most of the international community because of General Franco’s affiliation with the defeated fascist regimes of Germany and Italy.  Then with increasing tensions in the Cold War between the United States
and Soviet Union, the U.S. government became drawn to Spain’s staunchly anti-communist stance and strategic location at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea.

In September 1953, Spain and the United States
entered into a defense agreement known as the Pact of Madrid, where the U.S. government infused large amounts of military assistance to Spain’s defense.  As a result, Spain’s diplomatic isolation ended, and the country was admitted to the United Nations in 1955.

Its economy devastated by the civil war, Spain experienced phenomenal economic growth during the period from 1959 to 1974 (known as the “Spanish Miracle”) when the government passed reforms that opened up the financial and investment sectors.  Spain’s totalitarian regime ended with General Franco’s death in 1975; thereafter, the country transitioned to a democratic parliamentary monarchy which it is today.

November 21, 1971 – Indian-Pakistani War of 1971: Indian forces, aided by Bangladeshi guerrilla fighters, defeat the Pakistanis at the Battle of Garibpur

On November 21, 1971, Indian forces and Bangladeshi resistance fighters of the Mukti Bahini decisively defeated a Pakistani infantry and armoured attack during the two-day Battle of Garibpur (located in present-day Bangladesh). The Pakistanis lost 180 troops killed, 14 tanks destroyed or captured, and 3 planes downed or damaged, while Indian/Bangladeshi casualties were only 40 wounded. The aerial combat between the Indian and Pakistani air forces during this battle is known as the Battle of Boyra, where 2 Pakistani planes were shot down, and another was damaged but managed to land to safety.

(Taken from Bangladesh War of Independence and Indian-Pakistani War of 1971 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Since its independence, India had fought two wars against Pakistan and faced the perennial threat of fighting against or being attacked simultaneously from East Pakistan and West Pakistan.  India
therefore saw that the crisis in East Pakistan yielded one benefit – if the threat from East Pakistan was eliminated, India would not have to face the
threat of a war on two fronts.  Thus, just two days into the uprising in East Pakistan, India began to secretly support the independence of Bangladesh.  The Indian Army covertly trained, armed, and funded the East Pakistani rebels, which within a few months, grew to a force of 100,000 fighters.

In May 1975, India finalized preparations for an invasion of East Pakistan, but moved the date of the operation to later in the year when the Himalayan
border passes were inaccessible to a possible attack by the Chinese Army.  India had been defeated by China in the 1962 Sino-Indian War, and thus was wary of Chinese intentions, more so since China and Pakistan maintained friendly relations and both
considered India their common enemy.  As a result, India entered into a defense treaty with the Soviet Union that guaranteed Soviet intervention in case India was attacked by a foreign power.

In late spring and summer of 1971, East Pakistani rebels based in West Bengal entered East Pakistan and carried out guerilla attacks against the Pakistani Army.  These infiltration attacks included sabotaging military installations and attacking patrols, outposts, and other lightly defended army positions.  Government forces threw back the attacks and sometimes entered into India in pursuit of the rebels.

By October 1971, the Indian Army became involved in the fighting, providing artillery support for rebel infiltrations and even openly engaging the Pakistani Army in medium-scale ground and air battles along the border areas near Garibpur and Boyra (Map 14).

India’s involvement in East Pakistan was condemned in West Pakistan, where war sentiment was running high by November 1971.  On November 23, Pakistan declared a state of emergency and
deployed large numbers of troops to the East Pakistani and West Pakistani borders with India.  Then on December 3, 1971, Pakistani planes
launched air strikes on air bases in India, particularly those in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Punjab, and Haryana.

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The next day, India declared war on Pakistan.
 India held a decisive military advantage, which would allow its armed forces to win the war in only 13 days.  India had a 4:1 and 10:1 advantage over West Pakistan and East Pakistan, respectively, in terms of numbers of aircraft, allowing the Indians to gain mastery of the sky by the second day of the war.

India’s objective in the war was to achieve a rapid victory in East Pakistan before the UN imposed a ceasefire, and to hold off a possible Pakistani offensive from West Pakistan.  In turn, Pakistan hoped to hold out in East Pakistan as long as possible, and to attack and make territorial gains in western India, which would allow the Pakistani government to negotiate in a superior position if the war went to mediation.

In the western sector of the war where opposing forces were more evenly matched, the fighting centered in three volatile areas: Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Sindh-Rhajastan.  Pakistan launched offensives that were generally unsuccessful, except in Chamb, a town in Kashmir which its forces overran and held temporarily.  In the Longewal Desert in India’s Rajasthan State, a Pakistani armored thrust was thwarted by an Indian air attack, which resulted in heavy Pakistani losses.

In the Pakistani coast, Indian Navy ships attacked Karachi, Pakistan’s main port, and destroyed many Pakistani vessels as well as fuel storage facilities.  Indian ships then blockaded the Bay of Bengal, cutting off East Pakistan from the sea and denying Pakistan maritime access to transfer troops and
supplies from West Pakistan to East Pakistan.

The arduous topography of East Pakistan consisting of four major river systems and their thousands of smaller tributaries was thought by India
to be the greatest natural obstacle for its armed forces to achieve a quick victory.  With the support of East Pakistani fighters, the Indian Army therefore merely hoped to win as much territory as possible within a two-week period, and then allow Bangladeshis to install their government in the captured territory.

November 20, 1910 – Mexican Revolution: Defeated candidate Francisco Madero calls for the overthrow of President Porfirio Diaz

On November 5, 1910, defeated presidential candidate Francisco Madero, who had escaped from prison, wrote and issued the Plan de San Luis, where he called on the Mexican people to rise up in rebellion against President Porfirio Diaz. (In Mexican politics, a Plan is a declaration of principles that accompanies an uprising against the national government.)

The Plan called for the rebellion to start on November 20, 1910, nullified the 1910 election of Porfirio Diaz citing electoral fraud, and stipulated a provisional government with Madero as president. Diaz’s government was also condemned as dictatorial, corrupt, and the cause for the current socio-economic degradation of the country.

(Taken from Mexican Revolution – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background

During the early 1900s, Mexico experienced increasing levels of prosperity.  Mexican president Porifirio Diaz’s thirty-year rule had achieved high
levels of economic growth, allowing the country to make rapid strides to full industrialization.  Foreign investments from the United States and Europe were boosting the local economy.  The country’s natural resources were being developed, agricultural plantations yielded rich harvests, and urban centers
showed many signs of progress.

Deep within, however, Mexico’s society was rife with discontent.  Wealth remained with and grew only with the small ruling elite.  Workers, peasants, and villagers were extremely poor.  Land ownership was grossly disproportionate – 5% of the population owned 95% of all lands.  Perhaps as many as 90% of Mexicans were peasants who did not own land and were completely dependent on the plantation owners.  Some very wealthy landowners owned vast
tracts of land that covered many hundreds of thousands of acres; however, their farm workers were paid token wages and lived in miserable conditions.

Landowners dealt ruthlessly with disloyal peasants.  President Diaz also wanted the status quo and thus kept all forms of dissent in check with his army, paramilitaries, and bands of thugs.  Mexico outwardly was a practicing democracy; however, President Diaz always manipulated the elections in his favor and often used the army and paramilitaries to rein in the political opposition.

Mexico’s presidential election of 1910 appeared to be no different from the past, as President Diaz again prevailed by resorting to electoral fraud.  Francisco Madero, the main opposition presidential contender, escaped from prison and called on the people to rise up in rebellion.  Madero promised to bring about major social and economic reforms, which appealed to the masses who rushed to join the many rebel groups that had sprung up.

Some key sites during the Mexican Revolution

War In November 1910, fighting broke out, first with intermittent, disorganized firefights between government troops and rebels groups that soon escalated into full-scale
battles in many parts of the country.  The various rebel movements were led by revolutionaries who were motivated partly by personal ambitions, but with the collective desire to overthrow the government and implement major socio-economic reforms.

During the revolution’s early stages, the most prominent rebel leaders included Pascual Orozco and Francisco Villa from the northern province of Chihuahua, and Emiliano Zapata from the southern province of Morelos (Map 35).  The rebels dealt successive defeats on the government’s forces.  Then
with the fall of Ciudad Juarez to the rebels in May 1911, President Diaz abdicated and fled into exile.

Madero and the other rebel leaders triumphantly entered Mexico City, the country’s capital, where they were greeted as liberators by large, enthusiastic
crowds.  Then in the general elections held in November 1911, Madero became Mexico’s new president.  While in office, however, President Madero appeared to be in no hurry to carry out the promised reforms, but instituted a policy of national reconciliation.  Being an aristocrat who descended from a landowning family, President Madero retained
the previous regime’s political bureaucracy, which was composed of wealthy politicians.  At the same time, he continued to promise the rebel leaders, most of whom were poor, that major reforms were coming.  Soon, the rebel leaders became disillusioned, leading many of them to return to their regions and restart the revolution.

While each revolutionary leader wanted varying levels of reforms, even the return of the country to the socially progressive 1857 national constitution, Zapata, in particular, was angered by President Madero’s procrastination and apparent non-commitment to bring about the reforms.  Zapata wanted a complete overhaul of the social and economic systems, starting with the government’s return of expropriated ancestral lands to the indigenous people.  Zapata also demanded that the large agricultural estates be broken up and distributed to landless peasants and farmers.

November 19, 1942 – World War II: Soviet forces trap German 6th Army at Stalingrad

On November 19, 1942, the Soviet Red Army launched Operation Uranus, which led to the encirclement of German 6th Army in Stalingrad. Unbeknown to the Germans, in the previous months,
the Soviet High Command had been sending large numbers of Red Army formations to the north and southeast of Stalingrad.  While only intending to use these units in sporadic counter-attacks in support of Stalingrad, by November 1942, Stalin and his top generals had reorganized these forces for a major counter-offensive codenamed Operation Uranus involving an enormous force of 1.1 million troops,
1,000 tanks, 14,000 artillery pieces, and 1,300 planes, aimed at cutting off and encircling German 6th Army and units of 7th Panzer Army in Stalingrad.  German intelligence had detected the Soviet buildup, but Hitler ignored the warning of his general staff, as by now he was firmly set on taking Stalingrad at all costs.

On November 19, 1942, the Soviet High Command launched Operation Uranus, a double envelopment maneuver, with the Soviet Southwestern Front attacking the Axis northern flank held by the Romanian 3rd Army.  The next day, the Soviet Stalingrad Front thrust from the south of the Axis flank, with the brunt of the attack falling on Romanian 4th Army. The two Romanian Armies, lacking sufficient anti-tank weapons and supported only with 100 obsolete tanks, were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and on November 22, the two arms of the Soviet pincers linked up at Kalach.  German 6th Army, elements of 4th Panzer Army, and remnants of the Romanian armies, comprising some 250,000-300,000 troops, were trapped in a giant pocket in Stalingrad.

Case Blue (German: Fall Blau) was the operational codename for Fuhrer Directive no. 41, issued on April 5, 1941, where Hitler laid out the plan for the German Army’s 1942 summer offensive in Russia, as follows: Army Group South would advance to the Caucasus, this operation being Case Blue’s main objective; Army Group North would capture Leningrad; and Army Group Center would take a defensive posture and hold its present position.

(Taken from Battle of Stalingrad – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Meanwhile to the north, German Army Group B, tasked with capturing Stalingrad and securing the Volga, began its advance to the Don River on July 23, 1942.  The German advance was stalled by fierce
resistance, as the delays of the previous weeks had allowed the Soviets to fortify their defenses.  By then, the German intent was clear to Stalin and the Soviet High Command, which then reorganized Red Army forces in the Stalingrad sector and rushed reinforcements to the defense of the Don.  Not only was German Army Group B delayed by the Soviets that had began to launch counter-attacks in the Axis’ northern flank (which were held by Italian and Hungarian armies), but also by over-extended supply lines and poor road conditions.

On August 10, 1942, German 6th Army had moved to the west bank of the Don, although strong Soviet resistance persisted in the north.  On August 22, German forces established bridgeheads across the Don, which was crossed the next day, with panzers and mobile spearheads advancing across the remaining 36 miles of flat plains to Stalingrad.  On
August 23, German 14th Panzer Division reached the Volga River north of Stalingrad and fought off Soviet counter-attacks, while the Luftwaffe began a bombing blitz of the city that would continue through to the height of the battle, when most of the buildings would be destroyed and the city turned to rubble.

On August 29, 1942, two Soviet armies (the 62nd and 64th) barely escaped being encircled by the German 4th Panzer Army and armored units of German 6th Army, both escaping to Stalingrad and ensuring that the battle for the city would be long, bloody, and difficult.

On September 12, 1942, German forces entered Stalingrad, starting what would be a four-month long
battle.  From mid-September to early November, the Germans, confident of victory, launched three major attacks to overwhelm all resistance, which gradually pushed back the Soviets east toward the banks of the Volga.

By contrast, the Soviets suffered from low morale, but were compelled to fight, since they had no option to retreat beyond the Volga because of Stalin’s “Not one step back!” order.  Stalin also (initially) refused to allow civilians to be evacuated, stating that “soldiers fight better for an alive city than for a dead one”.  He would later allow civilian evacuation after being advised by his top generals.

Soviet artillery from across the Volga and cross-river attempts to bring in Red Army reinforcements were suppressed by the Luftwaffe, which controlled the sky over the battlefield.  Even then, Soviet troops and supplies continued to reach Stalingrad, enough to keep up resistance.  The ruins of the city turned into a great defensive asset, as Soviet troops cleverly used the rubble and battered buildings as concealed strong points, traps, and killing zones.  To negate the Germans’ air superiority, Red Army units were ordered to keep the fighting lines close to the Germans, to deter the Luftwaffe from attacking and inadvertently causing friendly fire casualties to its own forces.

The battle for Stalingrad turned into one of history’s fiercest, harshest, and bloodiest struggles for
survival, the intense close-quarter combat being fought building-to-building and floor-to-floor, and in cellars and basements, and even in the sewers.  Surprise encounters in such close distances sometimes turned into hand-to-hand combat using knives and bayonets.

By mid-November 1942, the Germans controlled 90% of the city, and had pushed back the Soviets to a small pocket with four shallow bridgeheads some 200 yards from the Volga.  By then, most of German 6th Army was locked in combat in the city, while its outer flanks had become dangerously vulnerable, as they were protected only by the weak armies of its Axis
partners, the Romanians, Italians, and Hungarians.  Two weeks earlier, Hitler, believing Stalingrad’s capture was assured, redeployed a large part of the Luftwaffe to the fighting in North Africa.

Unbeknown to the Germans, in the previous months, the Soviet High Command had been sending large numbers of Red Army formations to the north
and southeast of Stalingrad.  While only intending to use these units in sporadic counter-attacks in support of Stalingrad, by November 1942, Stalin and his top generals had reorganized these forces for a major counter-offensive codenamed Operation Uranus involving an enormous force of 1.1 million troops,
1,000 tanks, 14,000 artillery pieces, and 1,300 planes, aimed at cutting off and encircling German 6th Army and units of 7th Panzer Army in Stalingrad.  German intelligence had detected the Soviet
buildup, but Hitler ignored the warning of his general staff, as by now he was firmly set on taking Stalingrad at all costs.

On November 19, 1942, the Soviet High Command launched Operation Uranus, a double envelopment maneuver, with the Soviet Southwestern Front attacking the Axis northern flank held by the Romanian 3rd Army.  The next day, the Soviet Stalingrad Front thrust from the south of the Axis flank, with the brunt of the attack falling on Romanian 4th Army. The two Romanian Armies, lacking sufficient anti-tank weapons and supported only with 100 obsolete tanks, were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and on November 22, the two arms of the Soviet pincers linked up at Kalach.  German 6th Army, elements of 4th Panzer Army, and remnants of the Romanian armies, comprising some 250,000-300,000 troops, were trapped in a giant pocket in Stalingrad.

The German High Command asked Hitler to allow the trapped forces to make a break out, which was refused.  Also on many occasions, General Friedrich Paulus, commander of German 6th Army, made similar appeals to Hitler, but was turned down.  Instead, on November 24, 1942, Hitler advised
General Paulus to hold his position at Stalingrad
until reinforcements could be sent or a new German offensive could break the encirclement.  In the meantime, the trapped forces would be supplied from the air.  Hitler had been assured by Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering that the 700 tons/day required at Stalingrad could be delivered with German transport planes.  However, the Luftwaffe was unable to deliver the needed amount, despite the addition of more transports for the operation, and the trapped forces in Stalingrad soon experienced dwindling supplies of food, medical supplies, and ammunition.  With the
onset of winter and the temperature dropping to –30°C (–22°F), an increasing number of Axis troops, yet without adequate winter clothing, suffered from
frostbite.  At this time also, the Soviet air force had began to achieve technological and combat parity with the Luftwaffe, challenging it for control of the skies and shooting down increasing numbers of German planes.

Meanwhile, the Red Army strengthened the cordon around Stalingrad, and launched a series of attacks that slowly pushed the trapped forces to an ever-shrinking perimeter in an area just west of Stalingrad.

In early December 1942, General Erich von Manstein, commander of the newly formed German Army Group Don, which was tasked with securing the gap between German Army Groups A and B, was ready to launch a relief operation to Stalingrad.  Began on December 12 under Operation Winter
Storm, German Army Group Don succeeded in punching a hold in the Soviet ring and advanced rapidly, pushing aside surprised Red Army units, and came to within 30 miles of Stalingrad on December 19.  Through an officer that was sent to Stalingrad,
General Manstein asked General Paulus to make a break out towards Army Group Don; he also sent communication to Hitler to allow the trapped forces to break out.  Hitler and General Paulus both refused.  General Paulus cited the lack of trucks and fuel and the poor state of his troops to attempt a break out, and that his continued hold on Stalingrad would tie down large numbers of Soviet forces
which would allow German Army Group A to retreat from the Caucasus.

On December 23, 1942, Manstein canceled the relief operation and withdrew his forces behind German lines, forced to do so by the threat of
being encircled by Soviet forces that meanwhile had launched Operation Little Saturn.  Operation Little Saturn was a modification of the more ambitious Operation Saturn, which aimed to trap German
Army Group A in the Caucasus, but was rapidly readjusted to counter General Manstein’s surprise offensive to Stalingrad.  But Operation Little Saturn, the Soviet encirclement of Stalingrad, and the trapped Axis forces so unnerved Hitler that on his orders, German Army Group A hastily withdrew from the Caucasus in late December 1942.  German 17th Army would continue to hold onto the Taman Peninsula in the Black Sea coast, and planned to use
this as a jump-off point for a possible future second attempt to invade the Caucasus.

Meanwhile in Stalingrad, by early January 1943, the situation for the trapped German forces grew
desperate.  On January 10, the Red Army launched a major attack to finally eliminate the Stalingrad
pocket after its demand to surrender was rejected by General Paulus.  On January 25, the Soviets captured the last German airfield at Stalingrad, and despite the
Luftwaffe now resorting to air-dropping supplies, the trapped forces ran low on food and ammunition.

With the battle for Stalingrad lost, on January 31, 1943, Hitler promoted General Paulus to the rank of Field Marshal, hinting that the latter should take his own life rather than be captured.  Instead, on February 2, General Paulus surrendered to the Red Army, along with his trapped forces, which by now numbered only 110,000 troops.  Casualties on both sides in the battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest in history, are staggering, with the Axis losing 850,000 troops, 500 tanks, 6,000 artillery pieces, and 900 planes; and the Soviets losing 1.1 million troops, 4,300 tanks, 15,000 artillery pieces, and 2,800 planes.  The German debacle at Stalingrad and
withdrawal from the Caucasus effectively ended
Case Blue, and like Operation Barbarossa in the previous year, resulted in another German failure.

November 18, 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: Vukovar falls to Yugoslav forces

On August 25, 1991, some 36,000 troops of the Yugoslav Army, aided by Serb paramilitaries, launched an attack against the light-armed 1,800 Croatian National Guard fighters in Vukovar in eastern Croatia.
Supported by air, armor, and artillery units, the Yugoslav-Serb forces broke through on November 18, 1991 after an 87-day siege and battle. Vukovar was
subjected to intense shell and rocket bombardment and was completely destroyed. For the Yugoslav Army, the battle was won at great cost, incurring 1,100 killed and 2,500 wounded, including the loss of 110 tanks and armoured vehicles and 3 planes. Croatian casualties were 900 killed and 800 wounded. Some 1,100 civilians also perished.

In the aftermath, several hundred Croatian soldiers and civilians were executed, and 20,000 residents comprising the non-Serb population were expelled from the town. Vukovar was thereafter annexed into the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina.

Yugoslavia comprised six republics, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, and Macedonia, and two autonomous provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina.

(Taken from Croatian War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background

By the late 1980s, Yugoslavia was faced with a major political crisis, as separatist aspirations among its ethnic populations threatened to undermine the country’s integrity (see “Yugoslavia”, separate article).  Nationalism particularly was strong in Croatia and Slovenia, the two westernmost and wealthiest Yugoslav republics.  In January 1990, delegates from Slovenia and Croatia walked out from an assembly of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the country’s communist party, over disagreements with their Serbian counterparts regarding proposed reforms to the party and the central government.  Then in the first multi-party elections in Croatia held in April and May 1990, Franjo Tudjman became president after running a campaign that promised greater autonomy for Croatia and a reduced political union with Yugoslavia.

Ethnic Croatians, who comprised 78% of Croatia’s population, overwhelmingly supported Tudjman, because they were concerned that Yugoslavia’s
national government gradually had fallen under the control of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s largest and most
powerful republic, and led by hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic.  In May 1990, a new Croatian Parliament was formed and subsequently prepared a new constitution.  The constitution was subsequently passed in December 1990.  Then in a referendum held in May 1991 with Croatian Serbs refusing to participate, Croatians voted overwhelmingly
in support of independence.  On June 25, 1991, Croatia, together with Slovenia, declared independence.

Croatian Serbs (ethnic Serbs who are native to Croatia) numbered nearly 600,000, or 12% of Croatia’s total population, and formed the second largest ethnic group in the republic.  As Croatia
increasingly drifted toward political separation from Yugoslavia, the Croatian Serbs became alarmed at the thought that the new Croatian government would carry out persecutions, even a genocidal pogrom against Serbs, just as the pro-Nazi ultra-nationalist Croatian Ustashe government had done to the Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies during World War II.  As a
result, Croatian Serbs began to militarize, with the formation of militias as well as the arrival of armed groups from Serbia.

Croatian Serbs formed a population majority in south-west Croatia (northern Dalmatian and Lika).  There, in February 1990, they formed the Serb Democratic Party, which aimed for the political and territorial integration of Serb-dominated lands in Croatia with Serbia and Yugoslavia.  They declared that if Croatia wanted to secede from Yugoslavia, they, in turn, should be allowed to separate from Croatia.  Serbs also interpreted the change in their
status in the new Croatian constitution as diminishing their civil rights.  In turn, the Croatian government opposed the Croatian Serb secession and was determined to keep the republic’s territorial
integrity.

In July 1990, a Croatian Serb Assembly was formed that called for Serbian sovereignty and autonomy.  In December, Croatian Serbs established the SAO Krajina (SAO is the acronym for Serbian Autonomous Oblast) as a separate government from Croatia in the regions of northern Dalmatia and Lika. 
Croatian Serbs formed a majority population in two other regions in Croatia, which they also transformed into separate political administrations called SAO Western Slavonia, and SAO Eastern Slavonia (officially SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western
Syrmia).  (Map 17 shows locations in Croatia
where ethnic Serbs formed a majority population.) In a referendum held in August 1990 in SAO Krajina, Croatian Serbs voted overwhelmingly (99.7%) for
Serbian “sovereignty and autonomy”.  Then after a second referendum held in March 1991 where Croatian Serbs voted unanimously (99.8%) to merge SAO Krajina with Serbia, the Krajina government
declared that “… SAO Krajina is a constitutive part of the unified state territory of the Republic of Serbia”.

November 17, 1970 – Vietnam War: 14 U.S. officers, including Lt. William Calley, are charged by a court-martial for the My Lai Massacre

On November 17, 1970, U.S. Army Lt. William Calley went on court-martial trial for the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. He was one of 14 officers charged for the crime. In March 1971, Lt. Calley was the only officer found guilty of murdering 22 villagers and was handed down a life sentence. He was also the only one of 26 men (officers and men) who was convicted. In August 1971, his sentence was reduced to twenty years. In September 1974, he was paroled by the U.S. Army after having served three and one-half years under house arrest in a military base.

The My Lai Massacre occurred on March 16, 1968 when a U.S. Army Company descended on the hamlets of My Lai and My Khe (located in Son My Village in Quang Ngai Province) and killed some 350 to 500 civilians (men, women, children, and infants). The incident has been described as “the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War”.

(Taken from Vietnam War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

Before the Cambodian Campaign began, President Nixon had announced in a nationwide broadcast that he had committed U.S. ground troops to the operation.  Within days, large demonstrations of up to 100,000 to 150,000 protesters broke out in the United States, with the unrest again centered in universities and colleges.  On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University, Ohio, National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing four people
and wounding eight others.  This incident sparked even wider, increasingly militant and violent protests across the country.  Anti-war sentiment already was
intense in the United States following news reports in November 1969 of what became known as the My Lai Massacre, where U.S. troops on a search and destroy mission descended on My Lai and My Khe villages and killed between 347 and 504 civilians, including women and children.

American public outrage further was fueled when in June 1971, the New York Times began publishing the “Pentagon Papers” (officially titled: United States
– Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense), a highly classified study by the U.S. Department of Defense that was leaked to the press.  The Pentagon Papers showed
that successive past administrations, including those of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, but especially of President Johnson, had many times misled the American people regarding U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  President Nixon sought legal grounds to stop the document’s publication for national security reasons, but the U.S. Supreme
Court subsequently decided in favor of the New York Times and publication continued, and which was also later taken up by the Washington Post and other
newspapers.

As in Cambodia, the U.S. high command had
long desired to launch an offensive into Laos to cut off the logistical portion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail system located there.  But restrained by Laos’ official neutrality, the U.S. military instead carried out secret bombing campaigns in eastern Laos and intelligence gathering operations (the latter conducted by the top-secret Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group, MACV-SOG
that involved units from Special Forces, Navy SEALS, U.S. Marines, U.S. Air Force, and CIA) there.

The success of the Cambodian Campaign encouraged President Nixon to authorize a similar ground operation into Laos.  But as U.S. Congress had prohibited American ground troops from entering Laos, South Vietnamese forces would launch the offensive into Laos with the objective of destroying the Ho Chi Minh Trail, with U.S. forces only playing a supporting role (and remaining within the confines of South Vietnam).  The operation also would gauge the combat capability of the South Vietnamese Army in the ongoing Vietnamization program.

In February-March 1971, about 17,000 troops of the South Vietnamese Army, (some of whom were transported by U.S. helicopters in the largest air assault operation of the war), and supported by U.S. air and artillery firepower, launched Operation Lam Son 719 into southeastern Laos.  At their furthest extent, the South Vietnamese seized and briefly held Tchepone village, a strategic logistical hub of the Ho Chi Minh Trail located 25 miles west of the South Vietnamese border.  The main South Vietnamese column was stopped by heavy enemy resistance and poor road conditions at A Luoi, some 15 miles from the border.  North Vietnamese forces, initially distracted by U.S. diversionary attacks elsewhere, soon assembled 50,000 troops against the South Vietnamese, and counterattacked.  North Vietnamese
artillery particularly was devastating, knocking out several South Vietnamese firebases, while intense anti-aircraft fire disrupted U.S. air transport operations.  By early March 1971, the attack was called off, and with the North Vietnamese intensifying their artillery bombardment,
the South Vietnamese withdrawal turned into a chaotic retreat and a desperate struggle for survival.  The operation was a debacle, with the South Vietnamese losing up to 8,000 soldiers killed, 60% of
their tanks, 50% of their armored carriers, and dozens of artillery pieces; North Vietnamese casualties were 2,000 killed.  American planes were sent to destroy abandoned South Vietnamese armor, transports, and equipment to prevent their capture by the enemy.  U.S. air losses were substantial: 84 planes destroyed and 430 damaged and 168 helicopters destroyed and 618 damaged.

Buoyed by this success, in March 1972, North Vietnam launched the Nguyen Hue Offensive
(called the Easter Offensive in the West), its first full-scale offensive into South Vietnam, using 300,000 troops and 300 tanks and armored vehicles.  By this time, South Vietnamese forces carried practically all of the fighting, as fewer than 10,000 U.S. troops remained in South Vietnam, and who were soon
scheduled to leave.  North Vietnamese forces advanced along three fronts.  In the northern front, the North Vietnamese attacked through the DMZ, and captured the northern provinces, and threatened Hue and Da Nang.  In late June 1972, a South Vietnamese counterattack, supported by U.S. air firepower, including B-52 bombers, recaptured most of the occupied territory, including Quang Tri, near the northern border.  In the Central Highlands front, the North Vietnamese objective to advance right through to coastal Qui Nhon and split South Vietnam
in two, failed to break through to Kontum and was pushed back.  In the southern front, North Vietnamese forces that advanced from the Cambodian border took Tay Ninh and Loc Ninh, but
were repulsed at An Loc because of strong South Vietnamese resistance and massive U.S.
air firepower.

To further break up the North Vietnamese offensive, in April 1972, U.S. planes including B-52 bombers under Operation Freedom Train, launched bombing attacks mostly between the 17th and 19th parallels in North Vietnam, targeting military installations, air defense systems, power plants
and industrial sites, supply depots, fuel storage facilities, and roads, bridges, and railroad tracks.  In May 1972, the bombing attack was stepped up with Operation Linebacker, where American planes now attacked targets across North Vietnam.  A few days earlier, U.S. planes air-dropped thousands of naval mines off the North Vietnamese coast, sealing off North Vietnam from sea traffic.

At the end of the Easter Offensive in October 1972, North Vietnamese losses included up to 130,000 soldiers killed, missing, or wounded
and 700 tanks destroyed.  However, North Vietnamese forces succeeded in capturing and holding about 50% of the territories of South Vietnam’s northern provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Nam, and Quang Tin, as well as the western edges of II Corps and III Corps.  But the immense destruction caused by U.S. bombing in North Vietnam forced the latter to agree to make concessions at the Paris peace talks.

At the height of North Vietnam’s Easter Offensive, the Cold War took a dramatic turn when in February 1972, President Nixon visited China and met with Chairman Mao Zedong.  Then in May 1972, President Nixon also visited the Soviet Union and met with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders.  A period of superpower détente followed.  China and the Soviet Union, desiring to maintain their newly established friendly relations with the United States, aside from issuing diplomatic protests, were not overly provoked by the massive
U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.  Even then, the two communist powers stood by their North Vietnamese ally and continued to send large amounts of military
support.

November 16, 1912 – First Balkan War: The start of the Battle of Bitola between Serbian and Ottoman forces

On November 16, 1912, Serbian forces pushed into Bitola, starting an intense three-day battle during the First Balkan War.  The Ottomans were defeated, and forced to abandon the whole the province and retreat to the Berat region in central Albania, as well as to the fortress city of Ioannina, which was then under siege by the Greek Army.

The Serbians then advanced toward Albania,
taking most of the region north of Vlora and into the Adriatic Coast, thereby achieving Serbia’s ambition of gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea.  Montenegrin forces also occupied a section of
northern Albania, and advanced to the fortified city of Shkoder, where they began a siege on October 28, 1912 that would last for several months.

(Taken from First Balkan War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

The Ottoman Empire’s last remaining possession in the European mainland was Rumelia, a long strip of the Balkans extending from Eastern Thrace, to Macedonia, and into Albania in the Adriatic Coast.

Background

At the start of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire was a spent force, a shadow of its former power of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that had struck fear in Europe.  The empire did continue to hold vast territories, but only tolerated by competing interests among the European powers who wanted to maintain a balance of power in Europe.  In particular, Britain and France supported and sometimes intervened on the side of the Ottomans in order to restrain expansionist ambitions of the emerging giant, the Russian Empire.

In Europe, the Ottomans had lost large areas of the Balkans, and all of its possessions in central and
central eastern Europe.  By 1910, Serbia, Bulgaria,
Montenegro, and Greece had gained their independence.  As a result, the Ottoman Empire’s last remaining possession in the European mainland was Rumelia (Map 4), a long strip of the Balkans extending from Eastern Thrace, to Macedonia, and into Albania in the Adriatic Coast.  And even Rumelia itself was coveted by the new Balkan states, as it contained large ethnic populations of Serbians, Belgians, and Greeks, each wanting to merge with their mother countries.

The Russian Empire, seeking to bring the Balkans into its sphere of influence, formed a military alliance with fellow Slavic Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.  In March 1912, a Russian initiative led to a
Serbian-Bulgarian alliance called the Balkan League.  In May 1912, Greece joined the alliance when the
Bulgarian and Greek governments signed a similar agreement.  Later that year, Montenegro joined as well, signing separate treaties with Bulgaria and Serbia.

The Balkan League was envisioned as an all-Slavic alliance, but Bulgaria saw the need to bring in Greece, in particular the modern Greek Navy, which could exert control in the Aegean Sea and neutralize Ottoman power in the Mediterranean Sea, once fighting began.  The Balkan League believed that it could achieve an easy victory over the Ottoman
Empire, for the following reasons.  First, the Ottomans currently were locked in a war with the Italian Empire in Tripolitania (part of present-day Libya), and were losing; and second, because of this war, the Ottoman political leadership was internally
divided and had suffered a number of coups.

Most of the major European powers, and especially Austria-Hungary, objected to the Balkan League and regarded it as an initiative of the Russian Empire to allow the Russian Navy to have access to the Mediterranean Sea through the Adriatic Coast.  Landlocked Serbia also had ambitions on Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to gain a maritime outlet through the Adriatic Coast, but was frustrated when Austria-Hungary, which had occupied Ottoman-owned Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1878, formally annexed the region in 1908.

The Ottomans soon discovered the invasion plan and prepared for war as well.  By August 1912,
increasing tensions in Rumelia indicated an imminent outbreak of hostilities.