Daniel Orr's Blog, page 120

October 7, 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav planes attack Zagreb

On October 7, 1991, Yugoslav Air Force planes attacked a number of targets in the Croatian capital Zagreb, the most significant being the Banski dvori, the official residence of the President of Croatia. Inside the building at the time of the raid were Croatian President Franjo Tudman, Yugoslavian President Stjepan Mesic, and Yugoslavian Prime minister Ante Markovic, all of whom were not injured in the attack. President Tudman laid the blame for the attacks on the Yugoslav military, but the latter
denied any involvement, instead accusing the Croatians of staging the attacks as a ruse. The following day, October 8, the three-month moratorium on Croatian independence (Croatia had declared independence on June 7, 1991) lapsed, and Croatia cut all ties with Yugoslavia. During the interim
period, increasing tensions had broken out into fighting in the Croatian War of Independence.

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

Ethnic Serbs in Croatia formed the majority population in Northern Dalmatia, Lika, and parts of Western Slavonia and Eastern Slavonia.

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”.

October 6, 1973 – Yom Kippur War: Egypt and Syria launch offensives against Israel

On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched coordinated offensives against Israel-occupied Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, respectively, starting the Yom Kippur War. Over 200 Egyptian war planes took to the air into the Sinai, striking at Israel airbases, missile batteries, artillery positions, radar installations, and command centers. Then under cover of an artillery barrage, 32,000 Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal into the eastern bank of the Sinai.

Simultaneous with the Egyptian attack, Syria launched a massive offensive into the Golan Heights (which Israel had captured, together with the Sinai Peninsula and West Bank, during the Six Day War), which was only light defended. The initial Syrian forces of three infantry divisions comprising 28,000 troops, 800 tanks, and 600 artillery pieces, were joined the next day by two armoured divisions. The initial Israeli defense forces in the Golan Heights consisted only of brigade-size formations and
supporting units comprising 3,000 troops, 180 tanks, and 60 artillery pieces.

(Taken from Yom Kippur War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background

With its decisive victory in the Six-Day War (previous article) in June 1967, Israel gained control of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank from Jordan.  The Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights were integral territories of Egypt and Syria, respectively, and both countries were determined to take them back.  In September 1967, Egypt and Syria, together with other Arab countries, issued the Khartoum Declaration of the “Three No’s”, that is, no peace, recognition, and negotiations with Israel, which meant that only armed force would be used to win back the lost lands.

Shortly after the Six-Day War ended, Israel offered to return the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement, but the plan apparently was not received by Egypt and Syria.  In October 1967, Israel withdrew the offer.

In the ensuing years after the Six-Day War, Egypt
carried out numerous small attacks against Israeli military and government targets in the Sinai.  In what is now known as the “War of Attrition”, Egypt was determined to exact a heavy economic and human toll and force Israel to withdraw from the Sinai.  By way of retaliation, Israeli forces also launched attacks into Egypt.  Armed incidents also took place across Israel’s borders with Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.  Then, as the United States, which backed Israel, and the Soviet Union, which supported the Arab countries, increasingly became involved, the two superpowers prevailed upon Israel and Egypt to agree to a ceasefire in August 1970.

In September 1970, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s hard-line president, passed away.  Succeeding as Egypt’s head of state was Vice-President Anwar
Sadat, who began a dramatic shift in foreign policy toward Israel.  Whereas the former regime was staunchly hostile to Israel, President Sadat wanted a diplomatic solution to the Egyptian-Israeli conflict.  In secret meetings with U.S. government officials and a United Nations (UN) representative, President Sadat offered a proposal that in exchange for Israel’s return of the Sinai to Egypt, the Egyptian government would sign a peace treaty with Israel and recognize the Jewish state.

However, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Golda Meir refused to negotiate.  President Sadat, therefore, decided to use military force. 
He knew, however, that his armed forces were incapable of dislodging the Israelis from the Sinai.  He decided that an Egyptian military victory on the battlefield, however limited, would compel Israel to see the need for negotiations.  Egypt began preparations for war.  Large amounts of modern weapons were purchased from the Soviet Union.  Egypt restructured its large, but ineffective, armed forces into a competent fighting force.

In order to conceal its war plans, Egypt carried out a number of ruses.  The Egyptian Army constantly
conducted military exercises along the western bank of the Suez Canal, which soon were taken lightly by the Israelis.  Egypt’s persistent war rhetoric
eventually was regarded by the Israelis as mere bluff.  Through press releases, Egypt underreported the true
strength of its armed forces.  The government also announced maintenance and spare parts problems with its war equipment and the lack of trained personnel to operate sophisticated military hardware.  Furthermore, when President Sadat expelled 20,000 Soviet advisers from Egypt in July 1972, Israel believed that the Egyptian Army’s military capability was weakened seriously.  In fact, thousands of Soviet personnel remained in Egypt
and Soviet arms shipments continued to arrive. 
Egyptian military planners worked closely and secretly with their Syrian counterparts to devise a simultaneous two-front attack on Israel.  Consequently, Syria also secretly mobilized for
war.

Israel’s intelligence agencies learned many details of the invasion plan, even the date of the attack itself, October 6.  Israel detected the movements of large numbers of Egyptian and Syrian troops, armor, and – in the Suez Canal– bridging equipment.  On October 6, a few hours before Egypt and Syria attacked, the Israeli government called for a mobilization of 120,000 soldiers and the entire Israeli Air Force. 
However, many top Israeli officials continued to believe that Egypt and Syria were incapable of starting a war and that the military movements were just another army exercise.  Israeli officials decided against carrying out a pre-emptive air strike (as Israel had done in the Six-Day War) to avoid being seen as the aggressor.  Egypt and Syria chose to attack on Yom Kippur (which fell on October 6 in 1973), the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, when most Israeli soldiers were on leave.

October 5, 1937 – Interwar period: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his “Quarantine Speech”

In October 1937, the United States was already moving away from neutrality, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his “Quarantine Speech”, calling for an international “quarantine” of the “epidemic of world lawlessness” against unnamed countries, but which ostensibly were Germany, Italy, and Japan.  Roosevelt proposed imposing economic measures against them, rather than using outright aggression.

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

United States in the interwar period

In the period after World War I, the United States exerted strong influence on the economic recovery of Europe.  Using American loans, changes were introduced to the German economy, allowing the Weimar government to restructure its war reparations obligations to the Allied nations.  In turn, the latter repaid their war loans to U.S. creditors.  By the mid-1920s, prosperity had returned to Western Europe.

In October 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed, ushering in the massive economic crisis called the Great Depression, first in the United States and spreading later to many parts of the world.  The U.S. economy was hit hard, with unemployment reaching 25%, hundreds of thousands of people becoming
homeless, some 5,000 banks (50% of the total number) failing, and many industries badly hit, including construction, mining, agriculture, logging, and shipping.  The U.S. government reversed its foreign policy and turned inward-looking to confront its severe domestic problems.  The effects of the Great Depression would be felt throughout the 1930s, and the U.S. economy would not fully
recover until the early 1940s.

In the mid-1930s, with mounting tensions in Europe caused by an increasingly belligerent Nazi Germany, the United States passed the Neutrality Act in August 1935, where the United States would not
sell weapons to any party in a war, which reflected the U.S. move toward isolationism and non-involvement in European affairs.  By 1937, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt increasingly drawn to the side of the western democracies, Britain and France, and with his lobbying efforts, U.S. Congress extended the Neutrality Act in May 1937, but which included the “cash and carry” provision, in that the United States would sell war materials to belligerents in a European war, on condition that the buyers pay for the goods in cash and make arrangements and bear full responsibility for their shipment.  Ostensibly, all countries could avail of this provision; however, in reality, only Britain and France, with their large powerful navies, could purchase U.S. weapons, while Germany, yet in the early stages of building a navy, could not.  The Neutrality Act was further extended in November 1939.  However, in October 1937, the United States was already moving away from neutrality, with President Roosevelt, in his
“Quarantine Speech”, calling for an international “quarantine” of the “epidemic of world lawlessness” against unnamed countries, but which ostensibly were Germany, Italy, and Japan.  Roosevelt
proposed imposing economic measures against them, rather than direct aggression.

After World War I, the United States adopted a pacifist foreign policy, demobilizing most of its armed forces, cooperating with the League of Nations, and participating in disarmament conferences and signing
diplomatic treaties.  In the 1930s, its neutralist and isolationist position made the United States unprepared for another war, and in 1938, the defense budget amounted to only 1% of GDP.  But by 1940, U.S. involvement as a non-combatant in the ongoing European conflict was growing, and a perception grew that the country would eventually be drawn into war.  As a result, defense spending rose dramatically to 13% of GDP, and many aspects of the civilian economy were set to be converted to war readiness.

October 4, 1939 – World War II: The last Polish units surrender to German and Soviet forces

Facing both German and Soviet invasions, the remaining Polish units continued to engage in desperate fighting.  On September 20, 1939, at Tomaszow Lubelski, the Germans annihilated two Polish armies, the Krakow and Lublin Armies.  Two days later, September 22, Lwow was taken.  In Warsaw, on September 28, the Polish defenders who had withstood relentless German air and artillery attacks, and German ground assaults, finally capitulated after a 20-day siege, with 140,000 Polish soldiers captured.  The next day, the Modlin Fortress located north of the capital also fell after two weeks of fighting.  Isolated Polish pockets held off until as late as the first week of October 1939, which were overrun, ending the six-week war.

(Taken from German Invasion of Poland – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Background In March 1938, with the Anschluss (political union), Germany gained control of Austria.  Six months later, September 1938, with the Munich Agreement, Germany annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia; then after another six months, in March 1939, the dissolution of Czechoslovakia was complete.  German leader Adolf Hitler had achieved these feats using only forceful diplomacy and threats of invasion.  He then turned his eyes on Poland, intent on using the same aggressive diplomatic tactics.

At the end of World War I, the Allies reconstituted Poland as a sovereign nation, incorporating into the new state portions of the eastern German territories of Pomerania and Silesia, which contained majority Polish populations.  In the
1920s, the German Weimar Republic sought to restore to Germany all its lost territories, but was restrained by certain stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles, which had been imposed on Germany after World War I.  Polish Pomerania was known worldwide as the “Polish Corridor”, as it allowed Poland access to international waters through the Baltic Sea.  The German city of Danzig in East Prussia, as well as nearby areas, also was detached from Germany, and renamed the “Free City of Danzig”, administered by the League of Nations, but whose port, customs, and public infrastructures were controlled by Poland.

In 1933, Hitler came to power and implemented Germany’s massive rearmament program, and later began to pursue his irredentist ambitions in earnest.  Previously in January 1934, Nazi Germany and Poland had signed a ten-year non-aggression pact, where the German government recognized the territorial integrity of the Polish state, which included the German regions that had been ceded to Poland.  But by the late 1930s, the now militarily powerful Germany was actively pushing to redefine the German-Polish border.

In October 1938, Germany proposed to Poland renewing their non-aggression treaty, but subject to two conditions: that Danzig be restored to Germany and that Germany be allowed to build road and railway lines through the Polish Corridor to connect Germany proper and East Prussia.  Poland refused, and in April 1939, Hitler abolished the non-aggression pact.  To Poland, Hitler was using the same aggressive tactics that he had used against Czechoslovakia, and that if it yielded to the
German demands on Danzig and the Polish Corridor, ultimately the rest of Poland would be swallowed up by Germany.

Meanwhile, Britain and France, which had
pursued appeasement toward Hitler, had become wary after the German occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia, which had a non-ethnic German majority population, which was in contrast to what Hitler had said that he only wanted returned those German-populated territories.  Britain and France were now determined to resist Germany diplomatically and resolve the crisis through firm negotiations.  On March 31, 1939, Britain and France
announced that they would “guarantee Polish independence” in case of foreign aggression.  Since 1921, as per the Franco-Polish Military Alliance, France had pledged military assistance to Poland if that latter was attacked.

In fact, Hitler’s intentions on Poland was not only the return of lost German territories, but the elimination of the Polish state and annexation of Poland as part of Lebensraum (“living space”), German expansion into Eastern Europe and Russia.  Lebensraum called for the eradication of the native populations in these conquered areas.  For Poland
specifically, on August 22, 1939 in the lead-up to the German invasion, Hitler had said that “the object of the war is … to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language.  Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need.”  In April 1939, Hitler instructed the German military High Command to begin preparations for an
invasion of Poland, to be launched later in the summer.  By May 1939, the German military had drawn up the invasion plan.

In May 1939, Britain and France held high-level
talks with the Soviet Union regarding forming a tripartite military alliance against Germany, especially
in light of the possible German invasion of Poland.  These talks stalled, because Poland refused to allow Soviet forces into its territory in case Germany
attacked.  Unbeknown to Britain and France,
the Soviet Union and Germany were also conducting (secret) separate talks regarding bilateral political,
military, and economic concerns, which on August 23, 1939, led to the signing of a non-aggression treaty.  This treaty, which was broadcast to the world and widely known as the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact (named after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop), brought a radical shift to the European power balance, as Germany was now free to invade Poland without fear of Soviet reprisal.  The pact also included a secret protocol where Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania were
divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

One day earlier, August 22, with the non-aggression treaty virtually assured, Hitler set the invasion date of Poland for August 26, 1939.  On August 25, Hitler told the British ambassador that Britain must agree to the German demands on Poland, as the non-aggression pact freed Germany from facing a two-front war with major powers.  But on that same day, Britain and Poland signed a mutual defense pact, which contained a secret clause where the British promised military assistance if Poland was attacked by Germany.  This agreement, as well as British overtures that Britain and Poland were willing to restart the stalled talks with Germany, forced Hitler to abort the invasion set for the next day.

The Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) stood down, except for some units that did not receive the new stop order and crossed into Poland, skirmishing with the Poles.  These German units soon withdrew back across the border, but the Polish High Command, informed through intelligence reports of massive German build-up at the border, was unaware that the border skirmishes were part of an aborted German invasion.

German negotiations with Britain and France
continued, but they failed to make progress.  Poland had refused to negotiate on the basis of ceding territory, and its determination was strengthened by the military guarantees of the Western Powers, particularly in that if the Germans invaded, the British and French would attack from the west, and Germany
would be confronted with a two-front war.

On August 29, 1939, Germany sent Poland a set of proposals for negotiations, which included two points: that Danzig be returned to Germany and that a plebiscite be held in the Polish Corridor to determine whether the territory should remain with Poland or be returned to Germany.  In the latter, Poles who were born or had settled in the Corridor since 1919 could not vote, while Germans born there but not living there could vote.  Germany demanded that negotiations were subject to a Polish official with signing powers arriving by the following day, August 30.

Britain deemed that the German proposal was an ultimatum to Poland, and tried but failed to convince the Polish government to negotiate.  On August 30, the German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop presented the British ambassador with a 16-point proposal for negotiations, but refused the latter’s request that a copy be sent to the Polish government, as no Polish
representative had arrived by the set date.  The next day, August 31, the Polish Ambassador Jozef Lipski conferred with Ribbentrop, but as Lipski had no signing powers, the talks did not proceed.  Later that day, Hitler announced that the German-Polish talks had ended because of Poland’s refusal to negotiate.  He then ordered the German High Command to proceed with the invasion of Poland for the next day, September 1, 1939.

October 3, 1912 – United States Occupation of Nicaragua, 1912-1933: U.S. Marines shell Nicaraguan rebel forts at the Battle of Coyotepe Hill

On October 3, 1912, U.S. Marines opened fire with two artillery pieces on the Nicaraguan rebel forts at Coyotepe and Barranca. The forts were strategically located on a hill overlooking the Masaya railroad line nearly halfway between the capital Managua and Granada. The following day, October 4, four U.S. Marine battalions stormed the forts, capturing them that same day. Some 850 U.S. Marines were involved in the battle, assisted by 100 American sailors. The rebels numbered 350 fighters inside the two forts equipped with four artillery pieces. Casualties were: U.S. Marines – 4 killed ; Rebels – 32 killed, 10 wounded.

Nicaragua in Central America

The United States
had sent troops to Nicaragua
in 1912 to intervene on the side of President Adolfo Diaz against an
insurrection by the former Minister of War General Luis Mena. The American
military presence in that country would last over two decades until 1933.

(Taken from United States Occupation of Nicaragua, 1912-1933 – Wars of the 20th Century – 26 Wars and Conflicts in the Americas and the Caribbean)

Background In many instances, Nicaragua’s political troubles prompted American intervention, such as those that occurred in 1847, 1894, 1896, 1898, and 1899, when U.S. forces were landed in that Central American country.  These occupations were brief, with American troops withdrawing once order had been restored, although U.S. Navy ships kept a permanent watch throughout the Central American coastline.  The officially stated reasons given by the United States for intervening in Nicaragua was to protect American lives and American commercial interests in Central America.  In some cases, however, the Americans wanted to give a decided advantage to one side of Nicaragua’s political conflict.

In 1912, the United States
again intervened in Nicaragua,
starting an occupation of the country that would last for over two decades and
would leave a deep impact on the local population.  The origin of the 1912 American occupation
traces back to the early 1900s when Nicaragua,
then led by the Liberals, offered the construction of the Nicaragua
Canal to Germany
and Japan.  The Nicaragua
Canal was planned to be a shipping
waterway that connects the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean through the Caribbean Sea.

The Liberals wanted less American involvement in Nicaragua’s
internal affairs and therefore offered the waterway’s construction to other
countries.  Furthermore, the United States had decided to forgo its original
plan to build the Nicaragua Canal in favor of completing the partly-finished Panama Canal (which had been abandoned by a French
construction firm).

For the United States,
however, the idea of another foreign power in the Western Hemisphere was
anathema, as the U.S.
government believed it had the exclusive rights to the region.  The American policy of exclusivity in the
Western Hemisphere was known as the Monroe Doctrine, set forth in 1823 by
former U.S.
president James Monroe.  Furthermore, the
United States believed that Nicaragua had ambitions in Central
America and therefore viewed that country as a potential source of
a wider conflict.  U.S.-Nicaraguan
relations deteriorated when two American saboteurs were executed by the
Nicaraguan government.  Consequently, the
United States broke off
diplomatic relations with Nicaragua.

In October 1909, Nicaraguan Conservatives, backed by some
Liberals, carried out a rebellion against the government.  The United States threw its support
behind the rebels.  Then when the
rebellion spread, the United States
sent warships to Nicaragua
and subsequently, in December 1909, landed troops in Corinto and Bluefields
(Map 38).  More American forces arrived
in May 1910.

In August 1910, Nicaragua’s ruling government
collapsed, replaced by a U.S.-friendly administration consisting of
Conservatives and Liberals.  The United States bought out Nicaragua’s large foreign debt that
had accumulated during the long period of instability.  Consequently, Nicaragua
owed the United States
the amount of that debt, while the Americans’ stake was raised in that troubled
country.

Then in 1912, Nicaragua’s ruling coalition broke
down, sparking a civil war between the government and another alliance of
Liberals and Conservatives.  As the
rebels gained ground and began to threaten Managua,
Nicaragua’s capital, the United States
landed troops in Corinto, Bluefields, and San Juan del Sur.  At its peak, the U.S.
troop deployment in Nicaragua
totaled over 2,300 soldiers.  Within a
month of the deployment, in October 1912, the American troops, supported by
Nicaraguan government forces, had defeated the rebels.

The United States
tightened its control of Nicaragua
in August 1914 when both countries signed an agreement whereby the Americans
gained exclusive rights to construct the Nicaragua Canal,
as well as to establish military bases to protect it.  The U.S.-Nicaragua treaty mostly served as a
deterrent against other foreign involvement in Nicaragua,
since by this time, the Americans already were operating the Panama
Canal nearby.

October 2, 1937 – Parsley Massacre: Dominican president Rafael Trujillo orders the mass killing of Haitians

On October 2, 1937, President Rafael Trujillo met with Dominican residents of Dajabon and promised to act on their complaints against Haitians who were committing “thefts of cattle, provisions, fruits…”  President Trujillo also disclosed to the Dajabon assembly that government forces had killed 300 Haitians days earlier.

The northwestern Dominican region around Dajabon was the scene of the Parsley Massacre.

From October 3-8, 1937, the Dominican Army massacred Haitians in and around the region of Dajabon.  The victims were killed in their homes inside plantation camps or were gathered together and brought to secluded locations for execution.  The soldiers generally did not fire their rifles at the Haitians, since the bullets could be used to implicate the Dominican Army and even President Trujillo. 
Instead, the perpetrators used machetes, clubs, and knives, in order to suggest that the killings were carried out by civilians.  In some cases, Dominican civilians who helped Haitians escape were also killed. 
Dominicans also sometimes were misidentified as Haitians and killed.

To identify Haitians, a piece of “perejil” (parsley) was shown to a potential victim who was ordered to name it.  As Haitians spoke French Creole and were unable to say “perejil” like the Spanish-speaking Dominicans did, the person was deemed a Haitian and taken away for execution.  The Parsley Massacre is so named because of the “perejil” shibboleth.

(Taken from Parsley Massacre – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Background

In 1930, Rafael Trujillo became President of the Dominican Republic, a country that occupies two-thirds and the eastern section of Hispaniola Island in the Caribbean Sea.  President Trujillo actively pursued a racist policy known as “Antihaitianismo” or “Antihaitianism”, directed against Haiti, the Dominican Republic’s western neighbor in Hispaniola.

Antihaitianism emphasized racial differences between the two nationalities, that Dominicans are descendants of former Spanish colonizers and therefore are white (in fact, the vast majority of Dominicans are mulatto descendants of Spanish and black African unions), and that Haitians are black,
being descendants of former African slaves.  Antihaitianism also espoused the incompatibility of the social, cultural, and linguistic aspects of the two nationalities, that is, since the Dominican Republic was a former colony of Spain, the country therefore exhibits strong Spanish influences.  Conversely, Haiti
was a former colony of France and therefore manifests strong French influences.  Also because of a history of conflict, Antihaitianism also was viewed by Dominicans as the need for vigilance to defend their country against a possible invasion by Haitians who were perceived as wanting to take control of the whole island.

Antihaitianism has its origin in 1805 when Haiti invaded and took control of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic), then a Spanish colony, and subsequently carried out repressive policies and atrocities, including a number of massacres in the Cibao region. A year earlier, Haiti had gained its independence from France.  In 1822, Haiti and Santo Domingo signed a unification agreement, whereby the Haitian government gained authority of western
Hispaniola, thereby bringing the whole island under Haiti’s control.

Relations soon deteriorated, however, when the Haitian government attempted to transform Dominican society.  The Spanish language was curtailed as were traditional Dominican customs.  The
Catholic Church was suppressed, church properties were seized, and the foreign clergy was expelled from the island.  Land reform was imposed, which ran against traditional Dominican farming practices and which targeted wealthy landowners.  When these landowners were forced out of the island, their lands were taken over by Haitian officials.

In 1844, Dominicans rebelled and drove away the Haitians, ending 22 years of occupation.  Dominicans then declared independence as the Dominican Republic.  In the following years, Haiti carried out many unsuccessful attempts to re-conquer its eastern neighbor.  An undefined border between them also added to their acrimonious historical relationship.  In 1936, tensions eased somewhat, and President Trujillo and Haitian President Stenio Vincent signed a border treaty that fixed the territorial limits of the two countries.

However, the Dominican Republic’s border regions were frontiers too remote to Santo Domingo and only poorly accessed from other populated areas of the country.  Budgetary constraints also restricted the Dominican government’s ability to secure the country’s border.    As a result, President Trujillo was
infuriated that his political enemies could easily escape to Haiti from where he believed they made plans against him. The porous border also deprived the Dominican Republic of tariff duties from farm produce and other goods that entered from Haiti.

President Trujillo’s greatest concern, however, was the large number of Haitians who entered the Dominican Republic in search of work.  Through immigration over the years, Haitian settlements had established and “haitianized” some Dominican
border areas.  Most of the Haitians were employed as laborers in Dominican sugar plantations.  President Trujillo initiated repressive policies aimed at ending the immigration and re-establishing Dominican control of the border areas.  In July 1937, the
Dominican government expelled 8,000 Haitians. 
Adding to President Trujillo’s anti-Haitian sentiment was that the Dominican Republic’s economy was being hard hit by the ongoing Great Depression, in which sugar, the country’s main source of revenue, had dropped to 1/20 of its price in the world
market.

October 1, 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Yugoslav Army begins the siege of Dubrovnik

On October 1, 1991, Yugoslav Army forces advanced from Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, andSerb-controlled Croatiatoward the western region of southern Dalmatia with the city of Dubrovnik as their mainobjective.  The capture of the towns of
Prevlaka, Konavle, and Cavtat allowed the Yugoslavs to encircle Dubrovnik.  Artillery batteries placed on the surroundingheights, together with Yugoslav Navy ships on the coastal waters, opened fireon the city, starting a seven-month siege. Yugoslav planes also conducted air strikes on Dubrovnik. International diplomatic pressures and widespread foreign media coverageof the siege eventually deterred the Yugoslav Army from carrying out a groundassault on the city.

(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 Serbs in Croatia formed the majority population in Northern Dalmatia, Lika, and parts of Western Slavonia and Eastern Slavonia.

Ethnic Croatians, who comprised 78% of Croatia’s population, overwhelmingly supported
Tudjman, because they were concerned that Yugoslavia’snational government gradually had fallen under the control of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s largest and mostpowerful republic, and led by hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic.  In May 1990, a new Croatian Parliament wasformed and subsequently prepared a new constitution.  The constitution was subsequently passed inDecember 1990.  Then in a referendum held
in May 1991 with Croatian Serbs refusing toparticipate, Croatians votedoverwhelmingly 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 totalpopulation, and formed the second largest ethnic group in the republic.  As Croatia
increasingly drifted toward political separation from Yugoslavia, theCroatian Serbs became alarmed at the thought that the new Croatian governmentwould carry out persecutions, even a genocidal pogrom against Serbs, just asthe pro-Nazi ultra-nationalist Croatian Ustashe government had done to theSerbs, Jews, and Gypsies during World War II. As a result, Croatian Serbs began to militarize, with the formation ofmilitias 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, inFebruary 1990, they formed the Serb Democratic Party, which aimed for thepolitical and territorial integration of Serb-dominated lands in Croatia with Serbiaand Yugoslavia. They declared that if Croatia wanted to secede from Yugoslavia, they, in turn, should be allowed toseparate from Croatia.  Serbs also interpreted the change in theirstatus 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 territorialintegrity.

In July 1990, a Croatian Serb Assembly was formed thatcalled for Serbian sovereignty and autonomy. In December, Croatian Serbs established the SAO Krajina (SAO is theacronym 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 intoseparate political administrations called SAO Western Slavonia, and SAO EasternSlavonia (officially SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Syrmia).  (Map 17 showslocations in Croatiawhere ethnic Serbs formed a majority population.) In a referendum held inAugust 1990 in SAO Krajina, Croatian Serbs voted overwhelmingly (99.7%) forSerbian “sovereignty and autonomy”.  Thenafter a second referendum held in March 1991 where Croatian Serbs votedunanimously
(99.8%) to merge SAO Krajina with Serbia, the Krajina governmentdeclared that “… SAO Krajina is a constitutive part of the unified stateterritory of the Republic of Serbia”.

September 30, 1938 – Britain, France, Italy, and Germany sign the Munich Agreement, where the Sudetenland is ceded to Germany

In a frantic move to avert war, the Prime Ministers of Britain and France,Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, respectively, together with
Mussolini, met with Hitler, and on September 30, 1938, the four men signed theMunich Pact, where the Sudetenland was formally ceded toGermany.

Background

In late March 1938, while Germany was yet in the process of annexing Austria,another conflict, the “Sudetenland Crisis” occurred, where ethnic Germans, whoformed the majority population in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia,demanded autonomy and the right to join the Nazi Party.  Hitler supported these demands, citing theSudeten Germans’ right to self-determination. The Czechoslovak government refused, and in May 1938, mobilized for war. In response, Hitler secretly asked the German High Command to prepare for war,to be launched in October 1938.  Britain and France,anxious to avoid war at all costs by not antagonizing Hitler (a policy calledappeasement), pressed Czechoslovakia to yield, with the British even stating that the Sudeten Germans’ demand for autonomy was reasonable.  In early September 1938, the Czechoslovak government agreed to the demands.  Then when civilian unrest broke out in the Sudetenland which the Czechoslovakian police quelled, in mid-September 1938, a furious Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany in order to stop the supposed slaughter of Sudeten Germans.  Under great pressure from Britain and France, on September 21, 1938, the Czechoslovak government relented, and agreed to cede the Sudetenland.  But the next day, Hitler made new demands, which Czechoslovakia
rejected and again mobilized for war.  In a frantic move to avert war, the Prime Ministers of Britain
and France, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, respectively, together with Mussolini, met
with Hitler, and on September 29, 1938, the four men signed the Munich Pact, where the Sudetenland was formally ceded to Germany.  Two days later, Czechoslovakia accepted the fait accompli, knowing it would not be supported by Britain and France in a war with Germany.  In succeeding months, Czechoslovakia disintegrated as a sovereign
state: the Slovak region separated, aligning with Germany as a puppet state; other regions were annexed by Hungary and Poland; and in March 1939, the rest of the Czech portion of the country was occupied by Germany.

(Taken from Hitler and the Nazis in Power – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

In October 1929, the severe economic crisis known as the Great Depression began in the United States, and then spread out and affected many countries around the world.  Germany, whose economy was dependent on the United States for reparations payments and corporate investments, was badly hit, and millions of workers lost their jobs, many banks closed down, and industrial production and foreign trade dropped considerably.

The Weimar government weakened politically, as many Germans turned to radical ideologies,
particularly Hitler’s ultra-right wing nationalist Nazi Party, as well as the German Communist Party.  In the 1930 federal elections, the Nazi Party made spectacular gains and became a major political party with a platform of improving the economy, restoring political stability, and raising Germany’s international standing by dealing with the “unjust” Versailles treaty.  Then in two elections held in 1932, the Nazis
became the dominant party in the Reichstag (German parliament), albeit without gaining a majority.  Hitler long sought the post of German Chancellor, which was the head of government, but he was rebuffed by the elderly President Paul von Hindenburg , who distrusted Hitler.  At this time, Hitler’s ambitions
were not fully known, and following a political compromise by rival parties, in January 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor, with few Nazis initially holding seats in the new Cabinet.  The Chancellorship itself had little power,
and the real authority was held by the President (the head of state).

On the night of February 27, 1933, fire broke out at the Reichstag, which led to the arrest and execution of a Dutch arsonist, a communist, who was found inside the building.  The next day, Hitler announced that the fire was the signal for German
communists to launch a nationwide revolution.  On February 28, 1933, the German parliament passed the “Reichstag Fire Decree” which repealed civil liberties, including the right of assembly and freedom of the press.  Also rescinded was the writ of habeas corpus, allowing authorities to arrest any person without the need to press charges or a court order.  In the next few weeks, the police and Nazi SA paramilitary carried out a suppression campaign against communists (and other political enemies) across Germany, executing communist leaders, jailing tens of thousands of their members, and
effectively ending the German Communist Party. 
Then in March 1933, with the communists suppressed and other parties intimidated, Hitler forced the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act, which
allowed the government (i.e. Hitler) to enact laws, even those that violated the constitution, without the approval of parliament or the president.  With nearly absolute power, the Nazis gained control of all aspects of the state.  In July 1933, with the banning of political parties and coercion into closure of
the others, the Nazi Party became the sole legal party, and Germany became de facto a one-party state.

At this time, Hitler grew increasingly alarmed at the military power of the SA, particularly distrusting the political ambitions of its leader, Ernst Rohm.  On June 30-July 2, 1934, on Hitler’s orders, the loyalist Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel; English: Protection Squadron) and Gestapo (Secret Police) purged the SA, killing hundreds of its leaders including Rohm, and jailing thousands of its members, violently bringing the SA organization (which had some three million members) to its knees.  The purge benefited Hitler in two ways: First, he became the undisputed leader of the Nazi apparatus, and Second and equally important, his standing greatly increased with the upper class,
business and industrial elite, and German military; the latter, numbering only 100,000 troops because of the Versailles treaty restrictions, also felt threatened by the enormous size of the SA.

In early August 1934, with the death of President
Hindenburg, Hitler gained absolute power, as his Cabinet passed a law that abolished the presidency, and its powers were merged with those of the
chancellor.  Hitler thus became both German head of state and head of government, with the dual roles of Fuhrer (leader) and Chancellor.  As head of
state, he also was Supreme Commander of the armed forces, making him absolute ruler and dictator of Germany.

In domestic matters, the Nazi government made great gains, improving the economy and industrial production, reducing unemployment, embarking on ambitious infrastructure projects, and restoring political and social order.  As a result, the Nazis
became extremely popular, and party membership grew enormously.  This success was brought about from sound policies as well as through threat and intimidation, e.g. labor unions and job actions were suppressed.

Hitler also began to impose Nazi racial policies, which saw ethnic Germans as the “master race” comprising “super-humans” (Ubermensch), while certain races such as Slavs, Jews, and Roma (gypsies) were considered “sub-humans” (Untermenschen); also lumped with the latter were non-ethnic-based
groups, i.e. communists, liberals, and other political enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.  Nazi lebensraum (“living space”) expansionism into Eastern Europe and Russia called
for eliminating the Slavic and other populations there and replacing them with German farm settlers to help realize Hitler’s dream of a 1,000-year German Empire.

In Germany itself, starting in April 1933 until the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in September 1935 and beyond, Nazi racial policy was directed against the local Jews, stripping them of civil rights, banning them from employment and education, revoking their citizenship, excluding them from political and social
life, disallowing inter-marriages with Germans, and essentially declaring them undesirables in Germany.  As a result, tens of thousands of Jews left Germany.  Hitler blamed the Jews (and communists) for the civilian and workers’ unrest and revolution near the end of World War I, ostensibly that had led to Germany’s defeat, and for the many social and economic problems currently afflicting the nation.  Following anti-Nazi boycotts in the United States, Britain, and other countries, Hitler retaliated with a call to boycott Jewish businesses in Germany, which degenerated into violent riots by SA mobs that attacked and killed, and jailed hundreds of Jews,
looted and destroyed Jewish properties, and seized Jewish assets.  The most notorious of these attacks occurred in November 1938 in “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night), where in response to the assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew in Paris, the Nazi SA and civilian mobs in Germany went on a violent rampage, killing hundreds of Jews, jailing tens of thousands of others, and looting and destroying Jewish homes, schools, synagogues, hospitals, and other buildings.  Some 1,000 synagogues were burned, and 7,000 businesses destroyed. 

In foreign affairs, Hitler, like most Germans, denounced the Versailles treaty, and wanted it rescinded.  In 1933, Hitler withdrew Germany from the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva,
and in October of that year, from the League of Nations, in both cases denouncing why Germany
was not allowed to re-arm to the level of the other major powers.

September 29, 1932 – Chaco War: Paraguayan forces recapture Fortin Boqueron

On September 29, 1932, Paraguayan forces recaptured Fortin Boqueron and other small garrisons nearby from the Bolivian Army. In December 1932, Bolivia sent many troops and weapons to the North Chaco for a full-scale offensive aimed at taking the whole region and then advancing right up to Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital.  From January to March 1933, Bolivian offensives overran several Paraguayan fortifications.  Then in a major battle at Fortin Nanawa, which was the Paraguayan Army’s headquarters in the North Chaco, the Bolivians were stopped.

Background of the
Chaco War

During the 1930s, Paraguayand Bolivia went to war forpossession of the North Chaco, a dry,
forbidding expanse of scrub and forest that lay between the two countrie).  The North Chaco forms a part of the largerGran Chaco Plains, a vast region that extends into northern Argentina, western Paraguay,
eastern Bolivia, and a smallsection in westernBrazil.

During the colonial era, the Gran Chaco Plains wasadministered by the Spanish government as a separate territory.  In the early 1800s, the Gran Chaco Plainsbecame disputed territory when the South American countries surrounding it gained
their independences.  The delineation of the borders around the Gran Chaco Plains was not pursued actively, however,because of the region’s harsh climate and the mistaken belief that it contained
few natural resources.

Through conquest from wars later in the 1800s, many areas ofthe Gran Chaco Plains were annexed by the victorious countries.  Eventually, what remained undecided was theNorth Chaco, the region straddling Paraguayand Bolivia and located westof the Paraguay River and north of the Pilcomayo River.

War Fightingbroke out in June 1932 with the Paraguayan forces soon taking the initiative.But by March 1935, their offensive had sputtered. Thereafter, the ParaguayanArmy realized that while it had achieved its military objectives in the NorthChaco, it could not go any further into Bolivia without incurring heavy losses.

While some politicians on both sides demanded for the continuation of the war, the governments of Paraguay and Bolivia were alarmed that the huge human and economic tolls were bringing their countries to ruin.  War casualties had reached 100,000 dead, with nearly 60% of that figure suffered by Bolivia.  On June 10, 1935, in a truce mediated by the Argentinean government, Paraguay and Bolivia
agreed to end the war.

Aftermath The territorial issue of the North Chaco was brought before an arbitration panel consisting of members from South American countries.  In its decision, the arbitration panel awarded 75% of the North Chaco to Paraguay, and the rest (25%) to Bolivia.  The panel’s decision also stipulated that Paraguay must grant Bolivia access to the Paraguay River, as well as to specified ports and rail facilities inside Paraguay. (Excerpts taken from Chaco War – Wars of the 20th Century: Volume 1.)

September 28, 1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union partition Poland

On September 28, 1939, as their joint invasion of Poland was winding down, Germany and the Soviet
Union, acting on Stalin’s proposal, agreed to make changes to their respective spheres of influence as set forth in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.  In the revised treaty, Germany relinquished to the Soviet Union its claim to a sphere of influence on Lithuania
in exchange for the Soviet Union relinquishing to Germany its sphere of influence to sections of central Poland, including Warsaw and Lublin.  On October 8, 1939, Germany annexed western Poland, including Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Silesia, and established the German-run General Governorate in the rest of the German-assigned territory in Poland.

The Soviet Union also annexed its share of Polish
territories, partitioning them among its subordinate states Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania, and implementing Sovietization policies in ethnic Polish-majority regions.

In German-controlled Poland, which was extended to include all of Poland after German forces captured the Soviet section of Poland in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union) in June 1941, Nazi Germany implemented policies aimed at achieving Lebensraum,
where ethnic Germans would settle in the former Polish territories which then would be completely Germanized politically, economically, socially, and
culturally.  As Lebensraum entailed displacing
the native populations, Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) was initiated in a series of programs of depopulating, resettling, or otherwise eliminating the
Polish population from lands that were destined to become fully German.  Central to Nazi doctrine was the concept of German racial superiority, and that German ethnic purity was to be maintained and not tainted by the blood of races which the Nazis classified as inferior (Untermensch, or sub-human), which included Poles and other Slavic peoples, Jews, and Roma (gypsies), among others.

The colonization and full Germanization of Polish
territories were to be accomplished in stages over many years.  But of more urgency to the Germans was the fate of Polish Jews, whose eradication was determined in January 1942 through the euphemistically called “Final Solution”. 
In the aftermath of the Polish campaign, German authorities segregated the three million Polish Jews, who were then forced into the hundreds of Jewish
ghettos quickly set up across Poland.  In the ensuing period, Polish and other Jews across Europe were transported by train to specially constructed labor, concentration, and extermination camps where the
mass executions ultimately were carried out.  Aside from Jews, Slavs, and Roma, Nazi extermination policies also targeted the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, political opponents, communists, prisoners of war, resistance fighters, and other groups.

In Poland, as a result of the German occupation, some six million Poles perished, or 20% of the total population.  Of this number, three million were Jews, of whom 90% were killed. (Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)