Daniel Orr's Blog, page 122

September 17, 1980 –Nicaraguan Revolution: Nicaragua’s ex-President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is assassinated in Paraguay

On September 17, 1980, Nicaragua’s former president, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, was assassinated in Paraguay. Somoza had been overthrown by Sandinista rebels in a revolution 14 months earlier, fleeing into exile on July 17, 1979 first to the United States and then settling in Paraguay after the U.S. government denied his entry. The Sandinistas, so-named from the socialist organization, Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional), took over power in Nicaragua after waging a lengthy struggle since 1961 (called the Nicaraguan Revolution) .

Central America

The Sandinistas took over the government, allowing a civilian junta that had been set up earlier by the opposition coalition to rule the country.  The junta represented a cross-section of the political opposition and was structured as a power-sharing
government.

Non-Sandinista members of the junta soon resigned, as they felt powerless against the Sandinistas (who effectively controlled the junta) and feared that the government was moving toward adopting Cuban-style socialism.

(Excerpts taken from Nicaraguan Revolution – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

By 1980, the Sandinistas had taken full control of the government.  The country had been devastated by the war, as well as by the corruption and neglect by the previous dictatorial regimes.  Using the limited resources available, the Sandinista government launched many programs for the general population.  The most successful of these programs were in public education, where the country’s high illiteracy rate was lowered significantly, and in agrarian reform, where large landholdings, including those of ex-President Somoza, were seized and distributed to the peasants and poor farmers.  The Sandinista government also implemented programs in health care, the arts and culture, and in the labor sector.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter was receptive to the Sandinista government.  But President Ronald Reagan, who succeeded as U.S. head of state in January 1981, was alarmed that Nicaragua had allowed a communist toehold in the American continental mainland, and therefore posed a threat to the United States.  President Reagan believed that the Sandinistas planned to spread communism across Central America.  As evidence of this perception, President Reagan pointed out that the Sandinistas were arming the communist insurgents in El Salvador.  Consequently, President Reagan prepared plans for a counter-revolution in Nicaragua that would overthrow the Sandinista government. The Nicaraguan Counter-Revolution would last until 1990.

Background

In 1961, the revolutionary movement called the Sandinista National Liberation Front was formed in Nicaragua with two main objectives: to end the U.S.-backed Somoza regime, and establish a socialist government in the country.  The movement and its members, who were called Sandinistas, took their name and ideals from Augusto Sandino, a Nicaraguan rebel fighter of the 1930s, who fought a guerilla war against the American forces that had invaded and occupied Nicaragua.  Sandino also wanted to end the Nicaraguan wealthy elite’s stranglehold on society.  He advocated for social justice and economic equality for all Nicaraguans.

By the late 1970s, Nicaragua had been ruled for over forty years by the Somoza family in a dynastic-type succession that had begun in the 1930s.  In 1936, Anastacio Somoza seized power in Nicaragua
and gained total control of all aspects of the government.  Officially, he was the country’s president, but ruled as a dictator.  Over time, President Somoza accumulated great wealth and owned the biggest landholdings in the country.  His many personal and family businesses extended into the shipping and airlines industries, agricultural plantations and cattle ranches, sugar mills, and wine
manufacturing.  President Somoza took bribes from foreign corporations that he had granted mining concessions in the country, and also benefited from local illicit operations such as unregistered gambling, organized prostitution, and illegal wine production.

President Somoza suppressed all forms of opposition with the use of the National Guard, Nicaragua’s police force, which had turned the country into a militarized state.  President Somoza was staunchly anti-communist and received strong military and financial support from the United States, which was willing to take Nicaragua’s repressive government as an ally in the ongoing Cold War.

In 1956, President Somoza was assassinated and was succeeded by his son, Luis, who also ruled as a dictator until his own death by heart failure in 1967.  In turn, Luis was succeeded by his younger brother, Anastacio Somoza, who had the same first name
as their father.  As Nicaragua’s new head of state,
President Somoza outright established a harsh regime much like his father had in the 1930s.  Consequently, the Sandinistas intensified their militant activities in the rural areas, mainly in northern Nicaragua.  Small bands of Sandinistas carried out guerilla operations, such as raiding isolated army outposts and destroying
government facilities.

By the early 1970s, the Sandinistas comprised only a small militia in contrast to Nicaragua’s U.S.-backed National Guard.  The Sandinistas struck great fear on President Somoza, however, because of the
rebels’ symbolic association to Sandino.  President Somoza wanted to destroy the Sandinistas with a passion that bordered on paranoia.  He ordered his
forces to the countryside to hunt down and kill Sandinistas.  These military operations greatly affected the rural population, however, who began to fear as well as hate the government.

The end of the Somoza regime began in 1972 when a powerful earthquake hit Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.  The destruction resulting from the earthquake caused 5,000 human deaths and 20,000 wounded, and left half a million people
homeless (nearly half of Managua’s population).  Managua was devastated almost completely, cutting off all government services.  In the midst of the destruction, however, President Somoza diverted the
international relief money to his personal bank account, greatly reducing the government’s meager resources.  Consequently, thousands of people were deprived of food, clothing, and shelter.

September 16, 1982 – 1982 Lebanon War: The Sabra and Shatila Massacre takes place

On September 16, 1982, Phalange militias carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacre, where between 500 and 3,500 mostly Palestinian and Muslim civilians were killed in the Sabra neighbourhood and nearby Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. The Phalange was a militia associated with the Kataeb Party, a mainly Christian Lebanese right-wing party. The massacre occurred during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and the Israel military intervention in Lebanon (also known as the 1982 Lebanon War; 1982-1985).

The incident took place after the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had been withdrawn from Lebanon under UN supervision. Israeli forces believed that other PLO fighters were hiding in Sabra and Shatila, and instructed their Phalange allies to clear these areas, leading to the mass killings. The massacre also occurred one day after the assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel of the Kataeb Party, which Israel and Phalange believed had been perpetrated by the PLO.

Israel’s intervention in Lebanon, the 1982 Lebanon War, was aimed at destroying the PLO camps in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Civil War was a complex multi-faceted, multi-sectarian conflict that involved Lebanon’s government forces, many religious and ideological groups, complicated by the direct military interventions of Israel and Syria as well as being a proxy battleground of the Cold War.

(Taken from 1982 Lebanon War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Background Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1978 failed to achieve peace in the region of northern Israel and South Lebanon.  After the war, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) returned to South Lebanon, where it re-established authority and resumed its attacks on Israel.  In turn, Israel launched air strikes against the PLO.  The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which had arrived in South Lebanon after the war to enforce the ceasefire, was unable to stop the upsurge of violence.  The Lebanese government itself had lost authority in South Lebanon, as it was embroiled in a bitter civil war, where the state had become powerless against the many rival sectarian militias that had carved up the country into separate zones of control.  Syria also had sent its armed forces to Lebanon (at the request of the Lebanese government), occupied sections of the country, and exerted great influence in the country’s security and political climate.

By 1982, cross-border and retaliatory attacks by the PLO and Israel had increased considerably.  Ariel
Sharon, Israel’s defense minister, developed a plan to invade Lebanon with the following objectives: expel the PLO from South Lebanon, force out the Syrian Army from Lebanon, and install a pro-Israeli government consisting of Lebanese Maronite Christians.  The Israeli government rejected the plan,
however, reasoning that such a large-scale operation could potentially cost heavy casualties on the Israeli Army.

On June 3, 1982, Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt carried out by the Abu Nidal Organization, a Palestinian militant movement that was a rival of the PLO.  Israel then launched massive air and artillery attacks in South
Lebanon.  The PLO, declaring that it had nothing to do with the assassination attempt on the Israeli
diplomat, retaliated with rocket attacks in northern Israeli villages near the border.  On June 4, 1982, the Israeli government authorized its armed forces to invade South Lebanon.

War On June 4, 1982, Israeli forces crossed the Blue Line, the de facto Israel-Lebanon “border”.  Israel’s initially stated objective was to push the PLO twenty-five kilometers north of the Blue Line, a distance that would place northern Israel out of reach of Palestinian artillery fire.  Israeli forces hoped to complete the operation within 24 hours.  As the war progressed, however, Israel would expand its military, as well as political, objectives.

The Israeli offensive was carried out along three fronts: from the Mediterranean coast to deny the PLO an escape route to the sea; from central Lebanon in the direction of the Beirut-Damascus
Road; and along the Syria-Lebanon border to cut
off supply lines from Syria.  The Israelis also carried out amphibious landings of armored and infantry units north of Sidon to seal off a northward escape route for the PLO.  Artillery from Israeli ships shelled South Lebanon’s coastal roads to disrupt PLO logistical lines.

September 15, 1950 – Korean War: U.S. forces land on Inchon

As early as July 1950, General Douglas MacArthur had conceived of a plan to launch a UN amphibious assault at Inchon harbor, located 27 kilometers southwest of Seoul on the central west coast.  The success of such an operation would have
the strategic effect of destabilizing the North Korean supply lines to the south, and threaten the North Korean forces fighting in the Pusan Perimeter.  The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) initially were skeptical about the operation because of the risks involved, but soon gave its approval when General MacArthur expressed unwavering optimism in the feasibility of his plan.  U.S. forces then prepared to launch an amphibious landing on Inchon.

Key areas during the Korean War

On September 15, 1950, preceded by days of heavy air attacks and naval artillery bombardment, some 75,000 U.S. and South Korean troops (of the newly reconstituted U.S. X Corps) in 260 naval vessels were amphibiously landed north and south of Inchon, taking the city where they met only light
resistance from the small North Korean garrison.

The unexpected UN landing at Inchon dealt a psychological blow to North Korean forces at the Pusan Perimeter.  Already weakened by shortages of food and ammunitions, and rising casualties, by the third week of September 1950, North Korean resistance collapsed, with whole military units breaking down, and tens of thousands of troops
fleeing north or to the mountains, or surrendering en masse.  For the North Korean Army, its defeat at the
Pusan Perimeter was catastrophic: some 65,000 (over 60%) of its 98,000 troops were lost; it had lost nearly all its tanks and artillery pieces; and most crucially, it ceased to be a force capable of stopping the UN forces which now began to steamroll northward.

By September 23, 1950, UN forces, comprising largely of the Eighth U.S. Army, had broken out of the Pusan Perimeter, and advanced north some 100 miles, on September 27 linking up with X Corps units from the Inchon landings at Osan.  However, the UN forces’ aim of linking their units rather than actively pursuing the enemy allowed some 30,000 retreating North Korean soldiers from the Pusan Perimeter to escape and eventually cross the 38th parallel into North Korea, where they soon were reorganized into new fighting units.  Other North Korean units that took to the mountains in the south also formed small militias that engaged in guerilla warfare.

UN forces at Inchon soon recaptured Kimpo airfield.  There, U.S. planes began to conduct air strikes on North Korean positions in and around Seoul.  UN ground forces then launched a three-pronged attack on the capital.  They met heavy North Korean resistance at the perimeter but soon captured the heights overlooking the city.  On September 25,
1950, UN forces entered Seoul, and soon declared the city liberated.  Even then, house-to-house fighting continued until September 27, when the city was brought under full UN control.    On September 29, 1950, UN forces formally turned over the capital to President Syngman Rhee, who reestablished his government there.  And by the end of September 1950, with remnants of the decimated North Korean Army retreating in disarray across the 38th parallel, South Korean and UN units gained control of all pre-war South Korean territory.

On October 1, 1950, the South Korean Army crossed the 38th parallel into North Korea along the eastern and central regions; UN forces, however, waited for orders.  Four days earlier, on September 27, 1950, President Truman sent a top-secret directive to General MacArthur advising him that UN forces could cross the 38th parallel only if the Soviet Union or China had not sent or did not intend to send forces to North Korea.

Earlier, the Chinese government had stated that UN forces crossing the 38th parallel would place China’s national security at risk, and thus it would be forced to intervene in the war.  Chairman Mao Zedong also stated that if U.S. forces invaded North
Korea, China must be ready for war with the United
States.

At this stage of the Cold War, the United States believed that its biggest threat came from the Soviet Union, and that the Korean War may very well be a Soviet plot to spark an armed conflict between the United States and China.  This would force the U.S. military to divert troops and resources to Asia, and leave Western Europe open to a Soviet invasion.  But after much deliberation, the Truman administration concluded that China was “bluffing” and would not really intervene in Korea, and that its threats merely were intended to undermine the UN.  Furthermore, General MacArthur also later (after UN forces had crossed the 38th parallel) expressed full confidence in
the UN (i.e. U.S.) forces’ military superiority – that Chinese forces would face the “greatest slaughter” if they entered the war.

On October 7, 1950, the UNGA adopted Resolution 376 (V) which declared support for the restoration of stability in the Korean Peninsula,
a tacit approval for the UN forces to take action in North Korea.  Two days later, October 9, UN forces, led by the Eighth U.S. Army, crossed the 38th parallel in the west, with General MacArthur some days earlier demanding the unconditional surrender of the North Korean Army.  UN forces met only light resistance during their advance north.  On October 15, 1950, Namchonjam fell, followed two days later by Hwangju.

As early as July 1950, General MacArthur had conceived of a plan to launch a UN amphibious assault at Inchon harbor, located 27 kilometers southwest of Seoul on the central west coast.  The success of such an operation would have the strategic effect of destabilizing the North Korean supply lines to the south, and threaten the North Korean forces fighting in the Pusan Perimeter.  The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) initially were skeptical about the operation because of the risks involved, but soon gave its approval when General MacArthur expressed unwavering optimism in the feasibility of his plan.  U.S. forces then prepared to launch an amphibious landing on Inchon.

On September 15, 1950, preceded by days of heavy air attacks and naval artillery bombardment, some 75,000 U.S. and South Korean troops (of the newly reconstituted U.S. X Corps) in 260 naval vessels were amphibiously landed north and south of Inchon, taking the city where they met only light
resistance from the small North Korean garrison.

The unexpected UN landing at Inchon dealt a psychological blow to North Korean forces at the Pusan Perimeter.  Already weakened by shortages of food and ammunitions, and rising casualties, by the third week of September 1950, North Korean resistance collapsed, with whole military units breaking down, and tens of thousands of troops
fleeing north or to the mountains, or surrendering en masse.  For the North Korean Army, its defeat at the
Pusan Perimeter was catastrophic: some 65,000 (over 60%) of its 98,000 troops were lost; it had lost nearly all its tanks and artillery pieces; and most crucially, it ceased to be a force capable of stopping the UN forces which now began to steamroll northward.

By September 23, 1950, UN forces, comprising largely of the Eighth U.S. Army, had broken out of the Pusan Perimeter, and advanced north some 100 miles, on September 27 linking up with X Corps units from the Inchon landings at Osan.  However, the UN
forces’ aim of linking their units rather than actively pursuing the enemy allowed some 30,000 retreating North Korean soldiers from the Pusan Perimeter
to escape and eventually cross the 38th parallel into North Korea, where they soon were reorganized into new fighting units.  Other North Korean units that took to the mountains in the south also formed small militias that engaged in guerilla warfare.

UN forces at Inchon soon recaptured Kimpo airfield.  There, U.S. planes began to conduct air strikes on North Korean positions in and around Seoul.  UN ground forces then launched a three-pronged attack on the capital.  They met heavy North Korean resistance at the perimeter but soon
captured the heights overlooking the city.  On September 25, 1950, UN forces entered Seoul, and soon declared the city liberated.  Even then, house-to-house fighting continued until September 27, when the city was brought under full UN control.    On September 29, 1950, UN forces formally turned over the capital to President Syngman Rhee, who
reestablished his government there.  And by the end of September 1950, with remnants of the decimated North Korean Army retreating in disarray across the 38th parallel, South Korean and UN units gained control of all pre-war South Korean territory.

On October 1, 1950, the South Korean Army crossed the 38th parallel into North Korea along the eastern and central regions; UN forces, however, waited for orders.  Four days earlier, on September 27, 1950, President Truman sent a top-secret directive to General MacArthur advising him that UN forces could cross the 38th parallel only if the Soviet Union or China had not sent or did not intend to send forces to North Korea.

Earlier, the Chinese government had stated that UN forces crossing the 38th parallel would place China’s national security at risk, and thus it would be forced to intervene in the war.  Chairman Mao Zedong also stated that if U.S. forces invaded North
Korea, China must be ready for war with the United
States.

At this stage of the Cold War, the United States believed that its biggest threat came from the Soviet Union, and that the Korean War may very well be a Soviet plot to spark an armed conflict between the United States and China.  This would force the U.S. military to divert troops and resources to Asia, and leave Western Europe open to a Soviet invasion.  But after much deliberation, the Truman administration concluded that China was “bluffing” and would not really intervene in Korea, and that its threats merely were intended to undermine the UN.  Furthermore, General MacArthur also later (after UN forces had crossed the 38th parallel) expressed full confidence in
the UN (i.e. U.S.) forces’ military superiority – that Chinese forces would face the “greatest slaughter” if they entered the war.

On October 7, 1950, the UNGA adopted Resolution 376 (V) which declared support for the restoration of stability in the Korean Peninsula, a tacit approval for the UN forces to take action in North Korea.  Two days later, October 9, UN forces, led by
the Eighth U.S. Army, crossed the 38th parallel in the west, with General MacArthur some days earlier demanding the unconditional surrender of the North
Korean Army.  UN forces met only light resistance during their advance north.  On October 15, 1950, Namchonjam fell, followed two days later by Hwangju.

September 14, 1960 – Mobutu Sese Seko launches a military coup during the Congo Crisis

On September 14, 1960, Mobutu Sese Seko, head of the Congo military, seized power in the Republic of the Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the midst of the Congo Crisis. The crisis consisted of a series of civil wars that began shortly after the country gained its independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. Mobutu launched the coup following the political deadlock between Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu after Lumumba had sought Soviet support to quell a Belgian-supported uprising in Katanga and South Kasai.

After the coup, Mobutu remained as head of the Congo military until November 1965, when he seized power in another coup following another political impasse. He would hold power over a totalitarian government for the next 32 years.

In his long reign, he grossly mismanaged the country, which he renamed Zaire.  Government corruption was widespread, the country’s infrastructure was neglected, 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.

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

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

Africa showing location of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other African countries. At the time of the First Congo War, DRC was known as Zaire.

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).

September 13, 1948 – Indian forces invade Hyderabad to force its annexation into India

On September 13, 1948, the Indian Army invaded the state of Hyderabad. Four days later, the Nizam (monarch) of Hyderabad surrendered. In November 1948, he signed the Instrument of Accession to India, and the independent state of Hyderabad ceased to exist.

Britain approved the Indian Independence Act in July 1947, partitioning British India into two new independent dominions: India and Pakistan. On August 14, 1947, Pakistan declared independence, and the next day, India also declared its independence.

At the time of partition into India and Pakistan, there also existed in the Indian subcontinent semi-autonomous polities called “princely states”, numbering 565 and covering 40% of the territory, and comprising 23% of the population. Before the British withdrew, they offered the princely states two options: to be incorporated politically and geographically into either India or Pakistan, or to revert to their pre-colonial status as independent political entities.  A great majority of the Princely States took the option suggested by the British and joined either one of the two new countries, but most with India with whom they shared a common border as well as religious ties. 

Hyderabad, which shared all its borders with India but none with Pakistan, was led by a Muslim monarch (the Nizam) who ruled over a largely Hindu population. Hyderabad was also the wealthiest and most militarily powerful of the princely states and the Nizam owned 40% of all Hyderabad lands. Not
wanting to accede to Hindu-majority India, the Nizam declared Hyderabad’s independence in August 1947. However, India was determined to integrate Hyderabad with itself, averse to the presence of a hostile neighbour. Negotiations between the two sides were held from November 1947 to June 1948, which failed to reach an agreement.

Ultimately, the Indian government was prompted to take military action because of what it perceived were violations of the Hyderabad state: carrying out relations with Pakistan, interfering with Indian traffic at its borders, and most seriously, building up
paramilitary force numbering 200,000 irregulars (“razakars”) apart from the state force of 22,000 troops.

In the immediate aftermath of the Indian invasion, widespread communal violence broke out with Hindus attacking Muslims. Executions, murders, rapes, and lootings were widespread. Some 30,000-40,000 were killed, with one estimate putting the figure at 200,000 or higher.

(Partition of India; taken from Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

In the Indian subcontinent (Map 12), which was Britain’s prized possession since the 1800s, a strong nationalist sentiment had existed for many decades and had led to the emergence of many political organizations that demanded varying levels of autonomy and self-rule.  Other Indian nationalist movements also called for the British to leave immediately.  Nationalist aspirations were concentrated in areas with direct British rule, as there also existed across the Indian subcontinent hundreds of semi-autonomous regions which the British called “Princely States”, whose rulers held local authority with treaties or alliances made with the British
government.  The Princely States, however, had relinquished their foreign policy initiatives to the British in exchange for British military protection against foreign attacks.  Thus, the British de facto ruled over the Princely States.

Lord Mountbatten also settled the fates of the Princely States, which accounted for about one-third of the area of the Indian subcontinent.  In a plenary meeting with the heads of the Princely States in July 1947, the Governor-General offered them two options: to be incorporated politically and geographically into either India or Pakistan, or to revert to their pre-colonial status as independent political entities.  Lord Mountbatten, however, cautioned the Princely States against taking the second option, saying that they risked being
overwhelmed by their two new giant neighbors, India
and Pakistan.

A great majority of the Princely States took the option suggested by Lord Mountbatten and joined either one of the two new countries, but most with India with whom they shared a common border as well as religious ties.  Two Princely States, Manipur and Tripura, opted for independence in 1947, but agreed to be incorporated into India two years later.  Hyderabad, with a Muslim ruler and a majority Hindu population, and geographically located inside India,
declared independence.  In 1948, India invaded Hyderabad and subsequently annexed the former Princely State.  Junagadh also had a Muslim ruler and a predominantly Hindu constituency, and chose to be assimilated into Pakistan but without whom it shared a border.  An uprising soon broke out among Hindus, whereupon the Indian Army invaded Junagadh, forcing the Muslim ruler to flee into exile.  In a plebiscite that later was held in Junagadh, the overwhelming majority of voters chose to be incorporated into India.  Soon thereafter, India annexed Junagadh.

At partition, the Princely State of Kashmir became independent but found itself geographically straddled between India and Pakistan.  Kashmir’s
Hindu monarch, who ruled over a predominantly Muslim constituency, chose to remain politically neutral.  Both India and particularly Pakistan, however, wanted to annex Kashmir, and thus exerted pressure on the Kashmiri monarch.  In October 1947, a revolt broke out in Kashmir, triggering the Indian-Pakistani War of 1947, which was the first of three major wars fought between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and the start of a long-standing dispute that
continues to this day.

September 12, 1974 – Ethiopian Civil War: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is ousted in a military coup

On September 12, 1974, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a military coup by the Derg, ending both his reign of 58 years and the 800 year-old Ethiopian Empire. The Derg consisted of Ethiopian reformist junior officers under the name “Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army”, some 110 to 120 enlisted men and officers (none above the rank of major) from the 40 military and security units across the country.  This group became known simply as Derg (an Ethiopian word meaning “Committee” or “Council”) had as its (initial) aims to serve as a conduit for various military and police units in order to maintain peace and order, and also to uphold the military’s integrity by resolving grievances, disciplining errant officers, and curbing corruption in the armed forces.

Ethiopia and adjacent countries in Africa

Following the coup, the Derg seized control of government but did not abolish the monarchy outright, and announced that Crown Prince Asfa
Wossen, Haile Selassie’s son who was currently abroad for medical treatment, was to succeed to the throne as the new “king” on his return to the country.  However, Prince Wossen rejected the offer and remained abroad.  The Derg then withdrew its offer and in March 1975, abolished the monarchy altogether, thus ending the 800 year-old Ethiopian Empire.  (On August 27, 1975, or nearly one year after his arrest, Haile Selassie passed away under mysterious circumstances, with Derg stating that
complications from a medical procedure had caused his death, while critics alleging that the ex-monarch was murdered.)

The political instability and power struggles that followed the Derg’s coming to power, the escalation of pre-existing separatist and Marxist insurgencies (as well as the formation of new rebel movements), and the intervention of foreign players, notably Somalia as well as Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union and United States, all contributed to the multi-party, multi-faceted conflict known as the Ethiopian Civil War.

(Taken from Ethiopian Civil War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Background

By early 1974 but unbeknownst at that time, the 44-year reign of Ethiopia’s aging emperor, Haile Selassie, was verging on collapse under the burgeoning weight of various internal hostile elements.  Haile Selassie had ascended to the throne in April 1930, bearing the official title, “His Imperial Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God”, to reign over the Ethiopian Empire that had been in existence for 800 years.  Except for a brief period of occupation by the Italian Army from 1936 to 1941, Ethiopia had escaped falling under the control of European powers that had carved up the African continent into colonial territories during the 19th century.  (The latter event, known as the Scramble for Africa, saw only two African states, Ethiopia and Liberia, that did not come under European domination.)

Under Haile Selassie’s rule, Ethiopia became a founding member state of the United Nations in 1945 and the Organization of African Unity in 1963.  The Ethiopian emperor had placed great emphasis on his personal, as well as Ethiopia’s, role in post-World War II international affairs, and as such, had played a
major role in peacemaking and contributed to mediation efforts in various African conflicts (e.g. the Congo, Biafra, Algeria, and Morocco).  By the 1970s (at which time, he was at the advanced age of 80), Haile Selassie was widely regarded in the international community and respected as an elder statesman and a great African father figure.

At the same time, however, Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia was mired in numerous internal problems, foremost of which was great social unrest generated by the deeply entrenched conservative monarchy, aristocratic nobility, and wealthy landowning and business classes that opposed reforms which were being called for by the various emerging militant sectors of society.  In some regions, some landowners owned large tracts of agricultural land, relegating most of the rural population to tenant farmers and farm laborers in a semi-feudal, patronage system.  Haile Selassie made some attempts to implement land reform and other measures of agrarian equality,
but these were opposed by the wealthy landowners.  Social tensions also existed among Ethiopia’s many
ethnic groups, which were further compounded because of the monarch’s de facto absolute rule and sometimes inequitable policies that favored his own Amharic ethnic class to the detriment of other regional ethnic groups.

Ethnic tensions sometimes led to armed rebellion, such as those that occurred in northern Wollo in 1930, Tigray in 1941, and Gojjam in 1968.  Haile Selassie placed much emphasis on promoting education, but his government made only modest gains to transform the elitist educational structure into a universal public school system, e.g. by the early 1970s, some 90% of Ethiopians were still illiterate.  Ironically, however, Ethiopia’s educational system became the breeding ground for radical ideas, as university students, particularly those studying in Europe, became exposed to Marxism-Leninism.  In the 1960s and 1970s, many ethnicity-motivated, separatist, or socialist movements emerged in Ethiopia.  Among the more important Marxist groups were the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement and Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party, while major regional movements included the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) and Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), both founded in 1960, and the Oromo
Liberation Front, organized in 1973.

For Haile Selassie’s regime, the most serious among the regional groups was the ELP-led Eritrean insurgency.  Eritrea historically had a long political development separate from Ethiopia, but the latter regarded Eritrea as an integral part of the Ethiopian Empire.  In September 1952, the United Nations federated Eritrea (then under temporary British
administration) with Ethiopia (the union known as the Ethiopian-Eritrean Federation), which granted Eritrea broad administrative, legislative, judiciary, and fiscal autonomy but under the rule of the Ethiopian monarch.  However, Eritreans desired full sovereignty and in September 1961, the ELF launched an
eventually lengthy 30-year armed struggle for independence.

By the 1960s, Ethiopia’s feudalistic system, government corruption, and failure to implement land reform and other social programs were inciting student and activist groups to launch protest demonstrations and mass assemblies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.  Ultimately, however, it was the
Ethiopian military that would set in motion the events that would overturn Ethiopia’s political system.  In December 1960, reformist elements of the military, led by the commander of the Imperial Guard (the emperor’s personal security unit), launched a coup d’état to overthrow Haile Selassie, who was away on a state visit to Brazil.  Most of the Ethiopian Armed Forces, however, remained loyal to the government, and the coup failed.  In the aftermath, Haile Selassie strove to bring the military establishment under greater control, promoting more ethnic Amharic to the officer corps and plotting discord by playing military factions against each other.

However, discontent remained pervasive within the military, particularly among the rank-and-file soldiers, who chafed at the low pay and poor working conditions.  In January 1974, in what became the first of a series of decisive events, soldiers stationed at Negele, Sidamo Province, mutinied in protest of low wages and other poor conditions; in the following days, military units in other locations mutinied as well.  In February 1974, as a result of rising inflation and unemployment and deteriorating economic
conditions resulting from the global oil crisis of the previous year (1973), teachers, workers, and students launched protest demonstrations and marches in Addis Ababa demanding price rollbacks, higher labor wages, and land reform in the countryside.  These protests degenerated into bloody riots.  In the aftermath, on February 28, 1974, long-time Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold resigned and was replaced by Endalkachew Makonnen, whose government raised the wages of military personnel
and set price controls to curb inflation.  Even so, the government, which was controlled by nobles, aristocrats, and wealthy landowners, refused or were unaware of the need to implement major reforms in the face of growing public opposition.

In March 1974, a group of military officers led by Colonel Alem Zewde Tessema formed the multi-unit “Armed Forces Coordinating Committee” (AFCC) consisting of representatives from different sectors of the Ethiopian military, tasked with enforcing cohesion among the various forces and assisting the government in maintaining authority in the face of growing unrest.  In June 1974, reformist junior officers of the AFCC, desiring greater reforms and dissatisfied with what they saw was the AFCC’s close association with the government, broke away and formed their own group.

This latter group, which took the name “Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, soon grew to about
110 to 120 enlisted men and officers (none above the rank of major) from the 40 military and security units across the country, and elected Majors Mengistu
Haile Mariam  and Atnafu Abate as its chairman and vice-chairman, respectively.  This group, which became known simply as Derg (an Ethiopian word meaning “Committee” or “Council”), had as its (initial) aims to serve as a conduit for various military and police units in order to maintain peace and order, and
also to uphold the military’s integrity by resolving grievances, disciplining errant officers, and curbing corruption in the armed forces.

Derg operated anonymously (e.g. its members were not publicly known initially), but worked behind such populist slogans as “Ethiopia First”, “Land to the Peasants”, and “Democracy and Equality to all” to gain
broad support among the military and general population.  By July 1974, the Derg’s power was felt not only within the military but in the government itself, and Haile Selassie was forced to implement a number of political measures, including the release of
political prisoners, the return of political exiles to the country, passage of a new constitution, and more critically, to allow Derg to work closely with the
government.  Under Derg pressure, the government of Prime Minister Makonnen collapsed; succeeding as Prime Minister was Mikael Imru, an aristocrat who held leftist ideas.

Haile Selassie’s concessions to the Derg included measures to investigate government corruption and mismanagement.  In the period that followed, Derg arrested and imprisoned many high-ranking imperial, administrative, and military officials, including former Prime Ministers Habte-Wold and Makonnen, Cabinet members, military generals, and regional governors. 
In August 1974, a proposed constitution that called for establishing a constitutional monarchy was set aside.  Now operating virtually with impunity, the Derg took aim at the imperial court, dissolving the imperial governing councils and royal treasury, and
seizing royal landholdings and commercial assets.  By this time, Haile Selassie’s government virtually had ceased to exist; de facto power was held by the military, or more precisely, by Derg.

The culmination of events occurred when Haile Selassie was accused of deliberately denying the existence of a widespread famine that currently was ravaging Ethiopia’s Wollo province, which already had killed some 40,000 to 80,000 to as many as 200,000 people.  Conflicting reports indicated that Haile Selassie was not aware of the famine, was fully aware of it, or that government administrators withheld knowledge of its existence from the emperor.  By August 1974, large protest demonstrations in Addis Ababa were demanding the emperor’s arrest. 
Finally on September 12, 1974, the Derg overthrew Haile Selassie in a bloodless coup, leading away the frail, 82-year old ex-monarch to imprisonment.

The Derg gained control of Ethiopia but did not abolish the monarchy outright, and announced that Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Haile Selassie’s son who was currently abroad for medical treatment, was to succeed to the throne as the new “king” on his return to the country.  However, Prince Wossen rejected the offer and remained abroad.  The Derg then withdrew
its offer and in March 1975, abolished the monarchy altogether, thus ending the 800 year-old Ethiopian Empire.  (On August 27, 1975, or nearly one year after his arrest, Haile Selassie passed away under mysterious circumstances, with Derg stating that complications from a medical procedure had caused his death, while critics alleging that the ex-monarch was murdered.)

September 11, 1969 – Sino-Soviet Border Conflict: Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai hold an impromptu meeting at Beijing Airport

On September 11, 1969, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai held an urgent impromptu meeting at Beijing Airport to try and resolve the political and border crisis between their two countries. After 3½ hours, the two premiers
reached a consensus: that their countries would resolve their differences through peaceful means, that border talks that were broken in 1964 would be
restarted, that diplomatic ties between the two states would be restored, and that trade and transportation exchanges between their countries would be reopened.

The meeting was held to defuse tensions between the two countries. Chinese authorities were concerned about the growing threat of war with the Soviet Union.  Despite appearing defiant, and warning Russia that it too had nuclear weapons, China was unprepared to go to war, and its military was far weaker than that of the Soviet Union.  Exacerbating China’s position was its ongoing
Cultural Revolution, which was causing serious internal unrest.

In August-September 1969, believing that a Soviet nuclear attack would target China’s major populated centers, the Chinese government prepared to empty the cities and relocate the population and vital industries to remote locations.  Large-scale underground civilian and military shelters were built in Beijing and other areas of the country.  At Mao’s
urging, national and party leaders moved away from Beijing to different areas across China, to avoid the government being wiped out by a single Soviet nuclear attack on the capital.  By this time, even the
Western press believed that war was imminent between the two communist giants.

(Taken from Sino-Soviet Border Conflict – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 5)

Background

In November 1917, Russian communists seized power in Petrograd, and after emerging victorious in the Russian Civil War (October 1917-October 1922), they established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (usually shortened to USSR or Soviet Union).  Nearly 27 years later, in October 1949 in China, Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC) when his Red Army all but defeated Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) forces in the Chinese Civil War.  In December 1949, Chiang and the Kuomintang fled from the Chinese mainland and moved to Taiwan, where he established his new seat of government.

Thereafter, the Soviet Union and Red China established close fraternal ties.  In February 1950, the two countries signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of
Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance, a
thirty-year military alliance which included a Soviet low-cost loan of $300 million to assist in the reconstruction of war-ravaged China.  In December 1950, the Soviet government returned to China
sovereignty of the region of Lushun, including Port Arthur, located in the Chinese northeast. And with China militarily intervening in the Korean War (previous article) in October 1950, the Soviet Union sent large amounts of weapons to China, and provided air cover during the Chinese counter-offensive starting in late 1950.  The period 1950- 1958 saw close political, diplomatic, and economic relations between the two communist powers,
particularly in relation to their common ideological struggle against their Cold War enemies, the United States and capitalist West.

In March 1953, Joseph Stalin, who had ruled the Soviet Union for over three decades, died suddenly, and was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev.  Khrushchev brought about a radical shift in Russia’s
domestic affairs, implementing a series of reforms collectively known as de-Stalinization.  The most repressive aspects of Stalinist policies were reversed: suppression and censorship were reduced; some economic and social reforms were introduced; political prisoners were released; the Gulag camp conditions were improved; and Stalinist landmarks, places, and monuments were renamed to erase memories of the Stalin era.

In foreign affairs, Khrushchev implemented “peaceful coexistence” with the West, which was a dramatic reversal of Stalin’s policy of confrontation against capitalist/democratic countries.  The Soviet Union increased trade with the West, participated in international sports events, and allowed greater cultural and educational exchanges, and Western cinema and arts to enter the Soviet Union.

However, in China, Mao was alarmed by these changes in the Soviet Union.  He had drawn inspiration for China’s political and economic development on the Stalinist model, and perceived
Khrushchev’s “peaceful coexistence” policies with the West as deviating from Marxism-Leninism.  As a result, Chinese-Soviet relations became strained, leading to a decade-long period (late 1950s through the 1960s) of hostility known as the Sino-Soviet split.  This split was aggravated by other regional
and global events which occurred during this period.

In 1958, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, a large-scale series of programs in agriculture and heavy industries aimed at accelerating China’s path to communism.  Mao’s plan was to vault China into a global economic power that would surpass the Soviet Union and even the industrialized Western powers, including Britain and the United States.  However, the program ended in utter failure.  Together with a massive drought, the policies of the Great Leap Forward caused widespread famine that led to mass starvation.  Some 36 million people died from hunger, and another 40 million babies failed to be form, or a
total of 76 million deaths due to the “Great Chinese Famine”.

The Great Leap Forward also further strained Sino-Soviet relations, as Khrushchev perceived Mao’s ambitious programs as a direct challenge to the Soviet Union’s leadership in the socialist world.  The Soviet government then pulled out its military, technical and economic advisers from China.  Then when Khrushchev visited the United States in September 1959, China saw this as further evidence that the Soviet Union had strayed from Marxism-Leninism, and had become “soft” in its relations with the West.

In March 1959, when the Dalai Lama (Tibet’s spiritual leader) fled from Tibet into India following a failed Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule, the Soviet government gave moral support to Tibet, angering Mao.  India itself also had a long-standing border dispute with China.  When border clashes between India and China broke out in 1959 which ultimately led to a limited war in 1962 (Sino-Indian War, separate article), the Soviet Union remained neutral in the conflict and even tacitly sided with India, which again provoked Mao.

China also wanted to invade Taiwan to fulfill its long-sought goal of reunifying China.  However, China’s invasion plan received only tepid support from the Soviet Union.  In 1958, after China provoked the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis by shelling Quemoy and Matsu islands, the Soviet Foreign Ministry cautioned China against escalating the conflict, because the United States had sent a naval force to defend Taiwan.

September 10, 1943 – World War II: German forces occupy Italy

On September 10, 1943 and continuing for several days, German forces seized control of Italy after the Italian government announced that it had signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allied Powers. The Germans disarmed the Italian troops and took over the Italian zones of occupation in the Balkans and southern France. In most cases, Italian units were unable to resist in the midst of chaos during the disarming process. A few units managed to resist as in the Greek island of Cephalonia, where the Italians surrendered after running out of ammunition, and in the Italian capital Rome, where a hastily mounted haphazard defense was easily overcome. In Sardinia, Corsica, Calabria, and few other areas, the Italians successfully resisted until the arrival of the Allies. Other Italian units joined the local resistance movement.

The Italian Campaign

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

The invasion of Sicily also forced Germany to withdraw some units in Russia, particularly from the ongoing Battle of Kursk (where the German offensive was already faltering), to confront the new threat. 
Thereafter, the Germans lost the initiative in the Eastern Front and would permanently be on the defensive, a situation they also would face in the
Allied campaign in Italy.

General Badoglio declared his continued alliance with Germany, but secretly opened peace talks with the Allies.  Negotiations lasted two months, and on
September 8, the Italian government announced an agreement with the Allies, called the Armistice of Cassibile, where Italy surrendered to the Allies.  Fearing German reprisal, King Victor Emmanuel II, General Badoglio, and other leaders fled from Rome and set up headquarters in Allied-controlled southern
Italy.  There, on October 13, 1943, the Badoglio
government declared war on Germany.

The Germans, which had increased their military presence in Italy since Mussolini’s ouster a few months earlier, and had gained intelligence information that the new government was seeking a separate peace with the Allies, now sprung into action and disarmed Italian forces in Italy, France, and the Balkan regions, and seized important military and public infrastructures across Italy.  Italian military units were unaware of the armistice, and thus were caught off-guard and generally failed to offer resistance to the German take-over.  Then on September 12, 1943, Mussolini was rescued from captivity by German commandos in a daring raid, and two weeks later, was installed by Hitler as head of the newly formed fascist state, the Italian Social Republic, covering Axis-controlled northern and central Italy.  Two rival governments now laid claim to Italy, and the former Italian Armed Forces became divided, fighting while aligned with one or the other side.

Meanwhile, in September 1943, the Allies were ready to invade mainland Italy after their capture of Sicily one month earlier.  On September 3, 1943, the same day that the armistice was signed, British 8th Army units in Sicily crossed the Gulf of Messina and landed at Reggio di Calabria, at the southwestern tip, or “toe” of Italy (Figure 36).  The landing was unopposed, as the Germans had already retreated north while the Italian coastal batteries were overwhelmed by Allied naval gunfire.  Then on September 9, 1943, one day after the armistice was announced, the British made another amphibious landing at Taranto in southeast Italy, which also was unopposed.  The Allies aimed the two landings to divert the Germans from the main landing at Salerno,
some 200 miles further north off the western coast, which also was carried out on September 9, 1943 by the newly formed U.S. 5th Army (comprising one American and two British divisions).  The Allies also anticipated that the Taranto-Salerno landings would exploit the confusion among the Germans by the sudden announcement of the armistice.

However, by the time of the armistice, the Germans were firmly established in Italy.  And although many German units were diverted to disarm the Italian Army, a substantial force remained to guard against the expected Allied invasion.  Furthermore, General Albert Kesselring, commander of German forces in southern Italy, correctly surmised that the main Allied landing would not be made in southernmost Italy, but rather in the vicinity of Salerno, Naples, or even Rome, where he concentrated German forces from their withdrawal from the south.

September 9, 1944 – World War II: The pro-Soviet Fatherland Front seizes power in Bulgaria

On September 9, 1944, the Fatherland Front (FF) overthrew the pro-German government in Bulgaria during World War II. The FF, a coalition of various resistance groups that opposed the collaborationist regime, formed a new pro-Soviet government, signed a ceasefire with the Soviet Union, and declared war on Germany and the other Axis countries.

Soviet Counterattack in World War II

The coup occurred at the time that the Soviet Red Army was rapidly approaching. The rapid collapse of Axis forces in Romania brought chaos to the pro-German government in Bulgaria. On August 26, 1944, the Bulgarian government declared its neutrality in the war.  Bulgarians were ethnic Slavs like the Russians, and Bulgaria did not send troops to attack the Soviet Union and continued to maintain diplomatic ties with Moscow.  However, its government was pro-German and the country was an Axis partner.  On September 2, a new Bulgarian government was formed comprising the political opposition, which did not stop the Soviet Union from declaring war on Bulgaria three days later.  On September 8, Soviet forces entered Bulgaria, meeting no resistance as the Bulgarian government stood down its army.  The next day, Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, was captured, and the Soviets lent their support behind the new Bulgarian government comprising communist-led resistance fighters of the Fatherland Front.  Bulgaria then declared war on Germany, sending its forces in support of the Red Army’s continued advance to the west.

(Taken from The Soviet Counter-offensive – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Aftermath

The Red Army now set its sights on Serbia, the main administrative region of pre-World War II Yugoslavia.  Yugoslavia itself had been dismembered by the occupying Axis powers.  For Germany, the loss
of Serbia would cut off its forces’ main escape route from Greece.  As a result, the German High Command
allocated more troops to Serbia and also ordered the evacuation of German forces from other Balkan regions.

Occupied Europe’s most effective resistance struggle was located in Yugoslavia.  By 1944, the communist Yugoslav Partisan movement, led by Josip Broz Tito, controlled the mountain regions of Bosnia, Montenegro, and western Serbia.  In late September 1944, the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, thrusting from Bulgaria and Romania, together with
the Bulgarian Army attacking from western Bulgaria,
launched their offensive into Serbia.  The attack was aided by Yugoslav partisans that launched coordinated offensives against the Axis as well as conducting sabotage actions on German communications and logistical lines – the combined
forces captured Serbia, most importantly the capital Belgrade, which fell on October 20, 1944.  German
forces in the Balkans escaped via the more difficult routes through Bosnia and Croatia in October 1944.  For the remainder of the war, Yugoslav
partisans liberated the rest of Yugoslavia;
the culmination of their long offensive was their defeat of the pro-Nazi Ustase-led fascist government in Croatia in April-May 1945, and then their advance to neighboring Slovenia.

The succession of Red Army victories in Eastern Europe brought great alarm to the pro-Nazi government in Hungary, which was Germany’s last European Axis partner.  Then when in late September 1944, the Soviets crossed the borders from Romania and Serbia into Hungary, Miklos Horthy, the Hungarian regent and head of state, announced in mid-October that his government had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union.  Hitler promptly forced Horthy, under threat, to revoke the armistice, and German troops quickly occupied the country.

The Soviet campaign in Hungary, which lasted six months, proved extremely brutal and difficult both for the Red Army and German-Hungarian forces, with fierce fighting taking place in western Hungary
as the numerical weight of the Soviets forced back the Axis.  In October 1944, a major tank battle was
fought at Debrecen, where the panzers of German Army Group Fretter-Pico (named after General
Maximilian Fretter-Pico) beat back three Soviet tank corps of 2nd Ukrainian Front.  But in late October, a powerful Soviet offensive thrust all the way to the outskirts of Budapest, the Hungarian capital, by November 7, 1944.

Two Soviet pincer arms then advanced west in a flanking maneuver, encircling the city on December 23, 1944, and starting a 50-day siege.  Fierce urban warfare then broke out at Pest, the flat eastern section of the city, and then later across the Danube River at Buda, the western hilly section, where German-Hungarian forces soon retreated.  In January 1945, three attempts by German armored units to relieve the trapped garrison failed, and on
February 13, 1945, Budapest fell to the Red Army.  The Soviets then continued their advance across Hungary.  In early March 1945, Hitler launched
Operation Spring Awakening, aimed at protecting the Lake Balaton oil fields in southwestern Hungary, which was one of Germany’s last remaining sources of crude oil.  Through intelligence gathering, the Soviets became aware of the plan, and foiled the offensive, and then counter-attacked, forcing the remaining German forces in Hungary
to withdraw across the Austrian border.

The Germans then hastened to construct defense lines in Austria, which officially was an integral part
of Germany since the Anschluss of 1938.  In early
April 1945, Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front crossed the border from Hungary into Austria, meeting only light opposition in its advance toward Vienna.  Only undermanned German forces defended the Austrian capital, which fell on April 13, 1945.  Although some fierce fighting occurred, Vienna was spared the
widespread destruction suffered by Budapest
through the efforts of the anti-Nazi Austrian resistance movement, which assisted the Red Army’s entry into the city.  A provisional government for Austria was set up comprising a coalition of conservatives, democrats, socialists, and communists, which gained the approval of Stalin, who earlier had planned to install a pro-Soviet government regime from exiled Austrian communists.  The Red Army continued advancing across other parts of Austria,
with the Germans still holding large sections of regions in the west and south. By early May 1945, French, British, and American troops had crossed into Austria from the west, which together with the
Soviets, would lead to the four-power Allied occupation (as in post-war Germany) of Austria after the war.

September 8, 1945 – The U.S. Army enters the southern half of Korea up to the 38th parallel after Soviet forces occupy the northern half

On August 16, 1945, Soviet forces from Manchuria continued south into the Korea Peninsula and stopped at the 38th parallel. U.S. forces soon arrived in southern Korea and advanced north, reaching the 38th parallel on September 8, 1945.  Then in official ceremonies, the U.S. and Soviet commands formally accepted the Japanese surrender in their respective zones of occupation. Thereafter, the American and Soviet commands established military rule in their occupation zones.

East Asia

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

As both the U.S. and Soviet governments wanted to reunify Korea, in a conference in Moscow in December 1945, the Allied Powers agreed to form a four-power (United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and Nationalist China) five-year trusteeship over Korea.  During the five-year period, a U.S.-Soviet Joint Commission would work out the process of forming a Korean government.  But after a series of meetings in 1946-1947, the Joint Commission failed to achieve anything.  In September 1947, the U.S. government referred the Korean question to the United Nations (UN).  The reasons for the U.S.-Soviet Joint Commission’s failure to agree to a mutually acceptable Korean government are three-fold and to some extent all interrelated: intense opposition by Koreans to the proposed U.S.-Soviet trusteeship; the struggle for power among the various ideology-based political factions; and most important, the emerging Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Historically, Korea for many centuries had been a politically and ethnically integrated state, although its independence often was interrupted by the invasions by its powerful neighbors, China and Japan.  Because of this protracted independence, in the immediate post-World War II period, Koreans aspired for self-rule, and viewed the Allied trusteeship plan as an insult to their capacity to run their own affairs.  However, at the same time, Korea’s political climate was anarchic, as different ideological persuasions, from right-wing, left-wing, communist, and near-center political groups, clashed with each other for political power.  As a result of Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910, many Korean nationalist resistance groups had emerged.  Among these nationalist groups were the unrecognized “Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea” led by pro-West, U.S.-based Syngman Rhee; and a communist-allied anti-Japanese
partisan militia led by Kim Il-sung.  Both men would play major roles in the Korean War.  At the same time, tens of thousands of Koreans took part in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Chinese Civil War, joining and fighting either for Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces, or for Mao Zedong’s Chinese Red Army.

The Korean anti-Japanese resistance movement, which operated mainly out of Manchuria, was divided along ideological lines.  Some groups advocated
Western-style capitalist democracy, while others espoused Soviet communism.  However, all were strongly anti-Japanese, and launched attacks on Japanese forces in Manchuria, China, and Korea.

On their arrival in the southern Korean zone in September 1948, U.S. forces imposed direct rule through the United States Army Military Government
In Korea (USAMGIK).  Earlier, members of the Korean Communist Party in Seoul (the southern capital) had sought to fill the power vacuum left by the defeated
Japanese forces, and set up “local people’s committees” throughout the Korean peninsula.  Then two days before U.S. forces arrived, Korean communists of the “Central People’s Committee”
proclaimed the “Korean People’s Republic”.

In October 1945, under the auspices of a U.S. military agent, Syngman Rhee, the former
president of the “Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea” arrived in Seoul.  The USAMGIK refused to recognize the communist Korean People’s Republic, as well as the pro-West “Provisional Government”.  Instead, U.S. authorities wanted to form a political coalition of moderate rightist and leftist elements.  Thus, in December 1946, under U.S.
sponsorship, moderate and right-wing politicians formed the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly.  However, this quasi-legislative body was opposed by the communists and other left-wing
and right-wing groups.

In the wake of the U.S. authorities’ breaking up the communists’ “people’s committees” violence broke out in the southern zone during the last months of 1946.  Called the Autumn Uprising, the unrest was carried out by left-aligned workers, farmers, and students, leading to many deaths through killings, violent confrontations, strikes, etc.  Although in many cases, the violence resulted from non-political motives (such as targeting Japanese collaborators or settling old scores), American authorities believed that the unrest was part of a communist plot.  They therefore declared martial law in the southern zone.  Following the U.S. military’s crackdown on leftist activities, the communist militants went into hiding and launched an armed insurgency in the southern zone, which would play
a role in the coming war.

Meanwhile in the northern zone, Soviet commanders initially worked to form a local administration under a coalition of nationalists,
Marxists, and even Christian politicians.  But in October 1945, Kim Il-sung, the Korean resistance leader who also was a Soviet Red Army officer, quickly became favored by Soviet authorities.  In February 1946, the “Interim People’s Committee”, a transitional centralized government, was formed and led by Kim Il-sung who soon consolidated power (sidelining the nationalists and Christian leaders), and nationalized industries, and launched centrally planned economic and reconstruction programs based on the Soviet-model emphasizing heavy
industry.

By 1947, the Cold War had begun: the Soviet Union tightened its hold on the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, and the United States announced a new foreign policy, the Truman Doctrine, aimed at stopping the spread of communism.  The United States also implemented the Marshall Plan, an aid program for Europe’s post-World War II reconstruction, which was condemned by the Soviet Union as an American anti-communist plot aimed at dividing Europe.  As a result, Europe became divided into the capitalist West and socialist East.

Reflecting these developments, in Korea by mid-1945, the United States became resigned to the likelihood that the temporary military partition of the Korean peninsula at the 38th parallel would become a permanent division along ideological grounds.  In September 1947, with U.S. Congress rejecting a proposed aid package to Korea, the U.S. government turned over the Korean issue to the UN.  In November 1947, the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA) affirmed Korea’s sovereignty and called for elections throughout the Korean peninsula, which was to be overseen by a newly formed body, the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK).

However, the Soviet government rejected the UNGA resolution, stating that the UN had no jurisdiction over the Korean issue, and prevented
UNTCOK representatives from entering the Soviet-controlled northern zone.  As a result, in May 1948, elections were held only in the American-controlled southern zone, which even so, experienced widespread violence that caused some 600 deaths.  Elected was the Korean National Assembly, a
legislative body.  Two months later (in July 1948), the Korean National Assembly ratified a new national constitution which established a presidential form of government.  Syngman Rhee, whose party won the most number of legislative seats, was proclaimed as (the first) president.  Then on August 15, 1948, southerners proclaimed the birth of the Republic
of Korea (soon more commonly known as South Korea), ostensibly with the state’s sovereignty covering the whole Korean Peninsula.