Daniel Orr's Blog, page 125

August 17, 1945 – Indonesian War of Independence: Local nationalists declare independence

On August 15, 1945, World War II came to an abrupt end when Japan announced its acceptance of the Allied terms of surrender.  A power vacuum was suddenly created in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), leading the nationalists Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta to declare the colony’s independence on August 17, 1945 as the Republic of Indonesia.  The PPKI became the interim government, called the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP; Indonesian: Komite Nasional Indonesia Pusat) with Sukarno and Hatta named as the country’s first President and Vice-President, respectively, and a national charter which had been drafted earlier was ratified as the country’s constitution.

In the weeks that followed, eight provincial governments
across the archipelago were formed, including in Java and Sumatra
where support for the Republic was strongest. 
These actions by the Indonesian
Republic to consolidate
power were greatly assisted by the aggressive actions of the PETA and Heiho
armed militias, which reorganized after having been disbanded by the Japanese
Army.  Subsequently, these ex-Japanese
militias and the Dutch-era indigenous military units of the “Royal Netherlands
East Indies Army” would form the core of the Indonesian Armed Forces.  A campaign was launched to spread the news of
the new Indonesian
Republic to the other
islands: public speeches were made in major cities, and print and broadcast
media spread the word to more distant areas. 
Sukarno himself addressed crowds involving hundreds of thousands of
people in Jakarta.  However, apart from Java and Sumatra, the
Republic established only limited revolutionary atmosphere in other areas,
particularly in the “Great East” regions, including Maluku, Lesser Sunda
Islands, and West New Guinea.  Also shortly after the independence war had
begun, Sukarno was concerned about his war-time collaboration with the
Japanese.  In November 1945, he
reorganized his government into a parliamentary system, naming a
non-collaborator, Sutan Sjahrir, as Prime Minister to run the government, while
he remained as president in the background, ostensibly with limited authority.

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

Sukarno’s proclamation of Indonesia’s independence de facto produced a state of war with the Allied powers, which were determined to gain control of the territory and reinstate the pre-war Dutch government.  However, one month would pass before the Allied forces would arrive.  Meanwhile, the Japanese East Indies command, awaiting the arrival of the Allies to repatriate Japanese forces back to Japan, was ordered by the Allied high command to stand down and carry out policing duties to maintain law and order in the islands.  The Japanese stance toward the Indonesian Republic varied: disinterested Japanese commanders withdrew their units to avoid confrontation with Indonesian forces, while those sympathetic to or supportive of the revolution provided weapons to Indonesians, or allowed areas to be occupied by Indonesians.  However, other Japanese commanders complied with the Allied orders and fought the Indonesian revolutionaries, thus becoming involved in the independence war.

In the chaotic period immediately after Indonesia’s
independence and continuing for several months, widespread violence and anarchy
prevailed (this period is known as “Bersiap”, an Indonesian word meaning “be
prepared”), with armed bands called “Pemuda” (Indonesian meaning “youth”)
carrying out murders, robberies, abductions, and other criminal acts against
groups associated with the Dutch regime, i.e. local nobilities, civilian
leaders, Christians such as Menadonese and Ambones, ethnic Chinese, Europeans,
and Indo-Europeans.  Other armed bands
were composed of local communists or Islamists, who carried out attacks for the
same reasons.  Christian and
nobility-aligned militias also were organized, which led to clashes between
pro-Dutch and pro-Indonesian armed groups. 
These so-called “social revolutions” by anti-Dutch militias, which
occurred mainly in Java and Sumatra, were
motivated by various reasons, including political, economic, religious, social,
and ethnic causes.  Subsequently when the
Indonesian government began to exert greater control, the number of violent
incidents fell, and Bersiap soon came to an end.  The number of fatalities during the Bersiap
period runs into the tens of thousands, including some 3,600 identified and
20,000 missing Indo-Europeans.

The first major clashes of the war occurred in late August
1945, when Indonesian revolutionary forces clashed with Japanese Army units,
when the latter tried to regain previously vacated areas.  The Japanese would be involved in the early
stages of Indonesia’s
independence war, but were repatriated to Japan by the end of 1946.

In mid-September 1945, the first Allied forces consisting of
Australian units arrived in the eastern regions of Indonesia (where revolutionary
activity was minimal), peacefully taking over authority from the commander of
the Japanese naval forces there.  Allied
control also was established in Sulawesi, with
the provincial revolutionary government offering no resistance.  These areas were then returned to Dutch
colonial control.

In late September 1945, British forces also arrived in the
islands, the following month taking control of key areas in Sumatra, including Medan, Padang, and Palembang, and in
Java.  The British also occupied Jakarta (then still known, until 1949, as Batavia),
with Sukarno and his government moving the Republic’s capital to Yogyakarta in Central Java.  In
October 1945, Japanese forces also regained control of Bandung
and Semarang
for the Allies, which they turned over to the British. In Semarang, the intense fighting claimed the
lives of some 500 Japanese and 2,000 Indonesian soldiers.

August 16, 1946 – Partition of India: The start of 3 days of mass riots in Calcutta; over 4,000 people are killed

On August 16, 1946, mass riots and widespread violence and destruction broke out in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) in Bengal Province, British India. When the chaos ended three days later, over 4,000 people had been killed and 100,000 others left homeless. The carnage was the worst ever experienced in British India.

The violence arose when the Muslim League, a political party advocating for the formation of a separate Muslim-majority sovereign state in British India, called for a general strike following the breakdown of independence talks with their rival, the Indian National Congress, within the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India. The talks were intended to resolve the contentious issues relating to the partition of the Indian subcontinent.

In the aftermath of the Calcutta incident, a spate of sectarian violence broke out in other regions: Noakhali, Bihar, United Provinces (modern Uttar Pradesh), Punjab, and the North Western Frontier Province.

The Indian subcontinent.

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

Background At the end of World War II, Britain was reeling in heavy debt and was facing economic ruin.  The British government was hard pressed to continue financing the many British overseas colonial administrations in its vast territories around the world.  Britain therefore adopted a foreign policy of decolonization, that is, the British would end colonial rule and grant independence to the colonies.  Britain’s decision to decolonize also was influenced by the rise of nationalism among colonized peoples, a phenomenon that occurred in British, as well as other European colonies around the world.

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.

For so long, the Indian nationalist movement perceived the
British presence as impinging on the Indians’ right to sovereignty.  Ultimately, however, India’s religious demographics –
the divide between the majority Hindu Indians and the minority Muslim Indian
sectors of the population – would be the major obstacle to independence.  Hindus constituted 253 million people, or 72%
of the population, while Muslims, at 92 million, made up 26% of the
population.  Sikhs, who were concentrated
in Punjab Province, totaled about 2 million, or 6%
of the population.

In the first few decades of the twentieth century, Hindus
and Muslims were united in their common opposition to British rule.  By the mid-1930s, the British had allowed
native participation in politics and government, hinting at India’s likelihood of gaining
independence.  Muslim Indians now became
concerned, since an independent India
meant that Hindus, because of their sheer number, would have a perennial held
on power.  To the Muslims, this would
mean a permanent Hindu-dominated India where Muslim interests
possibly would not be met.

Muslims, therefore, proposed to carve out a separate Muslim
state, which would be called “Pakistan”
and would consist of regions that contained a majority Muslim population.  However, such a proposal, which emerged in
the 1930s, was considered too radical even for most Muslims, since the idea of
a divided India
was inconceivable.  Most politicians from
the two sides were intent on trying to work out a power-sharing arrangement at
all levels of government, much like the local autonomous governments, which by
now had come into existence and were run jointly by Muslims and Hindus.

By 1940, however, Muslim Indians were advocating the
“Two-Nation Principle”, that is, since Hindus and Muslims belonged to different
religions, they also differed in nationality, even if they shared a common
ethnicity, culture, and language.  Even
then, most Muslim leaders only used the Two-Nation Principle as a means to gain
greater political concessions in their support for an undivided India.  Hindus were intractably opposed to
partitioning India.

In May 1946, the British central government in London sent to India
a delegation called the “Cabinet Mission” with the task of finalizing the
process of granting India’s
independence and to transfer all governmental functions from the colonial
administration to a new Indian government consisting of Hindus and
Muslims.  Britain
envisioned an undivided India,
and the Cabinet Mission therefore was instructed to work out a power-sharing
government for Muslims and Hindus.

In June 1946, the Cabinet Mission presented a plan for an
Indian federated state made up of separate, autonomous Hindu-majority and
Muslim-majority provinces under a decentralized national government.  Muslim political leaders accepted the plan,
reasoning that the decentralized scheme met their demands for self-rule.  However, Hindu leaders rejected the plan,
arguing that it essentially partitioned India into many smaller states.

Hindu leaders then proposed to amend the plan into one that
included a strong centralized government. 
Muslim leaders were infuriated and walked out of the proceedings, and
subsequently withdrew their support for the Cabinet Mission.  They then called on Muslims to hold civil
actions.  Across India, Muslims carried out mass
protests and demonstrations, which generally ended without incident.  However, in Calcutta on August 16, 1946, an initially
peaceful assembly turned violent when armed bands of Muslims and Hindus went on
a rampage, and for three days, carried out widespread violence and
destruction.  When British troops finally
arrived and restored order, over 5,000 persons had been killed, 10,000 wounded,
and tens of thousands left homeless.  The
majority of the victims were Muslims.

August 15, 1962 – Korean War: American soldier James Dresnok defects to North Korea by running across the Demilitarized Zone

On August 15, 1962, U.S. Private First Class James Joseph Dresnok defected to North Korea by running across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from South Korea. At the time of his defection, he had gone AWOL (Absent without Leave) after facing a court martial for forging documents. Once across the DMZ, he was arrested by North Korean authorities and sent to the capital Pyongyang for interrogation. He subsequently married and settled there, and worked for the communist regime by appearing in propaganda films (for which he became a local celebrity), teaching English, and translating official government documents into English. He was one of six American soldiers to defect after the Korean War.

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

Prisoner Exchanges
and Defections during the Korean War
In April-May 1953, an exchange of sick and wounded prisoners was made under
Operation Little Switch. In June 1953, during armistice talks, both sides
agreed that prisoners who did not wish to be repatriated would be forced to do
so – a long contentious issue during negotiations since the Chinese and North
Koreans insisted that all POWs must return to their home countries. Prisoners
who did not desire repatriation would be allowed 90 days to reconsider being
allowed to remain permanently.

In the armistice agreement signed on July 27, 1953, POW repatriation
would be undertaken by the newly formed independent body, the Neutral Nations
Repatriation Commission (NNRC).  The
NNRC, chaired by General K.S. Thimayya from India, subsequently launched
Operation Big Switch, where in August-December 1953, some 70,000 North Korean
and 5,500 Chinese POWs, and 12,700 UN POWs (including 7,800 South Koreans,
3,600 Americans, and 900 British), were repatriated.  Some 22,000 Chinese/North Korean POWs refused
to be repatriated – the 14,000 Chinese prisoners who refused repatriation
eventually moved to the Republic of China (Taiwan), where they were given
civilian status.  Much to the
astonishment of U.S. and British authorities, 21 American and 1 British
(together with 325 South Korean) POWs also refused to be repatriated, and chose
to move to China.  All POWs on both sides
who refused to be repatriated were given 90 days to change their minds, as required
under the armistice agreement.

August 14, 1912 – U.S. troops land in Nicaragua, starting a 21-year presence until 1933

(Taken from United States Occupation of Nicaragua, 1912-1933 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

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.

Central America

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.

The U.S. Army’s presence in Nicaragua from 1912 to 1925 brought
peace in that Central American country. 
At the Nicaraguan government’s request, the U.S. Army helped to organize
Nicaragua’s armed forces and police forces (collectively called the National
Guard) to eliminate the many private militias and other armed groups that local
politicians were using to advance their personal interests.  After the National Guard was formed, the United States withdrew its forces from Nicaragua.  Nine months later, however, in-fighting among
Conservatives led to the overthrow of the incumbent president, again prompting
the United States to
redeploy its military forces in Nicaragua
to stop the disturbance from spreading.

Peace and order was restored once more, and a new
Conservative government came to power. 
The Conservatives’ authority was challenged by the Liberals, however,
who formed their own government. 
Fighting soon broke out between the rival political parties, which
rapidly escalated into a civil war.  Once
more, the United States
intervened and restored peace after threatening to use military force against
the Liberals.  In the peace treaty that
followed, the Conservatives and Liberals agreed to two stipulations: that the
Conservative government would complete its term of office before new elections
were held; and that all remaining private militias and armed groups would be
disbanded and subsequently incorporated into the government forces to form an
expanded, non-partisan National Guard.

All armed groups complied with the peace agreement, except
for an obscure pro-Liberal militia led by Augusto Sandino, who continued to
oppose the authority of the Conservative government.  Sandino also condemned the National Guard,
which he believed was being used by the United
States to meddle into Nicaragua’s internal affairs.  From 1927 to 1932, Sandino carried out a
guerilla war against the Nicaraguan and American forces, successfully evading
capture and gaining the support of the rural people through his calls for both
the end of foreign control of the country and the local elite’s social and
economic domination of Nicaraguan society.

August 13, 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The start of the Battle of Shanghai

On August 13, 1937, Chinese and Japanese forces clashed at the Battle of Shanghai near the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War (July 1937 – September 1945). A combined total of 1 million troops were brought into combat: Chinese – 700,000 and Japanese 300,000. The Chinese also fielded 180 planes and 40 tanks in the battle, while the Japanese sent in 500 planes and 300 tanks. Some 130 Japanese ships also took part.

The three-month battle (August – November 1937) saw heavy house-to-house fighting in the city center, later described by the Western media as “Stalingrad on the Yangtze” after the famous Stalingrad battle in August 1942-February 1943. Japanese amphibious landings and flanking maneuvers starting in late August 1937 onward was decisive, as Chinese forces were forced to withdraw from Shanghai or face being trapped and destroyed. The over 2:1 Chinese numerical superiority in personnel was negated by the Japanese advantage in air, naval, and armored equipment and armaments.

The Second Sino-Japanese War had begun in July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, although many armed incidents had already been taking place as a result of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

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

Japanese Expansionism into China Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931, bringing the region under its control by February 1932. While the Manchurian conflict was yet winding down, another crisis erupted in Shanghai in January 1932, when five Japanese Buddhist monks were attacked by a Chinese mob.  Anti-Japanese riots and demonstrations led the Japanese Army to intervene, sparking full-scale fighting between Chinese and Japanese forces.  In March 1932, the Japanese Army gained control of Shanghai, forcing the Chinese forces to withdraw.

With the League of Nations providing no more than a rebuke of Japan’s aggression, Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek saw that his efforts to force international pressure to restrain Japan had failed.  In January 1933, to secure Manchukuo, a combined Japanese-Manchukuo force invaded Jehol Province,
and by March, had pushed the Chinese Army south of the Great Wall into Hebei Province.

Unable to confront Japan militarily and also beset by many internal political troubles, Chiang was compelled to accept the loss of Manchuria and Jehol Province.  In March 1933, Chinese and Japanese
representatives met to negotiate a peace treaty.  In May, the two sides signed the Tanggu Truce (in Tanggu, Tianjin), officially ending the war, which provided the following stipulation that was wholly favorable to Japan: a 100-km demilitarized zone was
established south of the Great Wall extending from Beijing to Tianjin, where Chinese forces were barred from entering, but where Japanese planes and ground
units were allowed to patrol.

In the immediate aftermath of Japan’s conquest of Manchuria, many anti-Japanese partisan groups, called “volunteer armies”, sprung up all across Manchuria.  At its peak in 1932, this resistance movement had some 300,000 fighters who engaged in guerilla warfare attacking Japanese patrols and isolated outposts, and carrying out sabotage actions against Manchukuo infrastructures.  Japanese Manchukuo forces launched a series of “anti-bandit” pacification campaigns that gradually reduced rebel strength over the course of a decade.  By the late 1930s, Manchukuo was deemed nearly pacified, with the remaining by now small guerilla bands fleeing into Chinese-controlled territories or into Siberia.

The conquest of Manchuria formed only one part of Japan’s “North China Buffer State Strategy”, a
broad program aimed at establishing Japanese sphere of influence all across northern China.  In 1933, in China’s Chahar Province (Figure 32) where a separatist movement was forming among the ethnic Mongolians, Japanese military authorities succeeded in winning over many Mongolian nationalists by promising them military and financial support for secession.  Then in June 1935, when four Japanese soldiers who had entered Changpei district (in Chahar Province) were arrested and detained (but eventually
released) by the Chinese Army, Japan issued a strong diplomatic protest against China.  Negotiations between the two sides followed, leading to the signing of the Chin-Doihara Agreement on June 27, 1935, where China agreed to end its political, administrative, and military control over much of Chahar Province.  In August 1935, Mongolian nationalists, led by Prince Demchugdongrub, forged closer ties with Japan.  In December, with Japanese support, Demchugdongrub’s forces captured northern Chahar, expelling the remaining Chinese forces from the province.

In May 1936, the “Mongol Military Government” was formed in Chahar under Japanese sponsorship, with Demchugdongrub as its leader.  The new government then signed a mutual assistance pact with Japan.  Demchugdongrub soon launched two offensives (in August and November 1936) to take neighboring Suiyuan Province, but his forces were repelled by a pro-Kuomintang warlord ally of Chiang.  However, another offensive in 1937 captured the province.  With this victory, in September 1939, the Mengjiang United Autonomous Government was formed, still nominally under Chinese sovereignty but wholly under Japanese control, which consisted of the provinces of Chahar, Suiyuan, and northern Shanxi.

Elsewhere, by 1935, the Japanese Army wanted to bring Hebei Province under its control, as despite the Tanggu Truce, skirmishes continued to occur
in the demilitarized zone located south of the Great Wall.  Then in May 1935, when two pro-Japanese heads of a local news agency were assassinated, Japanese authorities presented the Hebei provincial
government with a list of demands, accompanied with a show of military force as a warning, if the demands were not met.  In June 1935, the He-Umezu Agreement was signed, where China ended its political, administrative, and military control of Hebei
Province.  Hebei then came under the sphere of influence of Japan, which then set up a pro-Japanese provincial government.

China’s long period of acquiescence and appeasement ended in December 1936 when
Chiang’s Nationalist government and Mao Zedong’s Communist Party of China forged a united front to fight the Japanese Army.  Full-scale war between China and Japan began eight months later, in
July 1937.

August 12, 1944 – World War II: German forces carry out the Wola Massacre, killing 40,000 Poles

On August 5-12, 1944, German forces, aided by Russian collaborationist units, carried out the Wola Massacre, killing over 40,000 Poles in the Wola district of Warsaw. The massacre took place in the midst of the ongoing Warsaw Uprising (August – October 1944), a failed attempt by the Polish resistance to liberate the city from German occupation.

The massacre began when German units, unable to advance toward the city center because of heavy fire from the Polish fighters, went house to house in the Wola and nearby districts and indiscriminately fired on residents or led them out to be executed en masse. Men were tortured and women raped. Most victims were the elderly, women, and children. Houses and buildings, as well as hospitals and factories, were burned down.

The massacre ended on August 12 following an order by German authorities that stated that captured civilians were to be transported to concentration or labor camps outside the city. Rather than dampen opposition as the German had hoped, the massacre further steeled the Polish resistance to fight on, leading to a further two months of heavy fighting before the Germans regained control of Warsaw.

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

Genocide and slave labor Because of the failure of Operation Barbarossa and succeeding campaigns, Germany was unable to implement the planned mass-scale transfer of targeted populations to the Russian interior.  Elimination of the undesired populations began almost immediately following the outbreak of war, with the conquest of Poland.  The killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians occurred in hundreds of incidents of massacres and mass shootings in towns and villages, reprisals against attacks on German troops, scorched earth operations, civilians trapped in the cross-fire, concentration camps, etc.

By far, the most famous extermination program was the
Holocaust, where six million Jews, or 60% of the nine million pre-war European
Jewish population, were killed in the period 1941-1945.  German anti-Jewish policies began in the Nuremberg
Laws of 1935, and violent repression of Jews increased at the outbreak of
war.  Jews were rounded up and confined
to guarded ghettos, and then sent by freight trains to concentration and labor
camps.  By mid-1942, under the “Final
Solution to the Jewish Question” decree, Jews were transported to extermination
camps, where they were killed in gas chambers. 
Some 90% of Holocaust victims were Jews. 
Other similar exterminations and repressions were carried out against
ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and other Slavs and Romani (gypsies), as
well as communists and other political enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, and
Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In Germany itself,
a clandestine program implemented by German public health authorities under
Hitler’s orders, killed tens of thousands of mentally and physically disabled
patients, purportedly under euthanasia (“mercy killing”) procedures, which
actually involved sending patients to gas chambers, applying lethal doses of
medication, and through starvation.

Some 12-15 million slave laborers, mostly civilians from
captured territories in Eastern Europe, were rounded up to work in Germany,
particularly in munitions factories and agriculture, to ease German labor
shortage caused by the millions of German men fighting in the various fronts
and also because Nazi policy discouraged German women from working in
industry.  Some 5.7 million Soviet POWs
also were used as slave labor.  As well,
two million French Army prisoners were sent to labor camps in Germany, mainly to prevent the formation of
organized resistance in France
and for them to serve as hostages to ensure continued compliance by the Vichy government.  Some 600,000 French civilians also were
conscripted or volunteered to work in German plants.  Living and working conditions for the slave
laborers were extremely dire, particularly for those from Eastern
Europe.  Some 60% (3.6
million of the 5.7 million) of Soviet POWs died in captivity from various
causes: summary executions, physical abuse, diseases, starvation diets, extreme
work, etc.

August 11, 1920 – Latvian War of Independence: Latvia and Soviet Russia sign a peace treaty

On August 11, 1920, Latvia and Soviet Russia signed the Latvian-Soviet Peace Treaty, a comprehensive agreement that included recognition of each other’s sovereignty, delineation of a common border, release of prisoners of war, and provisions regarding citizenship, refugees, commercial, postal and navigational, and other civilian matters.  Russia also ceased all political and territorial claims to Latvia and recognized Latvian independence “for all future time”.

(Taken from Latvian War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Background By the mid-19th century, as a result of the French Revolution (1789-1799), a wave of nationalism swept across Europe, a phenomenon that touched into Latvia as well.  The Latvian nationalist movement was led by the “Young Latvians”, a nationalist movement of the 1850s to 1880s that promoted Latvian identity and consciousness (as opposed to the prevailing Germanic viewpoint that predominated society) expressed in Latvian art, culture, language, and writing.  The Baltic German nobility used its political and economic domination of society to suppress this emerging Latvian nationalistic sentiment.  The Russian government’s attempt at “Russification” (cultural and linguistic assimilation into the Russian state) was rejected by Latvians.  The Latvian national identity also was accelerated by other factors: the abolition of serfdom in Courland in 1817 and Livonia in 1819, the growth of industrialization and workers’ organizations, increasing prosperity among Latvians who had acquired lands, and the formation of Latvian political movements.

The Russian Empire opposed these nationalist sentiments and enforced measures to suppress them.  Then in January 1905, the social and political unrest that gripped Russia (the Russian Revolution of 1905) produced major reverberations in Latvia, starting in January 1905, when mass protests in Riga were met with Russian soldiers opening fire on the demonstrators, killing and wounding scores of people.  Local subversive elements took advantage of
the revolutionary atmosphere to carry out a reign of terror in the countryside, particularly targeting the Baltic German nobility, torching houses and looting
properties, and inciting peasants to rise up against the ethnic German landowners.  In November 1905, Russian authorities declared martial law and brought in security forces that violently quelled the uprising, executing over 1,000 dissidents and sending thousands of others into exile in Siberia.

Then in July 1914, World War I broke out in Europe, with Russia allied with other major powers Britain and France as the Triple Entente, against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire that comprised the major Central Powers.  In 1915, the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary made military gains in the northern sector of the Eastern Front; by May of that year, German units had seized sections of Latvian Courland and Livonian Governorates.  A tenacious defense put up by the newly formed Latvian Riflemen of the Imperial Russian Army held off the German advance into Riga
for two years, but the capital finally fell in September 1917.

Meanwhile, by 1917, the Russian Empire was verging on a major political collapse at home after experiencing a number of devastating military defeats in the Eastern Front of the war,.  Two revolutions broke out that year.  The first, on March 8 (this day being February 23 in the Julian calendar that was used in Russia at that time, hence the historical name, “February Revolution” denoting the event; in January 1918, Russia, by now ruled by the Bolsheviks, adopted the Gregorian calendar that was already in use in Western Europe), led to the end of three centuries of Romanov dynastic rule in Russia with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II.  A Russian Provisional Government was installed to administer the country which it declared as the “Russian Republic”.

The second revolution of 1917 occurred on November 7 (October 25 in the Julian calendar, thus the popular name “October Revolution” denoting this event), where the communist Bolshevik Party came to power by overthrowing the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd, Russia’s capital.  The two 1917 revolutions, as well as ongoing events in World War I, catalyzed ethnic minorities across the Russia Empire, resulting in the various regional nationalist movements pushing forward their political objectives of seceding from Russia and forming new nation-states.  In the western and northern regions of the empire, the subject territories of Poland, Belarus,
Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland moved toward secession from Russia.

The Bolsheviks, on coming to power in the October Revolution, issued the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” (on November 15, 1917), which granted all non-Russian peoples of the former Russian Empire the right to secede from Russia and establish their own separate states. Eventually, the Bolsheviks would renege on this edict and suppress secession from the Russian state (now known as Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, or RSFSR).  The Bolshevik revolution also
had succeeded partly on the communists promising a war-weary citizenry that Russia would withdraw from World War I; thereafter, the Russian government declared its pacifist intentions to the Central Powers. 
A ceasefire agreement was signed on December 15, 1917 and peace talks began a few days later in Brest-Litovsk (present-day Brest, in Belarus).

However, the Central Powers imposed territorial demands that the Russian government deemed excessive.  On February 17, 1918, the Central Powers repudiated the ceasefire agreement, and the following day, Germany and Austria-Hungary restarted hostilities, launching a massive offensive with one million troops in 53 divisions along three fronts that swept through western Russia and captured Ukraine Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia.  German forces also entered Finland,
assisting the non-socialist paramilitary group known as the “White Guards” in defeating the socialist militia known as “Red Guards” in the Finnish Civil War.  Eleven days into the offensive, the northern front of the German advance was some 85 miles from the Russian capital of Petrograd.

On February 23, 1918, or five days into the offensive, peace talks were restarted at Brest-Litovsk, with the Central Powers demanding even greater territorial and military concessions on Russia than in the December 1917 negotiations.  After heated debates among members of the Council of People’s Commissars (the highest Russian governmental body) who were undecided whether to continue or end the war, at the urging of its Chairman, Vladimir Lenin, the Russian government acquiesced to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  On March 3, 1918, Russian and Central Powers representatives signed the treaty, whose major stipulations included the following: peace was restored between Russia and the Central Powers; Russia relinquished possession of Finland (which was engaged in a civil war), Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic territories of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – Germany and Austria-Hungary were to determine the future of these territories; and Russia also agreed on some territorial concessions to the Ottoman Empire.

German forces occupied Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland, establishing semi-autonomous governments in these territories that were subordinate to the authority of the German monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II.  The German occupation of the region allowed the realization of the Germanic vision of “Mitteleuropa”, an expansionist ambition aimed at unifying all Germanic and non-Germanic peoples of Central Europe into a greatly enlarged and powerful German Empire.  In support of Mitteleuropa, in the Baltic region, the Baltic German nobility proposed to set up the United Baltic Duchy, a semi-autonomous political entity consisting of present-day Latvia and Estonia that would be voluntarily integrated into the German Empire.  The proposal was not implemented, but German military authorities set up local civil governments under the authority of the Baltic German nobility or ethnic Germans.

Although the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 ended Russia’s participation in World War I, the war was still ongoing in other fronts – most notably on the Western Front, where for four years, German forces were bogged down in inconclusive warfare against the British, French and other Allied Armies.  After transferring substantial numbers of now freed troops from the Russian front to the Western Front, in March 1918, Germany launched the Spring Offensive, a major attack into France and Belgium
in an effort to bring the war to an end.  After four months of fighting, by July 1918, despite achieving some territorial gains, the German offensive had ground to a halt.

The Allied Powers then counterattacked with newly developed battle tactics and weapons and gradually pushed back the now spent and demoralized German Army all across the line into German territory.  The entry of the United States into the war on the Allied side was decisive, as increasing numbers of arriving American troops with the backing of the U.S. weapons-producing industrial power contrasted sharply with the greatly depleted war resources of both the Entente and Central Powers.  The imminent collapse of the German Army was greatly exacerbated by the outbreak of political and social unrest at the home front (the German Revolution of 1918-1919), leading to the sudden end of the German monarchy with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 9, 1918 and the establishment of an interim government (under moderate socialist Friedrich Ebert), which quickly
signed an armistice with the Allied Powers on November 11, 1918 that ended the combat phase of World War I.

As the armistice agreement required that Germany demobilize the bulk of its armed forces as well as withdraw the same to the confines of the German borders within 30 days, the German government ordered its forces to abandon the occupied territories that had been won in the Eastern Front.  After Germany’s capitulation, Russia repudiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and made plans to seize back the European territories it previously had lost to the Central Powers.  An even far more reaching objective was for the Bolshevik government to spread the communist revolution to Europe, first by linking up with German communists who were at the forefront of the unrest that currently was gripping Germany.  Russian military planners intended the offensive to merely follow in the heels of the German withdrawal from Eastern Europe (i.e. to not directly engage the Germans in combat) and then seize as much territory before the various local ethnic nationalist groups in these territories could establish a civilian government.

Germany’s defeat in World War I and the subsequent withdrawal of German forces from the
Baltic region produced a political void that local nationalist leaders rapidly filled.  In Latvia, on November 17, 1918, independence-seeking political leaders established a “People’s Council” (Latvian: Tautas padome), an interim legislative assembly, which in turn formed a provisional government under Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis.  The next day, November 18, the Latvian government declared independence as the Republic of Latvia.

Starting on November 28, 1918, in the action known as the Soviet westward offensive of 1918-1919, Soviet forces consisting of hundreds of
thousands of troops advanced in a multi-pronged offensive with the objective of recapturing the Baltic region, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine.

August 10, 1961 – Vietnam War: The U.S. military carries out a massive aerial herbicidal spraying program to deprive communist rebels of food and vegetation cover

On August 10, 1961, the U.S. military implemented Operation Ranch Hand, an extensive aerial spraying program using herbicides and defoliants over the forests of South Vietnam during the ongoing Vietnam War.  Carried out by the U.S. Air Force, the operation was meant to deprive the communist Viet Cong insurgents and North Vietnamese infiltrators of food and vegetation. By the end of the program in 1971, some 20 million gallons had been sprayed in over 20,000 km2 of forests (comprising 20% of South Vietnam’s forested areas) and 2,000 km2 of croplands. Some 60% of the sprayed chemical was Agent Orange, a mix of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, that was highly toxic to humans and destructive to the environment.

Southeast Asia during the 1960s

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

Aftermath The war had a profound, long-lasting effect on the United States.  Americans were bitterly divided by it, and others became disillusioned with the government.    War cost, which totaled some $150 billion ($1 trillion in 2015 value), placed a severe strain on the U.S. economy, leading to budget deficits, a weak dollar, higher inflation, and by the 1970s, an economic recession.  Also toward the end of the war, American soldiers in Vietnam suffered from low morale and discipline, compounded by racial and social tensions resulting from the civil rights movement in the United States during the late 1960s and also because of widespread recreational drug use among the troops.  During 1969-1972 particularly and during the period of American de-escalation and phased troop withdrawal from Vietnam, U.S. soldiers became increasingly unwilling to go to battle, which resulted in the phenomenon known as “fragging”, where soldiers, often using a fragmentation grenade, killed their officers whom they thought were overly zealous and eager for combat action.

Furthermore, some U.S. soldiers returning from Vietnam were met with hostility, mainly because the war had become extremely unpopular in the United States, and as a result of news coverage of massacres and atrocities committed by American units on Vietnamese civilians.  A period of healing and reconciliation eventually occurred, and in 1982,
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built, a national monument in Washington, D.C. that lists the names of servicemen who were killed or missing in the war.

Following the war, in Vietnam and Indochina, turmoil and conflict continued to be widespread.  After South Vietnam’s collapse, the Viet Cong/NLF’s PRG was installed as the caretaker government.  But as Hanoi de facto held full political and military control, on July 2, 1976, North Vietnam annexed South Vietnam, and the unified state was called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Some 1-2 million South Vietnamese, largely consisting of former government officials, military officers, businessmen, religious leaders, and other “counter-revolutionaries”, were sent to re-education camps, which were labor camps, where inmates did various kinds of work ranging from dangerous land mine field clearing, to less perilous construction and
agricultural labor, and lived under dire conditions of starvation diets and a high incidence of deaths and diseases.

In the years after the war, the Indochina refugee crisis developed, where some three million people, consisting mostly of those targeted by government repression, left their homelands in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, for permanent settlement in other countries.  In Vietnam, some 1-2 million departing refugees used small, decrepit boats to embark on perilous journeys to other Southeast Asian nations.  Some 200,000-400,000 of these “boat people” perished at sea, while survivors who eventually reached Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and other destinations were sometimes met there with hostility.  But with United Nations support, refugee camps were established in these Southeast Asian countries to house and process the refugees.  Ultimately, some 2,500,000 refugees were resettled, mostly in North America and Europe.

The communist revolutions triumphed in Indochina: in April 1975 in Vietnam and Cambodia, and in December 1975 in Laos.  Because the United
States used massive air firepower in the conflicts, North Vietnam, eastern Laos, and eastern Cambodia were heavily bombed.  U.S. planes dropped nearly 8 million tons of bombs (twice the amount the United States dropped in World War II), and Indochina became the most heavily bombed area in history.  Some 30% of the 270 million so-called cluster bombs dropped did not explode, and since the end of the war, they continue to pose a grave danger to the local population, particularly in the countryside.  Unexploded ordnance (UXO) has killed some 50,000 people in Laos alone, and hundreds more in Indochina are killed or maimed each year.

The aerial spraying operations of the U.S. military, carried out using several types of herbicides but most commonly with Agent Orange (which contained the highly toxic chemical, dioxin), have had a direct impact on Vietnam.  Some 400,000 were directly killed or maimed, and in the following years, a segment of the population that were exposed to the chemicals suffer from a variety of health problems,
including cancers, birth defects, genetic and mental diseases, etc.

Some 20 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed on 20,000 km2 of forests, or 20% of Vietnam’s total forested area, which destroyed trees, hastened erosion, and upset the ecological balance, food chain, and other environmental parameters.

Following the Vietnam War, Indochina continued to experience severe turmoil.  In December 1978, after a period of border battles and cross-border
raids, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia (then known as Kampuchea) and within two weeks, overwhelmed the country and overthrew the communist Pol Pot regime.  Then in February 1979, in reprisal for Vietnam’s invasion of its Kampuchean ally, China launched a large-scale offensive into the northern regions of Vietnam, but after one month of bitter fighting, the Chinese forces withdrew.  Regional instability would persist into the 1990s.

August 9, 1965 – Singapore declares independence after being expelled by Malaysia

On August 9, 1965, the Malaysian parliament voted 126–0 to
expel Singapore from Malaysia.
Members of Parliament from Singapore
were not present during the vote. Later that day, Singapore
reluctantly declared its independence; in December 1965, it became the Republic of Singapore.

Singapore’s expulsion was a result of long-simmering tensions, distrust and ideological differences between the federal government in Kuala Lumpur led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and Singapore’s dominant People’s Action Party (PAP).

Singapore was one of 14 states that formed the country of Malaysia in September 1963 from the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the other former British colonies of Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak. Singapore’s expulsion in 1963 occurred during the interim period in Malaysia between the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) and the Second Malayan Emergency (aka Communist Insurgency in Malaysia (1968-1989)).

Southeast Asia

(Taken from Second Malayan Emergency – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

After being pushed out of Malaya, the Malay National Liberation Army (MNLA) of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) established a number of bases in southern Thailand close to the Malayan border, where it began a campaign to recruit new fighters from the local population, both in southern Thailand and northern Malaya.  Its ranks soon included some 30% Thai nationals.  Also in an effort to widen its support base, the CPM formed the Islamic Brotherhood Party (Malay: Parti Persaudaraan Islam), aimed at attracting ethnic Malays by advocating that Islam and communism were not incompatible ideologies.

In September 1963, the Federation of Malaya was ended, and
replaced by the Federation of Malaysia (or simply Malaysia),
consisting of the former Federation of Malaya and the territories of North
Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore
(in August 1965, Singapore
left the Federation and formed a separate independent state).

In the 1960s, with the growth of communist movements in
Indo-China (North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
as well as in Thailand),
the CPM stepped up its activities: propaganda and indoctrination campaigns were
launched, and recruitment and training accelerated.  From some 500-600 fighters remaining by the
end of the Emergency, by 1965, the MNLA ranks had increased to some 2,000.

From 1963 to 1966, Malaysia
was embroiled in a low-intensity war with neighboring Indonesia.  Then by the late 1960s, the Vietnam War was
increasing in intensity.  In May 1969,
racial violence between Malays and Chinese broke out in Malaysia and Singapore, increasing racial
tensions and forcing the Malaysian government to impose a state of
emergency.  Believing that the upsurge in
local and regional unrest was playing in its favor, the CPM/MNLA decided to
restart hostilities.

This second phase of the war (commonly known as the
Communist Insurgency War) began on June 17, 1968 when the MNLA guerillas
ambushed Malaysian Army soldiers at Kroh-Betong, in northern Malaysia.  Fighting eventually spread to other parts of
Peninsular Malaysia, but was much more concentrated in northern Malaysia,
and also failed to achieve the degree of intensity and scope experienced during
the Malayan Emergency.  Furthermore, in
1970, the CPM became wracked in an internal power struggle, which led to the
formation of two rival splinter groups, the CPM-Marxist Leninist and
CPM-Revolutionary Faction, aside from the original CPM, which continued to have
the largest membership.  The CPM, which
followed the Maoist branch of communism and received support from China, was dealt a major blow when in June 1974,
Malaysia and China
established diplomatic relations. 
Although the MNLA tried to maintain military pressure on the Malaysian
government, by the early 1980s, the insurgency was experiencing an irrevocable
decline.

Much of this decline was a result of the Malaysian
government adopting the successful multi-faceted counter-insurgency approach
used in the Malayan Emergency, this time carried out in the Security and
Development Program (KESBAN, Malay: Keselamatan dan Pembangunan), which
consisted of military and civilian measures. 
Military measures included directly confronting the rebels in combat,
utilizing intelligence and psychological operations, and increasing the size
and strength of security forces.  The
civilian component, while also involving resettling villages that were
vulnerable to rebel influences and curtailing some civil liberties, focused on
a “hearts and minds” approach in the affected communities, e.g. expanding
social services and implementing public works programs.  Neighborhood Watch and People’s Volunteer
Group initiatives not only served security functions in local neighborhoods,
but also fostered better interracial relations among Malays, Chinese, and
Indians.  Furthermore, by the 1980s, Malaysia
was experiencing an extended period of dynamic economic growth.

The demise for the CPM also was brought about by the
impending end of the Cold War.  By 1989,
communism was waning globally, communist regimes in Eastern Europe were
collapsing, and the Soviet Union itself
disintegrated in 1991.  In southern Thailand, negotiations between the Malaysian
government and CPM (mediated by the Thai government) led to the signing of the
Hat Yai Peace Accord (in Hat Yai, Thailand) on December 2, 1989.  As stipulated in the agreement, both the CPM
and its military wing, the MNLA, were disbanded.  The former rebels were allowed to return to Malaysia, an offer that was taken up by some
members, while others chose to remain in southern Thailand.  The peace agreement did not prohibit Chin
Peng, the CPM leader, from returning to Malaysia.  However, successive Malaysian governments
refused to grant him entry into the country. 
He passed away in Bangkok,
Thailand in
September 2013.

August 8, 1919 – Anglo-Afghan War of 1919: Britain and Afghanistan sign a peace treaty that sets the Durand Line as the common border between British India and Afghanistan

On August 8, 1919, Britain and Afghanistan signed a peace treaty that ended the Anglo-Afghan War. The treaty also set the Durand Line as the common border between British India and Afghanistan. Spanning 2,200 km, the Durand Line was delineated in 1893 between British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand and the Afghan monarchy to set the boundary of their respective spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations and trade. At that time, Afghanistan was under British suzerainty, but had its own government and was recognized as an independent state. Strategically, Afghanistan also served as a buffer zone in the “Great Game”, the territorial expansionist ambitions of the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia.

The British Empire’s prized possession during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the Indian subcontinent. Afghanistan served as a neutral zone between the region’s two major powers, the Russian Empire and the British Empire.

(Taken from Anglo-Afghan War of 1919 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

Background During the early years of the twentieth century, Tsarist Russia and the British Empire in India were the regional powers in Central Asia.  The devastating effects of World War I on these two regional powers had a profound effect on the Anglo-Afghan War of 1919.  In Russia, the Tsarist government had collapsed and a bitter civil war was raging.  Consequently, Russia’s control of its Central Asian domains was weakened.  The British Empire, which included the Indian subcontinent (Map 7), was drained financially and militarily, despite emerging victorious in World War I.

With the two regional powers weakened by war, the semi-independent Emirate of Afghanistan moved to assert its right of sovereignty.  More important, Habibullah, the Afghan ruler, wanted to annul the Treaty of Gandamak, where Afghanistan had ceded its foreign policy decisions to the British Empire.  Adding strength to Habibullah’s diplomatic position was that he had allowed Afghanistan to stay neutral during
World War I, despite the strong anti-British sentiments among his people.  Habibullah had also spurned Germany and the Ottoman Empire, enemies of the British, who had encouraged him to defy British domination in the region and even launch an attack on British India, at a time when Britain was most vulnerable.

For these reasons, Habibullah asked the British to allow him to present his case for Afghanistan’s independence at the Paris Peace Conference, where the victorious Allied countries had gathered to discuss the end of World War I.  Habibullah was assassinated, however, before his case was decided.  His son, Amanullah, succeeded to the Afghan throne, despite a rival claim by a family relative.

Upon his ascent to the throne, Amanullah declared Afghanistan’s independence, doing away with his father’s policy of trying to gain the country’s sovereignty through diplomatic means.  The declaration of independence was immensely popular among Afghans, as nationalist sentiments ran high. 
Amanullah therefore was able to consolidate his hold on power, even as some sectors opposed his leadership.  Amanullah provoked the British by inciting an uprising of the tribal people in Peshawar, British India.  Using the uprising as a diversion, he sent his forces across the Afghan-British Indian border to capture the town of Bagh.

The British Army quickly quelled the Peshawar uprising and threw back the Afghan forces across the border.  The Afghans clearly were unprepared for war – although having sufficient numbers of soldiers as well as being assisted by tribal militias, they possessed obsolete weapons, which even then were in short supply.

By contrast, the British were a modern fighting machine because of the technological advances they had made in World War I.  The British suffered from a shortage of soldiers, since much of their forces had yet to return to India from their deployment to other British territories during World War I.  The British air attacks on Kabul devastated Afghan morale, forcing Amanullah to sue for peace.

Afghanistan and the British Empire entered into peace negotiations to end the war.  In the peace treaty that emerged from these negotiations, the British granted conciliatory terms to the Afghans, including returning Afghanistan’s right of foreign
policy.  The British, therefore, essentially recognized Afghanistan as a sovereign state.  By this time, Afghanistan already had been nominally independent, as it had established diplomatic relations with the newly formed Soviet Union and its independence was gaining recognition by the international community.

Afghanistan and the British Empire retained the Durand Line as their common border.  After the
war, Afghanistan continued to serve as a buffer zone between the Russians and the British, because of the
end of the previous non-aggression treaties between Tsarist Russia and the British Empire following the emergence of the Soviet Union after the Russian Civil War.