Daniel Orr's Blog, page 14

August 18, 1965 – Vietnam War: U.S. Marines pre-empt a Viet Cong attack on Chu Lai Air Base

On August 18, 1965, U.S. Marines launched Operation Starlite aimed at pre-empting a Viet Cong attack on Chu Lai Air Base. With information provided by South Vietnamese military intelligence, the operation destroyed an insurgent camp on the Van Tuong peninsula in nearly one week of heavy fighting (August 18-24, 1965). The U.S. force consisted of 5,500 personnel, while the Viet Cong totaled 1,500. Casualties were: U.S. 45 killed, 200 wounded; Viet Cong – 600 killed, 42 captured.

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

Fighting along Vietnam’sDemilitarized Zone (DMZ) In the northern part of South Vietnam (which theSouth Vietnamese government designated as I Corps Tactical Zone), U.S. Marines,who were based at Da Nang, Phu Bai, and Chu Lai, supplemented by SouthVietnamese forces, were tasked with defending the areas south of  the DMZ. The U.S. Marines launched several search and destroy missions in thesurrounding village areas (which were under the nominal control of the VietCong/NLF).  These operations yieldedlittle results, as the Viet Cong refused to fight in the open, but retreated tothe jungles, only to return after the Americans had departed.  Unable to locate the enemy, the U.S. Marineschanged their strategy, and instead implemented a “hearts and minds” campaignof providing social, medical, economic, and political programs, aimed atwinning the support of the local population. Ultimately, the “hearts and minds” program proved only partiallysuccessful, as Viet Cong influence in these agriculturally rich lowland coastalareas remained strong.  GeneralWestmoreland also viewed these conciliatory efforts by the U.S. Marines ascontrary to the American war strategy of seeking and destroying the Viet Cong.

By mid-1966, North Vietnamese infiltrations across the DMZhad increased considerably.  North Vietnam had timed these infiltrations totake advantage of the ongoing massive civilian unrest occurring in South Vietnam.  In response, the U.S. military launched offensivesto counteract these infiltrations.  InAugust 1966, under Operation Starlite, U.S. Marines pre-empted a NorthVietnamese planned assault on the U.S. Marine base at Chu Lai.  The North Vietnamese were forced to retreatto their side of the DMZ, where they regrouped and again crossed the DMZ into South Vietnam,which was met with U.S. Marines in Operation Prairie, which again forced theenemy to fall back across the DMZ.

Because of the increased North Vietnamese pressure, bymid-1966, the U.S. Marines had established a series of combat bases across andadjacent to the DMZ; these bases included Khe Sanh, Dong Ha, Con Thien, and GioLinh, all of which were supported by the artillery bases of Camp Carroll andRockpile (Figure 6).

In June 1966, North Vietnamese forces again attacked acrossthe DMZ, but were repulsed by U.S. Marines, supported by South Vietnamese unitsand American air, artillery, and naval forces. U.S.forces then launched Operation Hastings, leading to three weeks of largebattles near Dong Ha and ending with the North Vietnamese withdrawing backacross the DMZ.  The year 1966 also sawthe United States greatly escalating the war, with U.S. deployment beingincreased over two-fold from the year before, from 184,000 in 1965 to 385,000troops in 1966.  In 1967, U.S.deployment would top 485,000 and then peak in 1968 with 536,000 soldiers.

Throughout 1967, combat activity in the DMZ consisted ofartillery duels, North Vietnamese infiltrations, and firefights along theborder.  As the North Vietnamese actuallyused their side of the DMZ as a base to stage their infiltration attacks, inMay 1967, the U.S. Marines militarized the southern side of the DMZ, whichsparked increased fighting inside the DMZ. Also starting in September 1967 and continuing for many months, NorthVietnamese artillery batteries pounded U.S Marine positions near the DMZ, whichinflicted heavy casualties on American troops. In response, U.S.aircraft launched bombing attacks on North Vietnamese positions across the DMZ.

In early 1967, North Vietnambegan preparing for a massive offensive into South Vietnam.  This operation, which later came to be knownas the Tet Offensive, would have far-reaching consequences on the outcome ofthe war.  The North Vietnamese plan tolaunch the Tet Offensive came about when political hardliners in Hanoi succeeded in sideliningthe moderates in government. As a result of the hardliners dictating governmentpolicies, in July 1967, hundreds of moderates, including government officialsand military officers, were purged from the Hanoi government and the Vietnamese CommunistParty.

By fall of 1967, North Vietnamese military planners had setthe date to launch the Tet Offensive on January 31, 1968.  In the invasion plan, the Viet Cong was tocarry out the offensive, with North Vietnam only providing weapons and othermaterial support.  The Tet Offensive,which was known in North Vietnamas “General Offensive, General Uprising”, called for the Viet Cong to launchsimultaneous attacks on many targets across South Vietnam, which would beaccompanied with calls to the civilian population to launch a generaluprising.  North Vietnam believed that acivilian uprising in the south would succeed because of President Thieu’sunpopularity, as evidenced by the constant civil unrest and widespreadcriticism of government policies.  Inthis scenario, once President Thieu was overthrown, an NLF-led communistgovernment would succeed in power, and pressure the United States to end its involvement in South Vietnam.  Faced with the threat of internationalcondemnation, the United Stateswould be forced to acquiesce, and withdraw its forces from Vietnam.

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 governmentsacross the archipelago were formed, including in Java and Sumatrawhere support for the Republic was strongest. These actions by the Indonesian Republic to consolidatepower were greatly assisted by the aggressive actions of the PETA and Heihoarmed militias, which reorganized after having been disbanded by the JapaneseArmy.  Subsequently, these ex-Japanesemilitias and the Dutch-era indigenous military units of the “Royal NetherlandsEast Indies Army” would form the core of the Indonesian Armed Forces.  A campaign was launched to spread the news ofthe new Indonesian Republic to the otherislands: public speeches were made in major cities, and print and broadcastmedia spread the word to more distant areas. Sukarno himself addressed crowds involving hundreds of thousands ofpeople in Jakarta.  However, apart from Java and Sumatra, theRepublic established only limited revolutionary atmosphere in other areas,particularly in the “Great East” regions, including Maluku, Lesser SundaIslands, and West New Guinea.  Also shortly after the independence war hadbegun, Sukarno was concerned about his war-time collaboration with theJapanese.  In November 1945, hereorganized his government into a parliamentary system, naming anon-collaborator, Sutan Sjahrir, as Prime Minister to run the government, whilehe 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’sindependence and continuing for several months, widespread violence and anarchyprevailed (this period is known as “Bersiap”, an Indonesian word meaning “beprepared”), with armed bands called “Pemuda” (Indonesian meaning “youth”)carrying out murders, robberies, abductions, and other criminal acts againstgroups associated with the Dutch regime, i.e. local nobilities, civilianleaders, Christians such as Menadonese and Ambones, ethnic Chinese, Europeans,and Indo-Europeans.  Other armed bandswere composed of local communists or Islamists, who carried out attacks for thesame reasons.  Christian andnobility-aligned militias also were organized, which led to clashes betweenpro-Dutch and pro-Indonesian armed groups. These so-called “social revolutions” by anti-Dutch militias, whichoccurred mainly in Java and Sumatra, weremotivated by various reasons, including political, economic, religious, social,and ethnic causes.  Subsequently when theIndonesian government began to exert greater control, the number of violentincidents fell, and Bersiap soon came to an end.  The number of fatalities during the Bersiapperiod runs into the tens of thousands, including some 3,600 identified and20,000 missing Indo-Europeans.

The first major clashes of the war occurred in late August1945, 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 earlystages of Indonesia’sindependence war, but were repatriated to Japan by the end of 1946.

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

In late September 1945, British forces also arrived in theislands, the following month taking control of key areas in Sumatra, including Medan, Padang, and Palembang, and inJava.  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.  InOctober 1945, Japanese forces also regained control of Bandungand Semarangfor the Allies, which they turned over to the British. In Semarang, the intense fighting claimed thelives 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’sprized possession since the 1800s, a strong nationalist sentiment had existedfor many decades and had led to the emergence of many political organizationsthat demanded varying levels of autonomy and self-rule.  Other Indian nationalist movements alsocalled for the British to leave immediately. Nationalist aspirations were concentrated in areas with direct Britishrule, as there also existed across the Indian subcontinent hundreds ofsemi-autonomous regions which the British called “Princely States”, whoserulers held local authority with treaties or alliances made with the Britishgovernment.  The Princely States,however, had relinquished their foreign policy initiatives to the British inexchange for British military protection against foreign attacks.  Thus, the British de facto ruled over thePrincely States.

For so long, the Indian nationalist movement perceived theBritish 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 Indiansectors 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 thepopulation.  Sikhs, who were concentratedin Punjab Province, totaled about 2 million, or 6%of the population.

In the first few decades of the twentieth century, Hindusand Muslims were united in their common opposition to British rule.  By the mid-1930s, the British had allowednative participation in politics and government, hinting at India’s likelihood of gainingindependence.  Muslim Indians now becameconcerned, since an independent Indiameant that Hindus, because of their sheer number, would have a perennial heldon power.  To the Muslims, this wouldmean a permanent Hindu-dominated India where Muslim interestspossibly would not be met.

Muslims, therefore, proposed to carve out a separate Muslimstate, which would be called “Pakistan”and would consist of regions that contained a majority Muslim population.  However, such a proposal, which emerged inthe 1930s, was considered too radical even for most Muslims, since the idea ofa divided Indiawas inconceivable.  Most politicians fromthe two sides were intent on trying to work out a power-sharing arrangement atall levels of government, much like the local autonomous governments, which bynow 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 differentreligions, they also differed in nationality, even if they shared a commonethnicity, culture, and language.  Eventhen, most Muslim leaders only used the Two-Nation Principle as a means to gaingreater political concessions in their support for an undivided India.  Hindus were intractably opposed topartitioning India.

In May 1946, the British central government in London sent to Indiaa delegation called the “Cabinet Mission” with the task of finalizing theprocess of granting India’sindependence and to transfer all governmental functions from the colonialadministration to a new Indian government consisting of Hindus andMuslims.  Britainenvisioned an undivided India,and the Cabinet Mission therefore was instructed to work out a power-sharinggovernment for Muslims and Hindus.

In June 1946, the Cabinet Mission presented a plan for anIndian federated state made up of separate, autonomous Hindu-majority andMuslim-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 thatincluded a strong centralized government. Muslim leaders were infuriated and walked out of the proceedings, andsubsequently withdrew their support for the Cabinet Mission.  They then called on Muslims to hold civilactions.  Across India, Muslims carried out massprotests and demonstrations, which generally ended without incident.  However, in Calcutta on August 16, 1946, an initiallypeaceful assembly turned violent when armed bands of Muslims and Hindus went ona rampage, and for three days, carried out widespread violence anddestruction.  When British troops finallyarrived and restored order, over 5,000 persons had been killed, 10,000 wounded,and tens of thousands left homeless.  Themajority 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 Exchangesand Defections during the Korean WarIn April-May 1953, an exchange of sick and wounded prisoners was made underOperation Little Switch. In June 1953, during armistice talks, both sidesagreed that prisoners who did not wish to be repatriated would be forced to doso – a long contentious issue during negotiations since the Chinese and NorthKoreans insisted that all POWs must return to their home countries. Prisonerswho did not desire repatriation would be allowed 90 days to reconsider beingallowed to remain permanently.

In the armistice agreement signed on July 27, 1953, POW repatriationwould be undertaken by the newly formed independent body, the Neutral NationsRepatriation Commission (NNRC).  TheNNRC, chaired by General K.S. Thimayya from India, subsequently launchedOperation Big Switch, where in August-December 1953, some 70,000 North Koreanand 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 refusedto be repatriated – the 14,000 Chinese prisoners who refused repatriationeventually moved to the Republic of China (Taiwan), where they were givencivilian status.  Much to theastonishment of U.S. and British authorities, 21 American and 1 British(together with 325 South Korean) POWs also refused to be repatriated, and choseto move to China.  All POWs on both sideswho refused to be repatriated were given 90 days to change their minds, as requiredunder 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 governmentcollapsed, replaced by a U.S.-friendly administration consisting ofConservatives and Liberals.  The United States bought out Nicaragua’slarge foreign debt that had accumulated during the long period ofinstability.  Consequently, Nicaragua owed the United States the amount of thatdebt, while the Americans’ stake was raised in that troubled country.

Central America

Then in 1912, Nicaragua’s ruling coalition brokedown, sparking a civil war between the government and another alliance ofLiberals and Conservatives.  As therebels gained ground and began to threaten Managua,Nicaragua’s capital, the United Stateslanded troops in Corinto, Bluefields, and San Juan del Sur.  At its peak, the U.S.troop deployment in Nicaraguatotaled over 2,300 soldiers.  Within amonth of the deployment, in October 1912, the American troops, supported byNicaraguan government forces, had defeated the rebels.

The United Statestightened its control of Nicaraguain August 1914 when both countries signed an agreement whereby the Americansgained 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 adeterrent 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 broughtpeace in that Central American country. At the Nicaraguan government’s request, the U.S. Army helped to organizeNicaragua’s armed forces and police forces (collectively called the NationalGuard) to eliminate the many private militias and other armed groups that localpoliticians 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 amongConservatives led to the overthrow of the incumbent president, again promptingthe United States toredeploy its military forces in Nicaraguato stop the disturbance from spreading.

Peace and order was restored once more, and a newConservative 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, whichrapidly escalated into a civil war.  Oncemore, the United Statesintervened and restored peace after threatening to use military force againstthe Liberals.  In the peace treaty thatfollowed, the Conservatives and Liberals agreed to two stipulations: that theConservative government would complete its term of office before new electionswere held; and that all remaining private militias and armed groups would bedisbanded and subsequently incorporated into the government forces to form anexpanded, non-partisan National Guard.

All armed groups complied with the peace agreement, exceptfor an obscure pro-Liberal militia led by Augusto Sandino, who continued tooppose 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 aguerilla war against the Nicaraguan and American forces, successfully evadingcapture and gaining the support of the rural people through his calls for boththe end of foreign control of the country and the local elite’s social andeconomic 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 rebukeof Japan’s aggression,Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek saw that his efforts to force internationalpressure to restrain Japanhad 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 Japanmilitarily and also beset by many internal political troubles, Chiang wascompelled to accept the loss of Manchuria and Jehol Province.  In March 1933, Chinese and Japaneserepresentatives 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 followingstipulation that was wholly favorable to Japan: a 100-km demilitarized zone wasestablished south of the Great Wall extending from Beijing to Tianjin, whereChinese forces were barred from entering, but where Japanese planes and groundunits were allowed to patrol.

In the immediate aftermath of Japan’sconquest of Manchuria, many anti-Japanese partisan groups, called “volunteerarmies”, sprung up all across Manchuria.  At its peak in 1932, this resistance movementhad some 300,000 fighters who engaged in guerilla warfare attacking Japanesepatrols and isolated outposts, and carrying out sabotage actions against Manchukuoinfrastructures.  Japanese-Manchukuoforces launched a series of “anti-bandit” pacification campaigns that graduallyreduced rebel strength over the course of a decade.  By the late 1930s, Manchukuowas deemed nearly pacified, with the remaining by now small guerilla bandsfleeing into Chinese-controlled territories or into Siberia.

The conquest of Manchuria formed only one part of Japan’s “North China Buffer State Strategy”, abroad program aimed at establishing Japanese sphere of influence all acrossnorthern China.  In 1933, in China’sChahar Province (Figure 32) where a separatistmovement was forming among the ethnic Mongolians, Japanese military authoritiessucceeded in winning over many Mongolian nationalists by promising themmilitary and financial support for secession. Then in June 1935, when four Japanese soldiers who had entered Changpeidistrict (in Chahar Province) were arrested and detained (but eventuallyreleased) by the Chinese Army, Japanissued 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, ledby Prince Demchugdongrub, forged closer ties with Japan.  In December, with Japanese support,Demchugdongrub’s forces captured northern Chahar, expelling the remainingChinese forces from the province.

In May 1936, the “Mongol Military Government” was formed inChahar under Japanese sponsorship, with Demchugdongrub as its leader.  The new government then signed a mutualassistance 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 capturedthe province.  With this victory, inSeptember 1939, the Mengjiang United Autonomous Government was formed, stillnominally under Chinese sovereignty but wholly under Japanese control, whichconsisted of the provinces of Chahar, Suiyuan, and northern Shanxi.

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

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

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

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 theHolocaust, where six million Jews, or 60% of the nine million pre-war EuropeanJewish population, were killed in the period 1941-1945.  German anti-Jewish policies began in the NurembergLaws of 1935, and violent repression of Jews increased at the outbreak ofwar.  Jews were rounded up and confinedto guarded ghettos, and then sent by freight trains to concentration and laborcamps.  By mid-1942, under the “FinalSolution to the Jewish Question” decree, Jews were transported to exterminationcamps, where they were killed in gas chambers. Some 90% of Holocaust victims were Jews. Other similar exterminations and repressions were carried out againstethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and other Slavs and Romani (gypsies), aswell as communists and other political enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, andJehovah’s Witnesses.  In Germany itself,a clandestine program implemented by German public health authorities underHitler’s orders, killed tens of thousands of mentally and physically disabledpatients, purportedly under euthanasia (“mercy killing”) procedures, whichactually involved sending patients to gas chambers, applying lethal doses ofmedication, and through starvation.

Some 12-15 million slave laborers, mostly civilians fromcaptured territories in Eastern Europe, were rounded up to work in Germany,particularly in munitions factories and agriculture, to ease German laborshortage caused by the millions of German men fighting in the various frontsand also because Nazi policy discouraged German women from working inindustry.  Some 5.7 million Soviet POWsalso were used as slave labor.  As well,two million French Army prisoners were sent to labor camps in Germany, mainly to prevent the formation oforganized resistance in Franceand for them to serve as hostages to ensure continued compliance by the Vichy government.  Some 600,000 French civilians also wereconscripted or volunteered to work in German plants.  Living and working conditions for the slavelaborers were extremely dire, particularly for those from Eastern Europe.  Some 60% (3.6million of the 5.7 million) of Soviet POWs died in captivity from variouscauses: summary executions, physical abuse, diseases, starvation diets, extremework, 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 andenforced measures to suppress them.  Thenin January 1905, the social and political unrest that gripped Russia (the Russian Revolution of 1905) producedmajor reverberations in Latvia,starting in January 1905, when mass protests in Riga were met with Russian soldiers openingfire on the demonstrators, killing and wounding scores of people.  Local subversive elements took advantage ofthe revolutionary atmosphere to carry out a reign of terror in the countryside,particularly targeting the Baltic German nobility, torching houses and lootingproperties, and inciting peasants to rise up against the ethnic Germanlandowners.  In November 1905, Russianauthorities declared martial law and brought in security forces that violentlyquelled the uprising, executing over 1,000 dissidents and sending thousands ofothers into exile in Siberia.

Then in July 1914, World War I broke out in Europe, with Russia allied with other major powers Britain and Franceas the Triple Entente, against Germany,Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire that comprised the major CentralPowers.  In 1915, the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary made military gainsin the northern sector of the Eastern Front; by May of that year, German unitshad seized sections of Latvian Courland and Livonian Governorates.  A tenacious defense put up by the newlyformed Latvian Riflemen of the Imperial Russian Army held off the Germanadvance into Rigafor two years, but the capital finally fell in September 1917.

Meanwhile, by 1917, the Russian Empire was verging on amajor political collapse at home after experiencing a number of devastatingmilitary defeats in the Eastern Front of the war,.  Two revolutions broke out that year.  The first, on March 8 (this day beingFebruary 23 in the Julian calendar that was used in Russia at that time, hencethe historical name, “February Revolution” denoting the event; in January 1918,Russia, by now ruled by the Bolsheviks, adopted the Gregorian calendar that wasalready in use in Western Europe), led to the end of three centuries of Romanovdynastic rule in Russia with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II.  A Russian Provisional Government wasinstalled 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 byoverthrowing the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd, Russia’scapital.  The two 1917 revolutions, aswell as ongoing events in World War I, catalyzed ethnic minorities across theRussia Empire, resulting in the various regional nationalist movements pushingforward their political objectives of seceding from Russia and forming newnation-states.  In the western andnorthern 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 OctoberRevolution, issued the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” (onNovember 15, 1917), which granted all non-Russian peoples of the former RussianEmpire the right to secede from Russia and establish their own separate states.Eventually, the Bolsheviks would renege on this edict and suppress secessionfrom the Russian state (now known as Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic,or RSFSR).  The Bolshevik revolution alsohad succeeded partly on the communists promising a war-weary citizenry that Russia wouldwithdraw from World War I; thereafter, the Russian government declared itspacifist intentions to the Central Powers. A ceasefire agreement was signed on December 15, 1917 and peace talksbegan a few days later in Brest-Litovsk (present-day Brest,in Belarus).

However, the Central Powers imposed territorial demands thatthe Russian government deemed excessive. On February 17, 1918, the Central Powers repudiated the ceasefireagreement, and the following day, Germanyand Austria-Hungaryrestarted hostilities, launching a massive offensive with one million troops in53 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” indefeating the socialist militia known as “Red Guards” in the Finnish CivilWar.  Eleven days into the offensive, thenorthern front of the German advance was some 85 miles from the Russian capitalof Petrograd.

On February 23, 1918, or five days into the offensive, peacetalks were restarted at Brest-Litovsk, with the Central Powers demanding evengreater territorial and military concessions on Russia than in the December1917 negotiations.  After heated debatesamong members of the Council of People’s Commissars (the highest Russiangovernmental body) who were undecided whether to continue or end the war, atthe urging of its Chairman, Vladimir Lenin, the Russian government acquiescedto the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  On March3, 1918, Russian and Central Powers representatives signed the treaty, whosemajor stipulations included the following: peace was restored between Russiaand the Central Powers; Russia relinquished possession of Finland (which wasengaged in a civil war), Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic territories ofEstonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – Germany and Austria-Hungary were to determine thefuture of these territories; and Russia also agreed on some territorialconcessions to the Ottoman Empire.

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

Although the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 ended Russia’sparticipation in World War I, the war was still ongoing in other fronts – mostnotably on the Western Front, where for four years, German forces were boggeddown in inconclusive warfare against the British, French and other AlliedArmies.  After transferring substantialnumbers of now freed troops from the Russian front to the Western Front, inMarch 1918, Germany launchedthe Spring Offensive, a major attack into Franceand Belgiumin an effort to bring the war to an end. After four months of fighting, by July 1918, despite achieving someterritorial gains, the German offensive had ground to a halt.

The Allied Powers then counterattacked with newly developedbattle tactics and weapons and gradually pushed back the now spent anddemoralized German Army all across the line into German territory.  The entry of the United States into the war on the Allied side was decisive, asincreasing numbers of arriving American troops with the backing of the U.S. weapons-producingindustrial power contrasted sharply with the greatly depleted war resources ofboth the Entente and Central Powers.  Theimminent collapse of the German Army was greatly exacerbated by the outbreak ofpolitical and social unrest at the home front (the German Revolution of1918-1919), leading to the sudden end of the German monarchy with theabdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 9, 1918 and the establishment of aninterim government (under moderate socialist Friedrich Ebert), which quicklysigned an armistice with the Allied Powers on November 11, 1918 that ended thecombat phase of World War I.

As the armistice agreement required that Germany demobilizethe bulk of its armed forces as well as withdraw the same to the confines ofthe German borders within 30 days, the German government ordered its forces toabandon the occupied territories that had been won in the Eastern Front.  After Germany’scapitulation, Russiarepudiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and made plans to seize back the Europeanterritories it previously had lost to the Central Powers.  An even far more reaching objective was forthe Bolshevik government to spread the communist revolution to Europe, first bylinking up with German communists who were at the forefront of the unrest thatcurrently was gripping Germany.  Russian military planners intended theoffensive to merely follow in the heels of the German withdrawal from Eastern Europe (i.e. to not directly engage the Germansin combat) and then seize as much territory before the various local ethnicnationalist groups in these territories could establish a civilian government.

Germany’sdefeat in World War I and the subsequent withdrawal of German forces from theBaltic region produced a political void that local nationalist leaders rapidlyfilled.  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 formeda provisional government under Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis.  The next day, November 18, the Latviangovernment declared independence as the Republic of Latvia.

Starting on November 28, 1918, in the action known as theSoviet westward offensive of 1918-1919, Soviet forces consisting of hundreds ofthousands of troops advanced in a multi-pronged offensive with the objective ofrecapturing 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 Vietnamwere met with hostility, mainly because the war had become extremely unpopularin the United States,and as a result of news coverage of massacres and atrocities committed byAmerican 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 Vietnamand Indochina, turmoil and conflict continuedto be widespread.  After South Vietnam’scollapse, the Viet Cong/NLF’s PRG was installed as the caretakergovernment.  But as Hanoide facto held full political and military control, on July 2, 1976, North Vietnam annexed South Vietnam, and the unifiedstate was called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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

In the years after the war, the Indochina refugee crisisdeveloped, where some three million people, consisting mostly of those targetedby 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 onperilous 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, refugeecamps were established in these Southeast Asian countries to house and processthe refugees.  Ultimately, some 2,500,000refugees were resettled, mostly in North America and Europe.

The communist revolutions triumphed in Indochina: in April1975 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 inhistory.  Some 30% of the 270 millionso-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 inthe countryside.  Unexploded ordnance(UXO) has killed some 50,000 people in Laosalone, and hundreds more in Indochina arekilled or maimed each year.

The aerial spraying operations of the U.S. military, carriedout using several types of herbicides but most commonly with Agent Orange(which contained the highly toxic chemical, dioxin), have had a direct impacton Vietnam.  Some 400,000 were directlykilled or maimed, and in the following years, a segment of the population thatwere 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 20,000km2 of forests, or 20% of Vietnam’stotal forested area, which destroyed trees, hastened erosion, and upset theecological balance, food chain, and other environmental parameters.

Following the Vietnam War, Indochinacontinued to experience severe turmoil. In December 1978, after a period of border battles and cross-borderraids, Vietnam launched afull-scale invasion of Cambodia(then known as Kampuchea)and within two weeks, overwhelmed the country and overthrew the communist PolPot regime.  Then in February 1979, inreprisal for Vietnam’sinvasion of its Kampuchean ally, Chinalaunched a large-scale offensive into the northern regions of Vietnam, but after one month ofbitter 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 toexpel Singapore from Malaysia.Members of Parliament from Singaporewere not present during the vote. Later that day, Singaporereluctantly 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, andreplaced by the Federation of Malaysia (or simply Malaysia),consisting of the former Federation of Malaya and the territories of NorthBorneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore(in August 1965, Singaporeleft the Federation and formed a separate independent state).

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

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

This second phase of the war (commonly known as theCommunist Insurgency War) began on June 17, 1968 when the MNLA guerillasambushed Malaysian Army soldiers at Kroh-Betong, in northern Malaysia.  Fighting eventually spread to other parts ofPeninsular Malaysia, but was much more concentrated in northern Malaysia,and also failed to achieve the degree of intensity and scope experienced duringthe Malayan Emergency.  Furthermore, in1970, the CPM became wracked in an internal power struggle, which led to theformation of two rival splinter groups, the CPM-Marxist Leninist andCPM-Revolutionary Faction, aside from the original CPM, which continued to havethe largest membership.  The CPM, whichfollowed the Maoist branch of communism and received support from China, was dealt a major blow when in June 1974,Malaysia and Chinaestablished diplomatic relations. Although the MNLA tried to maintain military pressure on the Malaysiangovernment, by the early 1980s, the insurgency was experiencing an irrevocabledecline.

Much of this decline was a result of the Malaysiangovernment adopting the successful multi-faceted counter-insurgency approachused in the Malayan Emergency, this time carried out in the Security andDevelopment Program (KESBAN, Malay: Keselamatan dan Pembangunan), whichconsisted of military and civilian measures. Military measures included directly confronting the rebels in combat,utilizing intelligence and psychological operations, and increasing the sizeand strength of security forces.  Thecivilian component, while also involving resettling villages that werevulnerable to rebel influences and curtailing some civil liberties, focused ona “hearts and minds” approach in the affected communities, e.g. expandingsocial services and implementing public works programs.  Neighborhood Watch and People’s VolunteerGroup initiatives not only served security functions in local neighborhoods,but also fostered better interracial relations among Malays, Chinese, andIndians.  Furthermore, by the 1980s, Malaysiawas experiencing an extended period of dynamic economic growth.

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