Daniel Orr's Blog, page 17

July 18, 1982 – Guatemalan Civil War: Guatemalan government forces and civilian militias perpetrate the Plan de Sanchez Massacre

On July 18, 1982, units of the Guatemalan Army and thecivilian self-defense patrols called PAC (“Parullasde Autodefensa Civil”) massacred indigenous Maya civilians/peasants (men,women, and children), whom they believed to be communist supporters, in theremote rural village of Plan de Sanchez in northern Guatemala.  An estimated 60 soldiers and paramilitariesentered the village, separated the men from the women and children intodifferent huts, and killed them with guns and grenades. The huts were thentorched. The victims were later buried in 21 mass graves.

The massacre was one of several that occurred that year, part of the military’s scorched earth strategy envisioned by President General Efrain Rio Montt to maintain control over the countryside where communist rebels were taking refuge. The year 1982 also witnessed one of the most violent phases of the Guatemalan Civil War, a protracted conflict (1960-1996) between government forces and left-wing armed militias.

In 2012, a Guatemalan court convicted five perpetrators ofthe Plan de Sanchez Massacre, each of whom was sentenced to 7,710 years inprison.

Guatemala and other countries in Central America

(Excerpts taken from Guatemalan Civil War – Wars of the 20th Century – 26 Wars in the Americas and Caribbean)

Background In 1821, Guatemala gained its independence from Spain as part of the (First) Mexican Empire.  Then when the Empire collapsed two year later, Guatemala became a member of the United Provinces of Central America (together with El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica), which also fell apart in 1838.  Thereafter, Guatemala became a separate, fully sovereign state.

Political power in fully independent Guatemala wascontrolled by the ladinos (hispanized descendants of Amerindian-Europeanunions) and the small  pure SpanishCriollos, who passed laws and policies that were advantageous to them, andcoincidentally alienated the indigenous Amerindian population (which comprisedabout 40% of the population).

Wealth distribution was uneven, with the biggest landownersowning vast tracts of lands, called latifundia, which were developed intocoffee and sugarcane plantations and worked by the indigenous farm hands underharsh, exploitative conditions.  About 2%of the population owned 70 – 80% of all agricultural lands, while 90% of theindigenous people owned plots of land that were too small to subsist on.

This socio-economic imbalance was enhanced further when in1904, President Manuel José Estrada allowed the U.S. firm, United Fruit Company(UFC), to establish banana farm operations in the country.  With generous tax incentives and severalthousands of hectares allocated by the government, UFC opened large bananaplantations in regions near the Atlantic side of the country.  As part of the agreement, UFC developed andcontrolled the road, railway, and port infrastructures to enhance regionaldevelopment and support its own commercial operations.

Thereafter, succeeding Guatemalan governments maintainedclose ties with the United States, and allowed UFC to expandconsiderably.  By the 1940s, the Americanfirm’s massive investments and economic benefits had become crucial to thelocal economy that Guatemalaand the United Statesentered into economic and military agreements. Particularly favorable to the United States in the 1940s was the regime of President JorgeUbico, who allowed the U.S.government to establish military bases in Guatemala.  He also allocated many more thousands ofhectares of land and granted additional financial incentives that allowed UFCto expand further.

In July 1944, President Ubico was forced out of office, anda brief period of political unrest followed that led to the “OctoberRevolution”, an uprising on October 19, 1944, by reformist army officers thatoverthrew the military government that had succeeded into office.  Then in the presidential election held inDecember 1944, Juan José Arévalo prevailed, and thereafter embarked on adramatic effort to radically change the country’s socio-economic system.  President Arévalo enacted labor lawsbeneficial to workers, electoral reforms that allowed greater voterparticipation, and educational programs to reach a larger segment of the population.

In 1951, Jacobo Arbenz succeeded as president after winning the presidential race in free, fair elections.  President Arbenz continued the social reforms of his predecessor, but made two crucial additions: he legalized the Guatemalan Party of Labor (PGT; Spanish: Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo), which was the local communist party; and implemented an agrarian reform law.  Regarding the second point, President Arbenz wanted to nationalize about 600,000 hectares of land, which would be carried out by purchasing unused agricultural lands from big landowners (including UFC), and then divide the lands and distribute the resulting parcels to peasants.  The combined tenures of Presidents Arévalo and Arbenz, who implemented socially and economically progressive reforms, historically have been called the “Ten Years of Spring”.

The reforms were strongly condemned by the traditionalpolitical elite, business and landowning classes, Catholic Church, and themilitary, as they threatened to overturn the established order.  UFC also particularly was alarmed, and turnedto the U.S.government for assistance.

By the early 1950s, the Cold War was in full swing, and the United States,through its intelligence agencies, led by the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA), was watching out for countries around the world where communismpotentially could take hold.  UFCpublicly denounced President Arbenz, calling him a communist who had ties withthe Soviet Union.  Businessmen and landowners, and the CatholicChurch launched similar media and propaganda campaigns, and organized streetprotests against what they perceived was a communist government.  The United States stopped sending military aid to Guatemala, and increased weapons deliveries tonearby Honduras and El Salvador,both ruled by pro-U.S. regimes.

Facing the threat of aggression by its neighbors and the United States, the Guatemalan governmentpurchased weapons from Czechoslovakia,a Soviet satellite state, which further raised U.S.suspicions that Guatemalamight allow a “Soviet beachhead” in the Western Hemisphere.  In June 1954, a CIA-organized force ofGuatemalan mercenaries invaded Guatemala.  The Guatemalan military foiled the attack,but President Arbenz, concerned that U.S. forces would intervenedirectly, abdicated and fled into exile abroad.

After a brief period of political restructuring that saw asuccession of military rulers take charge of government, Colonel CarlosCastillo Armas, the coup leader, came to power and then set about to reversethe reforms of the previous governments. The agrarian reform law was scrapped and expropriated lands werereturned to the landowners.  The PGT wasoutlawed, and leftists and communists were targeted by the military, sparking awave of killings and assassinations against leaders of peasant and laborunions.  The 1954 coup ended the “TenYears of Spring” and led to the country being ruled by a succession of militaryrulers (including one civilian government that was subservient to the military)for the next 32 years.

July 17, 1936 – Spanish Civil War: Rebelling Army units declare war on the newly elected Popular Front government

(Excerpts taken from Spanish Civil War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

On July 17, 1936, Spain’s forces in Spanish Morocco declared in a radio broadcast a state of war against the central government in Madrid, an act of rebellion that opened the Spanish Civil War.  These overseas forces, called the “Army of Africa”, were the Spanish Army’s strongest fighting units and consisted of the Spanish Legion and Moroccan regiments.  The Army of Africa would contribute significantly to the outcome of the land operations in the coming war.

Key areas during the Spanish Civil War

Earlier, local authorities in Spanish Morocco had learned ofthe plot.  As a result, the rebels wereforced to move forward the uprising from the previously planned schedule of 5AM on July 18.  Shortly after therebellion was broadcast, the Army of Africa gained control of Spanish Morocco,in the process also killing dozens of persons, including pro-government armyofficers and civilian leaders.

By this time, General Francisco Franco, who previously hadcommanded the Army of Africa and from whom he drew great respect, arrived fromthe Canary Islands (which also had risen up inrebellion) and took over-all command in Spanish Morocco.  As agreed, the next day, July 18, manymilitary commands in mainland Spainalso declared war; thus, a large-scale army rebellion was underway.

Many other military commands, however, did not revolt orwere put down while doing so.  Theuprisings succeeded in the southwest and in a large swathe from the coastalnorthwest to northern central Spain,Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and most of the Balearic Islands – in total, about one-third of the country.

The government succeeded in holding onto nearly the wholeeastern half of mainland Spain,the northern coastal provinces, and all the major cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia,and Malaga – in total, about two-thirds of Spain.  Many areas had been won on the governmentside through the efforts of socialist and communist militias who, together withloyal local police units, sealed of and barricaded rebelling militarygarrisons, and then forced the trapped army units inside to surrender.  At the start of the army rebellion, the governmenthad refused to heed the calls of socialist and communist leaders to arm thecivilian population.  Because of theemerging crisis, Prime Minister Santiago Casares resigned from office; hissuccessor, Prime Minister José Giral then issued instructions to distributefirearms to the people.

The Spanish Army itself became divided, with about an equalnumber of units joining either side of the conflict; most army officers alignedwith the rebels.  The small Spanish AirForce remained loyal to the government, as did the Spanish Navy.  The insurgents, however, seized a number ofships in Ferrol early in the war.

The rebels now realized that the uprising had failed totopple the government, and worse, their military resources were inadequate todefeat the forces that remained loyal to the government.  In turn, the government was incapable ofquickly ending the rebellion.  As aresult, the crisis appeared headed toward a protracted war.

The rebels became known as “Nationalists”, while supportersof the country’s republican government were called “Republicans”.  Drawn to the Nationalists’ cause werelandowners, urban elite, monarchists, right-wing politicians, and the CatholicChurch (including most of the clergy). Supporting the Republicans were democracy-advocating leftistpoliticians, socialists, and communists. The anarchists, whose strongholds were in Cataloniaand Aragon,were opposed ideologically to both sides of the war, but nominally supportedthe Republicans.

July 16, 1927 – Nicaraguan rebels under Augusto Sandino attack U.S. Marines and government forces at Ocotal

On July 16, 1927, Augusto Sandino led his band of rebels against Nicaraguan government forces and U.S. Marines at the village of Ocotal. The battle featured one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history involving U.S. Marine biplanes, which helped beat back the insurgents, who incurred heavy losses.

Sandino led a guerrilla struggle during the period of United States military occupation of Nicaraguafrom 1912-1933. He opposed the occupation, declared war on the United States, and engaged in guerrilla warfare in1927-1932 against both the U.S.occupation and Nicaraguan government.

After the United States ended its occupation in 1933, Sandino opened peace talks with the Nicaraguan government, but was assassinated by members of the Nicaraguan National Guard in February 1934.

Nicaragua and other countries of Central America

(Excerpts taken from U.S. Occupation of Nicaragua from 1912-1922 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

Background Nicaragua gained its independence in 1825 and thereafter experienced political instability for the rest of the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries.  The unrest resulted from the hostile relationship between Nicaragua’s two political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, which often led to armed clashes, coups, and even civil wars.  Nicaragua’s instability was always a concern for the United States, because of American political and commercial interests in Nicaragua and other Central American countries.

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

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

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

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

July 15, 1966 – Vietnam War: American and South Vietnamese forces launch Operation Hastings against the North Vietnamese in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

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

North Vietnam and South Vietnam in Southeast Asia.

In June 1966, North Vietnamese forces attacked across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), but were repulsed by U.S. Marines, supported by South Vietnamese units and American air, artillery, and naval forces.  U.S. forces then launched Operation Hastings, leading to three weeks of large battles near Dong Ha and ending with the North Vietnamese withdrawing back across the DMZ.  The year 1966 also saw the United States greatly escalating the war, with U.S. deployment being increased over two-fold from the year before, from 184,000 in 1965 to 385,000 troops in 1966.  In 1967, U.S. deployment would top 485,000 and then peak in 1968 with 536,000 soldiers.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North Vietnam and South Vietnam was a major battleground during the Vietnam War.

Throughout 1967, combat activity in the DMZ consisted ofartillery duels, North Vietnamese infiltrations, and firefights along the border.  As the North Vietnamese actually used theirside of the DMZ as a base to stage their infiltration attacks, in May 1967, theU.S. Marines militarized the southern side of the DMZ, which sparked increasedfighting inside the DMZ.  Also startingin September 1967 and continuing for many months, North Vietnamese artillerybatteries pounded U.S Marine positions near the DMZ, which inflicted heavycasualties on American troops.  Inresponse, U.S.aircraft launched bombing attacks on North Vietnamese positions across the DMZ.

Aftermath of theVietnam War The war had a profound, long-lasting effect on the United States.  Americans were bitterly divided by it, andothers 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 theend of the war, American soldiers in Vietnamsuffered from low morale and discipline, compounded by racial and socialtensions resulting from the civil rights movement in the United States during the late 1960sand also because of widespread recreational drug use among the troops.  During 1969-1972 particularly and during theperiod of American de-escalation and phased troop withdrawal from Vietnam, U.S.soldiers became increasingly unwilling to go to battle, which resulted in thephenomenon known as “fragging”, where soldiers, often using a fragmentationgrenade, killed their officers whom they thought were overly zealous and eagerfor 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 caretaker government.  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 of formergovernment officials, military officers, businessmen, religious leaders, andother “counter-revolutionaries”, were sent to re-education camps, which werelabor camps, where inmates did various kinds of work ranging from dangerousland mine field clearing, to less perilous construction and agricultural labor,and lived under dire conditions of starvation diets and a high incidence ofdeaths 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, refugee campswere established in these Southeast Asian countries to house and process therefugees.  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.

July 14, 1969 – The start of the Football War between El Salvador and Honduras

Some key areas during the Football War.

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

Central America showing Honduras and El Salvador, as well as nearby countries.

On July 3 and July 14, 1969, Honduran planes flew over Salvadoran air space.  El Salvador condemned the territorial violations and sprung into military action.  On the afternoon of July 14, Salvadoran aircraft, including C-47 transports that were improvised to dispense bombs, attacked airfields in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa and other locations.  The Salvadoran objective was a pre-emptive air strike to destroy the much larger Honduran Air Force on the ground.  However, no significant damage was made on the Honduran planes.

A few hours later and under cover of evening darkness, Salvadoran ground forces crossed the border into Honduras.  Major Salvadoran offensives were made in Honduras’ eastern province of Valle, leading to the capture of the towns of Aramecina and Goascoran, and in Ocotepeque Province in the west, where Nueva Ocotepeque and La Labor were taken.  The Salvadoran Army also captured Honduras’ north central border towns of Guarita, Valladolid, and La Virtud, and the Honduran islands in the Gulf of Fonseca, off the Pacific coast.

A few hours later and under cover of evening darkness, Salvadoran ground forces crossed the border into Honduras.  Major Salvadoran offensives were made in Honduras’ eastern province of Valle, leading to the capture of the towns of Aramecina and Goascoran, and in Ocotepeque Province in the west, where Nueva Ocotepeque and La Labor were taken.  The Salvadoran Army also captured Honduras’ north central border towns of Guarita, Valladolid, and La Virtud, and the Honduran islands in the Gulf of Fonseca, off the Pacific coast.

Background of the Football War By May 1969, the land reform law in Honduras was being fully implemented.  Thousands of dispossessed Salvadoran families returned to El Salvador, causing a sudden surge in the Salvadoran population, and straining the country’s economic resources and the government’s capacity to provide public services.  El Salvador condemned Honduras, generating tensions and animosity on both sides.  Nationalistic sentiments were fueled by propaganda and rhetoric spouted by the media from the two sides.

Such was the charged atmosphere leading up to the threefootball matches between El Salvadorand Hondurasin June 1969.  The first match was playedon June 8 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital, which was won 1-0 by the host team.  Aside from some fansfighting in the stands, no major security breakdown occurred during the match.

In El Salvador, however, soccer fans were outraged by the result, believing they had been cheated.  The Salvadoran media described the football matches as epitomizing the “national honor”.  After the defeat, a despondent Salvadoran fan died after shooting herself.  Her death became a rallying cry for Salvadorans who considered her a martyr.  Thousands of Salvadorans, including the country’s president and other top government officials, attended her funeral and joined the nation in mourning her death.

The second match was played in El Salvador on June 15, 1969, andwas won 3- 0 also by the home team, thereby leveling the series at one winapiece.  The tense situation during thegame broke out in widespread violence across the capital, San Salvador. Street clashes led to many deaths, including those of Honduranfans.  As a precaution, the Honduranfootball team was housed in an undisclosed location and driven to the game inarmored vehicles.  After the game, theHonduran team’s vehicles plying the road back to Honduras were stoned while passingthrough Salvadoran towns.

In Honduras,the people retaliated by attacking and looting Salvadoran shops in Tegucigalpa and othercities and towns.  Armed bands of thugsroamed the countryside targeting Salvadorans – beating up and killing men,raping women, burning houses, and destroying farms.  Thousands of Salvadorans fled toward theborder to El Salvador.  And as the prospect of war drew closer,Salvadoran and Honduran security forces guarding the border engaged in sporadicexchanges of gunfire.

The third, deciding football match was played on June 26,1969 in Mexico City,which was won by the Salvadoran team 3 – 2 in overtime.  Two days earlier, Hondurashad cut diplomatic relations with El Salvador.  The Salvadoran government reciprocated onJune 26, accusing Hondurasof committing “genocide” by killing Salvadoran immigrants.  The two sides prepared for war by increasingtheir weapons stockpiles, which were sourced from private dealers because the United Stateshad imposed an arms embargo.

July 13, 1977 – The start of the Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia

On July 13, 1977, the Somali armed forces launched a full-scale invasion of the Ogaden.  (Somalia officially stated that it did not directly participate in the war using its regular forces; instead, the Somali soldiers who took part in the war were “volunteers on leave” who had come to fight on the side of their Somali brothers.)  At the outbreak of war, in terms of troop strength, the Ethiopian Army outnumbered its Somali counterpart by a ratio of about 2:1. However, the Somalis possessed more planes and artillery, and held a more than 3:1 advantage over the Ethiopians in numbers of tanks and armored vehicles.  The Somali invasion forces consisted of some 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers, 250 tanks, 350 armored personnel carriers, 600 artillery pieces, and dozens of aircraft, and crossed the border at many points along two major fronts: the northern front with its command based in Hargeisa, and the southern front with its command based in Baidoa and Mogadishu.  The southern advance made rapid progress, taking Gode, Delo, and Filtu.  At Gode, the Somalis inflicted heavy losses on Ethiopian militias who were sent to reinforce the town’s garrison, and seized large quantities of abandoned weapons and ammunitions.

(Excerpts taken from Ogaden War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Background In December 1950, with Allied approval, the United Nations granted Italy a trusteeship over Italian Somaliland on the condition that Italy grants the territory its independence within ten years.  On June 26, 1960, Britain granted independence to British Somaliland, which became the State of Somaliland, and a few days later, Italy also granted independence to the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland).  On July 1, 1960, the two new states merged to form the Somali Republic (Somalia).

The newly sovereign enlarged state had as its primary foreign affairs mission the fulfillment of “Greater Somalia” (also known as Pan-Somalism), an irredentist concept that sought to bring into a united Somali state all ethnic Somalis in the Horn of Africa who currently were residing in neighboring foreign jurisdictions, i.e. the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, Northern Frontier District (NFD) in Kenya, and French Somaliland.  Somalia officially did not claim ownership to these foreign territories but desired that ethnic Somalis in these regions, particularly where they formed a population majority, be granted the right to decide their political future, i.e. to remain with these countries or to secede and merge with Somalia.

Nationalist Somalis in Kenya and Ethiopia, desiring to be joined with Somalia, soon launched guerilla insurgencies in their local areas.  In the Ogaden region, many guerilla groups organized, foremost of which was the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), founded in 1960, just after Somalia had gained its independence.  The Somali government began to build its armed forces, eventually setting as a goal a force of about 20,000 troops that it deemed was powerful enough to realize the dream of Greater Somalia.  But constrained by economic limitations, Somalia sought the assistance of various Western powers, particularly the United States, but the latter only promised to provide military resources for a 5,000-strong armed forces, which it deemed was sufficient for Somalia to defend its borders against external threats.

The Somali government then turned to communist states, particularly the Soviet Union. Although these countries’ Marxist ideology ran contrary to its own democratic institution, Somalia viewed this as a means to be politically self-reliant and not be too dependent on the West, and to court both sides in the Cold War.  Thus, for nearly two decades after gaining independence, Somalia received military support from both western and communist countries.

In 1962, the Soviet Union provided Somalia with a substantial loan under generous terms of repayment, allowing the Somali government to build in earnest an offensive-capable armed forces; subsequent Soviet loans and military assistance led to the perception in the international community that Somalia had fallen under the Soviet sphere of influence, bolstered further as Soviet planes, tanks, artillery pieces, and other military hardware were supplied in large quantities to the Somali Army Forces.

Tensions between Ethiopian security forces and the Ogaden Somalis sporadically led to violence that soon deteriorated further with Somali Army units intervening, leading to border skirmishes between Ethiopian and Somali regular security units. Large-scale fighting by both sides finally broke out in February 1964, which was triggered by a Somali revolt in June 1963 at Hodayo.  Somali ground and air units came in support of the rebels but Ethiopian planes gained control of the skies and attacked frontier areas, including Feerfeer and Galcaio.  Under mediation efforts by Sudan representing the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in April 1964, a ceasefire was agreed that imposed a separation of forces and a demilitarized zone on the border.  In the aftermath, in late 1964, Ethiopia entered into a mutual defense treaty with Kenya (which also was facing a rebellion by local ethnic Somalis supported by the Somali government) in case of a Somali invasion; this treaty subsequently was renewed in 1980 and then in 1987.

On October 21, 1969, a military coup overthrew Somalia’sdemocratically elected civilian government and in its place, a military juntacalled the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) was set up and led by GeneralMohamed Siad Barre, who succeeded as president of the country.  The SRC suspended the constitution, bannedpolitical parties, and dissolved parliament, and ruled as a dictatorship.  The country was renamed the Somali DemocraticRepublic.  Exactly one year after thecoup, on October 21, 1970, President Barre declared the country a Marxiststate, although a form of syncretized ideology called “scientific revolution”was implemented, which combined elements of Marxism-Leninism, Islam, and Somalinationalism.  The SRC forged even closerdiplomatic and military ties with the Soviet Union,which led in July 1974 to the signing of the Treaty of Friendship andCooperation, where the Soviets increased military support to the SomaliArmy.  Earlier in 1972, under aSomali-Soviet agreement, the Russians developed the Somali port of Berbera,converting it into a large naval, air, and radar and communications facilitythat allowed the Soviets to project power into the Middle East, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf.  TheSoviets also established many new military airfields, including those in Mogadishu, Hargeisa,Baidoa, and Kismayo.

Under pressure from the Soviet government to form a “vanguard party” along Marxist lines, in July 1976, President Barre dissolved the SRC which he replaced with the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), whose Supreme Council (politburo) formed the new government, with Barre as its Secretary General.  The SRSP, as the sole legal party, was intended to be a civilian-run entity to replace the military-dominated SRC. However, since much of the SRC’s political hierarchy simply moved to the SRSP, in practice, not much changed in governance and Barre continued to rule as de facto dictator.

With a greatly enhanced Somali military capability,President Barre pressed irredentist aspirations for Greater Somalia, steppingup political rhetoric against Ethiopiaand spurning third-party mediations to resolve the emerging crisis.  Then in the mid-1970s, favorablecircumstances allowed Somaliato implement its irredentist ambitions. During the first half of 1974, widespread military and civilian unrestgripped Ethiopia,rendering the government powerless.  InSeptember 1974, a group of junior military officers called the “CoordinatingCommittee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army”, which simply wasknown as “Derg” (an Ethiopian word meaning “Committee” or “Council”), seizedpower after overthrowing Ethiopia’s long-ruling aging monarch, Emperor HaileSelassie.  The Derg succeeded in power,dissolved the Ethiopian parliament and abolished the constitution, nationalizedrural and urban lands and most industries, ruled with absolute powers, andbegan Ethiopia’s gradual transition from an absolute monarchy to aMarxist-Leninist one-party state.

Ethiopiatraditionally was aligned with the West, with most of its military suppliessourced from the United States. But with its transition toward socialism, the Derg regime forged closerties with the Soviet Union, which led to thesigning in December 1976 of a military assistance agreement.  Simultaneously, Ethiopian-American relationsdeteriorated, and with U.S. President Jimmy Carter criticizing Ethiopia’s poorhuman rights record, in April 1977, the Derg repealed Ethiopia’s defense treatywith the United States, refused further American assistance, and expelled U.S.military personnel from the country.  Atthis point, both Ethiopiaand Somalialay within the Soviet sphere and thus ostensibly were on the same side in theCold War, but a situation that was unacceptable to President Barre with regardsto his ambitions for Greater Somalia.

In the aftermath of the Derg’s seizing power, Ethiopiaexperienced a period of great political and security unrest, as the governmentbattled Marxist groups in the White Terror and Red Terror, regionalinsurgencies that sought to secede portions of the country, and the Derg itselfracked by internal power struggles that threatened its own survival.  Furthermore, the Derg distrusted thearistocrat-dominated military establishment and purged the ranks of the officercorps; some 30% of the officers were removed (including 17 generals who wereexecuted in November 1974).  At thistime, the Ogaden insurgency, led by the WSLF and other groups, also increasedin intensity, with Ethiopian military outposts and government infrastructuressubject to rebel attacks.  Just a fewyears earlier, President Barre did not provide full military support to theOgaden rebels, encouraging them to seek a negotiated solution throughdiplomatic channels and even with Emperor Haile Selassie himself.  These efforts failed, however, and with Ethiopiasinking into crisis, President Barre saw his chance to step in.

July 12, 1943 – World War II: German and Soviet tanks clash at the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the greatest armored engagements in history

On July 5, 1943, the German Army launched Operation Citadel, initiating the Battle of Kursk with the objective of pinching off the Soviet salient. The northern front of the offensive bogged down within four days. On the southern front, the German 4th Panzer Army made slow, steady progress and broke through a series of Soviet defensive lines. On July 12, the Soviets launched their counter-offensives on the northern and southern fronts. In the south, the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army clashed with units of the German 4th Panzer Army, breaking the German attack before the third defensive line near the town of Prokhorovka.

Also on July 12, Adolf Hitler ordered that Operation Citadel be discontinued, in order to transfer some units to southern Italy where the Western Allies had opened a second front. Following the German failure at the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Red Army wrested the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front, which it would hold for the rest of the war.

It was long held that the Battle of Prokhorovka was the largest tank battle in history. More recent research has dispelled this myth: only 294 German tanks and 616 Soviet tanks were involved, not the 1,200 to 2,000 tanks previously believed. German losses of 3,500 – 10,000 troops and 350-400 tanks have also been disproved, as more archival records place these at 800 troops and 43-80 tanks. By comparison, Soviet losses at Prkhorovka were 5,500 troops and 300-400 tanks.

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

Preparations for the Battle of Kursk On March 10, 1943, as the battle of Kharkov was winding down, General Manstein, head of German Army Group South, set his sights on eliminating a large gap around Kursk that had formed between his forces and those of German Army Group Center.  With Hitler issuing Order No. 5 (March 13) authorizing such an operation, General Manstein and General Gunther von Kluge, commander of German Army Group Center, made preparations to immediately attack the Kursk salient.  But with strong Soviet concentrations on the northern side of the salient, as well as reinforcements being rushed to the south to stem General Manstein’s northern advance, the proposed joint offensive was suspended.  By then also, German forces were exhausted, and the rasputitsa season had set in, preventing further large-scale armored movement.

The Kursksalient was a Soviet protrusion into German-occupied territory, measuring 160miles long from north to south and 100 miles from east to west.  Kurskand the surrounding region held no strategic value to either side, but to theGermans (and the Soviets), pinching off the salient would eliminate the dangerto their flanks.

In April 1943, Hitler’s Order No. 6 formalized the attack onthe Kursk salient under Operation Citadel, which consisted of a pincersmovement aimed at trapping five Soviet armies, with the northern pincer ofGerman Army Group Center’s 9th Army thrusting from Orel, and the southernpincer of German Army Group South’s 7th Panzer Army and German Army DetachmentKempf advancing from around Belgorod. The offensive was set for May 3.

In late April 1943, Kluge expressed doubts to Hitler aboutthe feasibility of Operation Citadel, as German air reconnaissance showed thatthe Soviets were constructing strong fortifications along the northern side ofthe salient.  As well, General Mansteinwas concerned, as his idea of launching a surprise attack on the unfortifiedsalient could not be achieved anymore. The May 3 launch was not met, and on May 4, Hitler met with GeneralsKluge and Manstein and other senior officers to discuss whether or notOperation Citadel should proceed, or that other options be explored.  But as the meeting produced no consensus,Hitler remained committed to the operation, resetting its launch for June 12,1943.  With other issues consequentlycoming up, Hitler postponed the launch date to June 20, then to July 3, andfinally to July 5, 1943.

As Operation Citadel was successively pushed back, with thedelays ultimately lasting over two months, it also grew in importance, asHitler saw Kursk as the battle that wouldrestore German superiority in the Eastern Front following the Stalingraddebacle, which continued to weigh heavily on him and the German HighCommand.  Like his generals, Hitler wasconcerned with the massive Soviet buildup in the salient, but believed that hisforces would break through, as well as surprise the enemy, using theWehrmacht’s latest armored weapons, the versatile Panther tank, the heavy Tigerbattle tank, and the goliath Elefant (“Elephant”) tank destroyer.   Regaining the military initiative with avictory at Kursk also might convince Hitler’sdemoralized Axis partners, Italy,Romania, and Hungary, whose armies were battered at Stalingrad, to reconsider quitting the war.

Hitler’s concerns regarding Kursk were warranted, as the Soviets wereindeed fully concentrating on the region. But unbeknown to Hitler and the German senior staff, Stalin and theSoviet High Command were aware of many details of Operation Citadel, with theinformation being provided to Soviet intelligence by the Lucy spy ring, anetwork of anti-Nazi German officers working clandestinely in cooperation withthe Swiss intelligence bureau.  Stalinand a number of senior officers wanted to launch a pre-emptive attack todisrupt the German plans.

However, General Georgy Zhukov, deputy head of the Soviet HighCommand and who was instrumental in the Soviet successes in Leningrad,Moscow, and Stalingradand was therefore highly regarded by Stalin, convinced the latter to adopt astrategic defense against the German attack, and then to launch acounter-offensive after the Wehrmacht was weakened.  Under General Zhukov’s direction, the SovietCentral Front and Voronezh Front, which defended the northern and southernsides of the salient respectively, implemented a “defense-in-depth” strategy:using 300,000 civilian laborers, six defensive lines (three main forward andthree secondary rear lines) were constructed on either side of Kursk, the totaldepth reaching over 90 miles.  Thesedefensive lines, particularly the main forward lines, were fortified withminefields, wire entanglements, anti-tank obstacles, infantry trenches, dug-inarmored vehicles, and artillery and machinegun emplacements.

A German attack, even if it broke through all six lineswhile facing furious Soviet artillery fire in the minefields in between eachline, would then encounter additional defensive lines by the reserve SovietSteppe Front; by then, the Germans would have advanced through many defensivelayers a distance of 190 miles under continuous Soviet air and armoredcounter-attacks and artillery fire.

The buildup to Kurskalso saw the Soviets making extensive use of military deception, e.g. dummyairfields, camouflaged artillery positions, night movement of troops, falseradio communications, concealed troop concentrations and ammunition stores,spreading rumors in German-held areas, etc. These measures were so effective that the Germans grossly underestimatedSoviet strength at Kursk:at the start of the battle, the Red Army had assembled 1.9 million troops,5,100 tanks, and 25,000 artillery pieces and mortars, while the Germans fielded780,000 troops, 2,900 tanks, and 10,000 artillery pieces and mortars.  This great imbalance of forces, as well aslarge numbers of Red Army reserves and extensive Soviet defensive preparations,would be decisive in the outcome of the battle.

July 11, 1940 – World War II: Philippe Petain becomes head of the French government

On July 11, 1940, with the imminent defeat of France to Germany in World War II, Marshall Philippe Petain was appointed head of the French government. The 84-year old Petain was a revered World War I hero who had led the Allies to victory at the Battle of Verdun, for which he became known as “The Lion of Verdun”.

Upon his appointment, Petain presided over the renamed “French State”, which collaborated with the Axis Powers during World War II. After the war, he was tried and convicted for treason . He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment because of his advanced age. He holds the distinction of being France’s oldest head of state.

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

Aftermath of the Battle of France Despite Germany’s overwhelming military position at the end of hostilities, the armistice negotiations were conducted with consideration of other realities: for Hitler, that the French government and army could very well move to French colonies in North Africa from where they could continue the war; and for the French government, that it wanted to remain in France but only if the Germans did not impose “dishonorable or excessive” terms.  Terms that were deemed unacceptable included the following: that all of France would be occupied, that France should surrender its navy, or that France should relinquish its (vast) colonial territories.

Not only did Hitler not impose these terms, in fact, hedesired that France remain a sovereign state for diplomatic and practicalreasons: in the first case, France had ostensibly switched sides in the war,isolating Britain; and in the second case, France, with its large navy, wouldmaintain its global colonial empire, which Germany could not because it did nothave enough ships.

Thus, in the armistice agreement, Francewas allowed to remain a fully sovereign state, with its mainland territory andcolonial possessions intact, with some exceptions: Alsace-Lorraine became partof the Greater German Reich, although not formally annexed into Germany; and Nord and Pas-de-Calais wereattached to Belgium in the“German Military Administration of Belgium and Northern France”.  France also retained its navy, butwhich was demobilized and disarmed, as were the other branches of the Frencharmed forces.

Because of the continuing hostilities with Britain, as part of the armistice agreement, theGerman Army occupied the northern and western sections of France (some 55% of the Frenchmainland), where it imposed military rule. The occupation was intended to be temporary until such time that Germany had defeated or had come to terms with Britain,which both the French and German governments believed was imminent.  The Italian military also occupied a smallarea in the French Alps.  In the rest ofFrance (comprising 45% of the French mainland), which was not occupied and thuscalled zone libre (“free zone”), on July 10, 1940, the French government formeda new polity called the “French State” (French: État français), which dissolvedthe French Third Republic, and was led by Petain as Chief of State.

The “French State” had its capital at Vichy,some 220 miles south of Paris, and was commonlyknown as “Vichy France”.  Officially, VichyFrance retained sovereigntyover all France,but in reality, it exercised little authority in the occupied zones.  Vichy France did have full administrativepower in zone libre, and in the ongoing war, it maintained a policy ofneutrality (e.g. it did not join the Axis), and was internationally recognized,and maintained diplomatic relations with the United States, Canada, the SovietUnion, even Britain, and many neutral countries.

The Vichy government imposedauthoritarian rule, with Petain holding broad powers, which was a fullturn-around and rejection of the liberalism and democratic ideals of the French Third Republic.  Using Révolution nationale (“National Revolution”)as its official ideology, the Petain regime turned inward-looking (la France seule, or “France alone”), was deeplyconservative and traditionalist, and rejected liberal and modernist ideas.  Traditional culture and religion werepromoted as the means for the regeneration of France.  The separation of Church and State wasabolished, with Catholics playing a major role in affairs, the French ThirdRepublic was reviled as morally decadent and causing France’s military defeat,and anti-Semitism and xenophobia predominated, with Jews and other“undesirables”, including immigrants, gypsies, and homosexuals beingpersecuted.  Communists and left-wingers,and other radicals were included in this category following the German invasionof the Soviet Union in June 1941.  Xenophobia was particularly directed against Britain, with Petain and other leadersexpressing strong antipathy with the British, calling them France’s “hereditary” and lastingenemy.

The Vichy regime waschallenged by General Charles de Gaulle, who in June 1940 in Britain, formed agovernment-in-exile called Free France, and an army, the Free FrenchForces.  De Gaulle criticized Vichy Franceas illegitimate, that it had usurped power from the French Third Republic, and that it wasa puppet state of Nazi Germany.  In a BBCbroadcast on June 18, 1940 (the so-called “Appeal of 18 June”; French: Appel du18 juin), he called on the French people to reject the Vichy regime and resist the German occupiers.Initially, de Gaulle received little support in Franceand among expatriate French, who regarded the Petain regime as being theconstitutionally legitimate authority for France.

Despite the armistice agreement’s stipulation thatdeactivated the French naval forces, the British government feared that the Frenchfleet would be seized by the Germans who then would use it to invade Britain.  Thus, on July 3, 1940, British ships attackedthe French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir (in Algeria),sinking or damaging several French ships, while the French squadron at Alexandria (in Egypt) allowed itself to beinterned by the British fleet.

By October 1940, the Petain regime had began to activelycollaborate in implementing the Nazi government’s Anti-Semitism laws.  Using information of the poll registers onthe Jewish population that earlier had been collected by the French police,French authorities and the Gestapo (German secret police), working together orseparately, conducted raids where thousands of Jews (as well as other“undesirables”) were rounded up and confined in internment camps for eventualtransport to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe; manyconcentration camps also were set up in France. Of the 330,000 Jews in France,some 77,000 perished in the Holocaust, a death rate of 25%.

As the armistice agreement also required France to pay the cost of theGerman occupation, the French became dependent on and subservient to Germanimpositions.  French farm production andresources were seized by the Germans, resulting in the deterioration of the Frencheconomy and causing severe hardships to the French people, who suffered foodand fuel shortages or rationing, curfew, and restricted civil liberties.

The Battle of France resulted in some 1.5 million Frenchsoldiers becoming German prisoners of war. To prevent Vichy France from re-mobilizing these troops, Germanauthorities kept these French soldiers in labor camps in Germany and France,although some 500,000 were later released at various times, and the remainingone million freed by the Allies at the end of World War II.

By 1941, a French resistance movement comprising many smallgroups had emerged, with its memberships increased by the influx of communistsfollowing the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and forced workevaders following the implementation of Service du Travail Obligatoire(“Obligatory Work Service”) in February 1943.  The French resistance soon also made contactwith de Gaulle’s government-in-exile, the British Special Operations Executive(SOE) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which sent supplies andagents.  The resistance conductedsabotage operations against military-vital targets, provided the Allies withintelligence information, and sheltered and helped escape downed Allied airmen,Jews, and other elements targeted by German and Vichy authorities.

In November 1942, following the Allied invasion of westernNorth Africa, the German military also occupied the territory of Vichy Francein order to safeguard the southern flank. The Italian occupation zone also was expanded.  While Franceostensibly continued its sovereignty over its territories, in reality, Germanmilitary authority came into force throughout France,and the Vichygovernment exercised little power.  TheGerman occupation of Vichy France also ended the latter’s diplomaticrelations with the United States,Canada,and other Allies, and also with many neutral states.

July 10, 1951 – Korean War: The start of armistice negotiations

On July 10, 1951, representatives from the warring sides, China and North Korea on the one hand, and the United States, South Korea, and the United Nations on the other, opened armistice talks at Kaesong to end the Korean War. Kaesong (now part of North Korea) was located near the northern edge of the battle lines. Negotiations proved lengthy and contentious and proceeded slowly, with long intervals between meetings. Talks were later moved to Panmunjom, a nearby village, where an armistice would be signed in July 1953.

Key areas during the Korean War

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

Continuing hostilities before and during the armistice talks U.S. and South Korean forces settled down to a defensive posture, fortifying existing positions.  Meanwhile at the United Nations, American and Soviet delegates met to try and end the war.  Then on June 23, 1951, the Soviet representative to the UN proposed an armistice between China and North Korea on the one hand, and the United States, South Korea, and the UN, on the other hand, a proposal that was received favorably by the U.S. and Chinese governments.  On July 10, 1951, delegates from the warring parties opened armistice talks at Kaesong.  Within a few months, negotiations were moved six miles east to Panmunjom, which became the permanent site of negotiations.  Subsequently, for the Korean War, the active phase of full-scale warfare came to an end.

Kim Il-sung and Syngman Rhee, leaders of North Korea andSouth Korea, respectively, strongly opposed the peace negotiations and wantedto continue the war, as both were determined to reunify the Korean Peninsulaby force under their rule.  But withoutthe support of the major powers, the two Korean governments were forced to backdown.  The negotiations proved long andarduous, and ultimately lasted two years (July 1951-July 1953) punctuated by anumber of stoppages in the talks.  Duringthis period, the fighting produced no major territorial changes, leading to astalemate in the battlefield.

One major cause of the delay in the settlement was that thewar had produced an uneven line across the 38th parallel, with the central andeastern sections being north of the parallel and the western section beingsouth of the parallel, and with a net territorial loss to North Korea.  Chinese and North Korean delegates arguedthat the 38th parallel must be the armistice line, which American and SouthKorean representatives opposed, stating that the current frontlines must be thearmistice line, as these are much more defensible compared to the topographyalong the 38th parallel.  By late 1951,with no agreement reached and fighting continuing, the communist side droppedits demand of opposing forces returning to the 38th parallel, and the twowarring sides came to an agreement that the frontlines during the time of thesigning of a truce would serve as the armistice line.

A second major point of contention was the issue of theprisoners of war (POWs).  UN forces heldsome 150,000 Chinese and North Korean POWs, of which a sizable number refusedto be repatriated back to the their homelands, which provoked China and NorthKorean to accuse UN forces of using underhanded methods to preventrepatriation.  In particular, the Chinesegovernment claimed that anti-communist Chinese POWs were allowed to torturecommunist Chinese POWs to force the latter to refuse being repatriated.  In one notable event in mid-June 1953 (onemonth before the armistice agreement was signed), the South Korean governmentreleased some 27,000 anti-communist North Korean POWs, stating that theprisoners had escaped from prison.

On the UN side, American and South Korean POWs were muchmore subject to physical abuse than other UN prisoners, especially by theirNorth Korean captors.  American POWssuffered from tortures, starvation, and forced labor, if not being outrightexecuted.  UN prisoners in Chinese POWcamps rarely were executed, but suffered mass starvation, particularly in the1950-1951 winter, where nearly half of all U.S. POWs died from hunger.  Responding to accusations by the Trumanadministration that American POWs were being ill-treated, the Chinese governmentstated that because its logistical system suffered severe inadequacies, foodshortages were widespread at the frontlines, and in fact thousands of its owntroops also perished from starvation (as well as from the sub-zero harsh winterconditions).

Furthermore, 80,000 South Korean soldiers remained missing,whom the UN command and South Korean government believed had been captured byNorth Korean forces, and were then coerced into joining the North Korean Armyor were being used as forced laborers.  North Korearejected these accusations, saying that it had only 10,000 South Korean POWs,that its other POWs already had been released or were killed by the UN airattacks, and that it did not use forced recruitment into its armed forces.  As a result, the fates of the missing SouthKorean POWS remained undetermined after the war.

The armistice talks ended the period of large-scaleoffensives.  Then during the ensuingtwo-year period of stalemate, only small- to medium-scale limited-scope battlestook place.  Most of these battles wereinitiated by UN forces, and were aimed at gaining territory that would give theUN forces better strategic and defensive positions.

In September-October 1951, after negotiations temporarilybroke down, American and South Korean forces launched a limited operation inthe central sector, advancing seven miles north of the Kansas Line.  In the western sector, UN forces alsosucceeded in establishing new positions north of the Wyoming Line.

U.S.planes continued its domination of the skies, attacking enemy road and railnetworks, supply centers, and ammunition depots.  In 1952, U.S.air strikes in North Koreaincreased.  The vital hydroelectricfacility at Suiho was attacked in July, and Pyongyang was subject to a large raid in August.  The attack on the North Korean capital, whichinvolved 1,400 air sorties, was the largest single-day air operation of thewar.

In May 1952, General Mark Clark became the new commander ofUN forces, replacing General Ridgway.  InJune 1952, after a series of fierce clashes, U.S.forces dislodged the enemy from the heights in Chorwon County,and established 11 patrol bases in a number of hills, including the highest andmost strategically important hill called “Old Baldy”.  Many intense battles took place during thesecond half of 1952, as Chinese and North Korean forces attacked UN frontlineoutposts in response to U.S.air raids in North Korea.  By this time, UN forces had adopted adefensive posture, and fortified their positions with trenches, bunkers,minefields, barbwire, and other obstacles all across the UN main line ofresistance from east to west of the peninsula.

In spring 1953, Chinese forces again put pressure on UNlines.  But by now with fortifiedpositions on both sides, the mounting casualties, the absence of large-scaleoffensives, and the stalemated battlefield situation, the deadlock appeared tolast indefinitely.  In April 1953, peacetalks resumed.  Six months earlier, onNovember 29, 1952, President-elect Dwight Eisenhower, who had just won the U.S. presidential elections three weeks earlierand had promised to end the war, visited Korea to determine how thenegotiations could be accelerated.  Healso threatened to use nuclear weapons in response to a build-up of Chineseforces in the western sector of the line. Furthermore, with the death of Soviet hard-line leader Joseph Stalin inMarch 1953, the new Soviet government was more conciliatory with the West, andput pressure on China toreach a peace settlement in Korea.

On April 20-26, 1953, under Operation Little Switch, bothsides exchanged sick and wounded POWs. In May-June 1953, as peace talks continued, Chinese forces launchedlimited attacks on UN positions, which were repulsed with heavy Chinese lossesby American air, armored, and artillery firepower.

On June 18, 1953, the armistice negotiations produced amutually acceptable agreement.  However,the agreement was rejected by South Korean President Rhee, and shelved.  Taking advantage of the new stalemate, onJuly 6, 1953, the Chinese renewed their offensive, first attacking a UN outpostknown as Pork Chop Hill, which forced the defending American troops of the U.S.7th Division to retreat after four days of fighting, with heavy losses to bothsides.

Then on July13, 1953, in the last major battle of the war, amassive Chinese force of 250,000 troops, supported with heavy artillery (over1,300 artillery pieces), struck at UN positions on a 22-kilometer front,pushing the mainly defending South Korean forces 50 kilometers south and gaining190 km2 of territory.  However, thevictory was pyrrhic, as the Chinese casualties numbered some 60,000 troops,compared to South Korean losses of 14,000 troops.

Meanwhile, armistice talks resumed, which culminated in anagreement on July 19, 1953.  Eight dayslater, July 27, 1953, representatives of the UN Command, North Korean Army, andthe Chinese People’s Volunteer Army signed the Korean Armistice Agreement,which ended the war.  A ceasefire cameinto effect 12 hours after the agreement was signed.  The Korean War was over.

War casualties included: UN forces – 450,000 soldierskilled, including over 400,000 South Korean and 33,000 American soldiers; NorthKorean and Chinese forces – 1 to 2 million soldiers killed (which includedChairman Mao Zedong’s son, Mao Anying). Civilian casualties were 2 million for South Korea and 3 million for North Korea.  Also killed were over 600,000 North Koreanrefugees who had moved to South Korea. Both the North Korean and South Korean governments and their forcesconducted large-scale massacres on civilians whom they suspected to besupporting their ideological rivals.  In South Korea,during the early stages of the war, government forces and right-wing militiasexecuted some 100,000 suspected communists in several massacres.  North Korean forces, during their occupationof South Korea,also massacred some 500,000 civilians, mainly “counter-revolutionaries”(politicians, businessmen, clerics, academics, etc.) as well as civilians whorefused to join the North Korean Army.

July 9, 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: 45 Christians are killed in the Taiyuan Massacre

On July 9, 1900, forty-five Christians, which included men, women, and children, were killed in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province in northern China during the Boxer Rebellion. It was long held that the killings were ordered by Shanxi Province governor Yuxian, who had imposed anti-foreign, anti-Christian policies in the province. More recent research indicates that the massacre resulted from mob violence rather than a direct order from the provincial government. Subsequently, some 2,000 Chinese Christians were killed in Shanxi Province. Also during this time across northern China, Christian missionaries and Chinese parishioners were being targeted for violence by the Boxers as well as by government troops.

Foreign spheres of influence in China in the early 1900s

(Excerpts taken from Boxer Rebellion – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

The Boxers In the late 19th century, a secret society called the “Righteous and Harmonious Fists” (Yihequan) was formed in the drought-ravaged hinterland regions of Shandong and Zhili provinces.  The sect formed in the villages, had no central leadership, operated in groups of tens to several hundreds of mostly young peasants, and held the belief that China’s problems were a direct consequence of the presence of foreigners, who had brought into the country their alien culture and religion (i.e. Christianity).

Sect members practiced martial arts and gymnastics, and performed mass religious rituals, where they invoked Taoist and Buddhist spirits to take possession of their bodies.  They also believed that these rituals would confer on them invincibility to weapons strikes, including bullets.  As the sect was anti-foreign and anti-Christian, it soon gained the attention of foreign Christian missionaries, who called the group and its followers “Boxers” in reference to the group’s name and because its members practiced martial arts.

The Qing government, long wary of secret societies whichhistorically had seditious motives, made efforts to suppress the Boxers. InOctober 1899, government troops and Boxers clashed in the Battle of SenluoTemple in northwest Shandong Province.  In this battle, Boxers proclaimed the slogan“Support the Qing, destroy the foreign” which drew the interest of somehigh-ranking conservative Qing officials who saw that the Boxers were apotential ally against the foreigners. Also by this time, the Boxers had renamed their organization as the  “Righteous and Harmonious Militia(Yihetuan)”, using the word “militia” to de-emphasize their origin as a secretsociety and give the movement a form of legitimacy.  Even then, the Qing government continued toview the Boxers with suspicion.  InDecember 1899, the Qing court recalled the Shandong provincial governor, who had shownpro-Boxer sympathy, and replaced him with a military general who launched ananti-Boxer campaign in the province.

The Boxers’ grassroots organizational structure made itssuppression difficult.  The movement rapidlyspread beyond Shandongand Zhili provinces.  By April-May 1900,Boxers were operating in large areas of northern China,including Shanxi and Manchuria,and across the North China Plains.  TheBoxers killed Chinese Christians, burned churches, and looted and destroyedChristian houses and properties.  As aresult of these attacks, and those perpetrated during the Boxer Rebellion, morethan 30,000 Chinese Christians, 130 Protestant missionaries, and 50 Catholic priestsand nuns were killed.

The Boxer movement’s decentralized organization was its mainstrength, as individual units could mobilize and disband at will, and could betransferred quickly to other areas.  Butits lack of a unified structure and central leadership were also its weakestpoints, as Boxer units were restricted by a lack of coordination and over-allcommand.  Boxers also suffered from alack of military training and adequate weapons, and thus fought at a greatdisadvantage and easily broke apart when the fighting became intense.

By May 1900, thousands of Boxers were occupying areas aroundBeijing,including the vital Beijing-Tianjin railway line.  They attacked villages, killed localofficials, and destroyed government infrastructures.  The violence alarmed the foreign diplomaticcommunity in Beijing.  The foreign diplomats, their staff, andfamilies in Beijinghad their offices and residences located at the Legation Quarter, located southof the city.  The Legation Quarterconsisted of diplomatic missions from eleven countries: Britain, France,Russia, United States, Germany,Austria-Hungary, Japan, Italy,Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain.

In May 1900, the foreign diplomats asked the Qing governmentthat foreign troops be allowed to be posted at the Legation Quarter, which wasdenied.  Instead, the Chinese governmentsent Chinese policemen to guard the legations. But the foreign envoys persisted in their request, and on May 30, 1900,the Chinese Foreign Ministry (Zongli Yamen) allowed a small number of foreigntroops to be sent to Beijing.

The next day (May 31), some 450 foreign sailors and Marineswere landed from ships from eight countries and sent by train from Taku to Beijing.  But as the situation in Beijingcontinued to deteriorate, the foreign diplomats felt that more foreign troopswere needed in Beijing.  On June 6, 1900, and again on June 8, theysent requests to the Zongli Yamen, with both being turned down.  A separate request by the German Minister,Clemens von Ketteler, to allow German troops to take control of the Beijing railway stationalso was turned down.  On June 10, 1900,the Chinese government barred the foreign legations from using the telegraphline that linked to Tianjin.  In one of the last transmissions from theLegation Quarter, British Minister Claude MacDonald asked British Vice-AdmiralEdward Seymour in Tianjin to send more troops,with the message, “Situation extremely grave; unless arrangements are made forimmediate advance to Beijing,it will be too late.”  And with thesubsequent severing of the telegraph line between Beijingand Kiachta (in Russia) onJune 17, 1900, for nearly two months thereafter, the Legation Quarter in Beijing would be cut offfrom the outside world.

On June 11, 1900, the Japanese diplomat, Sugiyama Akira, waskilled by Chinese troops in a Beijingstreet.  Then on June 12 or 13, twoBoxers entered the Legation Quarter and were confronted by Ketteler, the GermanMinister, who drove one away and captured the other; the latter soon was killedunder unclear circumstances.  Later thatday, thousands of Boxers stormed into Beijing and went on a rampage, killingChinese Christians, burning churches, destroying houses, and lootingproperties.  In the next few days,skirmishes broke out between foreign legation troops, and Boxers with thesupport of anti-foreigner government units. On June 15, 1900, British and German soldiers dispersed Boxers whoattacked a church, and rescued the trapped Christians inside; two days later(June 17), an armed clash broke out between German–British–Austro-Hungarianunits and Boxer–anti-foreigner government troops.

The Belgian legation was evacuated, as were those of Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands,and Italy,when they came under Boxer attack.  Bythis time, the Christian missions scattered across Beijing were evacuated, with their clergy andthousands of Chinese Christians taking shelter at the Legation Quarter.  Soon, the Legation Quarter was fortified,with soldiers and civilians building barricades, trenches, bunkers, andshelters in preparation for a Boxer attack. Ultimately, in the Legation Quarter were some 400 soldiers, 470civilians (including 149 women and 79 children), and 2,800 Chinese Christians,all of whom would be besieged in the fighting that followed.  At the Northern Cathedral (Beitang) located somethree miles from the Legation Quarter, some 40 French and Italian soldiers, 30foreign Catholic clergy, and 3,200 Chinese Christians also took refuge, turningthe area into a defensive fortification which also would come under siegeduring the conflict.

Meanwhile in Taku, in response to British MinisterMacDonald’s plea for more troops to be sent to the Beijing foreign legations,on June 10, Vice-Admiral Seymour scrambled a 2,200-strong multinational forceof Navy and Marine units from Britain, Germany, Russia, France, the UnitedStates, Japan, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, which departed by train from Tianjinto Beijing.  On the first day, Seymour’s force traveled to within 40 miles of Beijing without meeting opposition, despite the presenceof Chinese Imperial forces (which had received no orders to resist Seymour’s passage) alongthe way.  Seymour’s force reached Langfang, where therail tracks had been destroyed by Boxers. Seymour’stroops dispersed the Boxers guarding the area, and work crews started repairwork on the rail tracks.  Seymour sent out ascouting team further on, which returned saying that more sections of therailroad at An Ting had also been destroyed. Seymour then sent a train back to Tianjin to get moresupplies, but the train soon returned, its crew saying that the rail track atYangcun was now destroyed.  Having tofight off a number of Boxer attacks, his provisions running low, realizing thefutility of continuing to Beijing, and nowfeeling trapped on both sides, Seymour called off the expedition and turned thetrains back, intending to return to Tianjin.

Elsewhere at this point, the Boxer crisis deteriorated evenfurther.  On June 15, 1900, at the YellowSea where Alliance ships were on high alert, andwere awaiting further developments, allied naval commanders became alarmed whenQing forces began fortifying the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho River,as well as setting mines on the river and torpedo tubes at the forts.  For Alliancecommanders, these actions threatened to cut off allied communication and supplylines to Tianjin, threatening the foreignenclave at Tianjin and Legation Quarter at Beijing, as well as Seymour’sforce.  The foreign alliance had had nocommunication with the Seymourforce for several days.  Alliance commanders thenissued an ultimatum demanding that the Taku Forts be surrendered to them, whichthe Qing naval command rejected.  Earlyon June 17, 1900, fighting broke out at the Taku Forts, with Allianceforces (except the U.S.command, which chose not to participate) launching a naval and ground assaultthat seized control of the forts.