Daniel Orr's Blog, page 30

November 21, 1971 – Indian-Pakistani War of 1971: Indian forces, aided by Bangladeshi guerilla fighters, defeat the Pakistanis at the Battle of Garibpur

On November 21, 1971, Indian forces and Bangladeshi resistance fighters of the Mukti Bahini decisively defeated a Pakistani infantry and armoured attack during the two-day Battle of Garibpur (located in present-day Bangladesh). The Pakistanis lost 180 troops killed, 14 tanks destroyed or captured, and 3 planes downed or damaged, while Indian/Bangladeshi casualties were only 40 wounded. The aerial combat between the Indian and Pakistani air forces during this battle is known as the Battle of Boyra, where 2 Pakistani planes were shot down, and another was damaged but managed to land to safety.

(Taken from Bangladesh War of Independence and Indian-Pakistani War of 1971 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Since its independence, Indiahad fought two wars against Pakistanand faced the perennial threat of fighting against or being attackedsimultaneously from East Pakistan and West Pakistan.  Indiatherefore saw that the crisis in East Pakistan yielded one benefit – if thethreat from East Pakistan was eliminated, India would not have to face thethreat of a war on two fronts.  Thus,just two days into the uprising in East Pakistan,India began to secretlysupport the independence of Bangladesh.  The Indian Army covertly trained, armed, andfunded the East Pakistani rebels, which within a few months, grew to a force of100,000 fighters.

In May 1975, Indiafinalized preparations for an invasion of East Pakistan,but moved the date of the operation to later in the year when the Himalayanborder passes were inaccessible to a possible attack by the Chinese Army.  Indiahad been defeated by Chinain the 1962 Sino-Indian War, and thus was wary of Chinese intentions, more sosince China and Pakistan maintained friendly relations and bothconsidered Indiatheir common enemy.  As a result, India entered into a defense treaty with theSoviet Union that guaranteed Soviet intervention in case India was attacked by a foreignpower.

In late spring and summer of 1971, East Pakistani rebelsbased in West Bengal entered East Pakistan andcarried out guerilla attacks against the Pakistani Army.  These infiltration attacks includedsabotaging military installations and attacking patrols, outposts, and otherlightly defended army positions. Government forces threw back the attacks and sometimes entered into Indiain pursuit of the rebels.

By October 1971, the Indian Army became involved in thefighting, providing artillery support for rebel infiltrations and even openlyengaging the Pakistani Army in medium-scale ground and air battles along theborder areas near Garibpur and Boyra (Map 14).

India’sinvolvement in East Pakistan was condemned in West Pakistan, where war sentiment was running high by November1971.  On November 23, Pakistan declared a state of emergency anddeployed large numbers of troops to the East Pakistani and West Pakistaniborders with India.  Then on December 3, 1971, Pakistani planeslaunched air strikes on air bases in India,particularly those in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Punjab, and Haryana.

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The next day, Indiadeclared war on Pakistan. India held a decisive militaryadvantage, which would allow its armed forces to win the war in only 13days.  Indiahad a 4:1 and 10:1 advantage over West Pakistan and East Pakistan, respectively, in terms of numbers of aircraft, allowingthe Indians to gain mastery of the sky by the second day of the war.

India’sobjective in the war was to achieve a rapid victory in East Pakistan before theUN imposed a ceasefire, and to hold off a possible Pakistani offensive from West Pakistan.  Inturn, Pakistan hoped to holdout in East Pakistan as long as possible, and to attack and make territorialgains in western India,which would allow the Pakistani government to negotiate in a superior positionif the war went to mediation.

In the western sector of the war where opposing forces weremore evenly matched, the fighting centered in three volatile areas: Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab,and Sindh-Rhajastan.  Pakistan launched offensives that were generallyunsuccessful, except in Chamb, a town in Kashmirwhich its forces overran and held temporarily. In the Longewal Desert in India’sRajasthan State, a Pakistani armored thrust wasthwarted by an Indian air attack, which resulted in heavy Pakistani losses.

In the Pakistani coast, Indian Navy ships attacked Karachi, Pakistan’smain port, and destroyed many Pakistani vessels as well as fuel storagefacilities.  Indian ships then blockadedthe Bay of Bengal, cutting off East Pakistan from the sea and denying Pakistan maritime access to transfer troops andsupplies from West Pakistan to East Pakistan.

The arduous topography of East Pakistan consisting of fourmajor river systems and their thousands of smaller tributaries was thought by Indiato be the greatest natural obstacle for its armed forces to achieve a quickvictory.  With the support of EastPakistani fighters, the Indian Army therefore merely hoped to win as muchterritory as possible within a two-week period, and then allow Bangladeshis toinstall their government in the captured territory.

November 9, 1938 – Interwar Period: A German diplomat is assassinated by a Polish Jew; in response, Hitler initiates “Kristallnacht”

On November 9, 1938 in Paris, German diplomat Ernst vom Rathwas assassinated by a Polish Jew. In response, Hitler’s government carried out “Kristallnacht”(Crystal Night), where the Nazi SA and civilian mobs in Germany went on aviolent rampage, killing hundreds of Jews, jailing tens of thousands of others,and looting and destroying Jewish homes, schools, synagogues, hospitals, andother buildings.  Some 1,000 synagogueswere burned, and 7,000 businesses destroyed. 

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

Hitler and Nazis inPower In October 1929, the severe economic crisis known as the GreatDepression began in the United States, and then spread out and affectedmany countries around the world.  Germany, whose economy was dependent on the United Statesfor reparations payments and corporate investments, was badly hit, and millionsof workers lost their jobs, many banks closed down, and industrial productionand foreign trade dropped considerably.

The Weimargovernment weakened politically, as many Germans turned to radical ideologies,particularly Hitler’s ultra-right wing nationalist Nazi Party, as well as theGerman Communist Party.  In the 1930federal elections, the Nazi Party made spectacular gains and became a majorpolitical party with a platform of improving the economy, restoring politicalstability, and raising Germany’sinternational standing by dealing with the “unjust” Versailles treaty.  Then in two elections held in 1932, the Nazisbecame the dominant party in the Reichstag (German parliament), albeit withoutgaining a majority.  Hitler long soughtthe post of German Chancellor, which was the head of government, but he wasrebuffed by the elderly President Paul von Hindenburg , who distrustedHitler.  At this time, Hitler’s ambitionswere not fully known, and following a political compromise by rival parties, inJanuary 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor, with fewNazis initially holding seats in the new Cabinet.  The Chancellorship itself had little power,and the real authority was held by the President (the head of state).

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

At this time, Hitler grew increasingly alarmed at themilitary power of the SA, particularly distrusting the political ambitions ofits leader, Ernst Rohm.  On June 30-July2, 1934, on Hitler’s orders, the loyalist Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel; English:Protection Squadron) and Gestapo (Secret Police) purged the SA, killinghundreds of its leaders including Rohm, and jailing thousands of its members,violently bringing the SA organization (which had some three million members)to its knees.  The purge benefited Hitlerin two ways: First, he became the undisputed leader of the Nazi apparatus, andSecond and equally important, his standing greatly increased with the upperclass, business and industrial elite, and German military; the latter,numbering only 100,000 troops because of the Versailles treaty restrictions,also felt threatened by the enormous size of the SA.

In early August 1934, with the death of PresidentHindenburg, Hitler gained absolute power, as his Cabinet passed a law thatabolished the presidency, and its powers were merged with those of thechancellor.  Hitler thus became bothGerman head of state and head of government, with the dual roles of Fuhrer(leader) and Chancellor.  As head ofstate, he also was Supreme Commander of the armed forces, making him absoluteruler and dictator of Germany.

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

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

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

In foreign affairs, Hitler, like most Germans, denounced theVersaillestreaty, and wanted it rescinded.  In1933, Hitler withdrew Germanyfrom the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva,and in October of that year, from the League of Nations, in both casesdenouncing why Germanywas not allowed to re-arm to the level of the other major powers.

In March 1935, Hitler announced that German militarystrength would be increased to 550,000 troops, military conscription would beintroduced, and an air force built, which essentially meant repudiation of theTreaty of Versailles and the start of full-scale rearmament.  In response, Britain,France, and Italy formedthe Stresa Front meant to stop further German violations, but this alliancequickly broke down because the three parties disagreed on how to deal withHitler.

October 30, 1941 – World War II: United States Congress approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union

On October 30, 1941, the U.S. Congress, urged on by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, approved $1 billion in Lend-Lease Aid to the Soviet Union, which at this time was reeling under the massive German offensives in Operation Barbarossa. The Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union was an interest-free loan which did not have to be repaid until five years after the end of the war. The aid was passed despite anti-communist sentiment among some of the legislators.

The Lend-Lease Act was first passed on March 11, 1941 with the intent of helping Britain in its war against the Axis Powers. The act also allowed the United States to could provide weapons and other defense materials free of charge to “any country whose defense the [U.S.] President deems vital to the defense of the U.S.”  The reasoning was that providing assistance to countries facing military aggression ultimately would be in the interest of the security of the United States.

By the end of World War II, more than $50 billion inLend-Lease money, weapons, tanks, warplanes, and ships had been allocated to 44countries.

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

The United States enters World War II InNovember 1939, two months after World War II had started in Europe, the United Statesdeclared its neutrality, which was a re-affirmation of its Neutrality Act of1937.  The Neutrality Act maintained the United States’long-standing position of non-involvement in European political and militaryaffairs.  But it also containedprovisions that favored the Western democracies, particularly Britain and France,viewed in light of the rise of totalitarian states, e.g. Hitler’s Nazi Germanyand Stalin’s communist Soviet Union.  U.S.foreign policy experienced a major shift in mid-1940 with Germany’s stunning victories in Western Europe,which saw the fall in quick succession of Denmark,Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium,Luxembourg, and especially France.  Then with Germanyconcentrating its efforts on the conquest of Britain,the United States becamealarmed at the prospect that the whole of Europemay very well come under Hitler’s control.

Although believing that Britain was doomed to fall, U.S.President Franklin D. Roosevelt rushed to help the government of British PrimeMinister Winston Churchill.  In September1940, the two governments signed the “Destroyers for Bases” Agreement, wherethe United Statestransferred to Britain 50old destroyers in exchange for Britaingranting the United Stateslong-term military leases to a number of strategic British territories in the Western Hemisphere. Then in March 1941, the United States permanently moved away fromneutrality when U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, where the UnitedStates could provide weapons and other defense materials free of charge to “anycountry whose defense the [U.S.] President deems vital to the defense of theU.S.”  Armaments, food, and funds soonarrived in Britain (and China, and later, the Soviet Union).  The next month,April 1941, the Pan-American Security Zone (established in October 1939) wasextended to 22° longitude to just west of Iceland.  In June 1941, following the U-boat sinking ofthe American vessel, the SS Robin Moor (its crew and passengers were allowed toboard lifeboats beforehand), the U.S. government froze German assets in theUnited States and ordered Germany (and Italy) to close their consulates, excepttheir embassies.

Finally, on December 8, 1941, the United States entered World War II by declaring war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Three days later,December 11, Germany (and Italy) declared war on the United States; that same day, the latterdeclared war on Germany (andItaly); the United Stateswas now a member of the Allies.

American and Britishstrategic initiatives At the outset, U.S.and British military planners agreed to concentrate most of their combinedefforts on first defeating Hitler (the “Europe First” policy) because of theimmediate danger that Germanyposed to the survival of Britainand the Soviet Union.  By contrast, distant Japan did not directly threaten Londonand Moscow.  With Germany’sdefeat, the Allies agreed to concentrate on defeating Japan.

But the two western Allies differed on the strategy forEurope: the United States, which desired a rapid end to the war, favored animmediate invasion of France from Britain through the English Channel, whileBritain, which saw the war in geopolitical terms, particularly with curbingSoviet expansionism in post-war Europe, called for an invasion through theMediterranean region into southeastern Europe, that is, as far to the east as possible.  For British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,an attack further east, particularly into the Balkans, would achievesimultaneous aims: it would First, deny the Germans vital resources, especiallyRomania’s oil; Second, meet up with the Soviet Red Army, and Third, allow theWestern Allies a stronger bargaining position after the war.  However, Stalin wanted the Allied invasion tobe as far to the west as possible, as he saw Eastern Europe as falling inside his sphere of influence.

In the end, the United States went along with Britain, andtemporarily shelved its plans for a joint cross-channel invasion of France thathad been slated for 1942 and 1943, this decision influenced by the disastrousattempt in August 1942 to seize the French port of Dieppe, where the Allieslost 60% of its invasion force.

October 15, 1979 – A military coup takes place in El Salvador, sparking a twelve-year civil war

El Salvador in Central America

On October 15, 1979, a group of army officers, alarmed thatthe increasing violence was creating conditions favorable to a communisttake-over similar to that which occurred in Nicaragua, carried out a coup thatdeposed General Romero.  A five-membercivilian and military junta, called the Revolutionary Junta Government (JRG;Spanish: Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno)was formed to rule the country until such that time that elections could beheld.  In March 1980, after somerestructuring, Duartejoined the junta and eventually took over its leadership to become thecountry’s de facto head of state.  Thejunta was openly supported by the United States,which viewed Duarte’s centrist politics as thebest chance to preserve democracy in El Salvador.

However, neither the coup nor the junta altered the powerstructures, and the military continued to wield full (albeit covert) authorityover state matters.  The juntaimplemented agrarian reform and nationalized some key industries, but theseprograms were strongly opposed by the oligarchy.  Militias and “death squads” that the juntaordered the military to disband simply were replaced with other armed groups.  The years 1980 and 1981 saw a great increasein the military’s suppression of dissent.

(Taken from Salvadoran Civil War – Wars of the 20th Century – 26 Wars and Conflicts in the Americas and the Caribbean)

The Civil War IntensifiesOn March 24, 1980, Monsignor Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, was killedwhile delivering religious services. Archbishop Romero, like many other Salvadoran clergymen, advocatedLiberation Theology, a radical variation of Catholicism which taught that theChurch had a moral obligation to fight social and economic injustices and workfor a fair and equitable society.  Twomonths before his assassination, Archbishop Romero had written an open letterto U.S. President Jimmy Carter, requesting the latter to stop providingmilitary support to the Salvadoran military. Archbishop Romero’s death also took place one day after he had called onSalvadoran soldiers to disobey their commanders and not attack civilians.

One week after Archbishop Romero’s assassination, on March30, 1980, during the Archbishop’s funeral services which were attended by some250,000 people and held at the public square near the San Salvador Cathedral,gunmen hidden in the buildings nearby opened fire on the crowd.  Pandemonium broke out and in the stampedethat followed, scores of people were crushed and killed.  Investigations conducted by independentorganizations following the two incidents pointed to government forces as theparty most likely to have carried out the archbishop’s murder and the attack oncivilians during the funeral services.

Archbishop Romero’s assassination greatly raisedrevolutionary fervor, and generally is cited as the event that started thecivil war, or greatly accelerated it. Many activists abandoned non-violent, political means for change andjoined the various revolutionary armed movements in the countryside.

In May 1980, the four major insurgent groups (SalvadoranCommunist Party, FPL, ERP, RN) merged to form the Unified RevolutionaryDirectorate (Spanish: DirecciónRevolucionaria Unificada), which in turn, six months later in October 1980,in Havana, Cuba under the auspices of Fidel Castro, reorganized as theFarabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN; Spanish: Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional).  Another leftist organization, theRevolutionary Party of Central American Workers (PRTC; Spanish: Partido Revolucionario de los TrabajadoresCentroamericanos), joined the FMLN in December 1980.

The FMLN, together with its political wing, the DemocraticRevolutionary Front (FDR; Spanish: FrenteDemocrático Revolucionario), had as its main objectives the overthrow ofthe government through armed revolution, formation of a communist regime, andthe overhaul of the country’s social and economic infrastructures.  Because of its (initially) small combatcapability, the FMLN envisaged a strategy that combined carrying out aprotracted guerilla war and economic sabotage, and derived support from itsmain base among the rural population, which could furnish new recruits, food,logistical support, and information. Combat operations were limited to ambushing army patrols, raiding remoteoutposts, and skirmishing with small army units.  The insurgents also destroyed publicinfrastructures (roads, bridges, public utilities, etc.) and private properties(plantation farms, grain mills, warehouses, etc.).

The FMLN established relations with Cuba and Nicaragua,and working ties with the Soviet Union,Eastern Bloc, and other communist countries. In 1981, it received a diplomatic boost when Franceand Mexicorecognized it as a “legitimate political force”.  However, the United States and most westerndemocratic countries viewed the FMLN in the Cold War context, as that of a Marxist(and terrorist) organization that was striving to overthrow a democraticgovernment in order to set up a communist regime.

In January 1981, the FMLN launched coordinated attacks inmany parts of the country, which failed in their objective (as the “finaloffensive”) to incite a popular uprising to topple the government.  The rebels did, however, seize some regionsin the north, including large areas of Chalatenango and Morazan, as well asCuscatlán, Cabañas, and the mountain areas north of San Salvador centered in Guazapa.  The offensive also came in the wake of therecent electoral victory of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who had campaigned ona rigidly anti-communist platform.

President Reagan’s predecessor, President Carter, generallyhad been reluctant to provide full military support to El Salvadorbecause of the Salvadoran army’s poor human rights record.  The U.S.government had even stopped U.S.aid in December 1980 following the rape and murder of three U.S. Catholic nunsand one female church lay worker by soldiers of the Salvadoran NationalGuard.  President Carter did, however,resume U.S.assistance following the increasing threat of the FMLN insurgency.

Consequently, with the Reagan administration, the United States infused large sums of economic andmilitary assistance to El Salvador; the major part of the $7 billiontotal amount provided during the war took place during President Reagan’s termof office (1981-1989).  Aside fromweapons, the United Statesalso sent military advisors to train the Salvadoran Armed Forces incounter-insurgency techniques that the U.S. Army had developed in the VietnamWar.

The Salvadoran Army found it difficult to tell apart themainly inconspicuous insurgents from the conspicuous rural population, and soonregarded the two groups as one and the same, i.e. the enemy, particularly inareas where the insurgency was strong.  Acampaign known as “draining the sea” was carried out, i.e., the insurgency’ssupport base (the “sea”) would be targeted and eliminated, instead ofattempting to locate the rebels.

October 14, 1920 – Finnish Civil War: Finland and Soviet Russia sign the Treaty of Tartu

On October 14, 1920, Finlandand Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Tartu (in Tartu, Estonia)at the end of the Finnish Civil War. The treaty established a commonFinnish-Russian border with some exchanges of territory: Petsamo in the north wasreturned to Finland, whileRepola and Porajarvi in Karelia went to SovietRussia.

White Finland and Red Finland during the Finnish Civil War

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

Aftermath of theFinnish Civil War In May 1918, the victorious conservative governmentreturned its capital to Helsinki.  Because of the German Army’s contribution tothe military success and under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,Finland came under Germany’s sphere of influence, much like the other Russianterritories ceded to Germany, i.e. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus,Ukraine, and Russian Poland. Finnish-German relations drew even closer with the signing of bilateralmilitary and economic agreements.  InOctober 1918, German hegemony was furthered when the Finnish Parliament,dominated by monarchists, named a German Prince, Friedrich Karl, as King ofFinland.

However, the Western Front of World War I was still beingfought.  After a failed German offensivein March 1918, the Allies counterattacked, pushing back the German Army allacross the front.  By November 1918, theGerman Empire verged on total collapse, both from defeat on the battlefield andby political and social unrest caused by the outbreak of the GermanRevolution.  On November 9, 1918, theGerman monarchy ended when Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne; an interimgovernment (which soon turned Germanyinto a republic) signed the Compiègne Armistice on November 11, 1918, endingWorld War I.

In the aftermath, Germanywas forced to relinquish its authority over Eastern Europe, including Finland.  In mid-December 1916, with the departure ofthe German Army from Finland,the Finnish parliament’s plan to install a monarchy with a German prince fellapart.  Finland held local elections inDecember 1918, and parliamentary elections in March 1919, paving the way forthe establishment of a republic, which officially came into existence with theratification of the Finnish constitution in July 1919.  Also in July, Finland’s first president, KaarloJuho Ståhlberg, was elected into office.

Earlier in May 1919, the United States and Britainrecognized Finland’sindependence; other countries, including Denmark,Norway, Sweden, Switzerland,and Greece already hadrecognized Finland’ssovereignty a few months earlier.  OnOctober 14, 1920, Finlandand Soviet Russia formally ended hostilities in the Treaty of Tartu (in Tartu, Estonia)that also established a common Finnish-Russian border.

The civil war left a lasting, bitter legacy in Finland.  The widespread violence perpetrated by bothsides of the war aggravated the already socially divided Finland, asnearly every Finn was affected directly or indirectly.  This polarization led to non-compromise andencouraged radicalization of elements of the right and left, into fascists andcommunists, respectively, in the following years.  Ultimately, however, political moderationprevailed, allowing Finlandto emerge united politically, socially, and economically.  Furthermore, in the 1930s, the countryexperienced high economic growth, with traditional industries growing and newones emerging.  Agricultural reforms alsotransformed the countryside – by the 1930s, some 90% of previously landlessfarmers owned their farmlands.  Also inthe 1930s, the growing threats from Germanyand the Soviet Union further bound Finnstoward nationalist unity.

August 24, 1941 – World War II: Hitler orders discontinuation of the T4 euthanasia program for the mentally and physically ill

On August 24, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered the cessation of the T4 euthanasia program for the mentally and physically ill in response to protests in Germany led by the Bishop of Munster, Clemens von Galen. Pope Pius XII had earlier denounced the program, stating in December 1940 that it violated Divine Law and that the “killing of an innocent person because of mental or physical defects is not allowed”. Despite the official cessation in August 1941, the program continued to be performed until Germany’s defeat in 1945. Its implementation had begun in September 1939.

T4 (later given the name “Aktion T4” after the war) was Nazi Germany’s program of mass killing the severely mentally and physically ill people in psychiatric hospitals in Germany and occupied territories, Austria, Poland, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (present-day Czech Republic). The reasons for its implementation were eugenics, reduce suffering, racial purification, and cost savings for the government.

In the latter stages, patients were killed en masse withcyanide poison in gas chambers.

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

Genocide and slavelabor Because of the failure of Operation Barbarossa and succeedingcampaigns, Germanywas unable to implement the planned mass-scale transfer of targeted populationsto the Russian interior.  Elimination ofthe undesired populations began almost immediately following the outbreak ofwar, with the conquest of Poland.  The killing of hundreds of thousands ofcivilians occurred in hundreds of incidents of massacres and mass shootings intowns and villages, reprisals against attacks on German troops, scorched earthoperations, 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 theNuremberg Laws of 1935, and violent repression of Jews increased at theoutbreak of war.  Jews were rounded upand confined to guarded ghettos, and then sent by freight trains toconcentration and labor camps.  Bymid-1942, under the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” decree, Jews weretransported to extermination camps, where they were killed in gaschambers.  Some 90% of Holocaust victimswere Jews.  Other similar exterminationsand repressions were carried out against ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Poles,and other Slavs and Romani (gypsies), as well as communists and other politicalenemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In Germany itself, a clandestineprogram implemented by German public health authorities under Hitler’s orders,killed tens of thousands of mentally and physically disabled patients,purportedly under euthanasia (“mercy killing”) procedures, which actuallyinvolved sending patients to gas chambers, applying lethal doses of medication,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 21, 1982 – 1982 Lebanon War: A peacekeeping force arrives in Beirut to enforce a ceasefire and oversee the withdrawal of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

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

On August 18, 1982, after a seven-week siege of the Lebanese capital Beirut, Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to a ceasefire, which was made about through mediation efforts of U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib.  The ceasefire contained the following stipulations: an end to the war, departure of all foreign forces from Lebanon, and establishment of a Multinational Forces (MNF) to enforce the ceasefire.  On August 21, 1982, the MNF, which ultimately consisted of contingents of the armed forces of the United States, France, Italy, and Britain, arrived in Beirut.  With security protection provided by the MNF, over 6,000 PLO fighters left Beirut and transferred to Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Greece, and Tunisia. The operation was carried out over 15 days starting on August 27, with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat leaving on August 30 aboard a merchant ship bound for Tunisia.

The Israeli government put pressure on new Lebanesepresident, Bachir Gemayel, to enter into a peace treaty with Israel.  President Gemayel refused, as the LebaneseCivil War was still ongoing and the continued presence of the Syrian Armythreatened the local political and security climates.  On September 14, President Gemayel wasassassinated.  The next day, Israeliforces occupied Muslim-dominated West Beirut,and blocked off escape routes from the area. A Christian militia associated with the assassinated president enteredthe Sabra and Shatila refugee camps (supposedly to arrest PLO fighters whostill remained in the city) and carried out widespread violence against theresidents.  Various estimates put thenumber of casualties for the attacks at between 800 and 3,500 personskilled.  In December 1982, the UnitedNations General Assembly, voting 123 – 0 (with 22 abstentions and 12non-voting), condemned the attacks, calling them “genocide”.

The massacre was denounced also in Israel.  A fact-finding investigation by the Israeligovernment (called the Kahan Commission) determined that Israel’s DefenseMinister, the armed forces chief of staff, and Director of MilitaryIntelligence, were negligent in their duties to prevent the killings.  Because of foreign and local pressures,Israeli forces withdrew from Beirut, and theMNF, which had left Lebanonon September 11, 1982 after the PLO withdrawal, returned to Beirut for peace-keeping duties.  Ultimately, however, the MNF would leave Lebanon permanently in March 1984 following bombattacks on the U.S. Embassy and on the American and French MNF barracks, all inBeirut.

Israeli Occupation ofSouth Lebanon By the summer of 1983, Israelcontinued to occupy central Lebanon.  In January 1985, Israelwithdrew most of its troops from Lebanon,leaving a small force in South Lebanon to protect, together with Israel’sChristian ally, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a narrow strip of land that theIsraelis called the “security zone”.  TheIsraelis and SLA installed check points and outposts in strategic areas alongthe security zone to cut off guerilla infiltration routes from South Lebanoninto northern Israel.

In 1985, a Palestinian armed group called Hezbollah wasformed in South Lebanon in opposition to the occupation and with the intent ofdriving away the Israelis from Lebanon.  Hezbollah grew rapidly and filled the armedvoid left by the PLO by attacking Israeli forces and their allies in SouthLebanon as well carrying out cross-border attacks in northern Israel.

In July 1993, a Hezbollah rocket attack in Israel and the killing of five Israeli soldiersprompted Israel to launch amajor offensive in South Lebanon (calledOperation Accountability).  In a scorched-earthcampaign, the Israelis destroyed thousands of homes, turning some 300,000Lebanese civilians into refugees.  Thenagain in April 1996, in response to Hezbollah artillery attacks in northern Israel, Israeli forces launched air strikes andartillery bombardment (Operation Grapes of Wrath) on Hezbollah targets in South Lebanon.

After 15 years, Lebanon’s civil war ended with theLebanese government’s implementation of the Taif Agreement.  Local public opinion mounted in Israel against the continued occupation of South Lebanon.  InMay 2000, Israel withdrewits forces from South Lebanon in compliancewith United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 425.  As a result, Hezbollah gained full control ofSouth Lebanon and continued to launch attacks on Israel.

After the civil war, Lebanon began the task ofrebuilding its devastated economic and social infrastructures.  Local and international pressures mountedagainst the continued military and political control of Syria on Lebanon’s internal affairs.  Then in April 2005, in compliance with UNSCResolution 1559, Syriawithdrew its forces from Lebanon.

August 19, 1945 – First Indochina War: Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh take control of Hanoi

On August 19, 1945, Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) took control of Hanoi in northern Vietnam. There, he announced the formation of a provisional government under a democratic republic comprising the whole of Vietnam. On September 2, 1945, he declared Vietnam’s independence.

This declaration of independence was culmination of the August Revolution, a nationalist struggle that began on August 14, 1945 aimed at preventing the return of French colonial rule in Vietnam. Within two weeks, the Viet Minh had taken control of most cities across the northern, central, and southern regions of Vietnam.

Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina.

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

Background In May1941, after a thirty-year absence from Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh returned andorganized in northern Vietnam the “League for the Independence of Vietnam”,more commonly known as Viet Minh (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội),an ICP-led merger of Vietnamese nationalist movements, aimed at ending bothFrench and Japanese rule.  Ho became theleader of the Vietnamese independence struggle, a position he would holdpermanently until his death in 1969.

During World War II, the Viet Minh and Allied Powers formeda tactical alliance in their shared effort to defeat a common enemy.  In particular, Ho’s fledging small band offighters liaisoned with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), furnishingthe Americans with intelligence information on the Japanese, while the U.S.military provided the Vietnamese fighters with training, some weapons, andother military support.

By early 1945, World War II invariably had turned in favorof the Allies, with Germanyverging on defeat and Japanbecoming increasingly threatened by the Allied island-hopping Pacificcampaign.  In March 1945, the Japanesemilitary overthrew the French administration in Indochina, because of fears ofan Allied invasion of the region following the U.S.recapture of the Philippines(October 1944–April 1945), and also because the Japanese began to distrustFrench loyalty following the end of Vichy France (November 1942) and the subsequent Alliedliberation of France(early 1945).  In place of the Frenchadministration, on March 11, 1945, Japanese authorities installed a Vietnamesegovernment led by former emperor Bao Dai, and then proclaimed the“independence” of Vietnam,an act that was largely dismissed as spurious by the Vietnamese people.

On August 14, 1945, Japan announced its acceptance ofthe terms of the Potsdam Declaration, marking the end of the Asia-Pacifictheatre of World War II (the European theater of World War II had endedearlier, on May 8, 1945).  The suddenJapanese capitulation left a power vacuum that was quickly filled by the VietMinh, which in the preceding months, had secretly organized so-called “People’sRevolutionary Committees” throughout much of the colony.  These “People’s Revolutionary Committees” nowseized power and organized local administrations in many towns and cities, moreparticularly in the northern and central regions, including the capital Hanoi.  This seizure of power, historically calledthe August Revolution, led to the abdication of ex-emperor Bao Dao and thecollapse of his Japanese-sponsored government.

The August Revolution succeeded largely because the VietMinh had gained much popular support following a severe famine that hitnorthern Vietnam in the summer of 1944 to 1945 (which caused some 400,000 to 2million deaths).  During the famine, theViet Minh raided several Japanese and private grain warehouses.  On September 2, 1945 (the same day Japansurrendered to the Allies), Ho proclaimed the country’s independence as theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), taking the position of President of aprovisional government.

At this point, Ho sought U.S.diplomatic support for Vietnam’sindependence, and incorporated part of the 1776 U.S. Declaration ofIndependence in his own proclamation of Vietnamese independence.  Ho also wrote several letters to U.S.President Harry Truman (which were unanswered), and met with U.S. StateDepartment and OSS officials in Hanoi.  However, during the war-time PotsdamConference (July 17 – August 2, 1945), the Allied Powers (including the SovietUnion) decided to allow France to restore colonial rule in Indochina, but thatin the meantime that France was yet preparing to return, Vietnam was to be partitionedinto two zones north and south of the 16th parallel, with Chinese Nationalistforces tasked to occupy the northern zone, and British forces (with some Frenchunits) tasked to enter the southern zone.

By mid-September 1945, Chinese and British forces hadoccupied their respective zones.  Theythen completed their assigned tasks of accepting the surrender of, as well asdisarming and repatriating the Japanese forces within their zones.  In Saigon,British forces disbanded the Vietnamese revolutionary government that had takenover the administration of the city. This Vietnamese government in Saigon, called the “Provisional ExecutiveCommittee”, was a coalition of many organizations, including the religious groupsCao Dai and Hoa Hao, the organized crime syndicate Binh Xuyen, the communists,and nationalist organizations.  InCochinchina and parts of Annam,unlike in Tonkin, the Viet Minh had onlyestablished partial authority because of the presence of these many rivalideological movements.  But believingthat nationalism was more important than ideology to achieve Vietnam’sindependence, the Viet Minh was willing to work with other groups to form aunited front to oppose the return of French rule.

As a result of the British military actions in the southernzone, on September 17, 1945, the DRV in Hanoilaunched a general strike in Saigon.  British authorities responded to the strikesby declaring martial law.  The Britishalso released and armed some 1,400 French former prisoners of war; the latter thenlaunched attacks on the Viet Minh, and seized key government infrastructures inthe south.  On September 24, 1945,elements of the Binh Xuyen crime syndicate attacked and killed some 150 Frenchnationals, which provoked retaliatory actions by the French that led toincreased fighting.  British and Frenchforces soon dispersed the Viet Minh from Saigon.  The latter responded by sabotaging ports,power plants, communication systems, and other government facilities.

By the third week of September 1945, much of southern Vietnamwas controlled by the French, and the British ceded administration of theregion to them.  In late October 1945,another British-led operation broke the remaining Viet Minh resistance in thesouth, and the Vietnamese revolutionaries retreated to the countryside wherethey engaged in guerilla warfare.  Alsoin October, some 35,000 French troops arrived in Saigon.  In March 1946, British forces departed from Indochina, ending their involvement in the region.

Meanwhile in the northern zone, some 200,000 Chineseoccupation forces, led by the warlord General Lu Han, allowed Ho Chi Minh andthe Viet Minh to continue exercising power in the north, on the condition thatHo include non-communists in the Viet Minh government.  To downplay his communist ties, in November1945, Ho dissolved the ICP and called for Vietnamese nationalist unity.  In late 1945, a provisional coalitiongovernment was formed in the northern zone, comprising the Viet Minh and other nationalistorganizations.  In January 1946,elections to the National Assembly were held in northern and central Vietnam,where the coalition parties agreed to a pre-set division of electoral seats.

March 31, 1968 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces in a television address that he would not seek re-election

On March 31, 1968, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnsondelivered the speech, “Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam”, in a television addressto the nation. At the end of his speech, he announced, “I shall not seek, and Iwill not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as yourPresident.” The address came shortly after the end of the Tet Offensive by North Vietnamand the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

The Tet Offensive fatally damaged President Johnson’spolitical career.  Opposition within thepresident’s own Democratic Party came at a crucial time, as the presidentialelection was scheduled later that year, in November 1968.  Following a lackluster performance in the New Hampshire primary,President Johnson, in a nationwide broadcast, announced that he would not seekre-election as president.  In the samebroadcast, he suspended U.S.bombing of North Vietnam inall areas north of the 19th parallel as an incentive to North Vietnam to start peacetalks.  The North Vietnamese governmentresponded positively, and in May 1968, peace talks opened in Paris. Because the talks made little progress, on November 1, 1968, onPresident Johnson’s orders, aerial bombing of all North Vietnam was stopped(ending the 3½-year-long bombing campaign of Operation Rolling Thunder).

(Taken from Vietnam War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia: Vol 5)

In May and August 1968, the Viet Cong launched smaller“Mini-Tet” attacks as part of its ongoing “General Offensive, General Uprising”campaign.  South Vietnamese and Americanforces, now being more vigilant, parried these attacks.  Also in the immediate aftermath of the firstTet Offensive, the Viet Cong/NLF initially gained control of the rural areaswhich South Vietnamese forces had evacuated to defend the cities andtowns.  But in the post-Tet period, Americanand South Vietnamese large-scale search and destroy operations regained controlof the countryside.

Ultimately, the Tet Offensive was a military disaster forthe Viet Cong/NLF, as its military units were expelled from South Vietnam and forced intohiding in the Cambodian border regions. As a result, the Viet Cong experienced desertions, low morale, anddifficulty to recruit new fighters.  TheViet Cong soon ceased to be a native southern insurgency, as its ranksincreasingly became filled by North Vietnamese cadres.  In the end, the Viet Cong came under fullcontrol of North Vietnam.

For the United States, the Tet Offensive was a decisivemilitary victory, but one that soon turned into a moral defeat for the Americanpeople, and a political disaster for President Johnson.  During the early years of the war, PresidentJohnson had issued only carefully measured amounts of information to theAmerican public regarding the true military situation in Vietnam.  He continued to declare that U.S. war strategy in Vietnamremained the same, despite the fact that American military involvement in thewar was deepening and more and more troops were being sent to Vietnam.  Soon, the American mass media detected a“credibility gap” between the U.S.government official pronouncements and the reports coming from Vietnam.  In 1966, the first signs of American publicopposition became evident, which by 1967, grew into a more vocal and radicalprotest movement.

Initially, President Johnson’s increased involvement in Vietnam enjoyed overwhelming political support,as evidenced by the near unanimous passage of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,as well as the high popular support. Opinion polls at the time showed that 80% of Americans supported thewar.  But by 1967, surveys were showinggrowing opposition to the war.  Tocounter falling public support, and media reports that the war had reached astalemate, in the fall of 1967, the Johnson administration embarked on ahigh-profile propaganda campaign stating that the war was being won.  Government officials, includingVice-President Hubert Humphrey and the American ambassador to South Vietnam, issued glowingstatements in support of the war. High-ranking military officers also released data showing that the enemywas suffering from high numbers of its soldiers killed, weapons lost, and basesand camps captured.  General Westmorelandalso announced that the U.S.military had “reached an important point when the end begins to come intoview”, implying that American victory was imminent.

However, President Johnson’s attempts to win back publicsupport through propaganda backfired, as the Tet Offensive showed that not onlywas the Viet Cong far from being defeated, it had the strength to launch afull-scale offensive across South Vietnam. As a result, support for the anti-war movement in the United States increaseddramatically.  Hundreds of thousands ofpeople participated in protest marches and rallies.  These demonstrations sometimes deterioratedinto violent confrontations with security forces.  Anti-war sentiment particularly was strongamong college students, and universities and colleges became centers ofunrest.  Active involvement came frommany sectors, including women’s movements, social rights groups,African-Americans, and even Vietnam War veterans.

Tet also fatally damaged President Johnson’s politicalcareer.  Opposition within thepresident’s own Democratic Party came at a crucial time, as the presidentialelection was scheduled later that year, in November 1968.  Following a lackluster performance in the New Hampshire primary,President Johnson, in a nationwide broadcast, announced that he would not seekre-election as president.  In the samebroadcast, he suspended U.S.bombing of North Vietnam inall areas north of the 19th parallel as an incentive to North Vietnam to start peacetalks.  The North Vietnamese governmentresponded positively, and in May 1968, peace talks opened in Paris. Because the talks made little progress, on November 1, 1968, onPresident Johnson’s orders, aerial bombing of all North Vietnam was stopped(ending the 3½-year-long bombing campaign of Operation Rolling Thunder).

Also in 1968, because of domestic pressures, the Johnsonadministration implemented a major shift in American involvement in the war:henceforth, the U.S. military would gradually disengage from the Vietnam War,and after a period of being built up, the South Vietnamese military would takeover the fighting (the process known as the “Vietnamization” of the war).  The South Vietnamese military buildup wasmeant to balance out the phased reduction of U.S. ground forces.  U.S.forces in Vietnam,which peaked in 1968 at 530,000 troops, would see a steady reduction insucceeding years: 1969 – 475,000; 1970 – 335,000; 1971-156,000; 1972 – 24,000;and 1973 – 50.  More than these numbersalone, the pull-out of American troops would have a decisive impact on theoutcome of the war.

In June 1968, General Creighton Abrams, who succeeded asover-all commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam (MACV), gradually shifted U.S.combat strategy away from search and destroy missions to “clear and hold” (i.e.to clear the insurgents from an area, which would then be held) operations, andimplemented a moderately successful “hearts and minds” campaign (under a newlyformed agency, the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support,CORDS) to gain the sympathy of the civilian population for the South Vietnamesegovernment.

In 1969, newly elected U.S.president, Richard Nixon, who took office in January of that year, continuedwith the previous government’s policy of American disengagement and phasedtroop withdrawal from Vietnam,while simultaneously expanding Vietnamization, with U.S. military advice and materialsupport.  He also was determined toachieve his election campaign promise of securing a peace settlement with North Vietnam under the Parispeace talks, ironically through the use of force, if North Vietnam refused to negotiate.

In February 1969, the Viet Cong again launched a large-scaleTet-like coordinated offensive across South Vietnam, attacking villages,towns, and cities, and American bases. Two weeks later, the Viet Cong launched another offensive.  Because of these attacks, in March 1968, onPresident Nixon’s orders, U.S.planes, including B-52 bombers, attacked Viet Cong/North Vietnamese bases ineastern Cambodia(along the Ho Chi Minh Trail).  Thisbombing campaign, codenamed Operation Menu, lasted 14 months (until May 1970),and segued into Operation Freedom Deal (May 1970-August 1973), with the lattertargeting a wider insurgent-held territory in eastern Cambodia.

March 30, 1972 – Vietnam War: North Vietnam launches the Easter Offensive into South Vietnam

Buoyed bythis success, in March 1972, North Vietnamlaunched the Nguyen Hue Offensive (called the Easter Offensive in the West),its first full-scale offensive into South Vietnam, using 300,000 troops and 300 tanks and armoredvehicles.  By this time, South Vietnameseforces carried practically all of the fighting, as fewer than 10,000 U.S. troops remained in South Vietnam, and who were soonscheduled to leave.  North Vietnameseforces advanced along three fronts.  Inthe northern front, the North Vietnamese attacked through the DMZ, and capturedthe northern provinces, and threatened Hue and Da Nang.  In late June 1972, a SouthVietnamese counterattack, supported by U.S. air firepower, including B-52bombers, recaptured most of the occupied territory, including Quang Tri, nearthe northern border.  In the CentralHighlands front, the North Vietnamese objective to advance right through tocoastal Qui Nhon and split South Vietnam in two, failed to break through toKontum and was pushed back.  In thesouthern front, North Vietnamese forces that advanced from the Cambodian bordertook Tay Ninh and Loc Ninh, but were repulsed at An Loc because of strong SouthVietnamese resistance and massive U.S. air firepower.

(Taken from Vietnam War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia – Vol. 5)

Aftermath The Vietnam 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, someU.S. soldiers returning fromVietnam were met withhostility, mainly because the war had become extremely unpopular in 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 thewar, in Vietnam and Indochina, turmoil and conflict continued to bewidespread.  After South Vietnam’s collapse, the Viet Cong/NLF’s PRG was installed as the caretakergovernment.  But as Hanoi de facto held full political andmilitary control, on July 2, 1976, North Vietnamannexed South Vietnam,and the unified state was called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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

In the yearsafter the war, the Indochina refugee crisis developed, where some three millionpeople, consisting mostly of those targeted by government repression, left theirhomelands in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, for permanent settlement in othercountries.  In Vietnam, some 1-2 million departingrefugees used small, decrepit boats to embark on perilous journeys to otherSoutheast Asian nations.  Some200,000-400,000 of these “boat people” perished atsea, while survivors who eventually reached Malaysia,Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and other destinationswere sometimes met there with hostility. But with United Nations support, refugee camps were established in theseSoutheast Asian countries to house and process the refugees.  Ultimately, some 2,500,000 refugees wereresettled, mostly in North America and Europe.

The communistrevolutions triumphed in Indochina: in April 1975 in Vietnamand Cambodia, and inDecember 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 50,000people in Laos alone, andhundreds more in Indochina are killed ormaimed each year.

The aerialspraying operations of the U.S. military, carried out using several types ofherbicides but most commonly with Agent Orange (whichcontained the highly toxic chemical, dioxin), have had a direct impact onVietnam.  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 20million gallons of herbicides were sprayed on 20,000 km2 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 theVietnam War, Indochina continued to experiencesevere turmoil.  In December 1978, aftera period of border battles and cross-border raids, Vietnamlaunched a full-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, in reprisal for Vietnam’s invasion of its Kampuchean ally, China launched a large-scale offensive into thenorthern regions of Vietnam,but after one month of bitter fighting, the Chinese forces withdrew.  Regional instability would persist into the1990s.