Daniel Orr's Blog, page 64

April 26, 1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference opens, aimed at restoring peace in Indochina and Korea

By the timeof the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France knew that it could not win the war, andturned its attention on trying to work toward a political settlement and anhonorable withdrawal from Indochina.  By February 1954, opinion polls at homeshowed that only 8% of the French population supported the war.  However, the Dien Bien Phu debacle dashed French hopes of negotiating under favorablewithdrawal terms.  On May 8, 1954, oneday after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, representatives from the majorpowers: United States, Soviet Union, Britain, China, and France, and the Indochinastates: Cambodia, Laos, and the two rival Vietnamese states, DemocraticRepublic of Vietnam (DRV) and State of Vietnam, met at Geneva (the GenevaConference) to negotiate a peace settlement forIndochina.  The Conference also wasenvisioned to resolve the crisis in the Korean Peninsulain the aftermath of the Korean War (separatearticle), where deliberations ended on June 15, 1954 without anysettlements made.

(Taken from First Indochina War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 5)

On the Indochina issue, on July 21, 1954, a ceasefire and a“final declaration” were agreed to by the parties.  The ceasefire was agreed to by France and theDRV, which divided Vietnaminto two zones at the 17th parallel, with the northern zone to be governed by the DRVand the southern zone to be governed by the State of Vietnam.  The 17th parallel was intended to serve merely as aprovisional military demarcation line, and not as a political or territorialboundary.      The French and theirallies in the northern zone departed and moved to the southern zone, while theViet Minh in thesouthern zone departed and moved to the northern zone (although some southernViet Minh remained in the south on instructions from the DRV).  The 17th parallel was also a demilitarized zone(DMZ) of 6 miles, 3 miles on each side of the line.

The ceasefireagreement provided for a period of 300 days where Vietnamese civilians werefree to move across the 17th parallel on eitherside of the line.  About one millionnortherners, predominantly Catholics but also including members of the upperclasses consisting of landowners, businessmen, academics, and anti-communistpoliticians, and the middle and lower classes, moved to the southern zone, thismass exodus was prompted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and State of Vietnam in amassive propaganda campaign, as well as the peoples’ fears of repression undera communist regime.

In August1954, planes of the French Air Force and hundreds of ships of the French Navyand U.S. Navy (the latter under Operation Passage to Freedom) carried out the movement of Vietnamese civilians from north tosouth.  Some 100,000 southerners, mostlyViet Minh cadres andtheir families and supporters, moved to the northern zone.  A peacekeeping force, called theInternational Control Commission and comprising contingents from India, Canada,and Poland,was tasked with enforcing the ceasefire agreement.  Separate ceasefire agreements also weresigned for Laos and Cambodia.

Anotheragreement, titled the “Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference on theProblem of Restoring Peace in Indo-China, July 21, 1954”, called for Vietnamesegeneral elections to be held in July 1956, and the reunification of Vietnam.  France DRV, the Soviet Union, China,and Britainsigned this Declaration.  Both the Stateof Vietnam and the United States did not sign, the former outrightrejecting the Declaration, and the latter taking a hands-off stance, butpromising not to oppose or jeopardize the Declaration.

By the timeof the Geneva Conference, the Viet Minh controlled amajority of Vietnam’sterritory and appeared ready to deal a final defeat on the demoralized Frenchforces.  The Viet Minh’s agreeing toapparently less favorable terms (relative to its commanding battlefield position)was brought about by the following factors: First, despite Dien Bien Phu, French forces in Indochina were far from beingdefeated, and still held an overwhelming numerical and firepower advantage overthe Viet Minh; Second, the Soviet Union and Chinacautioned the Viet Minh that a continuation of the war might prompt anescalation of American military involvement in support of the French; andThird, French Prime Minister Pierre Mendes-France had vowed toachieve a ceasefire within thirty days or resign.  The Soviet Union and China, fearing the collapse of the Mendes-Franceregime and its replacement by a right-wing government that would continue thewar, pressed Ho to tone down Viet Minh insistence of a unified Vietnamunder the DRV, and agree to a compromise.

The plannedJuly 1956 reunification election failed to materialize because the partiescould not agree on how it was to be implemented.  The Viet Minh proposedforming “local commissions” to administer the elections, while the United States,seconded by the State of Vietnam, wanted the elections to be held under UnitedNations (UN) oversight.  The U.S.government’s greatest fear was a communist victory at the polls; U.S. President Eisenhower believedthat “possibly 80%” of all Vietnamese would vote for Ho if elections wereheld.  The State of Vietnam also opposedholding the reunification elections, stating that as it had not signed theGeneva Accords, it was not bound to participate in the reunification elections;it also declared that under the repressive conditions in the north undercommunist DRV, free elections could not be held there.  As a result, reunification elections were notheld, and Vietnamremained divided.

In theaftermath, both the DRV in the north (later commonly known as North Vietnam) andthe State of Vietnam in the south (later as the Republic of Vietnam, morecommonly known as South Vietnam) became defacto separate countries, both Cold War client states, with North Vietnam backedby the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states, and SouthVietnam supported by the United States and other Western democracies.

In April1956, France pulled out itslast troops from Vietnam;some two years earlier (June 1954), it had granted full independence to theState of Vietnam.  The year 1955 saw thepolitical consolidation and firming of Cold War alliances for both North Vietnam and South Vietnam.  In the north, Ho Chi Minh’s regime launched repressive land reform and rentreduction programs, where many tens of thousands of landowners and propertymanagers were executed, or imprisoned in labor camps.  With the Soviet Union and China sending more weapons and advisors, North Vietnamfirmly fell within the communist sphere of influence.

In South Vietnam,Ngo Dinh Diem, whom Bao Dai appointed asPrime Minister in June 1954, also eliminated all political dissent starting in1955, particularly the organized crime syndicate Binh Xuyen in Saigon,and the religious sects Hoa Hao and Cao Dai in the Mekong Delta, all of whichmaintained powerful armed groups.  InApril-May 1955, sections of central Saigonwere destroyed in street battles between government forces and the Binh Xuyenmilitia.

Then inOctober 1955, in a referendum held to determine the State of Vietnam’spolitical future, voters overwhelmingly supported establishing a republic ascampaigned by Diem, and rejected the restoration of the monarchy as desired byBao Dai.  Widespreadirregularities marred the referendum, with an implausible 98% of votersfavoring Diem’s proposal.  On October 23,1955, Diem proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam (later commonly known as South Vietnam), with himself as its first president.  Its predecessor, the State of Vietnam wasdissolved, and Bao Dao fell from power.

In early1956, Diem launched military offensives on the Viet Minh and itssupporters in the South Vietnamese countryside, leading to thousands beingexecuted or imprisoned.  Early on,militarily weak South Vietnam was promisedarmed and financial support by the United States,which hoped to prop up the regime of Prime Minister (later President) Diem, adevout Catholic and staunch anti-communist, as a bulwark against communism in Southeast Asia.

In January1955, the first shipments of American weapons arrived, followed shortly by U.S.military advisors, who were tasked to provide training to the South VietnameseArmy.  The U.S. government also endeavored toshore up the public image of the somewhat unknown Diem as a viable alternativeto the immensely popular Ho Chi Minh.  However,the Diem regime was tainted by corruption and nepotism, and Diem himself ruledwith autocratic powers, and implemented policies that favored the wealthylandowning class and Catholics at the expense of the lower peasant classes and Buddhists(the latter comprised 70% of the population).

By 1957,because of southern discontent with Diem’s policies, a communist-influencedcivilian uprising had grown in South Vietnam, with many acts of terrorism, including bombingsand assassinations, taking place.  Thenin 1959, North Vietnam, frustrated at the failure of the reunificationelections from taking place, and in response to the growing insurgency in thesouth, announced that it was resuming the armed struggle (now against SouthVietnam and the United States) in order to liberate the south and reunifyVietnam.  The stage was set for the cataclysmicSecond Indochina War, more popularly known as the Vietnam War (next article).

April 25, 1945 – World War II: U.S. and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the Elbe River

Under these revisedobjectives, the three Allied Army Groups advanced into Germany and then into Central Europe.  In the north, theBritish advanced toward Hamburg and the Elbe River,and met up with Soviet forces at Wismar in theBaltic coast on May 2, 1945, while the Canadians secured the Netherlands and northern Germancoast.  To the south of the British, onMarch 7, U.S. 9thand 1st Armies attacked the Ruhrregion in a pincers movement, leading to the last large-scale battle in theWestern Front.  On April 4, the pincersclosed, and U.S. forcessystematically destroyed the trapped German Army Group B inside the Ruhr pocket.  On April 21, the pocket was cleared and theAmericans captured over 300,000 German soldiers, this unexpected massive Germandefeat surprising the Allied High Command. As a result of this catastrophe, German Army Group B commander GeneralWalther Model committed suicide, while concerted German defense of the WesternFront effectively ceased.  Other elementsof U.S. 9th and 1stArmies had also advanced further east, and on April 25, 1945, contact was madebetween American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River.

(Taken from Defeat of Germany in the West, 1944 – 1945 – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe – Volume 6)

Further to the south, GeneralPatton’s 3rd Army advanced into western Czechoslovakiaand southeast for eastern Bavaria and northernAustria.  U.S.6th Army Group (U.S.7th Army and the French Army) turned south into Bavaria,Austria, and northern Italy, with the isolated German garrisons at Heilbronn, Nuremberg, and Munich putting up somestiff resistance before surrendering.

On April 30, 1945, Hitlercommitted suicide, and three days later, Berlinfell to the Red Army.  As per Hitler’slast will and testament, governmental powers of the now crumbling German statepassed on to Admiral Karl Doenitz, head of the German Navy, who at once tooksteps to end the war.  On May 2, Germanforces in Italy and western Austria surrendered to the British, and two dayslater, the Wehrmacht in northwest Germany,the Netherlands and Denmark surrendered, also to the British, whileon May 5, German forces in Bavaria andsouthwest Germanysurrendered to the Americans.  At thistime, isolated German units facing the Soviets were desperately trying to fighttheir way to Western Allied lines, hoping to escape the punitive wrath of theRussians by surrendering to the Americans or British.

On May 7, 1945, GeneralAlfred Jodl, German Armed Forces Chief of Operations, signed the instrument ofunconditional surrender of all German forces at Allied headquarters in Reims, France.  A few hours later, Stalin expressed hisdisapproval of certain aspects of the surrender document, as well as itslocation, and on his insistence, another signing of Germany’s unconditionalsurrender was held in Berlin by General Wilhelm Keitel, chief of German ArmedForces, with particular attention placed on the Soviet contribution, and infront of General Zhukov, whose forces had captured the German capital.

Shortly thereafter, most ofthe remaining German units surrendered to nearby Allied commands, includingArmy Group Courland in the “Courland Pocket”, Second Army Heiligenbeil andDanzig beachheads, German units on the Hel Peninsula in the Vistula delta,Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes, and the Dodecanese, on Alderney Island in theEnglish Channel, and in Atlantic France at Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle, andLorient.

April 24, 1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the arrival of UNEF peacekeepers to the region

On April 24, 1957, the Suez Canalwas reopened following the deployment of units of the United Nations EmergencyForces (UNEF) tasked with ensuring compliance with UN resolutions relating tothe settlement of the Suez Crisis.

(Taken from Suez Crisis – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background The Suez Canal in Egypt is a man-made shipping waterway thatconnects the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea (Map 7).  The Suez Canalwas completed by a French engineering firm in 1869 and thereafter became thepreferred shipping and trade route between Europe and Asia,as it considerably reduced the travel time and distance from the previouscircuitous route around the African continent. Since 1875, the facility was operated by an Anglo-French privateconglomerate.  By the twentieth century,nearly two-thirds of all oil tanker traffic to Europe passed through the Suez Canal.

In the late 1940s, awave of nationalism swept across Egypt, leading to the overthrow ofthe ruling monarchy and the establishment of a republic.  In 1951, intense public pressure forced theEgyptian government to abolish the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, although theagreement was yet to expire in three years.

With the rise in powerof the Egyptian nationalists led by Gamal Abdel Nasser (wholater became president in 1956), Britainagreed to withdraw its military forces from Egypt after both countries signedthe Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1954. The last British troops left Egypt in June 1956.  Nevertheless, the agreement allowed theBritish to use its existing military base located near the Suez Canal for sevenyears and the possibility of its extension if Egypt was attacked by a foreignpower.  The Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of1954 andforeign control of the Suez Canal were resented by many Egyptians, especiallythe nationalists, who believed that their country was still under semi-colonialrule and not truly sovereign.

Furthermore, PresidentNasser was hostile to Israel,which had dealt the Egyptian Army a crushing defeat in the 1948 Arab-IsraeliWar.  President Nasser wanted to startanother war with Israel.  Conversely, the Israeli government believedthat Egypt was behind theterrorist activities that were being carried out in Israel.  The Israelis also therefore were ready to goto war against Egyptto put an end to the terrorism.

Egypt and Israelsought to increase their weapons stockpiles through purchases from their mainsuppliers, the United States,Britain, and France.  The three Western powers, however, had agreedamong themselves to make arms sales equally and only in limited quantities to Egypt and Israel, to prevent an arms race.

Friendly relationsbetween Israel and France,however, were moving toward a military alliance.  By early 1955, Francewas sending large quantities of weapons to Israel.  In Egypt,President Nasser was indignant at the Americans’ conditions to sell him arms:that the weapons were not to be used against Israel,and that U.S. advisers wereto be allowed into Egypt.  President Nasser, therefore, approached theSoviet Union, which agreed to support Egypt militarily.  In September 1955, large amounts of Sovietweapons began to arrive in Egypt.

The United States and Britain were infuriated.  The Americans believed that Egypt was falling under the sphere of influenceof the Soviet Union, their Cold Warenemy.  Adding to this perception wasthat Egyptrecognized Red China.  Meanwhile, Britainfelt that its historical dominance in the Arab region was beingundermined.  The United States and Britain withdrew their earlierpromise to President Nasser to fund his ambitious project, the construction ofthe massive Aswan Dam.

Egyptian troops thenseized the Suez Canal, which President Nasserimmediately nationalized with the purpose of using the profits from itsoperations to help build the Aswan Dam. President Nasser ordered the Anglo-French firm operating the Suez Canalto leave; he also terminated the firm’s contract, even though its 99-year leasewith Egypt still was due to expire in 12 years, in 1968.

The British and French governments were angered by Egypt’s seizure of the Suez Canal.  A few days later, Britain and Francedecided to take armed action: their military leaders met and began to preparefor an invasion of Egypt.  In September 1956, Franceand Israel also jointlyprepared for war against Egypt.

The Suez Crisis was a war between Egypt against the alliance of Britain, France, and Israel for control of the politically and economically vital Suez Canal, a man-modified shipping channel that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

The three countrieshad various reasons for wanting to start the war.  Britainand France wanted to regaincontrol of the Suez Canal.  The British wanted to reassert itself in theregion.  The French were embroiled in acolonial war in Algeriaagainst rebels whom they believed were being funded by President Nasser.  Israelwanted to stop the local terrorism which it attributed to Egypt’s instigation.  Furthermore, Israeli commercial vessels wereblocked from entering the Suez Canal after Egypt seized the waterway.

April 23, 1961 – Algerian War of Independence: Charles de Gaulle appeals to France for loyalty to his government

French Prime MinisterCharles De Gaulle invoked the constitution’s provision that gave him emergencypowers, declared a state of emergency in Algeria, and in a nationwidebroadcast on April 23, 1961, appealed to the French Army and civilianpopulation to remain loyal to his government. The French Air Force flew the empty air transports from Algeria to southern Franceto prevent them from being used by rebel forces to invade France, while the French commands in Oran and Constantineheeded de Gaulle’s appeal and did not join the rebellion.  Devoid of external support, the Algiersuprising collapsed, with Generals Challe and Zeller being arrested and laterimprisoned by military authorities, together with hundreds of other mutineeringofficers, while Generals Salan and Jouhaud went into hiding to continue thestruggle with the pieds-noirs against Algerian independence.

On April 28, 1961, in themidst of the uprising, French military authorities test-fired France’s firstatomic bomb in the Sahara Desert, moving forward the date of the detonationostensibly to prevent the nuclear weapon from falling into the hands of therebel troops.  The attempted coup dealt aserious blow to French Algeria, as de Gaulle increased efforts to end the warwith the Algerian nationalists.

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

In May 1961, the Frenchgovernment and the GPRA (the FLN’s government-in-exile) held peace talks at Évian, France,which proved contentious and difficult. But on March 18, 1962, the two sides signed an agreement called theÉvian Accords, which included a ceasefire (that came into effect the followingday) and a release of war prisoners; the agreement’s major stipulations were:French recognition of a sovereign Algeria; independent Algeria’s guaranteeingthe protection of the pied-noir community; and Algeria allowing French militarybases to continue in its territory, as well as establishing privilegedAlgerian-French economic and trade relations, particularly in the developmentof Algeria’s nascent oil industry.

In a referendum held inFrance on April 8, 1962, over 90% of the French people approved of the ÉvianAccords; the same referendum held in Algeria on July 1, 1962 resulted in nearlysix million voting in favor of the agreement while only 16,000 opposed it (bythis time, most of the one million pieds-noirs had or were in the process ofleaving Algeria or simply recognized the futility of their lost cause, thus theextraordinarily low number of “no” votes).

However, pied-noirhardliners and pro-French Algeria military officers still were determined toderail the political process, forming one year earlier (in January 1961) the“Organization of the Secret Army” (OAS; French: Organisationde l’armée secrète) led by General Salan,in a (futile) attempt to stop the 1961 referendum to determine Algerianself-determination.  Organizedspecifically as a terror militia, the OAS had begun to carry out violentmilitant acts in 1961, which dramatically escalated in the four months betweenthe signing of the Évian Accords and the referendum on Algerianindependence.  The group hoped that itsterror campaign would provoke the FLN to retaliate, which would jeopardize theceasefire between the government and the FLN, and possibly lead to a resumptionof the war.  At their peak in March 1962,OAS operatives set off 120 bombs a day in Algiers,targeting French military and police, FLN, and Muslim civilians – thus, the warhad an ironic twist, as France and the FLN now were on the same side of theconflict against the pieds-noirs.

The French Army and OASeven directly engaged each other – in the Battle of Bab el-Oued, where French security forces succeeded in seizing the OAS stronghold ofBab el-Oued, a neighborhood in Algiers,with combined casualties totaling 54 dead and 140 injured.  The OAS also targeted prominent AlgerianMuslims with assassinations but its main target was de Gaulle, who escaped manyattempts on his life.  The most dramaticof the assassination attacks on de Gaulle took place in a Paris suburb where a group of gunmen led by Jean-MarieBastien-Thiry, a French military officer, opened fire onthe presidential car with bullets from the assailants’ semi-automatic riflesbarely missing the president.  Bastien-Thiry,who was not an OAS member, was arrested, put on trial, and later executed byfiring squad.

In the end, the OAS plan to provoke the FLN intolaunching retaliation did not succeed, as the Algerian revolutionaries adheredto the ceasefire.  On June 17, 1962, theOAS the FLN agreed to a ceasefire.  Theeight-year war was over.  Some 350,000 toas high as one million people died in the war; about two million AlgerianMuslims were displaced from their homes, being forced by the French Army torelocate to guarded camps.

Aftermath OnJuly 3, 1962, two days after the second referendum for independence, de Gaullerecognized the sovereignty of Algeria.  Then on July 5, 1962, exactly 132 years afterthe French invasion in 1830, Algeriadeclared independence and in September 1962, was given its official name, the“People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria” by the country’s National Assembly.

In the months leading upto and after Algeria’sindependence, a mass exodus of the pied-noir community took place, with some900,000 (90% of the European population) fleeing hastily to France.  The European Algerians feared for their livesdespite a stipulation in the Évian Accords that independent Algeria must respect the rights and propertiesof the pied-noir community in Algeria.  Some 100,000 would remain, but in the 1960sthrough 1970s, most were forced to leave as well, as the war had scarredpermanently relations between the indigenous Algerians and pieds-noirs, forcingthe latter to abandon homes and properties under the threat of “the suitcase orthe coffin” (French: “la valiseou le cercueil”).  In France,the pieds-noirs experienced a difficult period of transition and adjustment, asmany families had lived for many generations in Algeria, which they regarded astheir homeland.  Moreover, they werecriticized and held responsible by French mainlanders for the political,economic, and social troubles that the war had caused to France.  Algerian Jews, who feared persecution becauseof their opposition to Algerian independence, also fled Algeria en masse, with 130,000 Jews leaving for France where they held French citizenship; some7,000 Jews also immigrated to Israel.

The harkis, or indigenousAlgerians who had served in the French Army as regulars or auxiliaries, met aharsher fate.  Disarmed after the war bytheir French military commanders and vilified by Algerians as traitors andFrench collaborators, the harkis and their families faced harsh retaliation bythe FLN and civilian mobs – some 50,000 to 100,000 harkis and their kin werekilled, most in grisly circumstances. Some 91,000 harkis and their families did succeed in escaping to Franceunder the aegis of their French commanders in violation of the orders of theFrench government.

The bitter effects of thewar were felt in both countries for many years. Throughout the conflict, Francedescribed its actions in Algeriaas a “law and order maintenance operation”, and not war.  Then in June 1999, thirty-seven years afterthe war ended, the French government admitted that “war” had indeed taken placein Algeria.

April 22, 1930 – Interwar Period: Signing of the London Naval Treaty, which regulates submarine warfare and shipbuilding capacities

In February 1922, the five navalpowers: United States, Britain, France,Italy, and Japan signed the Washington NavalTreaty, which restricted construction of the larger classes of warships.  In April 1930, these countries signed theLondon Naval Treaty, whichmodified a number of clauses in the Washingtontreaty but also regulated naval construction. A further attempt at naval regulation was made in March 1936, which wassigned only by the United States, Britain, and France, since by this time, theprevious other signatories, Italy and Japan, were pursuing expansionistpolicies that required greater naval power.

An effort by the League of Nations andnon-League member United Statesto achieve general disarmament in the international community led to the WorldDisarmament Conference in Genevain 1932-1934, attended by sixty countries. The talks bogged down from a number of issues, the most dominantrelating to the disagreement between Germany and France, with the Germansinsisting on being allowed weapons equality with the great powers (or that theydisarm to the level of the Treaty of Versailles, i.e. to Germany’s currentmilitary strength), and the French resisting increased German power for fear ofa resurgent Germany and a repeat of World War I, which had caused heavy Frenchlosses.  Germany,now led by Adolf Hitler (starting in January 1933), pulled out of theWorld Disarmament Conference, and in October 1933, withdrew from the League of Nations. The Genevadisarmament conference thus ended in failure.

(Taken from Events leading up to World War II in Europe – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 6)

Riseof Military States: ItalyIn World War I, Italyhad joined the Allies under a secret agreement (the 1915 Treaty of London) inthat it would be rewarded with the coastal regions of Austria-Hungary after victory wasachieved.  But after the war, in thepeace treaties with Austria-Hungaryand Germany, the victoriousAllies reneged on this treaty, and Italy was awarded much lessterritory than promised. Indignation swept across Italy,and the feeling of the so-called “mutilated victory” relating to Italy’sheavy losses in the war (1.2 million casualties and steep financial cost) ledto the rise in popularity of ultra-nationalist, right-wing, and irredentistideas.  Italian anger over the war pavedthe way for the coming to power of the Fascist Party, whose leader BenitoMussolini became Prime Minister in October 1922.  The Fascist government implemented majorinfrastructure and social programs that made Mussolini extremely popular.  In a few years, Mussolini ruled with nearabsolute powers in a virtual dictatorship, with the legislature abolished,political dissent suppressed, and his party the sole legal politicalparty.  Mussolini also made gains inforeign affairs: in the Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923) that ended World War IIbetween the Allies and Ottoman Empire, Italy gained Libya and the DodecaneseIslands.  In August 1923, Italian forcesoccupied Greece’s Corfu Island,but later withdrew after League of Nationsmediation and the Greek government’s promise to pay reparations.

In the late 1920s onward, Mussoliniadvocated grandiose expansionism to establish a modern-day Italian Empire,which would include plans to annex Balkan territories that had formed part ofthe ancient Roman Empire, gaining a sphere of influence in parts of Central andEastern Europe, achieving mastery over the Mediterranean Sea, and gainingcontrol of North Africa and the Middle East which would include territoriesstretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east.

With the Nazis coming to power in Germany in 1933, Hitler and Mussolini, withsimilar political ideologies, initially did not get along well, and in July1934, they came into conflict over Austria.  There, Austrian Nazis attempted a coupd’état, assassinating Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss and demanding unificationwith Germany.  Mussolini, who saw Austriaas falling inside his sphere of influence, sent troops, tanks, and planes tothe Austrian-Italian border, poised to enter Austriaif Germanyinvaded.  Hitler, at this time stillunprepared for war, backed down from his plan to annex Austria.  Then in April 1935, Italy banded togetherwith Britain and France to form the Stresa Front (signed in Stresa, Italy), aimed as a unitedstand against Germany’s violations of the Versailles and Locarno treaties; onemonth earlier (March 1935), Hitler had announced his plan to build an airforce, raise German infantry strength to 550,000 troops, and introduce militaryconscription, all violations of the Versailles treaty.

However, the Stresa Front quickly endedin fiasco, as the three parties were far apart in their plans to deal withHitler.  Mussolini pressed for aggressiveaction; the British, swayed by anti-war public sentiments at home, preferred tonegotiate with Hitler; and France,fearful of a resurgent Germany,simply wanted an alliance with the others. Then in June 1935, just two months after the Stresa Front was formed,Britain and Germany signed a naval treaty (the Anglo-German Naval Agreement), whichallowed Germany to build a navy 35% (by tonnage) the size of the Britishnavy.  Italy(as well as France) wasoutraged, as Britain wasopenly allowing Hitler to ignore the Versaillesprovision that restricted German naval size. Mussolini, whose quest for colonial expansion was only restrained by thereactions from both the British and French, saw the naval agreement as Britishbetrayal to the Stresa Front.  ToMussolini, it was a green light for him to launch his long desired conquest of Ethiopia[1](then also known as Abyssinia).  In October 1935, Italyinvaded Ethiopia, overrunningthe country by May 1936 and incorporating it into newly formed Italian East Africa.  In November 1935, the League of Nations,acting on a motion by Britainthat was reluctantly supported by France,imposed economic sanctions on Italy,which angered Mussolini, worsening Italy’srelations with its Stresa Front partners, especially Britain.  At the same time, since Hitler gave hissupport to Italy’s invasionof Ethiopia, Mussolini wasdrawn to the side of Germany.  In December 1937, Mussolini ended Italy’s membership in the League of Nations, citing the sanctions, despite the League’s alreadylifting the sanctions in July 1936.

[1] Also encouraging Mussolini to invade was the recently signedItalian-French agreement (January 1935), where France,hoping to keep Italy fromsiding with Germany, cededto Italy some colonial areasin Africa, and promised not to interfere if Italyinvaded Ethiopia.

April 21, 1948 – 1947 India-Pakistan War: The UNSC approves Resolution 47 relating to the Kashmir conflict

On April 21, 1948, the United Nations Security Councilapproved Resolution 47 with provisions aimed at seeking a resolution to theKashmir conflict between Indiaand Pakistan.

(Taken from Indian-Pakistani War of 1947 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

In early 1948, thebattle lines settled in northern and western Kashmir– these lines held for the rest of the war. As the two sides prepared to settle down for the winter, the Indiangovernment asked the United Nations (UN) to mediate in the war.  Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army launched asurprise offensive in the west which, however, did not significantly alter thefront lines.

The UN released twopreviously approved resolutions for a ceasefire and the future of Kashmir,which were accepted by Indiaand Pakistan.  The war officially ended on December 31,1948.

On January 5, 1949,the UN approved the following:

1. Pakistan must withdraw its forces from Kashmir;

2. India must also withdraw its forces from Kashmir, but leave a small police contingent to maintainlocal peace and order;

3. After these twostipulations are met, Kashmiris will hold a plebiscite to decide the future oftheir land.

Neither India nor Pakistan carried out its part ofthe ceasefire agreement.  Consequently,no plebiscite was held in Kashmir.  Furthermore, Indiaand Pakistanheld on to their captured territories from the war.  Pakistanheld about one-third of Kashmir, while India occupied two-thirds,including the major cities and the best farmlands.  Because the war failed to resolve Kashmir’ssovereignty, high tensions remained between India and Pakistan, whicheventually led to another outbreak of war in 1965 (next article).

Background On August 15, 1947, the new state of Kashmir (Map 1)found itself geographically located next to India and Pakistan, two rival countries that recently had gainedtheir independences after the cataclysmic partition of the Indiansubcontinent.  Fearing the widespreadviolence that had accompanied the birth of Indiaand Pakistan, the Kashmirimonarch, who was a Hindu, chose to remain neutral and allow Kashmirto be nominally independent in order to avoid the same tragedy from befallinghis mixed constituency of Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs.

Pakistan exerted diplomatic pressure on Kashmir, however, as thePakistani government had significant strategic and economic interests in theformer Princely State. Most Pakistanis also shared a common religion with the overwhelminglyMuslim Kashmiri population.  India also nurtured ambitions on Kashmir andwanted to bring the former Princely State into its sphere ofinfluence.  After Kashmir gained back itssovereignty, the British colonial troops departed; consequently, Kashmir was left only with a small native army to enforcepeace and order.

War On October 22, 1947, when rumors surfaced that Kashmirwould merge with India,Muslim Kashmiris in the state’s western regions broke out in rebellion.  The rebels soon were joined by Pakistanifighters who entered the Kashmiri border from Pakistan.  The rebels and Pakistanis seized the towns ofMuzzafarabad and Dommel (Map 1) where they disarmed the Kashmiri troops, whothereafter also joined the rebels.

April 20, 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: Cuban forces defeat U.S. backed Brigade 2506

By mid-morning on April 17, 1961, Cuban leader Fidel Castrohad mobilized his armed forces and regional militias, sending advance unitscomprising 20,000 soldiers and auxiliary fighters from the north and east towardthe Bay of Pigs.  In total, some 50,000 Cuban soldiers andmilitia fighters took part in the war. The sheer weight of the Cuban Army advance forced Brigade 2506paratroopers to withdraw from Palpite, which then was recaptured by governmentforces.  Other Castro units sealed offthe roads leading to Covadonga and Yaguaramas. By the end of the first day, Castro’s forces had contained the landingsto the Bay of Pigs and nearby areas, withlittle chance of a break out; Brigade 2506 was practically trapped on allsides, except from the sea.

(Taken from Bay of Pigs Invasion – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Early on April 18, the invasion force at Playa Largaabandoned the beachhead and withdrew to Playa Giron where, together with otherBrigade 2506 units, prepared a better defensive position.  Playa Larga soon was retaken by Cubangovernment forces. From the northeast, Cuban Army infantry, supported by tanks,artillery, and air power, also began advancing in the direction of Playa Giron,forcing the Brigade 2506 paratroopers at San Blas to withdraw to the mainlanding zones at the beaches.

In Washington, D.C., the CIA, meeting with President Kennedy and topgovernment and military officials, appealed for direct U.S. military intervention.President Kennedy rejected the request but offered a compromise: air cover forBrigade 2506.  On the morning of April19, a small squadron of U.S.light bombers took off from Nicaraguafor Cuba.  However, a communications error relating tothe time zone differences between Cubaand Nicaraguaprevented American fighter escorts from meeting and protecting the bombersbefore entering Cuban air space. Proceeding anyway, two of the American bombers were shot down by Cubanplanes; ultimately, the air mission failed to relieve the beleaguered invasionforces on the Cuban beaches.

In the afternoon of April 19, the Brigade 2506 force inPlaya Giron surrendered in the face of overwhelming ground and air attacks fromthe Cuban Armed Forces.  Small bands ofstragglers held off capture by hiding in the swamps, but finally gave up fromhunger and exhaustion.  Some 1,200Brigade 2506 soldiers were taken prisoner and 118 were killed in the fighting;a few dozens managed to escape out to sea, and eventually were rescued by U.S.Navy ships.

Aftermath InDecember 1962, or twenty months after the failed invasion, in an agreementbetween Cuba and the United States, Castro freed the Brigade 2506prisoners and allowed them to return to the United States in exchange for the United States delivering $53 million worth of food and medicinesto Cuba.  Some 60 wounded and ill prisoners had beenreturned to the United Statesa few months earlier, while five were executed in Cuba for past crimes.  By December 29, 1962, all surviving prisonershad returned to the United States.

The CIA’s underlying premises for the success of theoperation were later revealed to be fraught with errors.  American and British intelligence informationin Cubashowed that Castro enjoyed wide popularity and that no civilian uprising waslikely to occur.  The CIA was unsureabout the invasion’s success, but believed that once the operation appearedheaded for failure, President Kennedy would intervene militarily.  Before the invasion, however, PresidentKennedy had said many times that he would not send American forces, which waswhat happened.  Even Trinidad,the CIA’s original invasion site which had been planned for many months, whenpresented to the U.S. Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave the amphibiouslanding only a limited chance of success.

Background of the Bay of Pigs InvasionThe rise to power of Fidel Castro after his victory in ethe CubanRevolution (previous article) causedgreat concern for the United States. Castro formed a government that adopted a socialist state policy andopened diplomatic relations with the Soviet Unionand other European communist countries. After the Cuban government seized and nationalized American companies inCuba, the United States imposed a trade embargo on the Castro regime andsubsequently ended all economic and diplomatic relations with the islandcountry.

Then in July 1959, just seven months after the CubanRevolution, U.S.president Dwight Eisenhower delegated the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)with the task of overthrowing Castro, who had by then gained absolute power asdictator.  The CIA devised a number ofmethods to try and kill the Cuban leader, including the use of guns-for-hireand assassins carrying poison-laced devices. Other schemes to destabilize Cuba also were carried out, includingsending infiltrators to conduct terror and sabotage operations in the island,arming and funding anti-Castro insurgent groups that operated especially in theEscambray Mountains, and by being directly involved in attacking and sinkingCuban and foreign merchant vessels in Cuban waters and by launching air attacksin Cuba.  These CIA operations ultimatelyfailed to eliminate Castro or permanently destabilize his regime.

In March 1960, the CIA began to plan secretly for theinvasion of Cuba,with the full support of the Eisenhower administration and the U.S. ArmedForces.  About 1,400 anti-Castro Cubanexiles in Miamiwere recruited to form the main invasion force, which came to be known as“Brigade 2506” (Brigade 2506 actually consisted of five infantry brigades andone paratrooper brigade).  The majorityof Brigade 2506 received training in conventional warfare in a U.S. base in Guatemala,while other members took specialized combat instructions in Puerto Rico andvarious locations in the United States.

The CIA wanted to maintain utmost secrecy in order toconceal the U.S.government’s involvement in the invasion. Through loose talk, however, the plan came to be widely known among theMiami Cubans, which eventually was picked up by the American media and then bythe foreign press.  On January 10, 1961,a front-page news item in the New York Times read “U.S. helps train anti-Castro ForceAt Secret Guatemalan Air-Ground Base”. Castro’s intelligence operatives in Latin Americaalso learned of the plan; in October 1960, the Cuban foreign minister presentedevidence of the existence of Brigade 2506 at a session of the United NationsGeneral Assembly.

In January 1961, the CIA gave newly elected U.S.president, John F. Kennedy, together with his Cabinet, details of the Cubaninvasion plan.  The State Departmentraised a number of objections, particularly with regards to the proposedlanding site of Trinidad, which was a heavily populated town in south-central Cuba (Map 30).  Trinidad had the benefits of being adefensible landing site and was located adjacent to the Escambray Mountains,where many anti-Castro guerilla groups operated.  State officials were concerned, however, thatTrinidad’s conspicuous location and largepopulation would make American involvement difficult to conceal.

As a result, the CIA rejected Trinidad, and proposed a newlanding site: the Bay of Pigs (Spanish: Bahiade Cochinos), a remote, sparsely inhabited narrow inlet west of Trinidad. President Kennedy then gave his approval, and final preparations for theinvasion were made.  (The “Cochinos” in Bahia de Cochinos, although translated into English as“pigs” does not refer to swine but to a species of fish, the orange-linedtriggerfish, found in the coral waters around the area).

The general premise of the invasion was that most Cubanswere discontented with Castro and wanted to see his government deposed.  The CIA believed that once Brigade 2506 beganthe invasion, Cubans would rise up against Castro, and the Cuban Army woulddefect to the side of the invaders. Other anti-government guerilla groups then would join Brigade 2506 andincite a civil war that ultimately would overthrow Castro.  Thereafter, a provisional government, led byCuban exiles in the United States,would arrive in Cubaand lead the transition to democracy.

April 19, 1941 – World War II: Bulgarian troops occupy Macedonia

Casualties in the Axisinvasion of Yugoslaviawere: Germans:  150 killed, 400 wounded,15 missing; Italians: 3,000 killed or wounded; Hungarians: 120 killed, 200wounded, 13 missing; Yugoslavians: thousands of civilians and soldiers killed,350,000 prisoners.

By the terms of surrender, theAxis dissolved Yugoslavia,and partitioned its territories or allowed the formation of quasi-independentstates under Axis control.  Germany annexed northern Slovenia, occupied much of Serbia which was placed under a collaborationistregime called the “Government of National Salvation”, and controlled thefascist “Independent State of Croatia”.  Italyacquired the rest of Slovenia,Kosovo, Montenegro, and parts of theDalmatian coast.  Hungary annexed areas of northern Yugoslavia.  Bulgaria,which did not participate in the invasion, occupied Macedonia.

(Taken from Invasion of Yugoslavia – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe – Volume 6)

The war lasted twelve days,but the easy Axis victory in Yugoslavia proved deceptive, as within a few months,local armed militias launched an effective guerilla struggle that wouldbeleaguer the occupation forces and tie down large numbers of Axis forces thatwould be later needed in other theaters of World War II.

Axis Partition of Yugoslavia

Invasion of Yugoslavia On April 6, 1941, several air fleets of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force), flying from bases in Austria and Romania, launched a massive two-day night and day bombardment of Belgrade, the Yugoslavian capital.  This air campaign, which involved 500 warplanes including bombers and fighters, was launched under Operation Punishment, the code name reflecting Hitler’s anger resulting from the Yugoslav military coup two weeks earlier (March 27), and was meant to inflict maximum indiscriminate destruction on the Yugoslavian capital.  Instead, the Luftwaffe modified the attack and directed the planes to important government and military targets in Belgrade, which resulted in the destruction of the royal palace, army headquarters and military barracks, postal and telegraph centers, power stations, and railway lines.  Thousands of civilians were killed in the raids.

The German air attacks on Belgrade were devastatingstrategically for the Yugoslav High Command, as the loss of the centralcommunications network meant that the military was cut off from all contactwith its various regional commands.  Alsoin this way, the Yugoslav central government lost all communication with regionaland local administrations across the country. Thereafter, German planes attacked airfields, military centers, andregional communication lines across Yugoslavia.  The Germans were greatly aided by thedefection of a Yugoslav Air Force pilot who brought along with him thelocations of many small secret air fields scattered across Yugoslavia.

On April 6, 1941, coincidingwith the air attacks on Belgrade, elements ofthe German Twelfth Army based in western Bulgaria,crossed the border into northern Macedonia(southern Yugoslavia) andadvanced toward Skopje,which they captured the next day.  Thewhole region soon came under German control, which was important in many ways:German forces could now launch the invasion of Greece (next article); the lines of communication between the YugoslavArmy in the north and its Greek and British allies in the south were cut; andthe Yugoslav Army’s contingency plan to escape to the south via northernMacedonia was cut off.

Before the outbreak offighting, the Yugoslav High Command was confident that its forces could slowdown or even stop a German invasion, for a number of reasons.  First, Yugoslavia’s rugged terrain of tallmountains, steep narrow passes, and few roads, was a formidable obstacle toconducting swift military movements.  Therivers and waterways in the inhospitable northern frontier served as a naturalfirst line of defense.  Second, theYugoslav military was known to be formidable, boasting 1 million soldiers, 200tanks, and 600 planes.  Some 80% of itstroops were deployed along the country’s 1,900-mile border with Italy, Austria,Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,Albania (all hostile orpotentially hostile), and Greece(its only regional ally).  So confidentwas the Yugoslav government that Prime Minister Dusan Simovic stated that theGerman attack would be “the beginning of Hitler’s downfall”.  Third, Yugoslavia believed that itsofficial neutrality spared it from an invasion, and so did not fully mobilizeits forces so as not to provoke Hitler. Just days before the Germans invaded, the Yugoslav government deemedthat it still had several months to consider its political and militaryoptions.

April 18, 1951 – Post-World War II: Formation of the European Steel and Coal Community

Significant in post-war reconstruction was the economicintegration of Western Europe, which waspromoted by the Marshall Plan and spurred on further by the formation of theInternational Authority of the Ruhr (IAR) in April 1949, where the AlliedPowers set limits to the German coal and steel industries.  By 1952, with West Germany firmly aligned with the Western democracies, theIAR was abolished and replaced by the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC),which integrated the economies of France,West Germany, Italy, Belgium,the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.The ECSC was established on April 18, 1951, with its original intent as a meansto prevent further war between Franceand Germany.By establishing a common market for coal and steel, competition among membernations over these resources would be neutralized. In 1957, the ECSC wassucceeded by the European Economic Community (EEC), which later led to theEuropean Union (EU) in 1993.

(Taken from The End of World War II in Europe – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)

Post-warreconstruction and start of the Cold War Europewas devastated after the war, many millions of people lost their lives, andmany millions others lost their homes and livelihoods.  Industries were destroyed, and farm landslaid waste, leading to massive food shortages, famines, and morefatalities.  Whole national economieswere bankrupt, expended largely toward supporting the war effort.

The United States,whose economy grew enormously during the war, poured into Europelarge amounts of financial and humanitarian support (U.S. $13 billion; U.S.$165 billion in 2017 value) toward the continent’s reconstruction.  American assistance was directed mainlytoward its war-time Western Allies and formerly occupied nations.  U.S.policy toward Germany in theimmediate post-war period was one of hostility and indifference, implementedunder JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff) Directive 1067, which stipulated “to take nosteps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany”.    At this time, Germany was divided into fourAllied zones of occupation, and stripped of its heavy industries and scientificand technical intellectual properties, including patents, trademarks, andcopyrights.

The Allies also severely restricted access to Germany forinternational humanitarian agencies (e.g. International Red Cross) sendingfood, leading to low nutritional levels and hunger among Germans, which causedhigh mortality and malnutrition rates among children and the elderly.  The Allies deliberately limited Germany’sprocurement of food to the barest minimum, to a level just enough to preventcivil unrest or revolts, which could compromise the safety of occupationtroops.  By 1946, the Allies began togradually ease these restrictions, and many donor agencies opened in Germanyto provide food and humanitarian programs.

By 1947, Europe’s economicrecovery was moving forward only slowly, despite the massive infusion ofAmerican funds.  Farm production was only83% of pre-war levels, industrial output only 88%, and exports just 59%.  High levels of unemployment and foodshortages caused labor strikes and social unrest.  Before the war, Europe’seconomy had been linked to German industries through the exchange of rawmaterials and manufactured goods.  In1947, the United Statesdecided that Germany’sparticipation in Europe’s economy was necessary, and the Western Allied plan tode-industrialize Germanywas ended.  In July 1947, the U.S. government scrapped JCS 1067, and replacedit with JCS Directive 1779, which stated that “an orderly and prosperous Europerequires the economic contribution of a stable and productive Germany”.  Restrictions on German industry productionwere eased, and steel output was raised from 25% to 50% of pre-war capacity.

In April 1948, the United States implemented a massiveassistance program, the European Recovery Plan, more commonly known as theMarshall Plan (named after U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall), where theU.S. government poured in $5 billion ($51 billion in 2017 value) in 1948 infinancial aid toward European member-states of the Organisation for EuropeanEconomic Co-operation (OEEC).  In theMarshall Plan, which lasted until the end of 1951, the United States donated $13 billion ($134 billionin 2017 value) to 18 countries, with the largest amounts given to Britain (26%), France(18%), and West Germany(11%).  Other beneficiaries were Austria, Belgium,Luxembourg, Denmark, Greece,Iceland, Ireland, Italy,Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,and Trieste.  After the Marshall Plan ended in 1952,another program, the Mutual Security Plan, poured in $7 billion ($63 billion in2017 value) annual recovery assistance to Europeuntil 1961.  By the early 1950s, Western Europe’s productivity had surpassed pre-warlevels, and the region would go on to enjoy prosperity in the next two decades.

Also significant was the economic integration of Western Europe, which was promoted by the Marshall Planand spurred on further by the formation of the International Authority of theRuhr (IAR) in April 1949, where the Allied Powers set limits to the German coaland steel industries.  By 1952, with West Germany firmly aligned with the Westerndemocracies, the IAR was abolished and replaced by the European Coal and SteelCommunity (ECSC), which integrated the economies of France,West Germany, Italy, Belgium,the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.  In 1957, the ECSC was succeeded by theEuropean Economic Community (EEC), which later led to the European Union (EU)in 1993.

The Marshall Plan had been offered to the Soviet Union, but which Stalin rejected. The Soviet leader also strong-armed Eastern and Central Europeancountries under Soviet occupation not to participate, including Poland and Czechoslovakia, which had showninterest.  Stalin was determined toachieve a political stranglehold on the emerging communist governments of Hungary, Poland,Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,Yugoslavia, and Albania.  Participation of these countries in theMarshall Plan would have allowed American involvement in their economies, whichStalin opposed.

Relations between the Soviet Union and the Western Powers,the United States and Britain, deteriorated during the Yalta Conference(February 1945) when victory in the war became clear, because of disagreementregarding the post-war future of Poland in particular, and Eastern and CentralEurope in general.  In April 1945, newU.S. President Truman announced that his government would take a firmer stanceagainst the Soviet Union more than hispredecessor, President Roosevelt.  Following the end of the war, the United States, Britain,and France were wary of thecontinued Red Army occupation of Eastern and Central Europe, and feared thatthe Soviets would use them as a staging ground for the conquest of the rest of Europe and the spread of communism.  In war-time Allied conferences, Stalin haddemanded a sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe to serve as a buffer against another potential invasionfrom the West.  In turn, Stalin saw thepresence of U.S. forces inEurope as a plot by the United States to gain control of and imposeAmerican political, economic, and social ideologies on the continent.  In February 1946, Stalin announced that warwas inevitable between the opposing ideologies of capitalism and communism.

George Kennan, an envoy in the U.S.diplomatic office in Moscow,then sent to the U.S. State Department the so-called “Long Telegram”, whichwarned that the Soviets were unwilling to have “permanent peaceful coexistence”with the West, was bent on expansionism, and was prepared for a “deadlystruggle for total destruction of rival powers”.  The telegram proposed that the United Statesshould confront the Soviet threat by implementing firm political and economicforeign policies.  Kennan’s proposed hard-linestance against the Soviet Union was eventuallyadopted by the Truman government.  InSeptember 1946, in response to the “Long Telegram”, the Soviets accused the United Statesof “striving for world supremacy”.

In March 1946, civil war broke out in Greece between the local communistand monarchist forces.  Also that month,Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech, where he stated that an “ironcurtain” had descended across Eastern Europe, and warned of further Sovietexpansionism into Europe.  In reply, Stalin accused Churchill of “warmongering”.

American foreign policy in the post-war era finally tookshape in March 1947 with the Truman Doctrine, which arose from a speech byPresident Truman before the U.S. Congress, where he stated that his administrationwould “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armedminorities or by outside pressures”. President Truman gave reference to supporting friendly forces in theon-going Greek Civil War after the British had announced the end of theirinvolvement in the conflict.  Truman alsorequested U.S. Congress support for Greece’sneighbor, Turkey,which was being pressured by Stalin to grant Soviet base and transit rightsthrough the Turkish Straits.  Russiantroops also continued to occupy northern Iran despite the Sovietgovernment’s war-time promise to leave when the war ended.  To the Truman administration, a communistvictory in Greece, and theabsorption of Turkey and Iran into the Soviet sphere of influence wouldlead to Soviet expansion into the oil-rich Middle East.

The Truman Doctrine of “containing” Soviet expansionism isgenerally cited as the trigger for the Cold War, the ideological rivalrybetween the United States and Soviet Union in particular, and the forces of democracyand communism in general.  By the late1940s, with the apparent threat of imminent war looming, the Western Europeandemocracies: Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg,Portugal, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, and the United States and Canada,formed a military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)in April 1949.  Then in May 1955, withthe entry of West Germany into NATO and the formation of the West German ArmedForces, the alarmed Soviet Union established a rival military alliance calledthe Warsaw Pact (officially: Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and MutualAssistance) with its socialist satellite states: East Germany, Poland, Hungary,Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. The stage thus was set for the ideological and military division of Europe that lasted throughout the Cold War.

April 17, 1975 – Cambodian Civil War: The Khmer Rouge seizes power in Cambodia

On April 17,1975, the Khmer Rouge, a Cambodian communist rebel group, emergedvictorious in the Cambodian Civil War (previousarticle) when its forces captured Phnom Penh, overthrewthe United States-backed government of the Khmer Republic,and took over the reins of power.  InJanuary 1976, the Khmer Rouge ratified a new constitution, which changed thecountry’s name to “Democratic Kampuchea” (DK). In the Western press, DK, as well as the new Cambodian government,continued to be referred to unofficially as “Khmer Rouge”.

Cambodia in Southeast Asia

In April 1976, the Khmer Rouge’s newly formed legislature, called the Kampuchean People’s Representative Assembly, elected the country’s new government with Pol Pot (whose birth name was Saloth Sar) appointed as Prime Minister.  In September 1976, Pol Pot declared that his government was Marxist-Leninist in ideology that was closely allied with Chairman Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party.  The following year, September 1977, he revealed the existence of Kampuchea’s state party called the Kampuchean Communist Party, also stating that it had been formed 17 years earlier, in September 1960.  These disclosures confirmed the long-held belief by international observers that the Khmer Rouge was a communist organization, and that DK was a one-party totalitarian state.

(Taken from Cambodian Genocide – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 5)

Pol Pot had longheld absolute power in the Khmer Rouge and(secretly) held the position of General Secretary of the party since 1963behind the façade of a front organization called Angkar Padevat (“Revolutionary Organization”, usually shortened to Angkar, meaning “Organization”).  Ostensibly, Angkar was politically moderate,as its leaders were former high-ranking Cambodian government officials who heldonly moderate leftist/socialist beliefs. However, behind the scenes, hard-line communist party ideologuescontrolled the movement.

During theCambodian Civil War, the Khmer Rouge operatedbehind the cover of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the deposed Cambodian ruler who was widelypopular among the Cambodian masses, through a political-military alliancecalled the Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea, or GRUNK(French: Gouvernement royal d’unionnationale du Kampuchéa).  GRUNKsupposedly was a coalition of all opposition movements, and was nominallycontrolled by Sihanouk as its head of state. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975, Sihanouk continued tohold the position of head of state under the new Khmer Rouge regime, but heldno real political power.  In April 1976,after resigning as head of state, he was placed under house arrest.

In foreignrelations, DK isolated itself from much of the international community.  Shortly after coming to power, the remaining800 foreign nationals in Cambodiawere gathered at the French Embassy in the capital, and then trucked out of thecountry through the Thai border.  Allforeign diplomatic missions in Kampucheawere closed down.  However, when the DKgovernment later was granted a seat at the United Nations (UN) to represent Kampuchea (Cambodia’snew name), a small number of foreign embassies were allowed to reopen in Phnom Penh.  But asforeign travel to Kampucheawas severely restricted, the country was virtually cut off from the outsideworld.  As a result, apart from officialgovernment pronouncements, practically nothing was known in the outside world aboutthe true conditions in the country during the Khmer Rouge regime.

At the coreof the Khmer Rouge’s Marxist ideology was the regime’s desire to achievethe purest form of communism, that of a classless society.  The Khmer Rouge also advocatedultra-nationalism and anti-imperialism, and desired to eliminate foreigncontrol and achieve national self-sufficiency, first through the phased,collectivized agricultural development of the countryside.  Before coming to power, the Khmer Rouge hadrejected the advice of Chinese communist leaders who told them that the processof transition from socialism to communism should not be rushed.  But the Khmer Rouge, particularly its leaderPol Pot, was determined to achieve communism rapidlywithout the transitional phases of socialism.

The KhmerRouge firstimplemented its concept of communism sometime in 1970 at Ratanakiri Provincein the northeast, where it forced the local population to move from villages toagrarian communes.  The Khmer Rouge alsocarried out other forced relocations at Steung Treng, Kratie, Banam andUdong.  In 1973, the Khmer Rougeconcluded that the “final solution” to end capitalism in Cambodia was to empty all the townsand cities, and move all Cambodians to the rural areas.  Simultaneously, in areas under its control,the Khmer Rouge executed teachers, local leaders, traders, and other“counter-revolutionaries”.  As well, allforms of dissent or opposition were met with brutal reprisals.  By 1974, the Khmer Rouge was carrying outindiscriminate killings of men, women, and children.  The rebels also destroyed villages, such asthose that occurred in Odongk and Ang Snuol districts, Sar Sarsdam village, andother areas.

The Cambodiangovernment soon received reports of these brutalities being committed by theKhmer Rouge, but ignored them.  Aninvaluable insight into the workings of the Khmer Rouge came in 1973(two years before the rebels came to power) when a former school teacher, IthSarin, went to the northwest and central regions and joined the KhmerRouge.  Eventually, Ith Sarin becomedisillusioned and  left, and returned tothe fold of the law.  His work, Regrets for the Khmer Soul (Khmer: Sranaoh Pralung Khmer), revealed thatthe Khmer Rouge was a Marxist organization that operated behind a frontmovement called “Angkar”.  Angkarhad a well-structured organization that imposed brutal, repressive policies incontrolled areas, which it called “liberated zones”.

The Cambodiangovernment banned Ith Sarin’s book and jailed its author for being a communistsympathizer.  Then, a report by anAmerican diplomatic officer, Kenneth Quinn, which described Khmer Rouge atrocitiesin eastern and southern Cambodia,was also ignored, this time by U.S.authorities.  Contemporary news reportsby some American newspapers (e.g. The NewYork Times, Baltimore Sun), which described the Khmer Rouge carrying outmassacres, executions, and forced evacuations, also escaped scrutiny by theU.S. government.

On April 17,1975, a few hours after capturing Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge ordered allresidents to leave their homes and move to the countryside.  The order to leave was both urgent andmandatory – those who resisted would be (and were) killed.  There were no exceptions, and even the sickand elderly were ordered to leave. Hospitals were closed down and the patients, regardless of their medicalconditions, were evacuated, some still in their beds and attached tointravenous tubes.

Within a fewdays, Phnom Penh wascompletely depopulated, with all its residents – some 2.5 million (30% of thecountry’s population) and ordered to take only a few belongings – making theirway in long convoys in ox carts, motorbikes, scooters, and bicycles, but mostlyon foot, to rural areas across the country. The Khmer Rouge’s order was for all persons to return to theirancestral villages.

In latertestimonies, genocide survivors said of being told by Khmer Rouge cadres thatthe evacuation was being undertaken because American planes were about to bombthe city, or that the Khmer Rouge was conducting operations to flush outremaining government soldiers hiding in the city, or that U.S. CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA) agentswere planning to launch subversive actions in Phnom Penh to underminethe revolution, etc.  Other survivorssaid of being told that their destination was only “two or three kilometersaway” and that they could return “in two or three days”.