Daniel Orr's Blog, page 88

August 20, 1988 – Iran and Iraq sign a ceasefire after eight years of fighting

On July 20, 1988, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 598 that called for a ceasefire and, among other stipulations, ordered that Iran and Iraq withdraw their forces to international borders (i.e. their pre-war borders).  Both sides agreed to the ceasefire, which came into effect on August 20, 1988, marking the end of the war.  Two weeks later, the United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIIMOG), a UN multi-national peacekeeping force, arrived to enforce the ceasefire agreement.

Casualty estimates in the Iran-Iraq war vary widely among
different sources, but a total of one million to perhaps twice that number may
have perished in the conflict.  Some
300,000 civilians were killed, with Iraqi Kurds suffering the most, accounting
for 60% of that number.  Some later
historians of the war have offered lower total casualty figures.

(Taken from Iran-Iraq War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Aftermath At the close of the war, Iraq intensified its military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, and in a swift and ruthless campaign that involved some 200,000 Iraqi troops, inflicted tens of thousands of deaths among Iraqi Kurds, depopulated and destroyed villages, and by September 1988, had put an end to the Kurdish rebellion.

Both Iraq
and Iran declared victory in
the war, and each had some merit to its respective claim: Iraq had gained the upper hand by the latter
stages, while Iran,
despite having much fewer weapons, had fought remarkably well and held the
initiative for much of the war.  However,
the war essentially ended in a stalemate, as no political or territorial gains
had been achieved by either side. 
Moreover, both countries failed to achieve their primary objectives in
the war, with Iraq unable to
annex oil-rich Khuzestan and Iran
failing to overthrow Saddam and turning Iraq into an Islamic state.

Politically, the two countries were strengthened by the
war.  Saddam had officially become
president in 1979, just one year before the start of the war (although he had
been the behind-the-scenes strongman and de facto head of the regime for many
years), but the war allowed him to consolidate power and rule as a dictator
with overwhelming popular support.  In Iran,
the war likewise united Iranians to religious-nationalist fervor, allowing the
Islamic government to eliminate the (secular) opposition and consolidate
power.  Ayatollah Khomeini passed away in
June 1989 and was succeeded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who together with
incoming President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, somewhat toned down Iran’s
hard-line Islamic stance and adopted a more nationalist policy.

Both sides’ economies were devastated (a combined $1.2
trillion was lost), as a large portion of their oil-producing infrastructures,
the mainstay of their economies, had been destroyed and would take many years
to rehabilitate and return to pre-war capacities.  However, Iraq suffered much greater financial
vulnerability as it had become saddled with a large foreign loan (some $130
billion) to Arab and western countries in order to fund its army (by making
large weapons purchases) which, by the end of the war, was the world’s fourth
largest, boasting some 1.2 million soldiers, 4,500 tanks, 500 planes, and 4,000
artillery pieces.

Post-war tensions remained high, and both countries rebuilt
their war arsenals with substantial weapons purchases, particularly from the
Soviet Union and China.  Peace negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland
to achieve a permanent settlement failed mainly because of the two sides’ rival
claims to the Shatt al-Arab.

In August 1990, Iraq
invaded and annexed Kuwait
(Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, separate article), drawing international
condemnation.  As relations became
strained with western powers, particularly the United
States and Britain,
Saddam toned down his hard-line stance against Iran and accepted the Islamic
state’s position on their territorial dispute. 
Subsequently, Iran
and Iraq signed a peace
agreement that had the following important provisions: restoration of
diplomatic relations, the midpoint of the Shatt al-Arab was their border,
withdrawal of Iraqi troops from remaining territory in Iran, and exchange of prisoners of
war.  Many of these provisions were
carried out, and UNIIMOG ended its mission and departed in February 1991.  The final exchange of war prisoners took
place in March 2003.

August 19, 1945 – First Indochina War: Ho Chi Minh and his 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 May
1941, after a thirty-year absence from Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh returned and
organized 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 both
French and Japanese rule.  Ho became the
leader of the Vietnamese independence struggle, a position he would hold
permanently until his death in 1969.

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

By early 1945, World War II invariably had turned in favor
of the Allies, with Germany
verging on defeat and Japan
becoming increasingly threatened by the Allied island-hopping Pacific
campaign.  In March 1945, the Japanese
military overthrew the French administration in Indochina, because of fears of
an Allied invasion of the region following the U.S.
recapture of the Philippines
(October 1944–April 1945), and also because the Japanese began to distrust
French loyalty following the end of Vichy France (November 1942) and the subsequent Allied
liberation of France
(early 1945).  In place of the French
administration, on March 11, 1945, Japanese authorities installed a Vietnamese
government 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 of
the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, marking the end of the Asia-Pacific
theatre of World War II (the European theater of World War II had ended
earlier, on May 8, 1945).  The sudden
Japanese capitulation left a power vacuum that was quickly filled by the Viet
Minh, which in the preceding months, had secretly organized so-called “People’s
Revolutionary Committees” throughout much of the colony.  These “People’s Revolutionary Committees” now
seized power and organized local administrations in many towns and cities, more
particularly in the northern and central regions, including the capital Hanoi.  This seizure of power, historically called
the August Revolution, led to the abdication of ex-emperor Bao Dao and the
collapse of his Japanese-sponsored government.

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

At this point, Ho sought U.S.
diplomatic support for Vietnam’s
independence, and incorporated part of the 1776 U.S. Declaration of
Independence 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. State
Department and OSS officials in Hanoi.  However, during the war-time Potsdam
Conference (July 17 – August 2, 1945), the Allied Powers (including the Soviet
Union) decided to allow France to restore colonial rule in Indochina, but that
in the meantime that France was yet preparing to return, Vietnam was to be partitioned
into two zones north and south of the 16th parallel, with Chinese Nationalist
forces tasked to occupy the northern zone, and British forces (with some French
units) tasked to enter the southern zone.

By mid-September 1945, Chinese and British forces had
occupied their respective zones.  They
then completed their assigned tasks of accepting the surrender of, as well as
disarming and repatriating the Japanese forces within their zones.  In Saigon,
British forces disbanded the Vietnamese revolutionary government that had taken
over the administration of the city. 
This Vietnamese government in Saigon, called the “Provisional Executive
Committee”, was a coalition of many organizations, including the religious groups
Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, the organized crime syndicate Binh Xuyen, the communists,
and nationalist organizations.  In
Cochinchina and parts of Annam,
unlike in Tonkin, the Viet Minh had only
established partial authority because of the presence of these many rival
ideological movements.  But believing
that nationalism was more important than ideology to achieve Vietnam’s
independence, the Viet Minh was willing to work with other groups to form a
united front to oppose the return of French rule.

As a result of the British military actions in the southern
zone, on September 17, 1945, the DRV in Hanoi
launched a general strike in Saigon.  British authorities responded to the strikes
by declaring martial law.  The British
also released and armed some 1,400 French former prisoners of war; the latter then
launched attacks on the Viet Minh, and seized key government infrastructures in
the south.  On September 24, 1945,
elements of the Binh Xuyen crime syndicate attacked and killed some 150 French
nationals, which provoked retaliatory actions by the French that led to
increased fighting.  British and French
forces 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 Vietnam
was controlled by the French, and the British ceded administration of the
region to them.  In late October 1945,
another British-led operation broke the remaining Viet Minh resistance in the
south, and the Vietnamese revolutionaries retreated to the countryside where
they engaged in guerilla warfare.  Also
in 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 Chinese
occupation forces, led by the warlord General Lu Han, allowed Ho Chi Minh and
the Viet Minh to continue exercising power in the north, on the condition that
Ho include non-communists in the Viet Minh government.  To downplay his communist ties, in November
1945, Ho dissolved the ICP and called for Vietnamese nationalist unity.  In late 1945, a provisional coalition
government was formed in the northern zone, comprising the Viet Minh and other nationalist
organizations.  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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In early 1967, North Vietnam
began preparing for a massive offensive into South Vietnam.  This operation, which later came to be known
as the Tet Offensive, would have far-reaching consequences on the outcome of
the war.  The North Vietnamese plan to
launch the Tet Offensive came about when political hardliners in Hanoi succeeded in sidelining
the moderates in government. As a result of the hardliners dictating government
policies, in July 1967, hundreds of moderates, including government officials
and military officers, were purged from the Hanoi government and the Vietnamese Communist
Party.

By fall of 1967, North Vietnamese military planners had set
the date to launch the Tet Offensive on January 31, 1968.  In the invasion plan, the Viet Cong was to
carry out the offensive, with North
Vietnam only providing weapons and other
material support.  The Tet Offensive,
which was known in North Vietnam
as “General Offensive, General Uprising”, called for the Viet Cong to launch
simultaneous attacks on many targets across South Vietnam, which would be
accompanied with calls to the civilian population to launch a general
uprising.  North Vietnam believed that a
civilian uprising in the south would succeed because of President Thieu’s
unpopularity, as evidenced by the constant civil unrest and widespread
criticism of government policies.  In
this scenario, once President Thieu was overthrown, an NLF-led communist
government would succeed in power, and pressure the United
States to end its involvement in South Vietnam.  Faced with the threat of international
condemnation, the United States
would be forced to acquiesce, and withdraw its forces from Vietnam.

August 17, 1945 – Indonesian nationalists declare independence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Indian subcontinent.

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

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

In the Indian subcontinent (Map 12), which was Britain’s
prized possession since the 1800s, a strong nationalist sentiment had existed
for many decades and had led to the emergence of many political organizations
that demanded varying levels of autonomy and self-rule.  Other Indian nationalist movements also
called for the British to leave immediately. 
Nationalist aspirations were concentrated in areas with direct British
rule, as there also existed across the Indian subcontinent hundreds of
semi-autonomous regions which the British called “Princely States”, whose
rulers held local authority with treaties or alliances made with the British
government.  The Princely States,
however, had relinquished their foreign policy initiatives to the British in
exchange for British military protection against foreign attacks.  Thus, the British de facto ruled over the
Princely States.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In August 1910, Nicaragua’s ruling government
collapsed, replaced by a U.S.-friendly administration consisting of
Conservatives and Liberals.  The United States bought out Nicaragua’s
large foreign debt that had accumulated during the long period of
instability.  Consequently, Nicaragua owed the United States the amount of that
debt, while the Americans’ stake was raised in that troubled country.

Central America

Then in 1912, Nicaragua’s ruling coalition broke
down, sparking a civil war between the government and another alliance of
Liberals and Conservatives.  As the
rebels gained ground and began to threaten Managua,
Nicaragua’s capital, the United States
landed troops in Corinto, Bluefields, and San Juan del Sur.  At its peak, the U.S.
troop deployment in Nicaragua
totaled over 2,300 soldiers.  Within a
month of the deployment, in October 1912, the American troops, supported by
Nicaraguan government forces, had defeated the rebels.

The United States
tightened its control of Nicaragua
in August 1914 when both countries signed an agreement whereby the Americans
gained exclusive rights to construct the Nicaragua Canal,
as well as to establish military bases to protect it.  The U.S.-Nicaragua treaty mostly served as a
deterrent against other foreign involvement in Nicaragua,
since by this time, the Americans already were operating the Panama
Canal nearby.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 11, 1920 – Latvia and Soviet Russia sign a peace treaty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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