Daniel Orr's Blog, page 89

August 10, 1961 – Vietnam War: The U.S. military implements a massive aerial herbicidal spraying program to deprive communist rebels of food and vegetation cover

On August 10, 1961, the U.S. military implemented Operation Ranch Hand, an extensive aerial spraying program using herbicides and defoliants over the forests of South Vietnam during the ongoing Vietnam War.  Carried out by the U.S. Air Force, the operation was meant to deprive the communist Viet Cong insurgents and North Vietnamese infiltrators of food and vegetation. By the end of the program in 1971, some 20 million gallons had been sprayed in over 20,000 km2 of forests (comprising 20% of South Vietnam’s forested areas) and 2,000 km2 of croplands. Some 60% of the sprayed chemical was Agent Orange, a mix of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, that was highly toxic to humans and destructive to the environment.

Southeast Asia during the 1960s

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

Aftermath The war had a profound, long-lasting effect on the United States.  Americans were bitterly divided by it, and others became disillusioned with the government.    War cost, which totaled some $150 billion ($1 trillion in 2015 value), placed a severe strain on the U.S. economy, leading to budget deficits, a weak dollar, higher inflation, and by the 1970s, an economic recession.  Also toward the end of the war, American soldiers in Vietnam suffered from low morale and discipline, compounded by racial and social tensions resulting from the civil rights movement in the United States during the late 1960s and also because of widespread recreational drug use among the troops.  During 1969-1972 particularly and during the period of American de-escalation and phased troop withdrawal from Vietnam, U.S. soldiers became increasingly unwilling to go to battle, which resulted in the phenomenon known as “fragging”, where soldiers, often using a fragmentation grenade, killed their officers whom they thought were overly zealous and eager for combat action.

Furthermore, some U.S.
soldiers returning from Vietnam
were met with hostility, mainly because the war had become extremely unpopular
in the United States,
and as a result of news coverage of massacres and atrocities committed by
American units on Vietnamese civilians. 
A period of healing and reconciliation eventually occurred, and in 1982,
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built, a national monument in Washington, D.C.
that lists the names of servicemen who were killed or missing in the war.

Following the war, in Vietnam
and Indochina, turmoil and conflict continued
to be widespread.  After South Vietnam’s
collapse, the Viet Cong/NLF’s PRG was installed as the caretaker
government.  But as Hanoi
de facto held full political and military control, on July 2, 1976, North Vietnam annexed South Vietnam, and the unified
state was called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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

In the years after the war, the Indochina refugee crisis
developed, where some three million people, consisting mostly of those targeted
by government repression, left their homelands in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos,
for permanent settlement in other countries. 
In Vietnam,
some 1-2 million departing refugees used small, decrepit boats to embark on
perilous journeys to other Southeast Asian nations.  Some 200,000-400,000 of these “boat people”
perished at sea, while survivors who eventually reached Malaysia, Indonesia,
Philippines, Thailand,
and other destinations were sometimes met there with hostility.  But with United Nations support, refugee
camps were established in these Southeast Asian countries to house and process
the refugees.  Ultimately, some 2,500,000
refugees were resettled, mostly in North America and Europe.

The communist revolutions triumphed in Indochina: in April
1975 in Vietnam and Cambodia, and in December 1975 in Laos.  Because the United
States used massive air firepower in the conflicts, North Vietnam, eastern Laos, and eastern Cambodia were heavily bombed.  U.S.
planes dropped nearly 8 million tons of bombs (twice the amount the United States dropped in World War II), and Indochina became the most heavily bombed area in
history.  Some 30% of the 270 million
so-called cluster bombs dropped did not explode, and since the end of the war,
they continue to pose a grave danger to the local population, particularly in
the countryside.  Unexploded ordnance
(UXO) has killed some 50,000 people in Laos
alone, and hundreds more in Indochina are
killed or maimed each year.

The aerial spraying operations of the U.S. military, carried
out using several types of herbicides but most commonly with Agent Orange
(which contained the highly toxic chemical, dioxin), have had a direct impact
on Vietnam.  Some 400,000 were directly
killed or maimed, and in the following years, a segment of the population that
were exposed to the chemicals suffer from a variety of health problems,
including cancers, birth defects, genetic and mental diseases, etc.

Some 20 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed on 20,000
km2 of forests, or 20% of Vietnam’s
total forested area, which destroyed trees, hastened erosion, and upset the
ecological balance, food chain, and other environmental parameters.

Following the Vietnam War, Indochina
continued to experience severe turmoil. 
In December 1978, after a period of border battles and cross-border
raids, Vietnam launched a
full-scale invasion of Cambodia
(then known as Kampuchea)
and within two weeks, overwhelmed the country and overthrew the communist Pol
Pot regime.  Then in February 1979, in
reprisal for Vietnam’s
invasion of its Kampuchean ally, China
launched a large-scale offensive into the northern regions of Vietnam, but after one month of
bitter fighting, the Chinese forces withdrew. 
Regional instability would persist into the 1990s.

August 9, 1965 – Singapore declares independence

On August 9, 1965, the Malaysian parliament voted 126–0 to
expel Singapore from Malaysia.
Members of Parliament from Singapore
were not present during the vote. Later that day, Singapore
reluctantly declared its independence; in December 1965, it became the Republic of Singapore.

Singapore’s expulsion was a result of long-simmering tensions, distrust and ideological differences between the federal government in Kuala Lumpur led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and Singapore’s dominant People’s Action Party (PAP).

Singapore was one of 14 states that formed the country of Malaysia in September 1963 from the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the other former British colonies of Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak. Singapore’s expulsion in 1963 occurred during the interim period in Malaysia between the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) and the Second Malayan Emergency (aka Communist Insurgency in Malaysia (1968-1989)).

Southeast Asia

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

After being pushed out of Malaya, the Malay National Liberation Army (MNLA) of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) established a number of bases in southern Thailand close to the Malayan border, where it began a campaign to recruit new fighters from the local population, both in southern Thailand and northern Malaya.  Its ranks soon included some 30% Thai nationals.  Also in an effort to widen its support base, the CPM formed the Islamic Brotherhood Party (Malay: Parti Persaudaraan Islam), aimed at attracting ethnic Malays by advocating that Islam and communism were not incompatible ideologies.

In September 1963, the Federation of Malaya was ended, and
replaced by the Federation of Malaysia (or simply Malaysia),
consisting of the former Federation of Malaya and the territories of North
Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore
(in August 1965, Singapore
left the Federation and formed a separate independent state).

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

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

This second phase of the war (commonly known as the
Communist Insurgency War) began on June 17, 1968 when the MNLA guerillas
ambushed Malaysian Army soldiers at Kroh-Betong, in northern Malaysia.  Fighting eventually spread to other parts of
Peninsular Malaysia, but was much more concentrated in northern Malaysia,
and also failed to achieve the degree of intensity and scope experienced during
the Malayan Emergency.  Furthermore, in
1970, the CPM became wracked in an internal power struggle, which led to the
formation of two rival splinter groups, the CPM-Marxist Leninist and
CPM-Revolutionary Faction, aside from the original CPM, which continued to have
the largest membership.  The CPM, which
followed the Maoist branch of communism and received support from China, was dealt a major blow when in June 1974,
Malaysia and China
established diplomatic relations. 
Although the MNLA tried to maintain military pressure on the Malaysian
government, by the early 1980s, the insurgency was experiencing an irrevocable
decline.

Much of this decline was a result of the Malaysian
government adopting the successful multi-faceted counter-insurgency approach
used in the Malayan Emergency, this time carried out in the Security and
Development Program (KESBAN, Malay: Keselamatan dan Pembangunan), which
consisted of military and civilian measures. 
Military measures included directly confronting the rebels in combat,
utilizing intelligence and psychological operations, and increasing the size
and strength of security forces.  The
civilian component, while also involving resettling villages that were
vulnerable to rebel influences and curtailing some civil liberties, focused on
a “hearts and minds” approach in the affected communities, e.g. expanding
social services and implementing public works programs.  Neighborhood Watch and People’s Volunteer
Group initiatives not only served security functions in local neighborhoods,
but also fostered better interracial relations among Malays, Chinese, and
Indians.  Furthermore, by the 1980s, Malaysia
was experiencing an extended period of dynamic economic growth.

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

August 8, 1919 – Anglo-Afghan War of 1919: Britain and Afghanistan sign a peace treaty that sets the Durand Line as the border between British India and Afghanistan

On August 8, 1919, Britain and Afghanistan signed a peace treaty that ended the Anglo-Afghan War. The treaty also set the Durand Line as the common border between British India and Afghanistan. Spanning 2,200 km, the Durand Line was delineated in 1893 between British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand and the Afghan monarchy to set the boundary of their respective spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations and trade. At that time, Afghanistan was under British suzerainty, but had its own government and was recognized as an independent state. Strategically, Afghanistan also served as a buffer zone in the “Great Game”, the territorial expansionist ambitions of the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia.

The British Empire’s prized possession during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the Indian subcontinent. Afghanistan served as a neutral zone between the region’s two major powers, the Russian Empire and the British Empire.

(Taken from Anglo-Afghan War of 1919 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

Background During the early years of the twentieth century, Tsarist Russia and the British Empire in India were the regional powers in Central Asia.  The devastating effects of World War I on these two regional powers had a profound effect on the Anglo-Afghan War of 1919.  In Russia, the Tsarist government had collapsed and a bitter civil war was raging.  Consequently, Russia’s control of its Central Asian domains was weakened.  The British Empire, which included the Indian subcontinent (Map 7), was drained financially and militarily, despite emerging victorious in World War I.

With the two regional powers weakened by war, the
semi-independent Emirate of Afghanistan moved to assert its right of
sovereignty.  More important, Habibullah,
the Afghan ruler, wanted to annul the Treaty of Gandamak, where Afghanistan had ceded its foreign policy
decisions to the British Empire.  Adding strength to Habibullah’s diplomatic
position was that he had allowed Afghanistan to stay neutral during
World War I, despite the strong anti-British sentiments among his people.  Habibullah had also spurned Germany and the Ottoman Empire, enemies of the
British, who had encouraged him to defy British domination in the region and
even launch an attack on British India, at a time when Britain was most vulnerable.

For these reasons, Habibullah asked the British to allow him
to present his case for Afghanistan’s
independence at the Paris Peace Conference, where the victorious Allied
countries had gathered to discuss the end of World War I.  Habibullah was assassinated, however, before
his case was decided.  His son,
Amanullah, succeeded to the Afghan throne, despite a rival claim by a family
relative.

Upon his ascent to the throne, Amanullah declared Afghanistan’s
independence, doing away with his father’s policy of trying to gain the
country’s sovereignty through diplomatic means. 
The declaration of independence was immensely popular among Afghans, as
nationalist sentiments ran high. 
Amanullah therefore was able to consolidate his hold on power, even as
some sectors opposed his leadership. 
Amanullah provoked the British by inciting an uprising of the tribal
people in Peshawar, British
India.  Using the uprising
as a diversion, he sent his forces across the Afghan-British Indian border to
capture the town of Bagh.

The British Army quickly quelled the Peshawar uprising and threw back the Afghan
forces across the border.  The Afghans
clearly were unprepared for war – although having sufficient numbers of
soldiers as well as being assisted by tribal militias, they possessed obsolete
weapons, which even then were in short supply.

By contrast, the British were a modern fighting machine
because of the technological advances they had made in World War I.  The British suffered from a shortage of
soldiers, since much of their forces had yet to return to India from their deployment to
other British territories during World War I. 
The British air attacks on Kabul
devastated Afghan morale, forcing Amanullah to sue for peace.

Afghanistan
and the British Empire entered into peace
negotiations to end the war.  In the
peace treaty that emerged from these negotiations, the British granted
conciliatory terms to the Afghans, including returning Afghanistan’s right of foreign
policy.  The British, therefore,
essentially recognized Afghanistan
as a sovereign state.  By this time, Afghanistan already had been nominally
independent, as it had established diplomatic relations with the newly formed Soviet Union and its independence was gaining recognition
by the international community.

Afghanistan
and the British Empire retained the Durand
Line as their common border.  After the
war, Afghanistan continued
to serve as a buffer zone between the Russians and the British, because of the
end of the previous non-aggression treaties between Tsarist Russia and the
British Empire following the emergence of the Soviet Union
after the Russian Civil War.

August 7, 1940 – Germany incorporates Alsace-Lorraine

On August 7, 1940, Alsace-Lorraine was incorporated (but not annexed) into the Greater German Reich. Since the French-German armistice (June 1940) guaranteed the territorial integrity of France, Hitler secretly drafted an annexation law that would annex French territory, to be announced after a German victory in World War II.

In 1942, residents of Alsace-Lorraine were granted German
citizenship, and young men were drafted into the German armed forces, many
against their will (called malgré-nous,
“against our will”). Some also volunteered. Most of the 130,000
drafted from the region fought (and died) in the Eastern Front.

Alsace-Lorraine had previously been contested by France and Germany. In the Franco-Prussian War (July 1870-May 1871), the alliance of Prussia and other German states (soon forming the German Empire) defeated France and annexed the region. With Germany’s defeat in World War I, Alsace-Lorraine briefly proclaimed its independence before the French forces entered the region. With the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ceded the region back to France.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 6, 1990 – Gulf War: The UN imposes economic sanctions on Iraq following Iraqi’s invasion of Kuwait

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

Background On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait), overthrew the ruling monarchy and seizing control of the oil-rich country.  A “Provisional Government of Free Kuwait” was established, and two days later, August 4, the Iraqi government, led by Saddam Hussein, declared Kuwait a republic.  On August 8, Saddam changed his mind and annexed Kuwait as a “governorate”, declaring it Iraq’s 19th province.

Jaber III, Kuwait’s
deposed emir who had fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia in the midst of the
invasion, appealed to the international community.  On August 3, 1990, the United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) issued Resolution 660, the first of many resolutions against Iraq, which condemned the invasion and demanded
that Saddam withdraw his forces from Kuwait.  Three days later, August 6, the UNSC released
Resolution 661 that imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, which was
carried out through a naval blockade authorized under UNSC Resolution 665.  Continued Iraqi defiance subsequently would
compel the UNSC to issue Resolution 678 on November 29, 1990 that set the
deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait on or before January 15, 1991 as well
as authorized UN member states to enforce the withdrawal if necessary, even
through the use of force.  The Arab
League, the main regional organization, also condemned the invasion, although Jordan, Sudan,
Yemen, and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) continued to support Iraq.

Iraq’s
annexation of Kuwait upset
the political, military, and economic dynamics in the Persian Gulf region, and
by possessing the world’s fourth largest armed forces, Iraq now posed a direct threat to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. 
The United States
announced that intelligence information detected a build-up of Iraqi forces in Kuwait’s southern border with Saudi Arabia.  Saddam, however, declared that Iraq had no intention of invading Saudi Arabia, a
position he would maintain in response to allegations of his territorial
ambitions.

Meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney who
arrived in Saudi Arabia
shortly after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, Saudi
King Fahd requested U.S.
military protection.  U.S. President
George H.W. Bush accepted the invitation, as doing so would not only defend an
important regional ally, but prevent Saddam from gaining control of the oil
fields of Saudi Arabia,
the world’s largest petroleum producer. 
With its conquest of Kuwait,
Iraq now held 20% of the
world’s oil supply, but annexing Saudi Arabia would allow Saddam to
control 50% of the global oil reserves. 
By September 18, 1990, the U.S.
government announced that the Iraqi Army was massed in southern Kuwait,
containing a force of 360,000 troops and 2,800 tanks.

U.S.
military deployment to Saudi Arabia,
codenamed Operation Desert Shield, was swift; on August 8, just six days after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait,
American air and naval forces, led by two aircraft carriers and two
battleships, had arrived in the Persian Gulf.  Over the next few months, Iraq offered the
United States a number of proposals to resolve the crisis, including that Iraqi
forces would be withdrawn from Kuwait on the condition that Israel also
withdrew its troops from occupied regions in Palestine (West Bank, Gaza Strip),
Syria (Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon. 
The United States
refused to negotiate, however, stating that Iraq must withdraw its troops as
per the UNSC resolutions before any talk of resolving other Middle Eastern
issues would be discussed.  On January 9,
1991, as the UN-imposed deadline of January 15, 1991 approached, U.S. Secretary
of State James Baker and Iraq’s
Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz held last-minute talks in Geneva
Switzerland
(called the Geneva Peace Conference). 
But the two sides refused to tone down their hard-line positions,
leading to the breakdown of talks and the imminent outbreak of war.

Because Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest sites, were located in Saudi Arabia, King Fahd received strong local
and international criticism from other Muslim states for allowing U.S. troops
into his country.  At the urging of King
Fahd, the United States organized a multinational coalition consisting of armed
and civilian contingents from 34 countries which, apart from Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait’s (exiled forces), also included other Arab and Muslim countries (Egypt,
Syria, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Turkey, Morocco,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). 
A force of about 960,000 troops was assembled, with U.S. soldiers accounting for 700,000 or about
70% of the total; Britain
and France
also sent sizable contingents, some 53,000 and 18,000 respectively, as well as
large amounts of military equipment and supplies.

In talks with Saudi officials, the United States stated that the Saudi government
must pay for the greater portion of the cost for the coalition force, as the
latter was tasked specifically to protect Saudi Arabia.  In the coming war, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and
other Gulf states contributed about $36 billion of the $61 billion coalition
total war cost; as well, Germany and Japan contributed a combined $16 billion,
although these two countries, prohibited by their constitutions from sending
armies abroad, were not a combat part of the coalition force.

President Bush overcame the last major obstacle to
implementing UNSC Resolution 678 – the U.S. Congress.  The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
were held by a majority from the opposition Democratic Party, which was opposed
to the Bush administration’s war option and instead believed that the UNSC’s
economic sanctions against Iraq, yet barely two months in force, must be given
time to work.  On January 12, 1991, a
congressional joint resolution that authorized war, as per President Bush’s
request, was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 250-183 and
Senate by a vote of 52-47.

One major factor for U.S. Congress’ approval for war were
news reports of widespread atrocities and human rights violations being
committed by Iraq’s
occupation forces against Kuwaiti civilians, particularly against members of
the clandestine Kuwaiti resistance movement that had arisen as a result of the
occupation.  Some of the more
outrage-provoking accounts, including allegations that Iraqi soldiers pulled
hundreds of new-born infants from incubators and then left to die on the
hospital floors, have since been determined to be untrue.

Iraq’s programs for developing nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons were also cause for grave concern to Western countries,
particularly since during the Iran-Iraq War (that ended just three years
earlier, in August 1988), Saddam did not hesitate to use chemical weapons,
dropping bombs and firing artillery containing projectiles laced with nerve
agents, cyanide, and sarin against Iranian military and civilian targets, and
even against his own people, i.e. Iraq Kurds who had risen up in rebellion and
sided with Iran in the war.

The coalition campaign to recapture Kuwait,
codenamed Operation Desert Storm, consisted of two phases: the air campaign and
land campaign.

August 5, 1965 – Indo-Pakistani War: Pakistani soldiers posing as civilians cross the Line of Control

On August 5, 1965 and the days that followed, some 30,000
Pakistani soldiers posing as civilians crossed the Line of Control (the ceasefire
line and de facto border resulting from the 1947 Indian-Pakistani War) and
entered Indian-held Kashmir.  The
Pakistani infiltrators carried out some sabotage activities but failed to
incite a general civilian uprising.  The
Indian Army, tipped off by informers, crushed the operation, killing many
Pakistani infiltrators and forcing others to flee back to Pakistan.

Then on August 15, the Indian forces crossed the western
ceasefire line and entered Pakistani-held Kashmir.  The offensive made considerable progress
until it was slowed at Tithwail and Pooch, upon the arrival of Pakistani Army
reinforcements.  By month’s end, the
battle lines had settled.

Armed clashes between Indian and Pakistani forces at Rann of Kutch in April 1965 were a precursor to a full-scale war in Kashmir five months later.

(Taken from Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background As a result of the Indian-Pakistani War of 1947, the former Princely State of Kashmir was divided militarily under zones of occupation by the Indian Army and the Pakistani Army.  Consequently, the governments of India and Pakistan established local administrations in their respective zones of control, these areas ultimately becoming de facto territories of their respective countries.  However, Pakistan was determined to drive away the Indians from Kashmir and annex the whole region.  As Pakistan and Kashmir had predominantly Muslim populations, the Pakistani government believed that Kashmiris detested being under Indian rule and would welcome and support an invasion by Pakistan.  Furthermore, Pakistan’s government received reports that civilian protests in Kashmir indicated that Kashmiris were ready to revolt against the Indian regional government.

The Pakistani Army believed itself superior to its Indian
counterpart.  In early 1965, armed
clashes broke out in disputed territory in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat State, India.  Subsequently in 1968, Pakistan was awarded 350 square
miles of the territory by the International Court of Justice.  In 1965, India
was still smarting from a defeat to China
in the 1962 Sino-Indian War; as a result, Pakistan believed that the Indian
Army’s morale was low.  Furthermore, Pakistan had upgraded its Armed Forces with
purchases of modern weapons from the United
States, while India was yet in the midst of
modernizing its military forces.

In the summer of 1965, Pakistan
made preparations for invading Indian-held Kashmir.  To assist the operation, Pakistani commandos
would penetrate Kashmir’s major urban areas,
carry out sabotage operations against military installations and public
infrastructures, and distribute firearms to civilians in order to incite a
revolt.  Pakistani military planners
believed that Pakistan
would have greater bargaining power with the presence of a civilian uprising,
in case the war went to international arbitration.

August 4, 1964 – The American ships USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin

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

As early as 1961, under the top-secret Oplan 34A by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and later in 1964, under the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Operations Group (MACV-SOG), U.S. Navy fast patrol boats transported South Vietnamese commandos on small attack missions inside North Vietnam.  One such mission, which would have far-reaching consequences, occurred on July 30, 1964, when South Vietnamese commandos attacked two North Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.  The USS Maddox, an American destroyer operating as an electronic spy ship, was located nearby.  On August 2, 1964, the commander of the USS Maddox reported being attacked by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats, but that the attack was thwarted.  Two days later, August 4, the USS Maddox, now joined by another electronic spy ship, the USS Turner Joy, again reported being attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.

This second incident was later determined to not having
occurred.  However, after the second
“attack”, President Johnson announced to the American public that U.S. naval forces in the Gulf
of Tonkin had been attacked by North Vietnam.  U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson then ordered
retaliatory air strikes, where U.S.
planes struck North Vietnamese naval bases and an oil storage facility.  President Johnson also called on the U.S.
Congress to pass a resolution that would guarantee “freedom…and peace in Southeast Asia” and support “all necessary action to
protect our Armed Forces”.

On August 7, 1964, U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Senate: 88-2 and House of Representatives: 416-0),
which came into law on August 10, which gave President Johnson broad powers to
use all necessary military force in Southeast Asia in support of its allies
there.  The Resolution essentially gave
President Johnson the authority to go to war against North Vietnam without first obtaining
a Declaration of War from U.S. Congress. 

Southeast Asia during the 1960s

The U.S.
air strikes, the U.S. spy
activities in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the South Vietnamese infiltration
missions convinced the Hanoi government that the
United States was
intervening in the war, and worse, it was planning to invade North Vietnam.  As a result, the Ho regime increased military
pressure in South Vietnam to
overthrow the Saigon government before the United States could intervene.  In early 1965, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
forces launched a series of attacks across South Vietnam, with concentrations
in the Central Highlands east toward the coast to cut South Vietnam in two, and
in the region west of Saigon and near the Cambodian border.  U.S.
military installations in South
Vietnam also were targeted.  In November 1964, the Bien Hoa airport,
headquarters of the U.S. Air Force command in South Vietnam, was attacked by Viet
Cong mortar fire, killing and wounding dozens of American servicemen and
damaging several planes.  Then in
February 1965, Viet Cong units attacked the U.S.
air base at Pleiku, Central Highlands, killing 9 U.S.
soldiers and wounding 70 others, which was followed three days later, by an
explosion that destroyed a hotel at Qui Nohn, killing 23 U.S. soldiers.

As a result of the Viet Cong escalation, President Johnson
authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, a limited-scale bombing of North Vietnam, which began on March 2, 1965,
with the stated aims of boosting South Vietnamese morale, deterring North Vietnam from supporting the Viet Cong/NLF,
and stopping North Vietnamese forces from entering South Vietnam.  Initially planned to last only 8 weeks, the
bombing campaign became an incremental, sustained effort that lasted 44 months,
ending in November 1968.  Under Operation
Rolling Thunder, President Johnson required that the U.S. military’s list of
potential targets be subject to his approval, which generated great
consternation among the generals who wanted an all-out, large-scale strategic
bombing campaign of North Vietnam.  U.S. planes also were only allowed to hit
targets (such as road and rail systems, industries, and air defenses) inside a
designated radius away from Hanoi and Haiphong, as well as from
a buffer zone from the North Vietnam-China border.  Some of these restrictions would be lifted
later.

The incremental nature of Operation Rolling Thunder allowed North Vietnam
enough time to strengthen its air defenses. 
Thus, by 1968, Hanoi, Haiphong, and other vital centers were
bristling with 8,000 Soviet-supplied anti-aircraft guns and 300 surface-to-air
missile batteries, supported by 350 radar facilities, as well as scores of
Soviet MiG-21 fighter planes and 15,000 Soviet air-defense advisers.  In February 1965, the Soviet Union further
increased its military support to North Vietnam
when an American bombing attack coincided with the visit of Soviet Deputy
Premier Alexei Kosygin to Hanoi.
Previously, the Soviet government had sought a diplomatic resolution to the
Vietnam War (despite providing military support to North Vietnam).  Ultimately, by the end of Rolling Thunder,
the United States lost over
900 planes, while North Vietnam
continued to deliver even larger amounts of weapons to South Vietnam
through the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Throughout the war, the United
States launched other aerial operations (Steel Tiger,
Tiger Hound, and Commando Hunt) on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to try and stop the
flow of men and materiel from North Vietnam
to South Vietnam,
but all of these ultimately proved unsuccessful.

August 3, 1959 – Guinea-Bissau War of Independence: Portuguese police fires on striking workers in Bissau

On August 3, 1959, Portugal’s colonial police force opened fire on striking dock workers in Bissau, the capital of Portuguese Guinea. Dozens of workers were killed. The workers had been incited to strike by the nationalist organization, African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde or PAIGC (Portuguese: Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde), whose aim was to end Portuguese colonial rule and achieve independence for Guinea and Cape Verde. Initially, the PAIGC wanted to achieve its aims through dialogue and a negotiated settlement with the Portuguese.  By the late 1950s, however, the Guinean nationalists had become radicalized and militant.

In March 1962, PAIGC militants in Cape
Verde attacked Praia.  Other rebel attacks also took place in many
parts of Guinea.  In June 1963, the rebels attacked government
forces in the Guinean towns of Tite, Buba, and Falacunda.  By July, rebel activities also were felt in
the Guinean northern regions.  Earlier in
April 1964, the Portuguese had lost control of the Guinean southern coast after
the rebels captured Como
Islands.  Cassaca and Cantanhez also fell to the
insurgents.

The sudden outbreak and rapid spread of the insurrection
caught the Portuguese by surprise.  The
Portuguese Army also had just recently transferred some of its Guinean forces
to Angola and Mozambique,
where other wars for independence had broken out earlier.    Consequently, the remaining Portuguese
forces in Guinea
were undermanned and were reduced to defending the remaining territories still
under colonial control.

Portugal’s colonial possessions in Africa consisted of Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese-Guinea, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome & Principe.

(Taken from Portuguese Colonial Wars – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

During the colonial era, Portugal’s territorial possessions in Africa consisted of Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe (Map 24).  When World War II ended in 1945, a surge of nationalism swept across the various African colonies as independence groups emerged and demanded the end of European colonial rule.  As these demands soon intensified into greater agitation and violence, most of the European colonizers relented, and by the 1960s, most of the African colonies had become independent countries.

Bucking the trend, Portugal was determined to hold
onto its colonial possessions and went so far as to declare them “overseas
provinces”, thereby formally incorporating them into the national territories
of the motherland.  Nearly all the black
African liberation movements in these Portuguese “provinces” turned their attention
from trying to gain independence through negotiated settlement to launching
insurgencies, thereby starting revolutionary wars.  These wars took place through the early 1960s
to the first half of the 1970s, and were known collectively as the Portuguese
Colonial War, and pitted the Portuguese Armed Forces against the African
guerilla militias in Angola,
Mozambique,
and Portuguese Guinea.  At the war’s
peak, some 150,000 Portuguese soldiers were deployed in Africa.

By the 1970s, these colonial wars had become extremely
unpopular in Portugal,
because of the mounting deaths in Portuguese soldiers, the irresolvable nature
of the wars through military force, and the fact that the Portuguese government
was using up to 40% of the national budget to the wars and thus impinging on
the social and economic development of Portuguese society.  Furthermore, the wars had isolated Portugal diplomatically, with the United Nations
constantly putting pressure on the Portuguese government to decolonize, and
most of the international community imposing a weapons embargo and other
restrictions on Portugal.  In April 1974, dissatisfied officers of the
military carried out a coup that deposed the authoritarian regime of Prime
Minister Marcelo Caetano.  The coup,
known as the Carnation Revolution, produced a sudden and dramatic shift in the
course of the colonial wars.

August 2, 1934 – Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Germany

On August 2, 1934, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became the Fuhrer (“leader”) of Germany
upon the death of 86-year old President Paul von Hindenburg that same day.  One day earlier, August 1, anticipating Hindenburg’s
death, Hitler had his cabinet pass the “Law Concerning the Highest State Office
of the Reich”, which provided that upon Hindenburg’s death, the positions of
president and chancellor would be merged under the title of “Leader and
Chancellor”.

Thus upon Hindenburg’s death, Hitler assumed the dual roles of head of state and head of government, in effect becoming absolute dictator of Germany. Meanwhile, Hitler had earlier co-opted the heads of the powerful Germany military to his support by promising to suppress his Nazi paramilitary SA (Sturmabteilung; “Storm Detachment”) and allow the armed forces pre-eminence in military affairs.  Finally, on August 1934, in a plebiscite to the German people, 90% of voters agreed with Hitler to merge the offices of president and chancellor.

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

In October 1929, the severe economic crisis known as the Great Depression began in the United States, and then spread out and affected many countries around the world.  Germany, whose economy was dependent on the United States for reparations payments and corporate investments, was badly hit, and millions of workers lost their jobs, many banks closed down, and industrial production and foreign trade dropped considerably.

The Weimar government weakened politically, as many Germans turned to radical ideologies, particularly Hitler’s ultra-right wing nationalist Nazi Party, as well as the German Communist Party.  In the 1930 federal elections, the Nazi Party made spectacular gains and became a major political party with a platform of improving the economy, restoring political stability, and raising Germany’s
international standing by dealing with the “unjust” Versailles treaty.  Then in two elections held in 1932, the Nazis became the dominant party in the Reichstag (German parliament), albeit without gaining a majority.  Hitler long sought the post of German Chancellor, which was the head of government, but he was rebuffed by the elderly President Paul von Hindenburg , who distrusted Hitler.  At this time, Hitler’s ambitions were not fully known, and following a political compromise by rival parties, in
January 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor, with few
Nazis initially holding seats in the new Cabinet.  The Chancellorship itself had little power, and the real authority was held by the President (the head of state).

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

At this time, Hitler grew increasingly alarmed at the military power of the SA, particularly distrusting the political ambitions of its leader, Ernst Rohm.  On June 30-July
2, 1934, on Hitler’s orders, the loyalist Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel; English: Protection Squadron) and Gestapo (Secret Police) purged the SA, killing hundreds of its leaders including Rohm, and jailing thousands of its members,
violently bringing the SA organization (which had some three million members) to its knees.  The purge benefited Hitler in two ways: First, he became the undisputed leader of the Nazi apparatus, and Second and equally important, his standing greatly increased with the upper
class, business and industrial elite, and German military; the latter, numbering only 100,000 troops because of the Versailles treaty restrictions, also felt threatened by the enormous size of the SA.

In early August 1934, with the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler gained absolute power, as his Cabinet passed a law that
abolished the presidency, and its powers were merged with those of the chancellor.  Hitler thus became both German head of state and head of government, with the dual roles of Fuhrer (leader) and Chancellor.  As head of
state, he also was Supreme Commander of the armed forces, making him absolute ruler and dictator of Germany.

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

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

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

In foreign affairs, Hitler, like most Germans, denounced the Versailles treaty, and wanted it rescinded.  In 1933, Hitler withdrew Germany
from the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva, and in October of that year, from the League of Nations, in both cases denouncing why Germany was not allowed to re-arm to the level of the other major powers.

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

Italy, after being denounced by the League of Nations and slapped with economic sanctions after its invasion of Ethiopia,
switched sides to Germany.  Mussolini and Hitler signed a series of agreements that soon led to a military alliance.  Meanwhile, Britain
and France continued their indecisive foreign policies toward Germany.  In March 1936, in a bold move, Hitler sent troops to the Rhineland, remilitarizing the region in another violation of the Versailles treaty, but met no hostile response from the other powers.  Hitler justified this move as a defensive response to the recently concluded French-Soviet mutual assistance pact, which he accused the two
countries of encircling Germany, a statement that drew sympathy from some British politicians.

Nazi ideology called for unification of all Germanic peoples into a Greater German Reich.  In this context, Hitler had long sought to annex Austria, whose indigenous population was German, into Germany.  An annexation attempt in 1934 was foiled by Italian intervention, with Mussolini determined to go to war if Germany invaded Austria.  But by 1938, German-Italian relations had warmed and were moving toward a military alliance.  With Britain and France watching by, in March 1938, Hitler put political pressure on Austria, and with the threat of invasion, forced the Austrian government to resign, and cede power to the Austrian Nazi Party.  Within days, the latter relinquished Austrian independence to Germany, and German troops occupied Austria.  In a Nazi-controlled plebiscite held in April 1938, an improbable 99.7% of Austrians voted for “Anschluss” (political union) with Germany.

In late March 1938, while Germany was yet in the process of annexing Austria, another conflict, the “Sudetenland Crisis” occurred, where ethnic Germans, who formed the majority population in the Sudeten region of
Czechoslovakia, demanded autonomy and the right to join the Nazi Party.  Hitler supported these demands, citing the Sudeten Germans’ right to self-determination.  The Czechoslovak government refused, and in May 1938, mobilized for war. In response, Hitler secretly asked the German High Command to prepare for war, to be launched in October 1938.  Britain and France, anxious to avoid war at all costs by not antagonizing Hitler (a policy called
appeasement), pressed Czechoslovakia to yield, with the British even stating that the Sudeten Germans’ demand for autonomy was reasonable.  In early September 1938, the Czechoslovak government agreed to the demands.  Then when civilian unrest broke out in the Sudetenland which the Czechoslovakian police quelled, in mid-September 1938, a
furious Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany in order to stop the
supposed slaughter of Sudeten Germans. 
Under great pressure from Britain and France, on September 21, 1938, the Czechoslovak government relented, and agreed to cede the Sudetenland.  But the next day, Hitler made new demands, which Czechoslovakia rejected and again mobilized for war.  In a frantic move to avert war, the Prime Ministers of Britain
and France, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, respectively, together with Mussolini, met with Hitler, and on September 29, 1938, the four men signed the Munich Pact, where the Sudetenland was formally ceded to Germany.  Two days later, Czechoslovakia
accepted the fait accompli, knowing it would not be supported by Britain and France in a war with Germany.  In succeeding months, Czechoslovakia disintegrated as a sovereign
state: the Slovak region separated, aligning with Germany as a puppet state; other regions were annexed by Hungary and Poland; and in March 1939, the rest of the Czech portion of the country was occupied by Germany.

Hitler then turned to Poland, and proposed to renew their ten-year non-aggression pact (signed in 1934) in exchange for revising their common border, specifically returning to Germany some territories that were ceded to Poland after World War I.  The Polish government refused, causing Hitler to rescind the pact in April 1939.  By then, Britain and France had abandoned appeasement in favor of assertive diplomacy, and promised military support to Poland if Germany invaded.  In the period May-August 1939, as war loomed,
frantic efforts were made by Britain and France jointly, and by Germany, to win over to their side the last remaining undecided major European power, the Soviet Union.  The Germans prevailed, and a non-aggression
pact was signed with the Soviets on August 23, 1939, which prompted Hitler to begin hostilities with Poland under the mistaken belief that Britain and France would not react militarily.

August 1, 1927 – Chinese communists start the Nanchang Uprising against the Kuomintang

On August 1, 1927, Chinese communist forces seized control of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province from the Nationalist (Kuomintang) local government.  Four days later, August 5, with the approach of Nationalist forces, they withdrew from the city, taking 5,000 small arms and 1 million rounds of ammunition.

The communists then embarked on what is known as the “Little Long March”, a withdrawal south to the province of Guangdong. Along the way, they were attacked by Nationalist-affiliated forces, reducing the communist forces to only 1,000 troops from some 20,000 at the peak of the Nanchang Uprising. After breaking up into two groups moving in different directions, the remnants later joined with the forces of Mao Zedong in Hunan Province.

The Nanchang Uprising was the first battle between the Nationalist and communist forces in the Chinese Civil War. In the People’s Republic of China today, August 1 is celebrated as the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

History of the Chinese Civil War

In 1911, two thousand years of dynastic imperial rule ended in China.  Suddenly left without a central government, the country fragmented into many semi-independent regions.  Then from southern China, a political party called the Kuomintang (English: Chinese Nationalist Party) formed a government whose aim was to reunite the country.

The Kuomintang built an army and then began a military campaign for China’s
reunification, an event known as the Chinese Civil War.  The civil war lasted 23 years and consisted of four phases: first, the Kuomintang’s defeat of the regional military leaders called warlords; second, the Kuomintang’s contentious split into two rival
factions, i.e. the right-wing Nationalists and the left-wing and Communists alliance; third, these two rival factions’ brief alliance to fight the Japanese who had invaded China; and fourth, the ultimate reunification of China by the victorious Communists in 1950.

The origin of the Chinese Civil War can be traced to the early 1900s, with many factors coming into play.  Among these factors were the growing opposition of the Han people (China’s main ethnic group) to the ruling Qing monarchy; the assimilation of Western political ideas into Chinese thought; China’s military
defeats to and occupation by the foreign powers; and the country’s backwardness
in stark contrast to the prosperity and development in the West.  These factors shattered the Chinese people’s confidence in their government.

In 1911, revolts and civil unrest broke out in many areas of southern China.  Being unable to stop the disturbances, the Qing monarchy abdicated, which ended two millennia of Chinese dynastic rule.  China was left suddenly without a central government.

In southern China, the Kuomintang emerged and formed a government, and declared that the country was henceforth a republic.  Sun Yat-sen, the Kuomintang’s leader, became president of China – nominally at least.  For in reality, the country had fractured into many semi-autonomous regions after the Qing monarchy’s collapse.  Sun’s first task was to reunify the country under his government through the use of force. 
However, he lacked an army to carry out a campaign of conquest, especially in the northern region of China where the Qing monarchy still held strong influence.  Sun therefore entered into an agreement with Yuan Shikai, the powerful northern military
commander, whereby Yuan would cease his support for the Qing monarchy in exchange for Sun stepping down and allowing Yuan to become China’s president.

After becoming president, however, Yuan suppressed the Kuomintang and gave himself unlimited powers.  He appointed military governors, commonly called warlords, in the
provinces, where they held great power and commanded a local army.  Warlordism would dominate China’s regional politics for many
years.  With Yuan’s death in 1916, China again was left without a central government.  The country fragmented into many quasi-independent regions, with each region coming under the control of a warlord.

Sun returned to China, having fled into exile during Yuan’s dictatorship.  Sun restored
the Kuomintang and restarted his plan to reunify the country.  This time, however, he decided to build his own army.  He turned to the Western powers for military assistance but was turned down.  Sun then approached the Soviet Union, which promised him support on the condition that Sun allowed members of the fledging Communist Party of China to join the
Kuomintang.  Sun agreed.

In 1923, with Soviet funds, Sun founded a military academy to train military recruits for his new army.  The recruits came from different ideological backgrounds: Chinese
traditionalists, right-wingers, left-wingers, Communists, etc.  Thus, the Kuomintang Army that ultimately was formed included many political persuasions.

In 1936, Sun passed away.  The Kuomintang was wracked by a power struggle, which ultimately split the party into two factions: the left-wingers (including the small group of Communists) led by Wang Jingwei, who was appointed chairman of the Kuomintang, and therefore Sun’s legal successor, and the right-wingers led by General Chiang Kai-shek who, as the commander of the Kuomintang Army, held the real power.  Initially, the two sides worked
together.