Showing posts with label Saigon Vietnam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saigon Vietnam. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Sunday, November 4, 1941. Expanding operations.

Catalina's from Patrol Squadron 14 in November 1941.

U.S. Navy Patrol Squadron 14 arrived in Oahu.

The United States Army occupied Dutch Guiana (Surinam), which is now Suriname.

Today the country is a South American republic we frankly hardly ever think of, which all in all may generally be a good thing.  At this point in history, however, it was a Dutch colony, which it had been since the 1600s.  During the war, the Dutch government reconsidered its status, and it obtained a type of dominion status in 1954, and full independence in 1975.

The US had been concerned about its bauxite deposits prior to this date, not wanting them to fall to the Axis, although exporting bauxite from northern South America to Germany would have been impossible. The occupation did secure them for the Allies, however.

This time is noted here:

Today in World War II History—November 23, 1941

Also noted there, trucks were now crossing Lake Lagoda, having followed a  horse-drawn mission of the day prior.

The British were thrown back at Sidi Rezegh in the desert.

A bomb went off outside the U.S. Consulate in occupied Saigon, although there were no injuries. Shades of things to come.

A large fire damaged parts of Seward Alaska.

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Wednesday September 15, 1971. The introduction of Woodsy Owl and Boopsy



Riffing off of its successful Smokey the Bear campaign, the Forest Service introduced Woodsy Owl to combat pollution, to which to some extent essentially meant littering in context.

An assembly of Spanish Catholic clergy demanded the establishment of grater civil rights in Spain. 

In Saigon, a devastating nightclub explosion occurred.  It was blamed by the government on the Communists, but some local business owners attributed to rogue ARVN soldiers acting as extortionists.  

The first actions by a group now known as Greenpeace took place as the protest activist group set sail to protest US nuclear testing in the arctic.

BD introduced Michael Doonesbury to Boopsy for the first time in the cartoon Doonesbury.

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Friday, July 25, 1941. The U.S. Freezes Assets, Churchill Plans a Trip, Germany Advances Horrors.

Franklin Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States, with the immediate cause of this being the Japanese occupation of French Indochina.

The Japanese entering Saigon. Bicycles were a common means of conveyance in most armies at the time, with the U.S. being a real exception.

It'd be a mistake, of course, to view that as the sole cause, but it was instrumental in it.  Japan was getting more aggressive in its expansion, having now moved its military into Indochina.  It technically had French acquiescence to this, but as a practical matter, Vichy had little it could do about it.  Japan had already intervened militarily in the northern part of Indochina a year prior, so they were already there.   That had in fact resulted in fighting between the Vichy French and the Japanese, but Japanese occupation was a fact.  Indeed, Japan had already secured permission to garrison troops in southern Indochina.

Free French poster criticizing the Vichy administration's collaboration with Japan.

It hadn't because it remained concerned about the Soviet Union.  It's presence in Indochina had been ancillary to their war with China, but with increasingly difficult relations with the United States, and the United Kingdom, that focus changed once Germany invaded the Soviet Union.  The Japanese correctly guessed that the Soviets wouldn't interfere with them in any fashion while they were fighting the Germans.  Given that, Imperial Japan set its sights on the Dutch East Indies, and its oil, and war with the United States.

While Japanese occupation of Indochina was already a fact, the formal change is something that really couldn't be ignored by the U.S.  It was one step closer to war by both parties.

Oddly, China's assets were also frozen, and this by request of Chiang Kai Shek, the leader of Nationalist China.  While not exactly knowing why, this may be because Chiang had concerns about Chinese assets being used by the Japanese and, of course, he also faced a domestic competitor in the form of the Chinese Communist Party, which was contesting the Nationalist for control of China.

Also, on this day King George VI gave permission for Prime Minister Churchill to travel to the United States to meet with Roosevelt.  Permission was a formality, of course.

Not a formality was the growing relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt, often described as a friendship but in reality a species of alliance.  Churchill's visit was to be a secret and was part of the building of that alliance.

Germany established Reichskommissariat Ostland, the administrative unit for the occupied Baltics and Belarus, on this day.  The plan for the region was to Germanize the Baltics and to settle it with Germans.  The region was regarded as "European" by the Germans due to the prior influence of Germany, Sweden and Denmark.  The Belarusians were regarded as hopelessly backwards peasants who would be exploited.  Jews, of course, were to be killed.

Germany began to act on these plans immediately, which is somewhat of a surprise in context.  Not only did the Germans begin to slaughter Jewish residents of the area, along with Communists, but it also began to move German settlers into the areas it had taken.  Indeed, while he has said little about it, one individual I know had a grandfather who had moved into the Eastern lands, resulting of course in his status as a refugee later on.